Why can I smell ashtrays?

[Helenahandkart]

My living room smells like ashtrays/cigarettes. Specifically my end of the sofa. None of my family smoke. We live in a semi detached house and the wall with the sofa on it adjoins next door, but they don’t smoke either. We haven’t had any visitors for several weeks, and anyway they haven’t smoked in the house.

When I say the sofa smells, it isn’t the sofa itself. The cushions don’t smell but when I sit there I can smell ashtrays. I’ve taken the sofa apart, cleaned under it, gone round the room madly sniffing everything. WHERE IS IT COMING FROM?!

I was starting to think I was having a stroke or something, but I can only smell it in that one area. No one else can smell it. If I go outside it doesn’t smell so it’s not coming into the house from outside.

It’s not my clothes, or hair, or the cats, or air fresheners, or candles . Please help. It’s driving me mad.

Err, if you read the OP you’ll see I made no mention of Covid!

So I’m pretty sure it isn’t covid, mainly because it only happens in one place in the house. I think if it was covid, or a sinus infection, or other illness, the smell would be everywhere.

It’s my seat, no one else sits there, so it’s not anyone else’s smell. And anyway, the sofa itself doesn’t smell when I stick my nose against it.

I thought it might be electrical but there are no plug sockets or electricals near the area.

We do have an open fire at the other end of the room which hasn’t been used since Christmas, but the smell is only where I sit, not near the fire. I guess it could be the fire though.

I had this for about 2 months after having Covid. It was very odd.

Surely if it was covid or other respiratory illness related, OP would be able to smell it elsewhere too, rather than just one end of the sofa?

I couldn’t smell ashtrays when I had covid recently but quite a few things I ate tasted like that 🤢

@Helenahandkart could it be someone smoking outside regularly - like in a car parked nearby, and the smell is coming through a vent?

Glad it’s not just me!

Probably Covid related.

The only other suggestion I have is, do you have a vase of flowers nearby? Could be the water needs changing.

@Helenahandkart @SerenaTee what perfume or deodorant or mouthwash are you both using? If you have a new one maybe it's the smell of one of those when they start to fade and you only notice it when you sit down and stop moving around?

I thought it might be someone smoking outside and have been out to check but there’s no sign of a smokey smell outside at all. We live in a rural area, empty roads, big gardens, so there’s no obvious nearby source of smoke.

Sadly not pregnant, despite 15 years of trying, but that’s another thread!

Nothing under the floorboards (we don’t have floorboards)

No change to toiletries recently. No pot plants or dirty vases.

Have you had any deliveries recently which have been delivered in plastic packaging?

That stuff stinks of cigarettes 🤢

Like clothes delivery bags

@SalviaOfficinalis i too find coffee grounds and nicotine smell similar.

I had Covid a couple of years ago and lost my sense of smell and taste completely. Haven’t had anything remotely like covid in the last few months though.

Is it a new sofa? We got given my dads leather sofa which was quite new he was a non smoker I thought it smelt like ashtrays I asked my friend to sniff it and she said that's leather! The smells gone now

No. The sofa’s a few years old. And we don’t drink coffee. And I haven’t got any plastic packaging in the room.
I think I must be imagining the whole thing!

Is it a new house? I have one bedroom in my house that despite being completely redecorated since I've been here (and I've been here 15 years), sometimes smells of cat. Old owners had a cat.
No idea why it's just that room and not the whole house.

Is the cat haunting you maybe?

No signs of a ghost cat apart from the smell 😁

Trainers that have been wet and not dried properly can smell of cat.

Black bin liners smell like ashtrays. Even Waitrose ones.

Could someone have trod a cigarette end into the house and it’s gone under the sofa?

When I had covid all I could smell was cigarette smoke it was horrible no one smokes in my family and nether do any of my neighbours

We had this when we moved into our house. Only in certain rooms, upstairs hallway and office which is no where near the stairs hallway. And it was fleeting.
The house had been empty for a couple of years and is detached (not that I expect to smell cigarettes through the wall, but more wafting in from an neighbouring garden, but that was possible either). Eventually it just stopped happening. Never got to the bottom of it.

*Wasn’t possible either.

For me it's a migraine symptom. It can also be how your brain processes electrical things. Sometimes the smell is so strong it burns the inside of my nose!