I have no experience with microfiber furniture but I imagine you could try baking soda to absorb the odor.

Personally, I hate the smell of all Febreeze products. My suggestion is a spray of white vinegar & water. You may need to repeat a few times but it should take care of the odor. Baking soda is a great idea but if you use it, you should beware it can take out the color in fabric or carpeting. I learned the hard way!

i've tried repeated washings and soakings with full strength vinegar. the smell is slightly diminished but still strong. anyone have any other recommendations?

Sorry, the only thing I can suggest is time, time, time. The smell will eventually go away.

Where do you live ? It's pretty cold all over the country, but some fresh air & a fan might help. But not if you live anywhere near me. 3 degrees when I went out this morning! Yikes!

I think the Febreeze smell is disgusting and the whole concept of it being an odor remover is a joke as far as I am concerned. The best product I have found is called "What Odor?" I order it on-line and it is pretty expensive compared to other odor removers ---- but it works! I use it around the cat box, on the carpets where my elderly dog leaked before she died, etc.

It has a slight odor when sprayed, but it goes away when dry - unlike Febreeze.

I suggest removing cushions and putting a long flat box or two with kitty litter on the surface where the cushions sit. You can put the cushions back and turn them occasionally or leave the cushions off and air them outside. Tarp the whole sofa and check every day or so. This has worked wonderfully for me with smoke saturated items.

Can you use a carpet cleaning machine with water only to clean the upholstery?

It's been more than 3 years since she had the problem. Let's hope the scent has gone away by now. :)

I keep forgetting to check the dates. I think we can still learn from old posts. I was going to mention corn starch in case there are oils in fabreze. I use to use it on grease stains on the walls or on clothes, cooking grease. I just rubbed it in well and let is set for awhile and the stain would be gone.

Here I have learned many important thing to remove Febreeze smell from furniture. But I give time to remove such odd smell, after 2-3 month it will go away or I put it on fresh air and sunlight will do it fast then other chemical and manual methods.

We had an upholstery cleaning service use what was essentially unscented dish soap and a shop vac. Spray it on, vac, spray on rinse water, vac. Didn't get rid of it entirely, but helped a lot. I'm thinking of trying an industrial oil-removing detergent like Dharma Trading's Professional Textile Detergent, in the same way. I'm also going to try activated charcoal.

I, too, hate the overwhelming smell of Febreze. I found some unscented Febreze at Safeway. Recently, I took a backstage tour of the opera house. The wardrobe manager said that to de-scent the heavy costumes, they put cheap vodka in a spray bottle and spray what can't be washed. Hmmm.

I just bought some aloha style shirts from eBay and I can't get the smell of Fabreze out of them so much so I'm getting some reaction to it, not sure what, more just not feeling right. So, I washed the shirts 3 times in organic laundry detergent, and the last time I put cat urine dissolver in the load of wash, still it's there; so I hung out the shirts all day long in a very windy day and it's still there.

This time, I am going to put them in a vacuum storage bag and put odor eaters (even the Dollar Store type) in there to absorb the odors. It's very toxic. I had better luck with the Odor Eaters than baking soda.

Febreze makes an unscented variety; I bought it once in Safeway. But since we took a backstage tour of the Opera House and heard the wardrobe master say that they used cheap vodka in a spray bottle to spray the insides of costumes so they can be used for the next performance, possibly by a different performer, I've been using that. Or, around the kitchen, I sometimes use rubbing alcohol.

The only thing that gets the overpowering smell of Febreze out of clothing is to put them out in the sun for a day or two. No amount of washing or deodorizing has ever worked for me but a couple of days of sunshine does the trick. It wouldn't be easy to do with furniture unfortunately.

I bought a couch that had been spayed with Febreze, I tried washing what I could but it was even in the batting and foam...I then tried baking soda which did not help, also a vinegar and essential oil spay which helped the best so far. What finally got rid of it was 'Pure Citrus Vanilla' oder eliminator, which comes as a non-aerosol product (not tested on animals) similar to Nil-Oder, which also comes as a spray and would probably work as well. I lightly sprayed along the back and under the cushions, I did it twice over a few days. This really worked for me.

For some reason some tenants must've sprayed a whole can in the rooms of my rental. I can't even sleep in the house it is so sickening. There was even a stickiness on the floor that was, I assume, the stuff. It's on the vinyl plank flooring, maybe even seeped into the seams. Oh god it's awful. How to get out in general? Maybe vinegar my best bet.

