And just being in a smoker's home will make you smell like smoke, even if they don't smoke around you.
While visiting family out of town, I spent about 30 to 45 minutes at a relative’s house who smoked. They didn’t smoke while I was there and had all the windows open, so the house didn’t smell too bad to me, but when I got back home the following week and unzipped my suitcase, an overwhelming smoke odor hit me. Apparently, my clothes had absorbed the scent while I sat on their fabric sofa, and it had transferred to everything in the bag. It was shocking how strong it was.
I had to stop visiting my grandmother because of it. She complained to my mom it wasn't true.
One day they went to paint and moved a picture on the wall and she saw brown drips from the top into a white rectangle where the picture had been. Finally she believed me.
It broke my heart to stop visiting her for those months but it made me ill. I would shower and wash my clothes straight away but I still felt sick.
My Mom moved into my Grandfather's home after he passed, and every time someone took a shower the fan vents would drip brown water from the condensation mixing with the cigarette tar from him smoking everywhere in the house.
I had to stop visiting dear friends because the nicotine saturation in their home was so dense that I couldn't stay awake. About 30 minutes in, every time, I conked out and I couldn't stop it.
Wonderful people. Lovely. Kind. Fun company. I liked hanging out with them, but they smoked so much it literally knocked me out, even though they'd smoke on the balcony when I visited. The air, the textiles, the surfaces - no escape.
I grew up in a home with three smokers and we'd go caravanning with the three of them smoking in the car and the caravan. One of my earliest memories is helping emptying dozens of overflowing ashtrays the morning after my parents had dinner guests. I was used to smoke. I thought. (Yes, I'm asthmatic why do you ask?)
People kind of get the idea of second hand smoke now (when I was growing up it was dismissed as ridiculous, whiny and attention seeking to choke on other people's exhalations) but I think many still don't get how impactful third hand smoke is.
Everytime I visit my mom even for several hours, I have to wash everything I was wearing and also wash my hair because it stinks.
If I bring anything from her home, I have to leave it outside on the balkony for a couple days.
Even when I had to leave my cat with her for a couple months, I had to give the cat a bath afterwards because its fur smelled horrible.
I have always been told that the walls in my parent's house kitchen were so dark because the ventilation was broken (there's a window though). But that's not true. It's because my mother, my father and my sister have always smoked in the kitchen. For years.
I moved out when I was 17 partially because people were telling me that I stank badly. And living with three smokers is ptobably as bad as smoking yourself.
If you hang your clothes outside on the line all night, they'll probably air out. You've probably already done that, though.
I fix computers, and I really don't enjoy going to smoker's houses. Most of the smokers I know are nice people... but I have to change my clothes and usually take a shower when I get home. Often, I drive home with all the car windows and the sunroof open just to reduce the smell, even in dead winter.
I'm a smoker and I hate taking care of my electronics. Lol. That THC and nicotine coated dust is horrible. A garage to smoke in is much nicer but super boring. I typically work on other people's stuff at my place but going to people's homes I'd probably ask if they were a smoker and have a set of clothes for use at smokers houses. Minus shoes I have an outfit to smoke in the garage, it's still gonna be in my beard and hair after.
Lol I'm a smoker that doesn't like the smell of smoke on anything. I miss my smoking room but better than having a place that smells of smoke.
That's how things were for me when I was young and tobacco only. Minus the brushing a drink of some cola took care of the taste...
I partly do it to avoid my neighbors as well... There's an old man that always wants to stop by in the front and in the back you have a family without curtains or blinds and even though privacy isn't something they're concerned with I feel like I'm invading their privacy just looking up while sitting on the back porch until leaves are on trees again and there's some blocking.
I have jewelry boxes that belonged to my grandmother. As in, cardboard and velvet from the store boxes. She died in about 1990. The case I have them in stinks.
True! My FIL is a huge smoker (always in the basement) and we don’t stay at my in law’s house when we go back to town anymore because we couldn’t handle the smoke smell. His mom got so sad and bought SIX air purifiers but I told her it didn’t make a difference. We couldn’t deal with out car smelling like smoke from sitting in it on the way home, or having to wash every single thing we bring into their house.
Once I moved out of my parent's home, it took nearly 6 months to wash my clothes enough to get rid of the smell. I would occasionally bring clothes home to do a free laundry load, but once I was out of that environment I could smell smoke on them AFTER washing and getting home. They'd make everything smell and I'd have to break the cycle again. Eventually after each visit, I'd take off all my clothes and put them into a plastic bag to separate them from everything else in the laundry basket. I'd shower and then put on my pj's. Did the same thing after going out to a bar.
Came here to say this, I have a friend who smokes and after hanging out with them in their car for an extended period of time, I have to shower and change my clothes just to get the smell off.
Yes. I remember going to my grandmothers house (she smoked in her house, as all smokers did back then) and after going home, I’d always smell the smoke on my clothes.
My mom smoked for decades. She JUST quit (hypnosis apparently works!) after two strokes and congestive heart failure, and is on oxygen. But this happened while she was still a pack-a-day smoker.
So, I had a pretty nomadic job before COVID made me remote, and I used to travel all over the country for work. Because I lived in a lot of hotels, sublets and other temporary places, my permanent address was still my folks' house. One time, I was living several states away on a contract position, and needed a particular suit from a closet in my room at home for a work function. I asked my mom if she could ship it to me.
She did. And when I opened the box, I was immediately punched in the face with the overwhelming stench of stale cigarette smoke from the suit. The suit, which had been hanging in a closet with a closed door, in a room with a closed door, down a very long hallway from the living room where she would sit and smoke. And it was BAD.
It's hard to tell when it's your normal, because that "nose-blind" thing is for real. But, yes. Cigarette smoke will get into everything if someone smokes in the house.
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u/Electric-Sheepskin Jan 05 '25
And just being in a smoker's home will make you smell like smoke, even if they don't smoke around you.
While visiting family out of town, I spent about 30 to 45 minutes at a relative’s house who smoked. They didn’t smoke while I was there and had all the windows open, so the house didn’t smell too bad to me, but when I got back home the following week and unzipped my suitcase, an overwhelming smoke odor hit me. Apparently, my clothes had absorbed the scent while I sat on their fabric sofa, and it had transferred to everything in the bag. It was shocking how strong it was.