# Attention smokers: everything in your house is ruined. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 19, 2014, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471 "2014-04-19T04:43:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2014, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/121 "2014-04-20T23:56:12Z")
> [@Club\_33](#): > > Let’s not confuse the (probably) harmful effects of second hand smoke with a harmless but annoying smell. Being annoyed by smells are a part of life. You’re right that life is full of smells that aren’t necessarily unpleasant - some of which, people have more control over than others. Regardless of harm, I think that a relatively strong concentration of cigarette smoke in a confined place (such as a restaurant or on a plane) crosses a line of unpleasantness that rightly needed dealing with. If I come away with other people’s stink substantially on me, something is wrong. The smell of residual smoke on the clothing/hair of a smoker sitting next to me (but not actually smoking), on the other hand, is an annoyance similar in severity to, say, halitosis or BO - something I would just endure and be happy to be away from afterward - and probably is a lesser annoyance than Too Much Perfume. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/122 "2014-04-21T01:20:25Z")
> [@MeanOldLady](#): > > Really? Someone smokes within the vicinity of a book for a week and every book it gets near becomes tainted? Interesting. Let’s get the assertions right, here. Someone smokes like a fucking chimney for a week while reading a book, to the point that cigarette ash is left stuck on the pages of the book, and the covers are tarry and sticky, and those books are left in a small enclosed space with no air circulation overnight, piled in with other books. Yes, the other books that ended up on top of and below the smokers’ books in the bookdrop were affected by the smell. If we returned the smokers’ books directly to the shelf after they are returned, the books shelved next to them pick up the smell - that is why we air them out. In a related note, the time someone stuffed dog shit into the bookdrop, all of the books inside the bookdrop smelled like shit for a while afterwards. I’m sure we have many patrons who smoke. Only a few are this bad, but yes. It is that bad. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/123 "2014-04-21T01:41:40Z")
There’s smoke and there’s smoke. I’ve shared a house with a guy who preferred some really cheap cigars; those things _reeked_. Smelled like he was smoking pumpkin leaves or something. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/124 "2014-04-21T02:11:23Z")
I’ve stopped buying books from Amazon Marketplace because too many stank of cigarette smoke (which, yes, both persists on that book and makes the books shelved with it smell). I sometimes grade homework from my community college classes in the garage because they’re so smoky I don’t want to bring them into the house. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/848f3c/32.png) [@The\_Holdsworth\_Effect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Holdsworth_Effect)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/125 "2014-04-21T04:37:32Z")
Books do indeed seem to absorb smoke odors; I air them for a week or so, and dust them with baking soda. My auntie was a chain smoker of unfiltered Benson and Hedges cigarettes, and her apartment walls, originally white, were caramel colored. I kept several items that were not ruined, such as jewelry and kitchen items, but the clothing was dispersed, as was the furniture, except the family antiques. I kept a Stickley oak lingerie chest on a cold upstate New York porch for years before I put it in my house. She had a nice Hoover on which I tried remedies like lemon scented bags, but sent it to good will as every time I used it the stench was unbelievable. Anything with a hard surface was salvageable. I don’t LIKE cigarette smoke, but there is one floral scent that will trigger an asthma attack for me, as in going to a crowded meeting and having to leave, wheezing, looking for my inhalers.q ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/126 "2014-04-21T10:39:03Z")
> [@butterfiles](#): > > But some cigarettes smell like burnt ass. Others smell bad, but not as bad as burnt ass. Ahh, a clove smoker . . . ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/127 "2014-04-21T11:36:12Z")
I’ve been trying to remember and, apparently, I’m at a loss. I just can’t recall the last time I drove a truck or car round and round in my living room. Yes, that is a dig at certain moronic comments posted in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/128 "2014-04-21T14:09:36Z")
I have two smokers in the house. No one is allowed to smoke in the house but they can smoke in the garage. It reeks so bad, I doubt we will get our deposit back when we move. I swear, I want to vomit when I pass through the area. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/129 "2014-04-21T14:12:21Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Yes, that is a dig at certain moronic comments posted in this thread. If that’s what we’re doing, I seem to recall _some_one making a silly blanket statement above about how all smokers smoke in their houses, even when they claim not to…who was that, again? 😉 (Smoker for 25 years. Do not smoke in the house. Period, full stop, end of statement. Not figurative, not “only in the garage,” no exceptions. Outside, always.) ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/130 "2014-04-21T14:12:31Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I’ve been trying to remember and, apparently, I’m at a loss. I just can’t recall the last time I drove a truck or car round and round in my living room. > > Yes, that is a dig at certain moronic comments posted in this thread. If this is directed at me, I can’t think of a more moronic way to interpret what I posted. Because people who don’t smoke in their house aren’t smoking cigarettes in their living room, either. So the truck and the cigarettes are doing the same amount of damage to their living room, no? Well, there was **Cat Whisperer’s** interpretation. But that interpretation wasn’t even on the same planet as my statement, and was probably an attempt at escaping being called on their nonsense. But, you’re not even willing to make what you’re saying specific. So, even if it’s not directed at me, it’s a pretty spineless little jab. Enjoy weaseling. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/131 "2014-04-21T15:41:47Z")
