Thread: I live with a smoker and cats...

Originally Posted by RUSewing

Even if the smoker does not go in the sewing room, the smell would travel through the heating and AC vents or small cracks around the door or enter everytime the door opens.

I bought some fabric online from a non-smoker, no pets, BUT what she did have was a wood burning stove. Smelled like a campout! :) Pass the marshmallows!

LOL @ pass the marshmallows....

My mom smokes in her house and everything does stink when I get home. I just wash with Tide and snuggle fabric softener and everything is fine.

If you are going to wash everything and put in plastic bags, take extra care to ensure everything is completely dried

As someone allergic to smoke, I apprereciate you posting from a home where a smoker lives.Go ahead & sell your stuff, as long as we know, we can deal with it.I wash all fabrics before putting them on my racks.I can walk by a rack of clothes @ a thrift store & know an item was from a smoker home.When my husband was alive, his brother would sneak & smoke in my home & car.Said I wouldn't know it.Funny, my husband & his brother died of severe heart disease!Good luck selling your items.

I have a very sensitive nose. My ex use to try and smoke in my van when I wasn't around. He'd roll down the window, hold the cig out the window and blow the smoke out the window as well. He'd leave the windows down when he got out. I could go out there hours later and still smell it. It took him a while to realize I'd know. I don't let people smoke in my house or my cars. I have cats but they don't come in my sewing room. I leave the door open all of the time but because that and my bedroom has always been off limits they don't go in. They can't come in my bedroom due to cat hairs on my clothes when I go to work. I have met people who are alot more sensitive than I am. If you sell quilts you should let facts about your enviroment be known in advance. Some are also alergic to pet hairs.

Put the smoker in a plastic bag and make away!!!

I have a friend whose husband smokes and she has lots of cats! However, he is not allowed to smoke in the quilting room and she puts my quilts and batting in a large bag and stores it in a room that cats and smoker do not go.

I have allergies to cats and asthma triggered by smoke and my quilts never bother me when she sends them back. I know this works for her because I cannot visit her for more than 30 minutes until she says, "get out of my house, you're rubbing your nose and scratching yourself!" Only a true friend would order me out of her house (for my sake)!

Please note though, if you have central heat and air, you need to block off the vent to that room or the smell will travel.

Keep your fabric and sewing equipment in a room with a door where the cat and the smoker won't go. That way you can go in there and sew without worrying about cat hair or smoke



Not to burst anyone's bubble but keeping your fabrics in ONE room when the smoker or pets have access to all other rooms in the house will not prevent the odor or dander from leeching into the sewing room. I am an asthma sufferer and can pick up the scents immediately from stored fabric or items made of fabric from a smoker's home. I would not want to take a chance of inducing an asthma attack or allergic reaction to something I was selling. Maybe it is because of the condition I have which makes me intensely aware of scents and dander. It is not fun to not be able to breathe! A friend of mine is a long arm quilter and cannot even work on quilt tops where the maker has used fabric softener when washing or dryinging their fabric or quilt tops before they brought it to her to quilt for them. You are so thoughtful to want to be careful when selling your items...storing them in plastic after laundering may help but, as others have said, you cannot store them too long in plastic.

Originally Posted by MissSandra

I have a smoker in the house, my daughter washes everything i send, i never hear of her doing it more than once.

My DH smokes and when I send things to my niece for her babies she has to wash them and hang the quilts on the line to get rid of the smoky smell. DH does not come into my sewing room but it does get into the room no matter what I try to do. So now I will wash everything I make and give away and quickly put it into a garbage bag until the recipient gets it.

there is smoking --and---there is smoking! be honest and see where it goes! I donot smoke, I would buy from you, on that note(a whiff& you tell how much smoke) HOWEVER if stuff is cover w/ cat hair&what is that snell???-I'll pass!

Originally Posted by ckcowl

can you keep your fabrics/stuff in a room that the smoker is not allowed to smoke in? that would help-
and washing/sealing up would be ok- it is long term storage that is not recommended in plastic because of the risk of moisture getting in/mildew happening.
if you take your plastic bags outside-and air them-let the stuff out on occassion- and becareful during really humid times you should be ok.
another option would be to take to laundramat right before going to where ever you are planning to sell---then everything is fresh and clean for the sale.
depends i guess on how you are trying to sell- whether its like booths set up at festivals/markets- or if you are trying to direct sell online- if that's the case- wash each item and package it to go when it is sold-
where there's a will there's always a way :)

From a non-smoking house, I can tell you that even when washed fabric has the odor from smoking! I acquired some scraps that were from another part of the house, washed and then when I ironed them, I could smell it!