I recently purchased some books over the internet. They smell like cigarette smoke. Any suggestions to rid the books of this smell?
Jane
Put them out in the sun on a nice day. Open them up. Periodically change the pages to expose new areas. This has worked for old musty books for me. (01/30/2001)
By lelbel
Place the books in a large plastic bag, sprinkle in some baking soda and close. After a few days the smell should be removed from the books. Just shake or dust off the baking soda. Don't use the baking soda for cooking afterwards, instead use to freshen your sink drains. (01/30/2001)
By kcohenvt
According to "Typical Mary Ellen", newspaper is good for removing odors. I'd wrap up the books with wads of newspaper in a plastic bag and leave them for a while. It may need to be repeated. For most people, newspapers are "free." (02/01/2001)
By sward
This happened to me, too. I hate the smell of smoke! I packed the book into a plastic bag with a paper package of scented bath salts. You might try an unwrapped scented soap, too. Best of luck! (02/03/2001)
By katkitkat
I tried the baking soda in the plastic bag with the book and its been weeks and it still stinks. How long am i suppose to do this? (04/08/2004)
By
I found this on another board:
"It's too damp where I live to put anything valued out into the open air. I'd recommend putting the book into a chamber of some sort (I use a large rigid plastic box with a sealable lid) together with a zeolite, such as activated charcoal. I've experimented with several books that smelled musty by wrapping them well in pellon (spun polyester material, sold in fabric stores), then burying the wrapped book in deodorizing cat litter, which has a zeolite in it. After a few days the books smell fine, but as they weren't MY books, I don't know whether they have remained odor free. However, no one has told me the smell came back.
Carol Pratt, Eugene, OR"
Then this suggestion...
"I was staying at a hotel once, and when I complained about the smell of smoke in my room, they put an ozone generator in it and left it running for some hours while I was away. When I returned, the smell was gone. Remember, however, ozone is toxic and should not be used in an area where people will inhale it."
http://palimpsest.stanford.edu/byform/mailing-lists/bookarts/2000/01/msg00116.html (04/08/2004)
By Joe
For oder in a basement place in the open regular grill cooking CHARCOAL. I would place the books in a large plastic bag and inside with the books a generous amount of charcoal tied up in an old sheet or pillowcase (etc.) and you could add an old sock full of baking soda for musty smells. After you do this do not use the charcoal or soda for anything else. Discard. (06/14/2004)
By wright6421
I got the cigarette smell out of a very thick softcover textbook in a couple of days. I stood the book on its bottom edge and fanned-out the pages so it formed something like 3/4 of a cylinder shape. The book was placed like this on the floor with a piece of cardboard under it. (Some books, especially thinner ones, might not stand up like that, but you could easily clip the covers to an improvised support.) Then I took a fan of the type that normally stands on the floor on a high pedestal, and placed it horizontally over a chair so that it blew straight down onto the book. The pages soon fanned out evenly, and the air rushing between all the pages got out most of the smell in the first day. (07/11/2004)
By Tom
Use bounce dryer sheets to remove odors from fragile items such as books, etc. (07/12/2004)
By
I got a smoky smelling book and just used fantastic lightly sprayed on paper towels then cleaned along all the edges, thoroughly on the covers and on the inside of the covers. This helped a lot, but there is still a slight smell if you stick your nose to the inside binding. (10/05/2004)
By Morgan
The best thing I have found to remove odors from old books is cedar chips. You can buy these from your local feed or pet store. Place the book in a large zip-loc back together with a couple handfuls of the cedar chips. Place the bag somewhere dry and cool for a few days. It's done the trick for me many times and removes the smell of cigarettes, mold and mildew. And the cedar smells really good, too. (07/25/2005)
By Lin
Those are good ideas for books. Anybody have some good ideas of how to get cigarette smoke smell out of a sofa? My mother gave me her sofa for my new apartment but she is a chain smoker and the sofa smells like it's spent a year in the back of an old bar.
(09/07/2005)
By Genny
Well, what I did was hang the book on the clothesline :) Yep.. take a couple front and back pages and clip them on the line with the squeeze type clothes pins.. being a non smoker I was highly upset when cigarette smelling books were were returned to me after loaning them out. Hang them in the shade then switch to different parts of the book to let the pages air in between. It worked for me.. and taught me a lesson, not to loan my books to people that I know smoke.. I just didn't think of it at the time.
(not intended to offend smokers)
P.S. I let them hang a few days in the day time only. (03/07/2006)
By Ariela
How about solid items like plastic, can the smell be removed using the same technique? Or is it something different? (03/10/2006)
By Person
Put the books in a closed bookshelf (Barrister type) and put some incense sticks in with the books (not touching them, of course). It works like the cedar chips mentioned earlier. (04/18/2006)
By jeff
I used Potpourri in a bag, I tried baking soda in a bag, neither worked.
Then I read this thread and used someones suggestion of a dryer sheet. I took one and rubbed it over the front cover, the back cover and each page. It has worked the best so far. The smell is almost gone.
One more sheet over each page should be the end of that gross smell.
And this is a Wedding Memory book I bought online. Not a good smell to have on it. :( (04/28/2006)
By Taliaris
(05/16/2006)
By Leigh
The same thing happened to me. I started by wiping the pages with a dryer sheet and then leaving the dryer sheet in the book. This just layered a pleasant odor over the smoke odor, but it was still there. I finally got rid of the smell completely with newspaper. I put a sheet of newspaper one every page of the book and let it sit for two days. The smell is completely gone. (03/26/2007)
By Rivka
Use the dryer sheets. I put a dryer sheet in my book and put it back on the shelf for 4 weeks and now the smoke smell is gone and the books smells dryer fresh. This will also remove the moldy smell on books too. For thick books put two or more sheets in the book. (08/25/2007)
By DEBRA J.
I wanted to give my mother's smoky books about her country of origin to my niece who has asthma. I used the dryer sheet method and it worked well without giving me asthma for my efforts. (11/12/2007)
By LD
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