Second hand sofa and newborn

[BernardBlacksHangover]

Aibu or am I being a bit overly cautious?

Our (lovely) second hand sofas have just arrived and they have a mild but easily identifiable cigarette smell.

DH said the previous owner was smoking outside when he went to collect them today, but he didn’t notice a smoky smell in the house. When he went to look at them the first time, he didn’t notice anyone smoking or anything, or we may have asked if anyone smoked in the house before we bought them.

We have a newborn baby (4 weeks) and a 3yo. Do I need to do some sort of deep clean before I plonk myself on the sofa to watch a movie with the toddler and feed the baby? Might be being overly cautious, obviously, but thought I’d ask the wise ones of MN.

What's the sofa made of?

Yes I’d want them to have a clean, not only becuase of the baby but I wouldn’t want to be sitting on the sofa smelling cigarette smoke

Although how you’d go about cleaning it, I’m not sure......

Febreeze daily, it’ll go! Baby will be fine.

I have no idea what it’s made of or how to clean it... Maybe if I just don’t use them for a few days, (can decamp to my bedroom) and Febreeze a lot? It isn’t offensively bad, but I can definitely notice it.

Can you borrow or rent a steam cleaner?

Oops name change fail^^.

If you can manage a decent length of time I'd chuck a load of bicarbonate at it (Wilkos sell boxes of the stuff for about a quid) and vac then steam.

If it's only a whiff you're getting I don't reckon it's been used regularly by the smoker (probably in the vicinity by a door or something) otherwise it would reek.

That’s sort of what I thought^^. If it was regularly smoked on then surely it would really stink. Dh says the house didn’t smell at all, but the owner (or her partner) was chain smoking outside.

Argh name change fail again! Will ask MNHQ to fix.

Thank you MNHQ!

What harm can a smell do? I think you're being a bit over cautious.

It’s not the smell @bluelady, it’s the whole “third hand smoke” thing, which is a SIDS risk I think.

It's not third hand smoke. It's a smell!

What do you think is causing the smell if not the chemicals from old smoke?

Personally I think you're all utterly bonkers. But then I am of a somewhat more robust generation.

www.nhs.uk/news/pregnancy-and-child/third-hand-smoke-danger/

Nope Bluelady, you're from a generation with a much higher rate of lung cancer than younger generations. Lung cancer is falling and expected to continue to do so because people are waking up to the dangers of inhaling cigarette smoke, directly or indirectly.

OP I would steam clean it. You may find that the smell gets worse the longer the sofa sits in your living room.

Are you seriously suggesting people get lung cancer from smelly sofas? Really? If you want a pristine sofa, buy a new one.

No the OP is worried about putting her newborn on a sofa that smells of smoke given that cigarette smoke is one of the risk factors for SIDS (cot death in old money). Get it now?

I certainly wouldn't be slathering it with Fabreze chemicals. You'd be better off with stale smoke. xxx

Yes, it’s the SIDS, (aka cot death), risk which I’m concerned about.

It’s annoying as the ad specifically said “from pet free, smoke free home” and that they had been professionally cleaned. I believe they have been cleaned, as they look very clean. Maybe she just meant nobody smoked in the actual house, but did outside.

We’ve decamped to my bedroom for now and have left the offending sofas in the living room with a window wide open to try and air them a bit. I’ll have to think of the best way to clean them. A few people here have said steam and bicarb, so will have to procure some of each.

I don’t know how long the chemicals are meant to linger on fabrics after someone has smoked near them.

Spread a load of bicarb over them, mix some Zoflora with water and squirt. Leave overnight. Then hoover the next day

Or do the same only with talc

Cleaning the smoke out of the covers isn't actually that difficult. Getting it out of the foam / cushion filling is another matter. Our neighbours had this problem and it did go after a bit of cleaning and a few weeks airing but hers was a leather sofa so I don't know if that made a difference.

I could live with the smell tbh. I’m more concerned about the lingering nasties. Google isn’t helping me figure out how to get rid of those.

Thanks all for comments.

Just mentioning in case anyone reading this has a similar problem; I phoned Lullaby Trust’s safe sleep advice line and they said to have it cleaned professionally and just put some throws over it in the meantime.