My parents smoked in the house while we were growing up. Heck they smoked in the car with the windows up, smoke so thick it had to impede visibility.
Sometime around my high school years they stopped smoking indoors. My dad quit shortly before he died and my mom quit when her dementia progressed to the point she believed my sister when Sis told her she’d already quit. It was dangerous at that point anyway.
Now I don’t know that many serious smokers and none smoke inside. I’ve cut down to maybe a third and my resolution is to cut it out completely. I hope the patch helps.
It seems odd that one of my neighbors has started smoking cigars recently. Phew-ee! I keep a fan to blow my smoke well away from the apartment. Maybe I’ll give it to him when I don’t need it anymore.
When I smoked, I always smoked in the house. Even when moving and looking for a new place, I have turned down good rental units because I couldn’t smoke. Didn’t matter if it was a great location, cheap and what not. No smoking? No deal buddy.
I never really noticed the smell. I do notice the stained walls when moving pictures or furniture. The outlines are usually pretty clearly marked. Then I quit smoking. Man, did my place stink! Lots of scrubbing and it’s not so bad now.
I know lots of smokers, but almost none who smoke inside. A married couple I know smoke a lot of weed indoors but are adamant about not smoking cigarettes indoors. Every smoker must go out on the balcony. Unless it’s too cold outside, which is about 3 months out of the year. Then smoking indoors is okay. Sort of hypocritical, but WTF, it’s not my condo.
As a teen growing up at mom’s house, I always smoked on the front porch. Mom would half-heartedly offer to allow me to smoke indoors if it was bad weather out, but I never would. At teh most, I would smoke in the garage with the doors open. The only person allowed to smoke in the house was Uncle Gordon. Mom would always make sure he had ashtrays nearby and it was just for him. After he and his wife left, mom immediately took down all the curtains and started washing windows. Confusing.
I have never had a place that I lived in that I’ve smoked inside in. I have always gone somewhere else. I have smoked inside other people’s residences though, with their permission, of course, although those have gotten rarer and rarer over the years, and I don’t think there have been any who have let me in the past five years or so. If I recall correctly (which I perhaps should not be doing, as I quit two weeks ago, but whatever), the last time I smoked indoors was in a Las Vegas casino in August 2008. I remember thinking that it was weird to be smoking with air conditioning.
I was flipping through the channels this afternoon and there’s a new channel that shows vintage tv shows. They were having a George Burns/Gracie Allen marathon and that guy was always smoking a cigar. Inside. No one seems to notice.
Was that common back in the day? I always considered cigars to be much more offensive than cigarettes. The only regular cigar smoker I ever knew was my grandfather and he always smoked 'em outdoors or in the garage/workshop.
I know darn few people who smoke at all. It might be 5% of my friends/acquantances; it sure isn’t 10%.
Of those few who do, most seem to have a designated smoking room to be used when the weather outside is just too awful. But they generally smoke outside if practical.
My mother. I spent Christmas Eve with her and couldn’t wait to get out of the smoke. She has accelerated her smoking to almost non-stop lately. She has terminal cancer so who am I to say “Stop, it’s killing you.” (And saying “Stop, it’s killing me.” has no effect.)
I also know a couple of others who smoke in their homes. I don’t visit their homes.
We’re noticing that with older tv shows and movies, too - everybody smoking everywhere. The shows/movies aren’t terribly old, either - some are movies or shows that we remember from only 20 or so years ago.
Is it an American thing, maybe, not smoking in the house? Because 100% of people I know who smoke (and that makes up about…90% of the people I know) smoke indoors. If they’re in a stranger’s house, they will ask first, to be fair. About 50% of them will ask first if they have guests in their houses, too.
I’m not talking about older folk, either - these people range from 19-55.
I live in the UK, for what it’s worth, and most of my friends are from Europe.
Everyone I know who smokes does so in their house. I have several home health patients who not only smoke inside but do so while wearing oxygen. I have had patients light up while I am swapping out their catheters, doing wound care, flushing central lines, you name it. I frequently have to apologize to my next patient because I smell like smoke.
When I did smoke more regularly, I would smoke in our stairwell (between the main door and the door to our unit) with the window open.
My boyfriend and I smoked inside for a brief period of time (one winter), but we’ve cut back to the point where we don’t smoke unless we’re out drinking.
It’s definitely a California thing. But then, we have really good weather, and not that many people smoke-- about 13%. Only Utah has a smaller percentage.
I know of 3 friends who smoke as a whole, but one of them smoke inside his house, because his roommate smoke inside the house as well.
Every time our friend group would go to his place, we would always smoke inside the house. Also the mate is chinese and the roomate are also chinese as well
All the smokers I know smoke outside their houses, but I can still smell the cigarette scent when I’m there. It must be some kind of leftover residue from their own bodies and clothing or something, but there’s a sort of perfume-y smell for me in all smokers’ houses, wherever they smoke.
In Britain I’ve never heard of smoking outside ( except for an edge-case when someone is trying to give up smoking, so we go away to avoid embarrassing them ).
I’ve seen people drinking inside, and reading inside, and dancing inside. It’s an all-year-round Saturnalia…
I remember this thread - I was reminded of “cigarette house” just the other day, when I was visiting a FoaF. His house had that deep-seated reek you only get from chain-smoking indoors.
I’m in Ireland, and I don’t know any smokers who smoke inside. Back when we were in our twenties, everyone did - it would have been weird to go outside - but ten years on, almost everyone has either quit or cut way down or only smokes socially, and it’s always outside. Even the one remaining ten-a-day smoker takes them outside her own back door.
(ETA: I don’t know whether this is because the actual social custom has changed, or whether it’s just because we’re all older, we’re not living in dive flats any more, and some of us have kids, so we don’t want cigarette smoke around the kids and the nice homes. Maybe twenty-somethings still smoke inside like we did.)
Probably more than 20 possibly as many as 50. And except for a few of the older ones I would say many/most of their houses aren’t all that offensive even to my wife who is super-sensative to it. Older folks and people who are chronically ill aren’t opening the windows or washing the walls/drapes all that much and soon get that smokey tavern smell going on.