> [@andros](#): > > If that’s what we’re doing, I seem to recall _some_one making a silly blanket statement above about how all smokers smoke in their houses, even when they claim not to…who was that, again? 😉 That certainly wasn’t me. I never in my life said _all_ smokers do that. I did say that all the smokers I knew in person do. > [@](#): > > (Smoker for 25 years. Do not smoke in the house. Period, full stop, end of statement. Not figurative, not “only in the garage,” no exceptions. Outside, always.) Good on you. And we’ve never met in person. Plus, as I said just above, I never in my life said all smokers do that. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/132 "2014-04-21T15:42:47Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > If this is directed at me, I can’t think of a more moronic way to interpret what I posted. Because people who don’t smoke in their house aren’t smoking cigarettes in their living room, either. So the truck and the cigarettes are doing the same amount of damage to their living room, no? > > Well, there was **Cat Whisperer’s** interpretation. But that interpretation wasn’t even on the same planet as my statement, and was probably an attempt at escaping being called on their nonsense. > > But, you’re not even willing to make what you’re saying specific. So, even if it’s not directed at me, it’s a pretty spineless little jab. Enjoy weaseling. Good grief, you’re dense little twerp. And rude to boot. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/133 "2014-04-21T15:45:07Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Good grief, you’re dense little twerp. And rude to boot. Maybe so. Even if true, I think my assessment of your post was pretty accurate, and this just reinforces my position. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ee7513/32.png) [@Darth\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Panda)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/134 "2014-04-21T16:04:10Z")
I used to eat more tofu before I quit smoking. No reason or connection, just coincidence. So, I guess things just work out if you let them. eta: I did have to throw out like 1/2 of my stuff and put in some effort to destink the rest, though. And that was even with making a pretty strong effort to only smoke indoors rarely for several years before I quit. ---
**Author:** ![Club\_33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@Club\_33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Club_33)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/135 "2014-04-21T16:49:22Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Good grief, you’re dense little twerp. And rude to boot. After referring to the “moronic posts” of others who disagree with you, you expect those same people to be polite in return? And yet, they are the ones who are dense. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/136 "2014-04-21T16:59:37Z")
My wife and I smoke and have never smoked in our house. I think I smoked in my apartment _once_ when I was single, sitting right next to an open window. It wasn’t the smell I was worried about; it was the risk of fire. Nowadays we own our house and it’s both. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/137 "2014-04-21T17:38:20Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > Let’s get the assertions right, here. > > Someone smokes like a fucking chimney for a week while reading a book, to the point that cigarette ash is left stuck on the pages of the book, and the covers are tarry and sticky, and those books are left in a small enclosed space with no air circulation overnight, piled in with other books. Someone smokes for one week and the pages become tarred and sticky? After a week. Uh huh. And after this week of smoking, all things it comes near are damaged goods. Yeah, your posts aren’t total bullshit at all. Sure, I smoked once in 2003. The cigarette smell is still in my hair to this day, and in my neighbor’s hair. I kissed a smoker once and my mouth still tastes like ashes, as do the mouths of every guy I’ve kissed since. True story. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/138 "2014-04-21T17:54:11Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > That certainly wasn’t me. I never in my life said _all_ smokers do that. I did say that all the smokers I knew in person do. > > Good on you. And we’ve never met in person. Plus, as I said just above, I never in my life said all smokers do that. Oh, I know, and I’m just twitting you a little. Just sayin’, in all respect, your dataset of smokers vis a vis indoor smoking is insufficient from which to draw conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![prettydorky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@prettydorky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/prettydorky)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/139 "2014-04-21T18:07:03Z")
I quit smoking in November- I can smell some smoke smells but not all. Our house belonged to my husband’s chain smoking mother and grandmother before that. When we moved in, the place had been mostly empty and largely unchanged. Nobody has smoked in this house in around 6-7 years. No smells that I can notice (not sure if I would, though). I have found more than one item with the sticky coating. For example, near the table where everyone always sat, the buttons on the 70s TV set are gummy. All of the items in the bookshelf in that area too. She collected buddha figurines of all sorts of materials. Things are probably exacerbated by the dust layer that covered everything. But there was a film on them for sure. It’s incredibly difficult to remove. It’s resistant to most cleaning agents. The couch was yellowed too. By comparison, my mother smoked packs a day for 50 years until her emphysema forced her to quit. That was about 4 years ago, and the place is lived in so items get cleaned more frequently. Since dust and dirt are bad for her breathing, we do the occasional deep clean. You definitely cannot smell smoke in her house anymore. The closet smelled for the longest time. Eventually I guess everything got washed or tossed. We have found some things with the coating- always sort of forgotten knicknacks shelved away somewhere- I really think there’s something to the added element of dust, come to think of it. Maybe it sticks to the “residue”? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2014, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471/140 "2014-04-21T18:19:19Z")
I might be the only one who interpreted the OP as “ironic”, that is, HE is the smoker who is selling stuff on ebay, and getting complaints back from the buyers that his stuff is “ruined”. He hasn’t posted again, as far as I can tell. And, I buy plastic model kits on ebay, and I can tell which ones come from smokers homes as soon as they enter the house. It’s not imagination. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attention-smokers-everything-in-your-house-is-ruined/686471.md?page=8)