Lion in Winter

Well done.

As my former smoker OH says, tobacco is a rubbish drug - it doesn't do anything except temporarily remove the desire to have another cigarette.

KK85

I used to live close to a train station, and would walk under a railway bridge every day on my way home from work. I had no idea just how heinous the smell of pigeon sh*t was under that bridge until I quit smoking! Truly, I had never sensed the stench until a week or so after the cigarettes stopped.

To this day, I am often taken aback by my newfound sensitivity to smells. I can smell stale cigarette smoke on freshly washed laundry - it's probably no surprise that cigarette smoke is the first and (for some) worst thing we pick up on (though I enjoyed the smell of my friends' cigarettes initially when I quit). Even the smell of coffee is sometimes obnoxious to me now. There are pluses to this heightened sense, of course.

I hope all is continuing to go well for you, OP.

civilservant

Thanks KK.

What is it now? Day 10 I think? It's going well, honestly I don't think about it all that much, except that I can smell it on other people now. Lord I stank before - I don't want to become one of those 'holier than thou' former smokers who talk down to current smokers, but having quit I can really see what people are saying about smokers stinking.

I'm glad I made the break, and while it's been a challenge at time, I really intend it to be for good.

Rete

You are doing wonderfully, CS. Congratulations on nearly two weeks smoke free.

Was traveling via car with my sister and brother-in-law to a Mississippi River town of Natchez to tour the plantation homes there. Of course, he is a reformed smoker, stopped immediately the day his lung collapsed, over 40 years ago, we don't smoke in the car. After having a 'before' trip cig, we got in the car and he said to me "you and your sister smell like ashtrays." I know its true.

Nutmegger

I recall there used to be an anti-smoking PSA (in the UK, I think), where a group of men are looking at a pretty girl and saying how they'd like to date her -- until one of them says, "She smokes -- it's like kissing an ashtray!" That really stuck in my memory, and when I fell for my non-smoking OH it encouraged me to quit. I agree completely about the newfound sensitivity to smells, which has never gone away -- this summer I found a gorgeous vintage tooled leather bag at a yard sale. Got it home and realized that it came from a smoking household. I have tried every trick known to man and the Internet to get the smoky odor out of it, to no avail. All have to do is walk into the storeroom where I've been treating it and I can smell it. I'm about to write it off as a lost cause and give it to a smoker friend.

Lion in Winter

Saddle soap?

Also, try leaving it out in the sun and wind if you have any.

KK85

I had a similar experience with a pair of second-hand curtains. I bought them online from a lady who claimed they came from a non-smoking home. They were collected for me by a friend I was living with at the time, and as soon as I unfolded them, I could smell it. They'd clearly been laundered - they had that quite sickening, aromatic blend of stale smoke and laundry detergent. Frankly I'd prefer the smell of stale smoke on its own! I put them through the washing machine myself and even hung them up for a day, but I couldn't get the stink out and, like you, could smell them even as soon as I walked into my house. I finally returned them to the lady I bought them from, who insisted she and her family had never smoked around them. After a fashion, and after I was branded a liar, she gave me my money back.

Never underestimate the nostrils of a person who's given up smoking - they are powerful little orifices!

I'm sorry you haven't been able to rescue your bag.

Nutmegger

What I have tried to date:

1. Sitting out in the sun.
2. Immersed in baking soda in a sealed bag.
3. Swabbed down with diluted alcohol.
4. Treated with Bick leather cleaner and Bick conditioner (if you have any older leather items that need a face lift, I swear by this stuff -- you get it on Amazon and it makes things look brand new).

The final step left the bag looking amazing, but still stinky. I admit defeat!

Thank you. It's a shame, as it's a lovely tooled western-style piece from the fifties.

zzrmark

Perfume/cologne bath time? Did the diluted alcohol strip the colouring out of it?

Nutmegger

No the color was unaffected -- sometimes it can darken leather, but it didn't in this instance. As to perfume -- that would just be a cover-up, rather than an exorcism, and I'm not big on perfumey stuff anyway, so I admit defeat!

Lion in Winter

I have read online that you can heat it gently in the oven - it opens the pores of the leather and lets the smell out, or something. You've nothing to lose at this point. Open the door a few times as you heat it to let the smell out.

caretaker

Maybe tie it up in a towel, put that in a pillow case, tie it shut, and put it in the clothes dryer for a couple of hot cycles. When I got a laptop back from a heavy smoker after a year my friend used that technique on the case to get the smell out.

Nutmegger

civilservant

My wife is now down to ultra-lights, and has stopped buying them a carton at a time. I honestly don't think she will be able to quit as easily as I have because she has been smoking for much much longer... but it seems that she has the will power to try, As for me, Day 11. Really the only reason I think about it now is because I post in this thread. The cravings are non-existent.

civilservant

Day 16.....