If you are a constant traveler and most of your time passes while driving, then chances are, you may get company or fellow travelers in your car like a colleague or an acquaintance who is a smoker, and the worst case scenario to land into is to have cigarette or cigar’s smell prevailing in your car as it is one of the most annoying and difficult to remove smells collectively. Things even get out of hand and worsen further if you are not a smoker yourself, have just quitted smoking or actually have an allergy against it.

The smell of tobacco is quite persistent and once it hangs around in the seating, upholstery, carpet, heating or the cooling system or air ducts it gets very infuriating as most of your general tries to get rid of it, fails badly. So most of us give up our fruitless tries and end up masking it instead with other fragrant alternatives which may seem or feel good for a while but doesn’t help much. Rather after mixing with the smells of the smoke, it reacts and the situation couldn’t get any shoddier for the riders who have more mileage to cover in that vehicle. The smell can take the reign in its hands and clings to seats, different surfaces and types of interior of a car.

One of the best methods of getting your car completely smells free is to get it completely cleaned, aired and refreshed with the help of some professional cleaners. But if you want to do it at your own, and that too in your own premises, then following are a few tips, technologies, tools, steps and hacks for your ease:

Basic Tools Required

If you are adamant of getting your car scent free, then following are the very few and basic tools, that you need to have to effectively get your car scents free. You might actually need to use them in a combination.

  • Vacuum Cleaner
  • Chemical Cleaner
  • Steam Cleaner
  • Window Cleaner
  • Natural Cleaner
  • Absorbents
  • Cleaning Clothes

Steps to Follow

First thing first, you need to thoroughly clean the car from edge to edge. Get rid of the residue of smoke and cigarettes. Vacuum all the interiors including body, upholstery, seats and carpet. You also must take out the ash trays and wash them properly. Let them stay out in the sun for at least a few hours. After cleaning your entire car and washing the necessary and washable parts you need to steam clean the denser parts of the interiors and duct so the smell couldn’t prevail again from there. Windows and screens need to be cleaned and aired too. For this, you must make sure that you are cleaning the car in an open and properly airy and ventilated space because your car needs to breathe too.

After the proper cleaning of your car, if the smell persists then you have three further options of natural cleaners, absorbents (chemical cleaners) or home remedies. Below are mentioned, the further assorted categories of these three options which can act as magic for you.

  • You can clean the car using the natural cleaners and home remedies like charcoal, vinegar, coffee beans, newspaper and the most famous and widely used baking soda. Leave a small measured amount in your car for a few hours with windows closed and that will cleanse your car effectively. Coffee grounds and baking soda are widely accepted remedies to get rid of most unwanted odors.
  • After cleaning the car you can leave inside your seats or deeper parts the fabric dryer sheets or cinnamon sticks which are both equally good for a perfect fragrance in the car. If cinnamon smell is too dark for you then boil it in the water cup and place that in the car with heating on. This way your car will give a light aroma of cinnamon that is neither annoying nor letting the bad smells to come back again.
  • Other then the vinegar you can also clean the body or the glass of the car with the citrus peels’ water along with the newspaper instead of rags as that will completely wipe off your car from all the unwanted smells and replace them with a light and pleasant whiff of freshness in the atmosphere of the car.
  • If you are the one who believes in the advanced chemical products more than the natural and home remedial products then the most suggestible and useful products to help you kill all kinds of unwanted odors and smells are:
    • Refreshers
    • Odor Eliminator Bomb
    • Wax Power Out
    • Pet Odor Eliminator
    • Whole Car Blast
    • And Mostly Used Ozone Treatment

All of these are perfectly effective and you can use the most easily available option in your area.

Tips for Safety / Precaution

  1. Don’t forget to run, clean and refresh your air duct and cooling or heating system
  2. Often chemicals damage the plastic or other areas of your interior which is why you must always test them in a small spot first
  3. Your carpet and upholstery can also get torn or ragged by the use of chemical cleaners, so be careful
  4. For cleaning the soft surfaces, you can use fabric dryer sheets or other such lightly fragrant emitting wipes
  5. Once you have gotten rid of all the residue and smell of tobacco and smoke, try keeping fresh flowers in your car for natural fragrances and air fresher
  6. Ozone treatment can be harmful for your interiors so don’t forget to give intervals in between for airing out
  7. When you are about to clean the ventilation and re-circulating the air, use air freshener before that and you will witness very useful effects

To reduce your effort, and for better results you can hire a professional service as they will know exactly what to do and what will be more fruitful which will also save your time and energy.