House Fire Smell removal challenge

[debgreen]

Hi girls, this is my first ever post but I could really use some help. My best friend recently had her house burn to the ground due to a possible electrical fault and this included her craft room
Among some of the few items that were able to be salvaged were her unmounted rubber stamps. Unfortunately these now stink of smoke and as you can imagine instead of stamping being a pleasurable experience for her it now just evokes bad memories.
I would be most grateful for any suggestions or tried remedies to rid these beautiful stamps of their house fire smell.
Thank-you, Debbie

[gregzgurl]

My initial thought was to put them in a bowl and dump baking soda over them and let them sit for a few hours, then rinse them well. A citrus-based dish soap or hand soap may work, also. Check the labels for alcohol or other harsh chemicals, though, as a precaution. You wouldn't want to ruin the stamps unintentionally, I'm sure.

Have you thought about posting in the RAK and/or ISO forums? I'm sure that there are some SCS folk who would be happy to donate some of their excess "stuff" to get her up and running again. I just gave a lot of stuff to some others who were just starting out, but I still have a lot of paper! Maybe ask her if it's okay to post an address so people can send things (like a flat-rate box crammed with stuff)...

Let us know how this plays out, please!

[stamp2u]

Try putting them in a container with baking soda. Change the baking soda every day or so. Baking soda absorbs odors in your fridge so maybe it will help. Charcoal also absorbs odors. Best of luck.

[CraftyMel2]

Maybe throw some in a bowl of coffee beans? I swear, coffee beans will kill any smell that I have come across. Maybe try the flavored whole bean coffee?

[debgreen]

Thanks girls, we will try the above suggestions and definitely keep you posted with what works. Hopefully nobody else will need to use this fix but we never know what's around the corner.
As we live in Australia I wasn't sure if members would be prepared to post to us but if you're keen Cathy's address is P.O. Box 44, Swan Reach Vic 3903 Australia.

[barb smith]

You could also try burying them in a bucket of charcoal, although baking powder would be cleaner.

[SkyNacho]

Does she by chance have space outside where she could put them (like a garage or a sunroom, but out of direct sunlight and out of extreme temperatures)?

My experience is as follows: I once received a package full of paper embellishments that just REEKED of cigarette smoke. And since it is a migraine trigger for me, I can't have it smell even "just a little" like smoke. I tried the baking soda and it didn't work. In fact, it kind of made it worse.

What eventually did work was leaving the items spread out on a table in my living room (it's off in a corner so I wasn't walking past it all the time). I don't remember how much time passed but eventually they lost all that cigarette smell and I could integrate them into my stash.

[Metalcharm]

:( did she lose her house in the bushfires?
I might be able to send her down something .. I was about to put some stuff on ebay anyway. What sort of things would she be most interested in? Girly stamps, little boy stamps etc?

[cat_woman]

One other thing I can suggest on top of what has already been suggested is try putting them in a container with some newspaper. It may take a few months with changing out the newspaper every so often, but the newspaper will absorb the smell. Another thing, if you don't want to get everything all black with charcol, maybe a couple odour eaters shoe insoles that have charcol in them. I think if those will get rid of stinky feet smell, then it might work on the smoke smell too.

[tweedcurtain]

Put the stamps in a plastic bag and cover with kitty litter, and seal the bag. Not sure how long it will take, but this works for smoke odor in paper, too.

[debgreen]

Yes the kitty litter was a suggestion I found elsewhere online and a bag is on the shopping list. As she has quite a few stamps we thought we might try half a dozen stamps in a few different ways and see what works best.
No her house wasn't burnt down in the bushfires, it was an unexplained electrical fault we think. The fire investigators were stumped but was definately not arson or lit just a fault somewhere. Her husband got out by crawling to the back door, Cathy was out at the time so both are OK but shaken as you can imagine and 5 days before Christmas was very hard.
She loves flowers, floral things and has four grandsons. She is also mad keen on family history so anything relating to these would be appreciated very much.
Thanks again girls, now I know how easy this site is to post on and not as scary as I thought I might post some pics of my work