My imagination?

Try Price's anti smoke odour t-lights, candles or diffuser (blue packet). Various supermarkets carry and John Lewis or online. They appear to work well.

I think it depends on how acute your sense of smell is, and on the kind of tobacco or cigarettes smoked whether you can smell cigarette smoke next day or not.

As well as airing the rooms, try pouring a cupful of ordinary household vinegar into some suitable bowl or glass and standing it in the room where you detect the smell. Vinegar tends to absorb unpleasant odours. You'll need to throw the vinegar out afterwards.

exaltedwombatpeople like myself who have asthma, or other chronic lung diseases, don't imagine they can smell smoke, they react to the presence of smoke around them.

It's not your imagination, and I just hate smokers for their inconsiderate behaviour in this respect. I have two carers coming into our smoke-free home three times a day, and those who come at weekend both smoke and seem to have a cigarette on their way here so when they walk into the house their clothes reek and it's worse when it's damp as the particles cling to the textile. They do both chew gum so they know their breath stinks but they basically don't care about the wafting stench coming from their clothes and when they've gone my mother's room stinks - they of course, open the window but it makes no difference other than cooling the room down which is totally unwanted as I need to keep a certain temperature for my mum who is not active. As for grinning and bearing it - I don't - I tell them every time. With your neighbour, however, you may not feel so confident, maybe you could introduce a diffuser into the room where you have coffee and point out to her that you have a new one - get around to the fact that you hate smells coming from the kitchen, and you may get her to realise she's offending you. Twice in the past when I've bought things from ebay, I've opened the package to find the contents stink of cigarette smoke and I've immediately complained. In my opinion, smokers should be made to understand how anti-social they are - and by that I include telling them how much they cost the NHS that non-smokers contribute towards.

You can certainly smell a smoker while she's in the room. After she's gone? Well, we all visit many rooms which smokers have also visited, and we don't feel permanently unwell. Could there be a psychological element here?

We've maybe become over-sensitive since the smoking ban. Yes, a room full of smokers was annoying. But one person smoking, across the room, didn't used to send us screaming for the exits. I've been in a theatre where an actor has smoked on stage and heard the self-conscious coughing start BEFORE the flame reached the cigarette!

Oldwoman, I don't think it your imagination. I think it depends how heavy a smoker the person it as to how strong the odour is. I do not allow anyone to smoke in our home. We do have a shelter and smoke bucket outside if they wish to smoke. I honestly don't see why we should have passive smoking inflicted on us. I also think, that like me you can probably smell it more because you are never in a smoking environment. I have an aroma diffuser that I put natural oils in, orange, lime, grapefruit etc, smells lovely.

I have a little china oil burner. Light a nightlight and put it in the bottom and fill the top bowl with hot water and lavender oil. I put it in the hall and it goes all over the house. Gets rid of cooking smells thoroughly especially in winter when it is too cold to leave windows open in the evening.
I have just realised that I don't know anyone who smokes now - all have dumped it some years ago.

In the days of smoking on the upper deck of busses, my OH sometimes caught the bus at the station which was only two stops from our house. He then had a short walk in the fresh air to reach home , but when he came in I could smell the tobacco odours and knew that he had travelled on the upper deck. His overcoat went out on the line to air.

I smoke myself but in deisgnated areas of my home and use burning oils and febreze on the sofa cushions etc to keep the air fresh and wash/spray my hands after a ciggy. I always ask my friends if they can smell smoke when they enter the house. They always say no, they can smell the oil burners. However, I have a customer who comes into my charity shop and she smells like an old ash tray to the point where I have to spray the shop when she has gone. I can't get excited about any of it, its all part of life's rich tapestry...there are worse things happening in the world!

It's not your imagination but I think that some people are more aware of it than others. I can always tell if someone is a smoker if, for example, I meet them in the sort of place no one ever smokes. Both my parents smoked heavily and I always hated it. When my daughter was small and we went to visit, they did not smoke around her but when she got home I could smell it on her (and me).

