I'm just going to put it out there. Don't smoke. Please, there is tons of research out there saying it kills you, slowly. With all the knowledge people have available about how bad it is, I honestly have no idea why people even start smoking. It always kills me when I see a kid (you know, the ones who hopefully are at least 18 but look 15 or 16) smoking. I think to myself, "don't you have anything better to spend your money on?" If you smoke to calm your nerves you could probably cure that problem with counseling or Dr. visits that would be cheaper than the 10+ years it took you to figure out you should never have stopped smoking.
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| (image from Google) |
I love you all, even if you do smoke or have in the past, but please do yourself a favor. Do your spouse or significant other a favor. Do your children or future children a favor. They love you and want you to be around for as long as possible. It's not too late. Our bodies are amazing and they can "heal" from smoking, it's possible.
I am sorry if anyone reading this feels I am speaking rudely or out of turn. It comes from a place that cares about the human race and the health of others. I saw what it did to my great-uncle who died of lung cancer. It was tragic.
So, the secret I have been hiding about our house is that the lady who lived in our house before was a heavy smoker. dun. dun. dun. She smoked inside and we had to clean away the evidence. It was nasty. [If you must smoke, please go outside!]
OK, I am done. Now I will show you why I feel so firmly about it. Photographic evidence.
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| The dining room-before. |
These photos are from our dining room. It was where I started cleaning. We scrubbed the baseboards, walls, windows, doors and trim with a TSP, vinegar and water solution. When there was a tough spot we used baking soda to have a little grit. What is TSP you ask? It is Tri-Sodium-Phosphate. T.S.P. It was the chemical that we read will get rid of strong odors (smoke) and strong stains (tar and nicotine build-up). We found it at Home Depot.
These are pictures of the cleaning process. You can clearly see where I cleaned on the baseboard vs. where it hadn't yet been cleaned. In person it was very clear on the wall too. You might be able to see it above, but you might not. Just know it's there. I know, it's disgusting. The dirty part was sticky and so dust and dirt was very good at sticking to it. [No wonder lungs get so dirty, that's the same stuff that gunks up a smoker's lungs]
This picture I took while I was scrubbing and wiping the wall. You can see after I applied the TSP/Vinegar solution how the walls were "weeping" the nicotine and tar. If you ever have to do this project start from the top and work your way down. If you do it the other way you will end up doing it twice! I know from experience. ;)
This is what my water bucket looked like after about 10 minutes. After about an hour it was quite a bit darker. It was so satisfying to dump it out!
***I think it's worth it for you to know now that we painted all of these surfaces after cleaning them. We cleaned them first because the paint wouldn't have stuck to all that dirt and we wanted to get as much of it out of the house as possible so that it wouldn't "leak" out later [we heard that happens sometimes.] I will post later about using Kilz on the whole house, but for now know that painting all of the surfaces was vital to getting the smell out.***
Well that's it. That's how we got the smell out of our house and my soap box (I promise you won't have to read many of those.) See ya next time!
Love,
Sarah
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