If you love to smoke but are living in an apartment that prohibits smoking, you may find yourself constantly craving a cigarette but having to go outside to get your periodic nicotine fix.
I sympathize. I smoked for decades and know how irritating that can be, especially if you have to go through cold winters. So you may be wondering – is there a better way?
In this article, I am going to discuss some of the best ways to smoke in a non-smoking apartment. The key is to have your neighbors and landlord not notice smoking odors coming from your unit, so these strategies will focus on minimizing them.
Although these strategies can help prevent detection of your smoking activities, nothing is risk free and you should be aware that getting caught could result in you being cited for a violation of your lease, which could lead to fines, repair costs, and even eviction.
So proceed with caution!
Ok, we’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s get into it.
The information contained in this post is for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice. You should seek the advice of a qualified legal professional before making any decisions relating to the topics covered by this article.
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1. Use Your Range Hood to Suck Away Smoke
If your apartment has a range hood that sucks away smoke when cooking, you can use this to your advantage when smoking a cigarette (or other smoking product).
Just turn on the vent and make sure you keep your cigarette close to it, so it captures the smoke. Also make sure to blow your smoke toward the hood so all of it gets sucked in. This is great because the smoke gets whisked away outside and doesn’t rely on the smoke staying inside your unit and getting filtered through an air purifier, etc.
Of course, not everyone has a range hood, so if you can’t take advantage of this cool little trick, you will need to explore other options…
2. Use a Reversible Window Fan
One terrific option to suck away smoke from your unit is to use a reversible window fan.
These units are great because they serve as a regular fan and cool your unit during the summers, but can also be reversed and suck away smoke from your room to the outside. Just smoke in front of the fan and blow into it and the reverse flow will do the rest!
Just be sure that your neighbors’ windows nearby aren’t open when you do this because the smoke may travel to them.
You can get a decent reversible window fan for pretty cheap on Amazon.
3. Smoke Away From Vents (and Even Outlets)
As mentioned, you don’t want your neighbors to know you are smoking, so you want to stay away from vents or anything else in the unit that may circulate your air to another tenant’s unit. That includes any holes in the walls, including electrical outlets. You’d be surprised at how smoke travels.
So play it safe and make sure you choose your smoking location carefully.
Use a Smokefree Ashtray
Another common option is using a smokefree ashtray. These devices basically suck in smoke while your cigarette is resting in the ashtray, which will help reduce the accumulation of smoke in your apartment.
Now bear in mind that smokeless ashtrays won’t capture smoke that is created once you remove the cigarette from the ashtray, so you will need to use other measures to address the remaining smoke that is not sucked away. On that note…
4. Use a Smoke-Eliminating Air Purifier
Once you have had a cigarette, you will want to purify the air to remove smoke odor and particles. A great option for doing this is using a high quality air purifier. These devices are good for a room-sized space and will reduce smoke odor by circulating the air through HEPA filters.
Here’s one from Afloia that is well-rated and carries an attractive price tag:
5. Use an Ozone Generator
If you are a heavy smoker and an air purifier is not working as well as you’d like to eliminate smoke odors, you may want to try an ozone generator.
These are powerful devices that generate ozone, which reacts with odor particles and basically breaks them down, so that they no longer smell. It can work really well, but depending on how powerful a model you get, you will need to vacate the house when it is operating (and will need for the ozone to dissipate into regular oxygen) before you can re-enter your house safely.
I have used this to remove stubborn smoke odors from my car as well as my rentals in the past and they work better than almost anything else I have tried.
Here’s one that has gotten good reviews and is likely to fit almost anyone’s budget. Plus it has only a 30 minute wait time for re-entry after it is done with its session, which is not bad.
6. Use a Professional Strength Smoke Odor Eliminating Aerosol Spray
Another option is to use a professional strength spray that is specifically designed to remove smoke odors. This is good when you want to target a specific piece of furniture (like your favorite smoking chair). Or just want a quick acting solution.
You may need multiple sprayings for stubborn odors that persist.
I like the one from Zep (which you can get on Amazon).
In a pinch, you can also use more generic products like Febreze, which also work to cut smoke odors where it’s applied.
7. Leave Vinegar Around
This may seem a bit odd, but vinegar is a natural odor removing substance. So if you prefer a more home-based type of solution, bowls of vinegar around the house will help reduce smoke odor.
If you can’t stand the smell of vinegar, you can add a bit of lavender oil to make it more tolerable.
8. Use Activated Charcoal
Activated charcoal is often used as a detoxifying agent, but it also happens to be a natural odor absorbent. Similar to vinegar, you can lacing bowls of activated charcoal in powdered form around your living area to help reduce smoke odors.
9. Go Old School and Keep the Windows Open
If you don’t want to spend any money to buy any of this stuff, you may need to go old school.
One of the most effective ways to smoke in a non-smoke apartment is to open up the window and smoke with it open. Once you are finished, you should open up other windows to create a lot of circulation within your home to get all of the smoke out.
Honestly, products are great, but getting the smoke out as quickly as possible and not letting it have the chance to linger and penetrate furniture, clothes, etc. is one of the most effective ways to eliminate smoke odor. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
As I mentioned before, make sure that your neighbor’s windows are closed when you do this.
Conclusion
So there you have it – 9 great options to help you smoke in a non-smoking apartment. Hope this has been helpful and happy renting (and smoking)!