How to Get a Smoke Smell out of Your Bedding

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The smell of smoke has a nasty habit of absorbing into every soft item in your home – so if you happen to be the type of person who enjoys smoking cigarettes in your bedroom, you’ll definitely smell it in your bedding. So, suppose you’ve managed to quit smoking, or you’ve visited a vape shop and made the switch to vaping. You’re not going to want your bed to be a constant reminder of your past as a smoker, so what can you do? Is there any way to get the smoke smell out of your bedding?

When you quit smoking, the easiest way to get the smoke smell out of a particular item in your home is by replacing it. If you don’t have the room in your budget to do that, though, this is the guide for you. Here’s how to get the smoke smell out of your bedding for good.

Use a Laundry Additive for More Effective Cleaning

If you want to get a smoke smell out of your bedding, washing everything thoroughly is the first step. When you do this, you’re probably going to find that regular laundry detergent isn’t very effective on its own. You need to use an additive to increase the cleaning power. Here are some suggestions that help with removing a smoke smell from laundry.

Bleach Alternative: Bleach alternative is an excellent laundry additive that can help to remove almost any unwanted odor from laundry. Some popular bleach alternative brands include OxiClean and Molly’s Suds. Although these products have slightly different combinations of ingredients, they’re usually based on washing soda and powdered hydrogen peroxide. The peroxide neutralizes unwanted odors by oxidizing them, and the washing soda increases the cleaning power of your regular detergent. Together, they also cause a bubbling action that increases the effectiveness of the washing machine’s regular agitation.
White Vinegar: Vinegar can also be an effective laundry additive for removing the smell of smoke because the powerful acid neutralizes the odor-causing molecules. Use it by adding a cup of vinegar to the washing machine after it’s done filling up with water. You should combine the vinegar with your usual detergent, but you shouldn’t combine it with bleach alternative or washing soda. The strong foaming action may cause your washing machine to overflow. Also, the acid and base may cancel each other out, reducing the cleaning power.
Washing Soda: Bleach alternative frequently contains washing soda, but you can also use washing soda on its own to increase the cleaning power of any laundry detergent. Simply follow the instructions on the box. You can also make a paste from washing soda and use it to scrub bad smells out of your laundry before washing them.

Regardless of what laundry additives you use for removing the smoke smell from your bedding, it’s worthwhile to spend a bit of money to use the full-sized washers at your local laundromat. For washing large items like comforters, nothing beats the cleaning power of a larger machine.

Use an Ozone Generator to Neutralize Odors by Oxidizing Them

If you’ve never used an ozone generator to remove an unwanted smell, you’ve got to give it a try because the oxidizing action of ozone can remove almost any odor from any surface.

Ozone consists of three oxygen atoms. The third atom is unstable and wants to break off and attach to other molecules. That’s what happens when you use an ozone generator to remove unwanted odors; the oxygen atoms attach to the odor-causing molecules, which neutralizes the odors by changing the molecules into other substances.

Ozone generators are available online and at many home improvement stores. You might also be able to rent or borrow one from a company that specializes in auto detailing or mold remediation. It’s important to use an ozone generator according to the instructions, though, because ozone is potentially deadly to people and pets.

Leave Your Bedding in Direct Sunlight

Do you want to enjoy the odor-neutralizing power of oxidation without buying or renting an ozone generator? You can get a very similar result by waiting for a sunny day and putting all of your bedding in direct sunlight for several hours. You can also remove the smoke smell from your mattress this way, which is a good thing – even if you do have the money to replace your sheets and blankets, your mattress will still smell. A good mattress can be very expensive to replace, and leaving it in the sun for a few hours can make it smell much better.

Wash Your Bed Frame

While your sheets, blankets and mattress are removed, you’ll have full access to the frame of your bed. This is a perfect opportunity to wash it because smoke doesn’t just absorb into a room’s soft surfaces; it sticks to almost everything that it touches. Wash your bed’s frame with warm water, mild detergent and a bit of white vinegar. This combination should be effective for removing the smoky film from the bed – and once the film is gone, the smell will be gone as well.

If your bed has a wood frame, you might want to follow with a wax-based furniture polish. The wax will help to eliminate the smoke smell by sealing the wood’s pores, and it’ll probably also have a pleasant lemon scent that’ll help to mask any residual odor.

Clean the Rest of the Room Thoroughly

Another thing to keep in mind when you try to remove the smoke smell from your bedding is that although the bed may be the biggest source of the smoky odor, the rest of the room will probably have some residual smell as well. Take this opportunity to give your entire bedroom a top-to-bottom cleaning.

Clean the wall, ceiling and other hard surfaces with warm water, detergent and white vinegar.
If your room is carpeted, vacuum the floor thoroughly and consider renting a commercial carpet cleaner from the supermarket.
Put activated charcoal in drawers and other tight spaces to absorb the smoke smell from those areas.