So my roommate is a habitual cigarette smoker. He doesn’t smoke indoors (thankfully) but he does smoke about every other night outdoors. I don’t think he realizes that when he’s done smoking the smell sort of… lingers on him and his clothes. Last night after he was done he was in the kitchen for a bit cooking. I came in this morning to make a sandwich and the smell was all over the kitchen and very pungent, it made me think some food was rotting. This kind of thing happens probably once a week, and while I’m kind of used to it by now I do want to have people over and have them actually be comfortable.

Apart from asking him to quit (I doubt it) is there any sort of concotion or thing I can make / spray / sanitize to get rid of the smell? Some days it’s nonexistent but other days it’s almost unbearable.

  • The only really effective thing is ozone, as has already been posted, though an ozone generator in the living quarters comes with its own gotchas such as ozone being corrosive and harmful to your respiratory system.

    Apart from that, we used to get the smell out of hair and clothes with a hairdryer set to hot. I’m not sure how you could apply that knowledge to an entire room, but there’s probably no harm in trying.

    Having said that, if your roommate carries such a strong smell, does he really smoke outside, or does he just sorta-kinda stand in the half-open doorway and call this outside?