I hate fabreze. I wish it was outlawed.

allergic to any scented products fabreze trash bags havent found a way to remove scent laundred a top 20times still there i have tried vinegar and baking soda on some no use

Hi guys, I came across this when I was searching if Febreze had a bad smell. I have read all of your comments and I want to ask for clarification. When you guys are saying you hate the smell of Febreze are you referring to the fragrant smell added to it like "gain scent' "Tide scent" "Lavender" etc? I am asking because there is a certain smell I get in my house it's like a musty smell. I have smelt it other places such as department stores, a section in Walmart and in on room in a restaurant I work in. So I am trying to find the common thing that could be causing it. I know we use Febreze at work sometimes, and I though that maybe after the fragrant smell wears off, there is a weird smell that lingers possibly.

Garth Adams, above, has the best description of the stink. It's never like a mold smell. Mold would be much better. In addition to what is mentioned above, I have tried hydrogen peroxide, very concentrated ozone for more than 36 hours, Krud Kutter, and 160°F airflow. All repeatedly and to no effect. And all on a nylon based back pack, a thing that I am able to completely soak. I think Fabreze should be classified as a chemical weapon and banned on that basis.

Is one of the Febreze scents a smell like Bounce on steroids? Would unscented Febreze eliminate it?

Febreze is really freakin' hard to remove. I've had luck with a soak using Calgon (the laundry treatment). With as hot water (initially), a soak usually does the job. And then a double wash to remove the smell of the Calgon.

Have you tried milk soak? Water + dry milk powder. I usually use a cup or so dissolved in a bucket of waster.

Anwering kitchenkando..

No. The smells that are put into Fabreze by the manufacturer, Proctor and Gamble, are specifically chemicals that will not interact with the supposed oder killing chemical itself. This alone probably accounts for a good part of their resistance to removal.

Ugh...I HATE Febreeze! Made the mistake of unknowingly buying my normal ERA detergent that had Feb-stink added to it.....now two washloads reek! Even the basement smells! I would literally prefer the smell of ”thrift shop store” to this mess....oh, well...i will just have to run a bleach cycle thru the washer...then use whatever means are necessary to reclaim my clothes....double ugh....more washing!

Brittany Anchondo Hi Brittany, did you ever find that musty smell in your home? Have you looked behind your refrigerator? I have a two year old LG stainless steel French door refrigerator that is SUPPOSED to be the latest, greatest, blah blah blah... well, after having the fridge for a year I started smelling a mildew-y smell and I searched high and low, but could never find the source. I'm manic about cleanliness and clutter, so like a mad woman I cleaned things that were already spotless for months, but the smell remained. I thought I'd Google "musty smell in home, but can't find source" & after much research found that someone had posted something about the condensation tray at the back of the fridge being musty. So, I pulled mine away from the wall & within two seconds found the source of the smell!!! There wasn't any dust on the coils or under the fridge to cause a smell, but there was a minute amount of standing water in the condensation tray that had gotten mildew-y. Aarrggghh! I referred to my manual, but couldn't find the info I needed, so I got on YouTube and watched a video of how to remove it and clean it. The back of the fridge is showroom clean and the smell is gone!!!! Maybe that's where your smell is coming from (??) Wouldn't hurt to look!
Also, on Amazon you can buy little cloth bags of charcoal... all-natural, affordable, no nasty chemical smell to mask odors, can be used anywhere, lasts forever (you lay them in the direct sun for one hour to reactivate the charcoal)... they're really great!!

I just bought a shirt on eBay, when it arrived it stunk so bad, I contacted the seller. She told me because she lives in Florida, and it’s so damp there that she stores all her items in bags with fabreeze. I had to put it in my garage till I could wash it because it stunk so bad. I just washed it, and I can still smell it. I’m going to try putting it on the soak cycle and see what happen, then I’ll hang it out in the sun to dry. Hopefully, it will be gone.

I used to use fabreeze all the time with having cats, till I read that when you spray anything in the air, or on furniture, it naturally falls down, which would mean it’s all on your carpeting. The cats walk on the carpeting and sit on the furniture, then lick their paws to clean themselves, and it’s not good for them to ingest. I don’t even burn candles or anything scented anymore.

Hope I can get it out.

Lucy Mathers, I just bought some of those charcoal bags on amazon, and they seem to work pretty good. I have cats, but I only use unscented litter, and use unscented laundry detergent, and dryer sheet. I keep one in the room with the litter boxes and have put the rest in other rooms. So far, so good. Still hoping I can get that stinking smell out of my top.

