Eliminate The Smoke Smell From A Home With A Few Items From Your Kitchen

The pungent odor of smoke has the annoying ability to linger in your house for days on end. Whether from burnt popcorn, cigars, or well-meaning but incinerated baked goods, smoke contains hundreds of odorous components, like ammonia, acetic acid, and hydrogen sulphide, which make that familiar acrid scent last. And while it seems like there's no good way of banishing the smell except for opening the windows and letting the smoke run its course, there are a few key kitchen staples that will help you speedily remove that unwanted, burned scent.

It's all a matter of some simple chemical reactions that help remove stubborn smoke smells. Dry pantry staples, like coffee, absorb and mask odors to due their elemental composition. Baking soda is another dry solution that deodorizes spaces due to its alkaline nature, which will neutralize acidic particles in the air. Aside from these dry ingredients, some wet kitchen items, like vinegar, can help wash the smell out of surfaces, clothing, and upholstery by physically removing smoke particles that can cling onto those pieces. It can also help air out smoky smells if used properly, too. If you know how to leverage these ingredients' underrated cleaning abilities, then you'll have a refreshed, smoke-free environment in no time!

Two dry ingredients are MVPs when it comes to naturally deodorizing spaces. First, coffee is a key ingredient that you can repurpose after your morning cup of joe to eliminate smoke odors. Think about how activated charcoal works: microscopic pores in the charcoal trap odor molecules, reducing smells in the air. Well, grounds work the same way. Either reuse your old coffee grounds in bowls around the room, or make small sachets of grounds in old nylon tights or mesh bags to strategically place around the home.

Baking soda is another dry ingredient with odor-eliminating properties. Since it's alkaline in nature, baking soda can neutralize the acids found in smoke. There are several ways to use baking soda for your smoke issues. First, if the smoke smell is lingering on carpets, rugs, and upholstered furniture, sprinkle the ingredient straight onto those surfaces and let it sit for an hour. Once that's run its course, vacuum the powder up, and you should notice that the surface feels and smells refreshed. You can also set bowls of baking soda around the house, like you would with either coffee grounds or white vinegar, to help absorb smells too. This works well in tandem with increasing airflow to the affected rooms. Just be sure that you don't mix baking soda and vinegar together as they neutralize each other, which is not helpful to deodorizing the house.

Dry pantry items aren't the only kitchen staples that will help you root unwanted smoky smells out of the house. Cleaning with vinegar is one of the best ways to universally remove bad scents from afflicted rooms. For smoke smells in particular, vinegar is effective at working the scent out of surfaces like walls and floors. Wipe down affected rooms with a cloth moistened with white vinegar; just be sure to avoid fragile surfaces like granite and wood. Then, try placing bowls of white vinegar in particularly smelly rooms for several days to allow the odor to be absorbed by the liquid. The room should feel more refreshed after those few days.

As mentioned, sometimes smoke lingers in the upholstery of a room as well. Whether it be curtains or couch covers, smoke particles sitting on textiles will make that smell persist and get worse over time. For these pieces, you can also use vinegar in your laundry to help slice through the smell. Mix up a solution of white vinegar and hot water in equal parts and then soak the fabrics in the solution for at least an hour; you can even leave it overnight if the smoke smell is pungent. Afterwards, wash as normal to get the final smells out. You can also pour the vinegar-water solution into a spray bottle for a refreshing spritz onto smoky fabrics before letting them air dry, if the scent isn't too persistent. Whether you go wet or dry, coffee, baking soda, and vinegar are the kitchen items you'll want on hand after any smoke event in the house.