getting rid of smoke smell

Addiscomber

I'm in the 'chuck the carpets (and curtains if there are any, and you can afford it), and then wash everything else to within an inch of its life' camp. Hard work, I know, but well worth it in the long run. Curtains may even survive washing or dry cleaning to give a bit more service if you need them to.

When you wash down walls and paintwork, start at the bottom and work up. I know it sounds the wrong way round, but you can keep on top of wiping drips that run down onto your already cleaned areas. If you start at the top, and dirty water runs down through the dirty areas below, for some reason they make marks that are the Devil's own job to shift. I read that in a book years ago, thought it daft, as you are probably all doing now , but discovered it to be true.