I found this thread after searching for ways to remove Febreze from clothing, I've read all the comments above & I too am really, REALLY bothered by it. As I write this I have a headache, swollen throat glands, watery eyes, but the worst is the irritability & mood change it causes, and I know why that is. The stuff contains chemicals that are known endocrine disrupters. Other things I'm allergic to? NOTHING! It is so revolting that I'm boycotting Proctor & Gamble until they take this heinous cancer causing crap off the market. Like others here I've tried so many things to get rid of it, all the while feeling like crap just being near it. Even high proof vodka doesn't work. Direct sunlight for several days, fresh air, wind, soak in vinegar, soak in baking soda, Nope. And I can't just put the infected things on a rack next to other clothes, they have to be quarantined or else the chemicals spread & infect whatever is next to it, just like a virus.

I recommend this article for anyone interested in why Febreze is so vile and hazardous to our health - http://www.sustainablebabysteps.com/febreze.html

And here's the EWG's analysis:

https://www.ewg.org/guides/brand/6531-Febreze

I was staying at a friend's house waiting until my move-in date for my new home. The only place to sleep was on the couch, in the living room. Just a medium size couch with fabric cushions, and a few extra pillows. Within one day I noticed that I had a headache when I awakened. I wrote it off due to stress of the whole moving situation. As the week went on....my headache was getting worse, and lasting longer. After about five days...I was concerned that something was seriously wrong with me. A pounding headache, lasting all day; was something that I had never experienced.

To make a long story short: (while I was not home) my host had been spraying Febreze in the living room and all over the couch because he wanted it to smell nice for me. I was flabbergasted that a product whose use is supposedly healthy to use daily on clothes, fabric and in the air, could cause such symptoms in a single day. Of course that was the end of spraying Febreze...and it was about three days until my headache went away.

I have never been a fan of chemical deodorizers...but if inhaling the fumes can cause such terrible symptoms (I thought I had a brain tumor), why would I ever want to use Febreze on my clothes or in the air that I breathe.

I'm just a regular person who thought someone might like to hear this story.

J in Chicago

I figured out a solution!!!

i bought a used couch and the person sprayed Fabreeze all over it. I hate Febreeze smells and any artificial smells from « odour eliminators. » It made my whole room smell, even after I tried washing it with a wet cloth and unscented laundry detergent. Here is what I figured out later and it worked:

1) Put the chair outside if possible (I could only put the seat cushion outside because the chair didnt fit through my balcony door) and air out.

2) in a small bucket, pour about 2.5 litres of warm water, a small amount of unscented laundry detergent, small amount of unscented fabric softener, and 1/5 cup bleach,

3) Use a terry cloth towel to wash the entire couch by hand, ensuring you soak the fabric on the surface, all over.

4) Wait 10 min.

5) Take another terry cloth towel to soak up excess water from fabric.

6) Let chair and fabric air dry for remaining water that can’t be soaked up.

Voila!

***Do not use a smooth Microfiber towel. I tried it with this and it doesn’t work the same. You need the terry cloth texture to rub against the fabric of the coach.

Good luck everyone!

Has anyone tried dry cleaning?

Clean has no odor. If it smells, clean it. If it still smells, remove it. If you can't remove it, move, soon. Don't ignore your nose. It's saving your health and life. Sprays don't work. Clean, dust, ventilate. Ventilation means changing the air, not circulating it. Leaving the bathroom exhaust fans on 24/7 may be adequate.

I've lost count of the number of secondhand clothing items I've bought online that had to go straight in the bin because they'd been sprayed with Febreze by well-meaning sellers. Now I'm wondering if dyeing a cotton jacket I just bought that reeks of it will cover the smell. Honestly, I just unwrapped it and the smell is all over the house already. I'll post here again if the dye works. If it doesn't work and I've gone to all that trouble and expense for nothing I will just quietly burst a blood vessel. Oh - one more tip with Febrezed clothing - don't wash it with anything else - it transfers and all your clothes will reek of it.

Once upon a time, before I could stop them, some witless wonder whipped out a spray bottle of Fabreeze. Afterwards, for three days I was frying garlic just to kill the sickly stench of Fabreeze. But all to no avail!

Who remembers Rain Barrel fabric softener? Like rose petals in formaldehyde!

hi yall! Yeah Febreeze contains neurotoxins, endocrine disruptors, and carcinogens. Why is this allowed on the market?