Smoke. Even long after the smoke is gone, the odour remains. Clinging to fabrics like an unwanted, pungent stow-away on your clothes. There is something about smoke that makes it a particularly stubborn odour to remove. It seeps into carpet fibers, clothes, upholstery, and even drywall.

We all know that smoke odour that lingers in a house, or in a car, or on clothes. Smoke particles can be as small as .001% of the width of a human hair, which allows them to penetrate almost any part of a house. Tobacco smoke can easily circulate through a building’s ventilation system or come up through apartment floors. Smoke slips through vents, windows, and underneath doors. If there is a way in, smoke will find it.

Will home remedies work on removing smoke odours?

There are a plethora of DIY home remedies out there that promise to remove smoke odours from clothing and other fabrics. Using ingredients found in your pantry, it may seem appealing and cost-effective to try out some of the recipes found online.

Today we will cover a home remedy that we come across on the Internet of using vinegar in your wash to remove smoke and tobacco odours. Vinegar, in fact, works similar to an acid to break down some forms of the odour molecules but will not neutralize the odours at the source.

In fact, your washing machine manufacturer would strongly disagree with you using vinegar inside of your machine because of its acidic nature vinegar will say eats away and rot the rubber hoses and seals. If these seals are corroded, it can cause leaks in the hose are as well as a transfer of a burning smell or emission from the motor.

Smoke removal without harsh chemicals

Smoke & tobacco odours can easily be as one of the toughest odours to remove from clothing and linens. Both ex-smokers and non-smokers can attest to the challenges that come with removing smoke odours, but the problem that most consumers face is finding a product that can remove smoke odours from textiles.

Harsh chemicals have long been the only source to effectively remove smoke odour from clothing and fabrics. However, there is a product on the market now that does not contain harsh chemicals or heavy fragrances that only mask the smoke smell; instead of dousing clothes in chemicals with a result of smelling like a bouquet of lavender that was smoking like a chimney.