Here’s the scoop on her problem:

Hi Liz!  We just got some really nice wood furniture. But it came from a house where someone smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day for many years. The actual wood has a residual smell of smoke on all of it. Do you know what product we could use to try to mask/get rid of this smell? If there’s nothing we can do, we’ll just live with it, and keep our windows open as much as possible until the smell subsides…but I thought you might have an idea?  If you have no idea, no worries – just thought I’d check with you since you’re my go-to blogger for all things home improvement and design related!

Since flattery works every time (I’m blushing!), I wasted no time digging into this dilemma.  Smoke-smelling furniture is a problem that we’ll all likely encounter at some point, given that cigarettes were once practically a way of life.  Since that practice has now gone by the wayside, I did a little research and found these tips to help you combat that pesky smell:

1.  Soak it up. Before you start scrubbing away at your pretty wood furniture, you may want to try a few of these simple methods that may  eliminate the smell by absorbing the odor, without running the risk of harming the wood:

-  Sprinkle baking soda on the furniture. Be sure to do a test patch in an inconspicuous spot before sprinkling baking soda all over the furniture – if nothing happens, then you’re in the clear and can sprinkle it all over the furniture.  After a few hours, vacuum up the baking soda.  Repeat as necessary.

- Place fresh coffee grounds into coffee filters and tie them closed. Place these little pouches of coffee on the furniture and spread them out to cover more area. Leave them there for several hours.

- Dab a cloth in vinegar and set it on or near the furniture. Leave it there for a couple hours.

- Cut up an onion and place the pieces on a piece of plastic wrap on the furniture. Allow the onion a few hours to do its work and discard it.

- Place bowls of crushed charcoal around the furniture and leave it overnight.

2.  Scrub a dub. The reason that cigarette smoke is such a difficult smell to get rid of is because the nicotine from cigarettes actually soaks into (unfinished) wood, and also leaves a nasty residue on the surface of wood furniture regardless of whether it has been sealed.  Even though it will pain you to do so, the word on the street is that you’ll likely have to scrub the wood with a wet solution to remove the layer of nicotine from the wood.  When you scrub the wood, you’ll want to use a stiff plastic brush and a cleaning solution.  Be sure to use a brush with flexible bristles – you don’t want to scratch all of that gorgeous wood!  And to protect your wood from warping or staining as much as possible, be sure to dry the wood thoroughly with a cloth (do not leave any water pooling on the wo0d), and leave the piece to dry for a day or two indoors – don’t leave the wood in the sun, as it could cause the wood to warp like crazy.

3.  Clean it up.  There are a lot of different opinions on the best cleaning solution to use on the wood – here are a few of the top contenders:

- Murphy’s Oil Soap

- 1/4 cup of Witch Hazel and several squirts of Dawn dish soap.

- Lysol Basin and Tub Cleaner

- 50% white vinegar, 50% water

- Lemon or orange oil cleaners

It is likely that the wood will have to be cleaned several times before the smell is gone (or faded enough so that it’s no too noticeable), and in some cases it may never disappear.  Arm yourself with air fresheners like Arm & Hammer Deodorizing Air Freshener to help eliminate any lingering odors.  Some people even go so far as to polyurethane the wood if the smell is not completely eliminated.  The theory is that the polyurethane seals the odor into the wood so that you can no longer smell it.  This seems like an absolute last resort, and I would recommend speaking to a furniture store before taking this step.

Have you guys encountered this problem before?  How did you deal with it?  Have you tried any of the tips above and, if so, how did they work?  Fill us in!!

This post is shared with Hooked on Houses.

Sources for this post include the following: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

In our house, we make sure to use CFLs in every light fixture, we’ve reused old carpet and salvaged materials from the renovation – we even made it easier to recycle by having a special trash pull-out installed in our kitchen during the remodel so that we could separate our trash from our recyclables in a snap:

(I know, totally not necessary, but one of those things that’s really fun to include when you’re designing a kitchen!!)

Even though it’s easy to recycle, it’s sometimes pretty darn confusing to figure out what’s recyclable and what’s not.  Real Simple has a handy-dandy article that can walk you through how to recycle (or reuse) anything.

Here’s the skinny for my peeps that don’t feel like clicking on the link:

Got any recycling tips of your own?

All images courtesy of Real Simple.  Click here for your own printable version of Real Simple’s A-Z recycling guide.

