You’ve just been gifted a big box of wool sweaters, blankets or other knitted items from Grandma, and it’s turned out to be a bit of a good news/bad news situation. The good news is that you now have a collection of hand-made keepsakes that you’ll treasure forever. The bad news? Grandma was a smoker, and the items smell a bit fragrant.
One of the big problems with smoking is that the smell permeates absolutely everything – especially soft things like knitted items – and if those items are made from wool or many other types of yarn, you can’t just throw them in the washing machine as if you were cleaning regular clothing.
You don’t want to throw your smoky knitted items in a box and forget about them – you want to use or display them. At the very least, you don’t want the smell of smoke contaminating your other things.
So, what are your options? Here are some of the most effective ways to get the smoke smell out of wool and other knitted items.
Launder the Items with Baking Soda or Vinegar if You Can
If the items that you’re trying to clean are safe to launder normally, that’s likely to be the easiest way to remove the smoke smell. The maker of Gain laundry detergent suggests laundering the items with a cup of baking soda added during the wash cycle, which can aid in absorbing and removing the odor-causing molecules. Alternatively, you can also try adding a generous amount of vinegar during the wash cycle. Vinegar is often recommended as a cleaning agent for removing the smell of smoke because it helps to break down and neutralize the molecules that cause the odor. Don’t use the baking soda and vinegar at the same time, though, or you’ll have an enormous mess on your hands. The two compounds will also neutralize one another and handicap their cleaning power.If washing the items with vinegar or baking soda isn’t helpful in removing the smoke smell, you might need to concentrate the cleaning power a little more. Try filling a spray bottle with half water and half white vinegar. Hang the items on a clothesline and spray them until they’re well saturated. It’s helpful to do this in bright sunlight, both because the items will dry more quickly and because the ultraviolet radiation from the sun will help to oxidize and break down the odor-causing molecules. When the items are dry, take them down and machine wash them as normal.
Try Dry Cleaning the Items
If it’s not safe to wash your knitted items in your washing machine, you should check to see if the material can be dry cleaned. If you’re not sure, ask your local dry cleaner for help. They will probably be able to look at the material and make an educated guess as to whether it’s safe to dry clean. Tell the dry cleaner that you’re trying to get the smoke smell out of the items; a good cleaning service will have specialized compounds that they can use for smoke elimination projects.Are you on a tight budget? If you don’t want to pay to have the items professionally dry cleaned, you can try a home dry cleaning kit from your local supermarket instead. These kits work in much the same way as professional dry-cleaning technology. You put the items into a large bag and add a sheet that’s impregnated with a heat-activated cleaning solvent. You then put the bag in your dryer, and the heat and solvents work their magic. Home dry-cleaning chemicals aren’t as effective as the solvents that professional dry cleaners use, which are powerful but toxic. However, this can be a good alternative for removing the smoke smell from knitted items if you can’t afford to use a professional service.
Neutralize or Absorb the Smoke Smell Without Washing the Items
If your wool or knitted items can’t be safely laundered or dry cleaned, you aren’t necessarily out of luck because there are some ways to remove or neutralize the smoke smell without using water, detergents or chemicals. We’ll give you two methods here. One is difficult but very effective. The other is easy but takes more time.You can seal the items in a confined space with an ozone generator and run the generator for a couple of hours. Ozone is a powerful oxidizing agent, so it can neutralize most types of organic odors. Car detailers often use ozone generators to remove foul smells from vehicles, and you may have a local detailing service with an ozone machine that you can either borrow or rent. If they don’t want to let you use the machine, put the smoky items in your car and ask the detailer to run the ozone generator for you.
You can put the items in a box with plenty of bags of activated charcoal. Activated charcoal has an extremely high surface area, with two grams of charcoal having an area comparable to that of a football field. The surface area gives activated charcoal amazing absorptive properties, which is why it’s used in a wide variety of things ranging from air filters to cleaning products. You can buy the activated charcoal online or at a local home improvement store. Give the box a light shake periodically to redistribute the items and check the progress after a month. If the charcoal smells like smoke, it’s working. You may need to replace the bags with fresh ones and continue the process if the smell isn’t completely removed from the items.
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