I have one of those pillows with rice in it that you can use for sore muscles, etc. I bought it second hand and it smells like cigarette smoke. I can't wash it because of the rice, and can't use Febreze or anything because it is heated in the microwave and I don't want skin rashes. Any suggestions on taking the smell out of it?
By Melissa from ID
I'd rip a tiny bit of the stitching out, empty the old rice out, wash the cover, refill with new rice and stitch closed.
You can try sticking it a paper bag with lots of baking soda and give it a good shake-shake-shake. Let sit for a while and shake off the excess to see if smell remains. (Maybe run the vacuum hose over it, too) This "dry bath" works wonders for lots of items that can't be soaked or washed in water, such as stuffed animals.
Put it in the sun or buy a new one. Spray on fresheners (so-called) mask odor ONLY through a two part process by reducing the volatility of odor molecules so they cannot be smelled. Spraying fabric softener, etc, will not accomplish the same thing but WILL cause a build up of gunk in your house, and make fabric harder to clean properly. Ditto for oils, etc. Febreze is not a cleaner, even the makers don't make this claim.
Sunshine is the best smell eliminator there is! Put your Rice Pillow out in bright sunlight and the smells will be gone. No need to buy another one.
My sister bought me one because of my back and leg pain. Over a yr ago. I throw it in my washer on gentle cycle. Hang it to dry. NEVER had a problem. Nice and clean, smells good. My best friend every morning when I get up and am hurting. Have refilled it with rice once. Getting ready to refill it again and cross stitch by hand. My daddy always said if at first u do not succeed, try try again. Lol (maybe in different ways. ) good luck
I also have a rice heating pack that I made with a sock and rice that I like to reuse. For deodorizing it there are a couple different ways to go.
Put the rice bag in the freezer over night. Take it out in the the next day.That should kill the smell.
You can also put a few drops of essential oil on a small damp cloth or paper towel and put it in a ziplock bag with the rice bag.
Throw it away. Make a new one or buy a new one.
You can make your own by using a large or small sock and filling it with rice and tying a knot in it. I either microwave it for around one minute or freeze it for boo boos. Every so often I pour the rice out and wash the sock, then pour the rice back in.
Hope this helps!
I don't know of a way to clean the rice pillow, but I have made several of them. Just take a mens tube sock, fill it with about a pound of long cooking rice, fold it so the rice it pushed to one end and sew the fold shut. It's easy and inexpensive. Good luck!
I would try this: empty the rice out. Spread the rice out on a cookie sheet and place it outside in the hot sun. Stir it around once in a while. After a couple days it might not smell. Wash the cloth case. Put the rice back in the case and sew shut. Hopefully this might work.
Get a large enough sized plastic bag put the pillow in the bag with baking soda. It is not necessary to sprinkle the pillow with baking soda, just leave the baking soda in the refrigerator baking soda container,or a punctured ( with several holes) box, or make your own hole punctured container filled with baking soda. Leave this in the bag for a week, or so.Take the pillow out of the bag and vacuum it. Then bang the pillow against a hard surface and repeat with the vacuuming and the banging, to get rid of the baking soda, (if you happen to get some on it. Even though it does not hurt you to leave it in) This DOES work! There is also no need to throw away the baking soda, you can use it, scrubbing pots and pans freshening up your kitchen sink, bathroom sink, bathroom tub drain, use it for polishing your stainless steel. Many other uses for it, instead of discarding it. Just do not use it for anything in any fashion in which you would consume it.
This is posted April 14th 2018
I just did an experiment with plain white rice in a sock. I tied a knot in the top of the sock to keep the rice in, and washed it. I even put fabric softener in my rinse water. Next, I put it in the drier. It took two cycles, but my sock/rice bag is nice and dry and smells nice, too. If you wash it like any other laundry, it looks like rice holds up pretty well!
Brilliant! Sometimes the easiest fixes are right in front of you!
