This guide will walk you through deep cleaning to eliminate cigarette smoke odor and tar buildup from throughout your home. While there is no magic bullet to quickly or easily solve these problems, dedicated ongoing work can do the trick. Let us show you how!
A Difficult Foe
The tar in cigarette smoke is sticky. It’s really good at attaching itself to everything, and really hard to get off. That’s what causes it to be so bad for your lungs, and it’s also what makes it hard to clean from your house. It’s also the cause of the lingering cigarette smell, as well as the yellowing in color of most anything it gets on. If your goal is to get the smell of smoke out of your home, tar is your enemy. And it can be a difficult enemy to beat.
Think Holistically
In order to fully eliminate cigarette smoke odor and tar buildup from your home, you need to think in terms of cleaning absolutely everything. Look around your home and think about what you can do to remove tar from it. Some things may be easier to just eliminate completely, and potentially replace.
Persistence Required
Most of the techniques discussed here are about reducing tar and odors. This means you will need to repeat them several times on the same surfaces to fully eliminate the odors.
Keep a List
As you work through your cleaning process, keep a list of anything you have trouble cleaning and the types of materials on it. This will come in very handy as you near completion and think about what steps you might want to take to finish things out.
One Material at a Time
Your approach for removing tar and smoke odor will need to be different for different types of materials. We have several comprehensive guides to help you along the way.