The proceeds from the ReStores are used to fund the construction of new Habitat for Humanity homes within the community.  Habitat estimates that at least 10 or more houses are built each year from the proceeds raised at the ReStores.  How great is that??

There are ReStores located all over the US and Canada – just click here to find one near you in the US, and here for ReStores in Canada.  Here are examples of just a few of the awesome finds at the Dallas-area ReStore:

These great building supplies are donated to the ReStores by all kinds of building supply stores, contractors, demolition crews and individuals just like you and me – so these ReStores are not just a great opportunity for you to find affordable building materials, but you can also help Habitat’s cause by contacting them to donate your used appliances and other building materials that are still in great shape.

The Dallas-area ReStore accepts “overstocked items, seconds, used, discontinued and salvageable building materials, home improvement items, and major appliances donated by builders, contractors, manufacturers and individuals.  Donated materials are used whenever possible in the construction of Dallas Area Habitat homes.  The remainder are sold at discounted prices with profits used to fund construction efforts for Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity.”  In some cases, Habitat will even pick up your donated items.

So instead of selling that old fridge on Craigslist or putting it out for bulk trash pickup, wouldn’t it feel great to donate it to an awesome organization like Habitat?  Click here for more info and guidelines on donating to the Dallas-area ReStore.

What awesome steals have you found at discount outlets like the ReStores?  Do you have a favorite charity that you like to donate to?  I’d love to hear about it!!

Images courtesy of Habitat for Humanity. And thanks to Jen for bringing the ReStores to my attention!

While it probably isn’t feasible for most of us to convert our homes into ultra-green abodes, there are a few simple changes that each of us can make in our homes or our daily routine to help out ol’ Mother Earth.  You might be surprised that these green tips can actually lead to a little more green in your bank account! 

1.  Make CFLs your friend.  ENERGY STAR says that compact fluorescent lights, or “CFLs,” use only 1/4 of the electricity used by ordinary incandescent bulbs – that means that even if CFLs cost a little more than incandescent bulbs, the amount of money that you’ll save on your electricity bill will totally make up for the higher up-front costs (about $30 over the life of the bulb, according to ENERGY STAR).  And you’ll be ecstatic once you realize that your CFLs last 10 times longer than your old incandescent bulbs, saving you trips to the store AND extra cash.  The hubby and I switched out all of the regular incandescent light bulbs in our home for CFLs – it’s a simple switch to make, and what a difference!

CFLs have really come a long way in the past few years.  Modern CFLs have left the twirly CFLs of yesteryear in the dust!  While those spot-em-a-mile-away twirly bulbs are still around, they’ve been joined by a bunch of new and much more attractive friends:

CFLs also give you a choice of the quality of light you want – do you want daylight (like for applying makeup), soft white (for most living areas), or bright white (for areas that you really need lit up)?  For a little more info on CFLs, check out the ENERGY STAR website and its neat little interactive tool you can use to figure out what CFLs are best for your home – click here to check it out!!  And find out how to safely dispose of CFLs here.

2.  Go low with the flow. Every time most of us take a shower or brush our teeth gallons and gallons of unused water goes down the drain.  Low Impact Living says that low-flow attachments for your sink and shower can save up to 3,000 gallons of per person each year – that’s a serious amount of water!!  These attachments are pretty cheap ($30 and up), and can make a big difference in your water consumption as well as your water bill.

3.  Program it, stat! Programmable thermostats are one of the greatest inventions ever – how awesome is it that you can tell your programmable thermostat that you want your house to be 70 degrees at 3 pm on Tuesday, and your programmable thermostat will make it happen!?!  You can find low-cost programmable thermostats (I’m talking $40 or less) at any Lowe’s or Home Depot that you can install in a jiff.  And once you’ve got that baby in place, use it!!  Make sure that you turn the heat or A/C down when you’re at work or out of town – your utility bills will thank you!

4.  Put a sweater on it. Ah water heaters, apparently one of my favorite subjects.  You already know to turn your water heater down to 120 degrees – that way you can prevent scalding and save the money you would have been spending to heat all that water to a bazillion degrees.  But Low Impact Living has a few other nifty (and cheap!) ideas to increase the efficiency of your water heater – put aninsulation sweater on your water heater and insulate the pipes coming out of your water heater.  The added insulation will decrease the amount of energy that your water heater has to expend to keep your water hot.

