Hit the jackpot! But have an issue Hope you Help?
 

I was fortunate to buy a quilter's stash. Completewith tools, books, patterns, fabric and more! All for $500. There was over 1400 fat quarters and lots of yardage. Small containers with blocks cut and some put together. Quilt tops and some to bind also.
The problem is all this came from a smoker's house. How do I get the smoke smell out without washing???
I am laying it out now in single layers in the garage and airing out and spraying febreze. What can I do that might be faster??
Can I use bowls of vinegar setting around???

Thanks for all your help
Candlenana

I would wash he yardage and FQ, but the smaller cuts and partials probably should be finished before they are washed. You could try baking soda, cat litter, dryer sheets, or misting with something like Mary Ellen's Best Press. I hope you enjoy your new treasures.

Darren

Put it in a large green trash bag with a bar of Dial soap. I've heard that works with odors. You may have to use several bags with your large amount of fabric. Leave in bag closed up for several days. Good luck

maybe put it in a bag with one of those baking soda discs and wash in oxyclean and arm and hammer detergent with baking soda in it. I hear airing it outside helps as well

I would invest in a few pairs of Dr. Scholl's charcoal Odoreaters shoe inserts. The charcoal in them absorbs odors. You can place fabric in a garbage bag with a couple of the inserts, leave for a week, then check.

Or try these:
http://www.amazon.com/MOSO-MB2578-Mo...dp/B004BOHV7Q/

Charcoal is the best odor neutralizer I have found, but the trick is to keep the charcoal off your fabric. Dry coffee grounds are supposed to be excellent also.

If you Google "best way to remove tobacco smoke from fabric" you will find a number of ideas.

I would all the fabric I could. It will all dissipate over time on the non washable items. Use a room air freshener until then.

I would wash everything which is easily washed, as someone else suggested. One thing I recently found, quite accidentally, which took a mildew smell out of a book I bought, is placing the offensive smelling item inside a scented, odor removing kitchen bag! Dh buys these, I don't. I only put the book into the kitchen bag because I didn't want to smell it, and that's the kind of bags we happened to have at the time. Later, when I removed the book from the bag, which was in my car for a couple of weeks (didn't want it in the house), the smell was barely there!! Not sure if it will work with all brands---the bags we had were Hefty Odor Block, Lavender-Vanilla scented.

I deal with all odors with the clean air candles. When my daughter got a car from a smoker, we simply put the open candle jar in her car..I have used these candles for many things, such as mildew odors, and even an exploding Duck egg smell in my incubator!! I first learned about them when I used to do craft shows, and ten years later still use them..I would put the candle in a box/ tote with the fabric..The link I use to get the candles is:http://southerncandle.com/shop/

I would be careful using Dial soap. Some of them have a very strong scent and it might be worse than the smoke smell.

Washing in hot soapy water will be only fast solution. One the tar settles on the fabric it is the only way to get it out, the smell will linger for months. Any scent you use to mask it will go away and leave the smoke scent. My guild will not take donated fabric from a smoker's home. We learned our lesson about that.

Good luck with the cleaning. - WASH - WASH

what about a bag of charcoal either fish tank or grill??

I vote for steaming bowls of vinegar! Worked great in a combine my DH bought used from a smoker.

Call ServePro or a similar company that does disaster clean-up: House Fires, Flooding and the like. They can give you some excellent advice about removing the smell from your fabrics. My house partially burnt many years ago. All of my upholstered pieces of furniture smelled of smoke. My husband was also a smoker. When the cleaning company finished you would never have known there was a fire. They did not wet my furniture, they used some kind of osmosis thing on it.

I agree. Wash like colors together.

Maybe it's just me, but the Arm and Hammer detergent with baking soda has a very loud, offensive smell. I was so disappointed when I bought it. I ended up throwing it out because I couldn't stand the perfume in it..

My first choice would be to sort by color all the yardage and fat quarters. Sort batiks very carefully. You've got a big handy wash tub also known as a bath tub. Fill the tub with enough water to cover the fabric a couple inches. and add a bunch of oxy-clean, far more that the instructions say (Sun makes a much cheaper oxygen cleaner). Just lay the fabric pieces in the tub. Let this soak all day if you can. Every couple hours take a big pan lid or big plate and use it to squish the fabric up and down. Once I used the bottom of a trash can. If you see lots of yellow residue in the water, drain it and do it again. Depending on how nasty the smoke is, you may have to use the same routine minus the oxy-clean for several rinses. If you can, hang outdoors to dry.

Plain White vinegar in a spray bottle is the best thing to remove odors of any kind. It's all we use in our house. It doesn't cover the smell it eliminates it totally.

Plain old cheap clay kitty litter is my favorite odor remover - even takes out skunk smell!

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I agree, I use to be a smoker, can't stand the smell now, would have thought twice before I bought material from a smoker....sometimes you just can't get it out, even with washing!

