How to get rid of the unpleasant smell of leather products on your own?

Leather products, for example samples of leather furniture, are hygienic and practical, they look good, serve for a long time, maintaining a pleasant appearance, and demonstrate the thoroughness and wealth of their owner, who is able to afford leather items. Genuine leather is a fairly expensive and attractive material with high wear resistance, flexibility and breathability. But it has one drawback, because of which many people do not like to use leather products - it absorbs all sorts of odors, not always pleasant: sweat, tobacco smoke.

An unpleasant odor also comes from new leather items. Some people think that the skin itself smells like this, but this is not true. It owes its disgusting “fragrance” to the tannins that were used to make it. Things on the road don’t really smell like them, because manufacturers treat them with chrome, but buyers have to get rid of the smell emanating from a leather jacket, shoes, handbag or even a sofa on their own. Luckily, there are ways to do this on your own.

How to eliminate skin odor?

There are several recipes for eliminating skin odor; here are a few basic ones.

1. Old newspapers. This method is well suited for small items with internal space: shoes, handbags, wallets. You will need a lot of old newspapers to stuff the leather item with. They should wrap it around it.The item is then placed in a box filled with crumpled newspapers for at least 48 hours. The smell should "move" into the newspapers.
2. Weathering. As already mentioned, the leather itself does not have an unpleasant odor, so if you leave a leather item in the fresh air, for example on a balcony, for two weeks, the smell will disappear. This method is suitable for shoes, bags, jackets and other wardrobe items, but not for furniture.
3. Soda or coffee. These products are good absorbents. You can sprinkle them on a leather item, and after some time, shake it off and ventilate it a little. The unpleasant odor should disappear. This method is suitable even for large items, such as a sofa.
   

   Advice

   Do not use coffee on furniture, shoes or clothes made of light leather - it may stain them.

4. Vinegar or ammonia. All of the above methods for getting rid of skin “aroma” can be called gentle. If it doesn't help, you'll have to use chemistry. Add a tablespoon of colorless liquid soap and ammonia or two tablespoons of vinegar to a glass of water. The product is treated with this solution. A softer option is to rub with orange and lemon peel.

Advice

Before treating a product with acid, test its effect on an inconspicuous area.

If home remedies do not help, you will have to resort to using store-bought household chemicals - leather cleaners and conditioners.

How to remove leather odor from interior items?

New leather chairs and sofas fill the entire room with an unpleasant odor, which makes it uncomfortable to be in it at first. If the “fragrance” comes from new furniture, then you can fight it in the following ways.

1. Ventilation. In the first two days after purchasing furniture, the windows should not be closed at all.Over the next two weeks, you need to ventilate the room as often as possible.
2. From the room intended for installation of new furniture, temporarily remove all objects that absorb odors, such as carpets and curtains. Otherwise, you will have to fight the odor emanating not only from the new sofa, but also from these items.
3. Sprinkle the surface of the sofa with regular baking soda, shake it off after a day, and vacuum it if necessary. If you see that the soda copes with its task, but it has not yet been completely solved, repeat the procedure.
4. Place bags of flavored tea, fabric (or gauze) bags with fragrant herbs: lavender, mint, thyme on the sofa and under it. Scatter natural ground coffee on a newspaper under the sofa.

It is better to use all of the above measures in combination, then a positive result will be obtained much faster.

However, it's not just new furniture that can smell bad. Office furniture if there is smoking indoors, or a sofa in a residential building where a heavy smoker lives, can smell like an overflowing ashtray. Small children and pets, as well as spilled beer, will help make it even more vigorous. Practice shows that in this case, ordinary cleaning and ventilation are not enough to eliminate odors. More effective means are required.

1. Treat the stains with a soap solution with ammonia (20 ml of ammonia, 20 ml of liquid soap and 200 ml of water) or soda (50 g of soda, 20 ml of soap per 200 ml of water). At the same time, you should not rub too hard so as not to damage the leather upholstery of the sofa. A mixture of ammonia and hydrogen peroxide is even more effective (add a tablespoon of ammonia and 3% hydrogen peroxide and a little soap to a glass of water).However, this mixture must be handled with extreme caution so that no lighter stains remain. The safest way is to treat the upholstery with plenty of olive oil.
2. Then clean the surface of the sofa with a special cleaner for leather furniture.
   

   Advice

   The most effective are professional products designed to clean the car interior.

3. Treat the furniture with a leather conditioner, scented or unscented.

Then you can apply the same measures as to eliminate unpleasant odors from new interior items.

How to get rid of unpleasant odors from shoes?

Unpleasant odor from genuine leather shoes is a common problem. If it comes from a pair of shoes you just bought, it will not be difficult to get rid of it. The weathering method is suitable for new shoes. A good result is obtained by using newspapers, which are enough to wrap the shoes for a while.

If you walk in leather shoes all day, the smell of leather will mix with the smell of sweat. You can get rid of such a bouquet only by using special deodorants for shoes, which kill bacteria and thereby eliminate the smell of sweat. In addition, these products can give shoes a pleasant aroma.

What about the jacket?

A jacket is one of the most popular leather products. New jackets usually have an unpleasant odor - it gradually dissipates during wear. However, you want to get rid of the unpleasant smell as soon as possible. In this case, you can use one of the following methods.

1. Peel fresh citrus fruits and rub the inside of their skins onto the surface of the jacket. The more carefully you do this, the less unpleasant odor will remain.
2. Fill the bathtub with hot water, dissolve a glass of vinegar essence in it and hang your jacket over the water. After a couple of hours, dry in the fresh air.
3. It is not advisable to treat the surface of the jacket with a soda solution, as small light stains may remain in the area of ​​the fittings. Sweeping dry soda out of zippers won't be easy either. However, you can also use the absorbent properties of soda for a jacket: pour soda into the bottom of the bag, pack the jacket in it and leave it for a day.
4. Treating the jacket with a soap solution containing ammonia also gives a good result (in this case, it is enough to take only 5 ml of ammonia per glass of water).

The procedure is completed by treating the jacket with glycerin - this will consolidate the result and make the skin softer and more attractive.

If your leather accessories smell bad?

Popular accessories include bags, belts, bracelets, and many leather goods. They also have an unpleasant odor.

Bags often smell bad when they are new. To eliminate unwanted aroma, you can treat the outer surface of a new bag with a soapy solution of ammonia or a weak solution of potassium permanganate (the latter method is not recommended for light-colored items). All methods of eliminating odors coming from shoes and jackets are also suitable for a bag. You can also put a scented sachet or a cotton swab dipped in essential oil in the pocket of your bag (it should be borne in mind that esters can leave yellowish traces). A flavored sachet will successfully replace a bag of aromatic tea, for example, with rooibos.

It will be more difficult to get rid of the “fragrance” of a leather watch strap, because it exudes it at any age.The thing is that the surface of the watch strap comes into contact with the skin of the hand, which sweats underneath it. As a result, the bracelet becomes saturated with the smell of sweat. For this reason, treating a watch strap with ammonia or other compounds does not give the desired effect. However, the effect will be if, after treating with ammonia, the bracelet is sprayed with a regular antiperspirant, which does not mask the odor, but prevents the growth of bacteria.

So, you can get rid of the unpleasant smell of leather products at home. Most often, this does not even require expensive funds.