How to Get Rid of Weed Smell

Even for those of us who love the smell of cannabis, the long lingering pungent smell of pot isn’t exactly one you want haunting your home, furniture, clothes, and/or interior of your car for days and weeks on end–especially if you’re having company over or are looking to sell you place or your automobile, where hanging an air freshener from the rearview mirror won’t be enough to completely eliminate the distinctly strong smell of cannabis.

To help reduce and get rid of that pesky weed odor that fair or unfair can carry with it a social stigma, keep on reading for some of our tips and tricks on how to do so without breaking the bank!

 As you may already know, terpenes, which are like cannabinoids are naturally-occurring compounds found in cannabis plants that give them their fragrance and flavor profiles. However, terpenes and their aromatic oils aren’t just found in marijuana strains, they’re found in many plants, herbs, and trees, such as rosemary, oranges, lemongrass, thyme, hops, lavender, and so on.

When weed is burned, smoke is released, which effectively serves as a transmitter of these terpenes and their strong odors. In general, smoke is a difficult pungent odor to get rid of as it quickly fills the space it is “clinging” to and absorbing into surfaces and fabrics leaving an odoriferous residue behind in its wake.

The first step to reducing the smell of weed in the space you’re smoking in is to open some windows and/or doors to the outside. In addition, designating one area of your home as your smoking place will also help with keeping any unwanted odors contained in one section of your living space. If you have a closed-in porch or sunroom with multiple windows, having that airflow will provide even more avenues of “escape” for your cannabis smoke.

Another thing to do is to make sure you have a high-quality air filter in your HVAC system and have it running when you’re lighting up. You can also run an air purifier with a carbon filter or install a window fan that has an outtake setting so that it helps to pull the smoke and smell of marijuana out of the space.

Another way to help mask the skunky smell of pot is to use a plug-in air freshener because it will emit its fresh aromas all day as opposed to your having to spray the room with a traditional aerosol air freshener every time you smoke your weed.

If you smoke your weed in or near your kitchen, then cooking can also help to eliminate those cannabis odors, especially if you use aromatics like garlic, onion, rosemary, basil, etc. However, just make sure you’re cooking something where you want the smell to permeate your space as cooking something like rockfish that while quite tasty could end up leaving you dealing with a fish smell for weeks.

Scented candles, essential oil diffusers, air diffusers, and incense sticks can also work wonderfully for masking any unwanted scents in your space, including the smell of marijuana smoke. We recommend using ones that give off more natural aromas, such as lavender, tea tree oil, mint, sage, pine, lemongrass, etc. as a strong perfume-like smell can actually be that much more off-putting to others. However, using either or a combination of these options probably won’t so much serve as odor eliminators but as odor maskers, and once they have gone out, the smell could return.

While this is probably not something you’re going to want to do every single time after you smoke a bowl, one of the best ways to eliminate the scent of weed from the air is to actually clean the surfaces of things in the room using a natural homemade solution of 1:1 water and white vinegar mix or 1:1 apple cider vinegar and water mix. Using either of these will both clean up the residue that settles into the surfaces of things like wood or tile floors, window sills, end, and coffee tables, etc., and will get rid of that pesky marijuana smell.

Keeping an open container of coffee beans around can help to reduce and eliminate odors because they naturally absorb odors, and they work as a natural filter to remove any toxic or unpleasant smells from the environment.

Honestly, while you can definitely use the various sprays and specialty candles etc. sold by cannabis retailers to address the marijuana smoke smell, they don’t seem to be that much more effective than applying any of the methods already mentioned above.

Ridding your couch, recliner, curtains, blankets, etc. of cannabis smells can be especially difficult because the odor molecules in marijuana smoke (and cigarette smoke) can attach themselves to the fibers in these items much more easily than staying in the air.

Provided below are a few ways to eliminate marijuana odors from these items in your home.

One way to neutralize the smoke odor from the absorbent fabrics of your household furniture and blankets is to spray them with an odor remover spray, as these sprays work to directly combine with the unpleasant odor molecules in the fibers of the fabric instead of just masking them.

Another option is to do a deep cleaning of your couch or chair(s) by sprinkling a very generous amount of baking soda over your upholstered furniture. After that, you should let it sit for at least 20-25 minutes, and then vacuum it all up. This is because baking soda is a natural deodorizer that is able to both absorb and trap any unpleasant or foul odors.

For any blankets or curtains that smell of weed, washing and rinsing them in fabric softeners should do the trick.

To eliminate the unwanted smell of weed from your carpets or rugs, first, you should do a thorough vacuum so as to pick up any of the dust and debris that have absorbed the smell of smoke. Then, spray a homemade solution of white vinegar and baking soda all over your carpet and let it sit for 24-48 hours before vacuuming it all up.

If you can still notice a slight smell, then doing a carpet shampoo should more than suffice.

You can get the weed smell out of your clothes in a few ways. The most logical is to wash them, add a dash of white vinegar, and then hang them out in the sun to dry, as the sun and fresh air are Mother Nature’s natural odor deodorizers. 

If the smell is especially strong, then try soaking your clothing in a solution of baking soda and water, and then wash them with your usual laundry detergent and if the weather allows, hang them out to dry.

While some recommend soaking your clothes in a bleach and water solution, not only is this not the most environmentally friendly option, the other issue is that unless your clothing is white, then the bleach will likely cause bleeding or discoloration to your clothes.

Lastly, let’s wrap things up by looking at how to eliminate the distinct and potent smell of pot from your car.

Even if recreational marijuana is legal where you live, chances are smoking it in a moving vehicle is not. So, even if you only smoke it in your car that’s parked with the engine off in the privacy of your driveway you are still going to have to deal with the issue of your vehicle not only smelling like weed but if you drive your car the next day or even days later and get pulled over, the weed aroma emitting from your vehicle could cause the police to be suspicious and cause them to think that you were smoking while driving, which obviously, you shouldn’t do.

As such here are a few ways to help rid your car of any strong aromas of weed.

– If you have fabric seats, try using the same baking soda and vacuum method you used for deep cleaning your couch.

– If you have leather or vinyl seats, first do a vacuum and then use a soapy solution to clean them or a leather- or vinyl-safe cleaning product made specifically for car seats.

– Spray a deodorizer on your seats.

– Thoroughly scrub and wipe down all hard surfaces including cup holders etc. using either a soapy solution or a product designed specifically for car interior surfaces.

– Vacuum and clean the carpets in your car, using the baking soda and vacuum method if need be.

To help reduce and mask the smell of smoke in your car, having some gel-based air fresheners or odor-absorbing air fresheners placed between the “slats” of your car’s air and heating vents can help, as can always keeping your windows down when you smoke in your vehicle. Another option is to keep an open container of coffee beans in a cup holder, for the same reasons provided under “How to Get Rid of the Odor of Marijuana in the Air.”