Incidentally I don't use any air fresheners as they make me wheeze too, so do take care what you spray around your living space if you're sensitive to smells.

I am an asthma sufferer, and as such no one ever smokes in my house. I am extremely sensitive to cigarette smoke (among other things) and I do notice even the slightest odour, and usually have an immediate coughing fit and tightening of breathing tubes, so I believe the odour can linger despite a thorough cleaning regime. I have had a severe attack of coughing/tube tightening on a bus when a lady got on and sat in front of me, she wasn't smoking then (obviously not allowed on buses) but her clothes were so heavily impregnated with cigarette fumes that she might as well have been smoking! When I started coughing and wheezing she got up and moved, much to my relief, and then gave me a filthy look, as if to say that I may give her some dreadful bug. Oh, the irony! My friend retorted to her 'It's asthma!' but I doubt the woman realised she was the cause of my difficulties!

Yes definitely use Fabreze on your furnishings. I used it and it worked. We had somebody standing at the door smoking and the smell got in the house and we couldn't get rid of it for over a day.

Febreeze fabric spray , not air spray, is very good. U only need to do it once, as soon as they leave, then windows open, a really good candle burning, u can also get candles specially to absorb smoke smells .

The answer is yes it can transfer. My daughter is heavy smoker and As I have Power of Attornery I often have to take home paperwork from her house and I can smell the smoke, it's horrible. Also all her clothes smell of smoke and I just hate going there.

My hubby kept some things from his mum when she died in January and they stink. I've put them in a cupboard and every time I open the door it's all I can smell.
When we had visited his folks and returned home we would all go straight upstairs to shower and change and put washing on before we could sit down. Dirty ashtray smell , hate it .
It was never just fag smells though , it was fried food and stale air as they never opened doors or Windows in case a fly came in.
When they had been to visit us I opened all doors and Windows for hours and wiped down everything they had touched . Sofas , cushions ,dining chairs all got a hot soapy going over.

Maybe meet your friend at a cafe in future, oldwoman.

I got a charity shop bargain, very expensive waterprroof jacket for £ 20 should have cost £200, however previous owner smoked.

I spreyed it liberally with Fabrreeze and left it outside for a week.

Non smelly jacket. thank goodness

Before I retired I worked with a lovely man who had a very sad life story. He was an alcoholic in very poor health and had terrible breath and body odour. Many a time when I got home I could still smell him for hours afterwards. As Sudonim said, the memory of the smell seems to stay in your nostrils. Sadly he collapsed and died about a year ago.

Also, the smell can sort of get into your nostrils and although the actual smell has gone, your sense of smell still has the memory imprinted on it. There is probably a lot of truth in that. We went on a steam train last week - there were about seven of us in a small compartmentless carriage and because it was warm we had the windows open and train smoke inevitably came in. A couple of days later we were out walking and I said to DH "I know this is probably impossible, but I can still smell train smoke, as if it's in my nostrils!" My BiL, who drives steam engines for a railway society, says it is perfectly possible for the smell of smoke to stay with you. So perhaps not just train smoke.

Ha ha, you did it again MA.

When I gave up smoking (last time!) the smell of smoke was very strong around my flat. I could smell it even just standing near my front door. Most unpleasant. It only disappeared when I started smoking again!

Smoke does hang around a long time, and its pervasive.
The other gran is ( or was, she now has copd!) a heavy smoker and when gd was born sent a bag of gifts to the hospital. All were in individual plastic bags, then gift wrapped sepRTely, and then all placed in another bag. I happened to be there and as they opened the presents the pungent smell of smoke knocked us out! Even after the clothes were washed, they still smelled of smoke!

I can smell it at home if a smoker has been in the room.

I often pass people in shops, on buses, or out walking, who smell heavily of cigarette smoke. They are generally not smoking at the time. Their clothes and even skin must reek of smoke, therefore this must easily transfer to soft furnishings. Just as you can tell when entering a house that they have a dog, you can always tell a smoker