Said It Here

How to clean soot off things after a fire

Soot spreads absolutely everywhere, leaving you stuck on how to wash it off specific household items. You will constantly discover new places that need cleaning, which makes the whole process completely overwhelming.

Overview
People affected4 accounts across 2 forums
Workarounds found7 items attempted
Community agreement22 total upvotes

What the numbers show

Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count

  • People have been saying this in most months since September 2026.
  • This comes up 19.0× more often in r/hvacadvice than across the site as a whole.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

7 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Using wet pillowcases filled with soap and water to wipe down ceiling fan blades while catching falling debris.
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Using TSP (trisodium phosphate) with protective gear to clean heavily smoke-damaged surfaces.
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Tossing smoke-damaged items like dog blankets that retain burned odors.
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Spreading clay kitty litter to absorb the liquid over several days
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Scrubbing the concrete floor with Dawn dish soap
    Did this help you?
  6. 6
    Ventilating the space with fans and open windows
    Did this help you?
  7. 7
    Using specialized odor-killing powders or sprays like Odorgone or Oi-Dri
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/CleaningTips1 person · September 2026

“There is soot EVERYWHEREEEEE.”source ↗

“In the meantime how the hell am I supposed to clean the soot off of the things I circled/labeled?”source ↗

“I keep noticing more places I/we need to clean and I’m just overwhelmed.”source ↗

skrimped · r/CleaningTips · 10 upvotes
r/hvacadvice3 people · November 2026

“I came home to an overwhelming smell of oil in the house. Found this active leak in the basement.”source ↗

Dancingonmy_own · r/hvacadvice · 10 upvotes

“when this happened to me the smell gradually went away in about a month, changing the litter every day.”source ↗

christhemix · r/hvacadvice · 1 upvotes

“I had a much worse spill and I have no odor now. Just this year, the filter bowl rusted through a pinhole and I was lucky to notice it within an hour.”source ↗

33445delray · r/hvacadvice · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/CleaningTipsr/hvacadvicecleaninghome maintenancehvacodor removal

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