I had a really bad tobacco odor to eliminate and after many tries I tried a sliced apple wrapped in news paper and left it for several days. It completely killed odor. I would place fabric in a plastic tub and add the apple/newspaper in several places it's a cheap try.

if you don't want to chance putting the fabric through a machine wash, how about soaking in a sink or the bathtub with Odo-Ban or Oxi-Clean? That's what's always worked for me. I recently purchase quite a bit of fabric from an estate sale. Everything was in boxes in a musty, damp basement. Oxi-Clean has become my best friend! That and my clothes line to dry in the warm breeze!!

Get some plain charcoal (not the kind that has the starter fluid already on it) and put some in a bowl in a box and add the fabric then seal it up. The charcoal will absorb the smell. I used this method to get rid of moth ball smell on an old quilt and it worked took a couple of rounds with the charcoal but it worked.

I would be careful. I understand many people find cigarette smoke offensive but some of the "solutions" seem would make the smell worse. Unless you plan on using the fabric right away, I would just try charcoal first. Wash what can be washed and charcoal the rest.

Smoking odor can be a really difficult problem. With the amount you have, whatever you decide to do will be a bit of work. Washing would be the best solution, however, keeping the odoriferous fabric from the clean fabric is necessary. The problem is smoke infiltrates every inch. Our daughter stored tons of boxes in our basement that she had packed for years and she is a heavy smoker. After the boxes were removed, it took me weeks to get the smell out of the basement. I used the odor remover containers from Menard's and I also bought a gallon of "Odo-ban" from Sams.

My last suggestion is to separate into like piles and take to the laundromat and use the large washers and cold water. I know this is a ton of work but think of it as a job and how much money you are making by not having to buy all this fabric. Good luck. Let us know what you decide and how it works. Others will surely have this problem. Yolanda Wood Lake

I remember tupperware use to recommend either baking soda or newspaper be put in the containers to absorb odor. let us know what works I personally would wash as much as possible.

You can use the smoker's candles. They don't even have to be lit. For the things you can't wash, (books, patterns, etc) put them in plastic bags with a bar of Dial or Safeguard deodorant soap. It takes a while but it will take the smell out and it doesn't leave a scent of it's own.

I have used this method to get rid of the smoke odor on bolts of fusible, books, magazines and wood dollhouses.

Someone suggested asking Servepro or Servicemaster for advice. BEST advice so far! We recently had a fire at the Condominium where I live. Servicemaster used some magic product to clean one apartment that got a great deal o smoke damage. Not only did the product smell very nice and fresh, but the next day there were no residual odors in the apartment. There are also drycleaners/laundries that specialize in cleaning smoke damaged clothing.

this will work i've used oxyclean to do the same thimg

For the things too small to wash, lay them outside in the fresh air. If you can string up a line and clip pieces to it, even better... just the fresh air alone will take the smoke out without having to do anything extreme. It takes about a day.

I always felt that wherever there was cigarette/any kind of smoke smell, there is residue. Do I want to work with fabric with residue on it? I know, some of us don't wash new fabric and there is the sizing, etc but knowing there is smoke residue....I would rather not, but that is just my personal preference.

I always use plain old charcoal, the kind for a BBQ. I had a basement flood once and everything smelled terrible afterward. We used about 3 big bags of charcoal sealed in the room for about 1 week and the odor came right out of the wood furniture. Put the fabric laying around the room and put the charcoal in there and seal up the room for a week or so, the odors should be gone.

If you put it in bags, be sure to unfold everything and lay it in loosely. Otherwise you may not reach the center of the pieces. Try one of those new stick on Fabreeze pods stuck to the plastic bag. And good luck to you with it

A friend of mine opens the fabric and hangs in a closet with open containers of vodka. She says it works great.

Some wonderful advice already given you.

Hanging washed fabrics (or even perhaps unwashed?) on a clothes in the sunshine would help too. I am a believer in fresh air and sunshine.

Let us know how you fare with this challenge.

Johnny Cat litter is supposed to work if you can store the fabric in a sealed box with it. Deactivated charcoal, baking soda, newspaper, etc. They are all supposed to work, but I've bought fabric at an estate sale that I regretted because it just would not get the odor out. The same with a whole box of crochet cotton I bought. Now, I'm going to sell it at my own yard sale!

I soak cloth in vinegar and baking soda mix with a drop of dish soap, then rinse and air dry.

I used my new washer to soak new charm packs and a layer cake, vinegar in the soak, then seperated each piece before I put it in the dryer. Hours of work, and ended up having to press 165 pieces of fabric. I will not buy charm packs again.

I have read that you can spritz the fabric with Vodka too.

wash with vinegar
 

I have a friend that said she washes away odors with vinegar.

I think washing it all is probably your best bet but it might never come out completely. I never ever buy anything unless it comes from a smoke-free home (that includes cars and furniture); I have a very sensitive nose and smell smoke residue even after it has been cleaned.