5.  Recycle. It can be confusing to figure out what can and can’t be recycled, and how to take advantage of recycling programs in your city.  Earth911.com will tell you everything you need to know about recycling and how to recycle in your neck of the woods.  Since my husband and I added an extra trash can to our kitchen specifically for recycling, we’ve been amazed at how little actual “trash” we have – almost everything that we used to just throw away is recyclable!

6.  Give plastic water bottles the boot. Yes, they’re convenient, but those little “disposable” plastic containers are a big no-no these days.  Take a trip to your local grocery store or click here to pick up a few reusable, sturdy plastic bottles that you can use and then pop in the dishwasher to reuse.  And with all the water filters available these days, the water in your reusable bottle will taste just as good as store bought (and it will be a lot cheaper).

That doesn’t sound so hard, does it?  Visit Low Impact Living for more ideas on how you can save a little green while you’re saving the planet.  Got any green ideas of your own?  Let us know!!

Images courtesy of ENERGY STAR and Think Outside the Bottle.

Okay, so you’ve torn up all of your old carpets and put in beautiful new hardwood floors – now what do you do with all of that old carpet?  Don’t throw it out!!!!!  While carpet is cheaper than some other flooring options like hardwood floors it can still be pretty costly to purchase, so leftover carpet that is in decent shape can actually come in pretty handy.

Here are two great uses for your leftover carpet:

1.  Bind it up.  If you’ve ever looked into buying a rug, particularly a big one like an 8 x 10, then you know that they can be really (and I mean really) expensive.  So why not save yourself a little cash and have your leftover carpet bound into a few ridiculously cheap area rugs?  You can have pieces of rug bound for about $1 per linear foot – that’s less than $40 for an 8 x 10 rug, compared to almost $200 for a similar rug from Home Depot.  If you’re in the mood for a DIY project, this company even sells a product that helps you bind your own carpet.

We had tons of leftover carpet from our house after we put in hardwood floors, and the carpet was in perfect condition (seriously, the seller must have recarpeted the entire house about 5 seconds before she moved out!!).  Now, instead of being wasted, some of that leftover carpet from our house is living the good life as an area rug in my brother’s living room.  Pretty cool, right??

If you don’t have leftover carpet of your own to bind into an area rug, you can easily find carpet remnants at any store that sells carpet – at a great discount.  This is a great way to get a new area rug on the cheap.

2.  Fork it over.  Even if you don’t have a use for your leftover carpet, someone else probably does!!    Why not save a friend some money and help them give a room in their house an instant makeover?  In just a few hours, their old, dingy carpet can be removed and replaced with your awesome leftover carpet.    Everybody wins!!  And if you don’t know anyone that wants the carpet, you will have no problem selling it on Craigslist to someone who does.

TIP:  When the carpet is being removed from your home, remove it in pieces that are as big as possible – preferably avoiding making any cuts in the carpet.  That way, you will have nice big pieces of carpet to either reinstall or have bound into a rug.

With one water heater and almost 2,700 square feet spread out over only one level, you can imagine that anyone waiting for a toasty hot shower in our house had a pretty long, cold wait.  Until now.
 

Enter the recirculating pump.  What is a recirculating pump, you might ask?  Well, it’s a cool little device that a plumber or an ambitious DIYer can connect to your water heater to provide hot water to all of your fixtures, practically instantaneously.  Check out an example of a recirculating pump right here.  While we briefly thought about installing a tankless water heater instead, we quickly realized that recirculation pumps are about 1/3 the cost of tankless water heaters – decision made!
 

Not only does a recirculating pump keep you from freezing while you wait for a hot shower, but it can also save you buckets of money in utility bills – if you do it right, as we learned the hard way.  At our house, we installed a second hot water heater AND a recirculating pump, guaranteeing that we’d never again take a cold shower.  However, we were shocked when we got our first, gasp-inducing gas and electric bills – how could this be??  Once we actually thought about it, the high bills made a lot of sense – the gas bill was high because the hot water heaters were constantly heating water, and the electric bill was big due to the recirculation of water throughout the house.  But now that we had the culprit behind the high bills figured out, how could we fix it?  Well, the hubs had the brilliant idea of installing a timer on the recirculating pump, limiting the time that the recirculation pump was operating to those times that we would actually be showering (with different settings for weekdays v. weekend).  Pretty cool, right??  Now we have hot water when we need it AND cheapo gas and electric bills!

Got any great tips for keeping your bills down?  Stay tuned for more water heater fun…