Tessa Rogers

Dry cleaner wanted the price of a decent lunch to "freshen" mine, which is ridiculous for five minutes of work. I'm not paying a cover charge for my own jacket to smell less like grandma's closet. What worked fast and cheap: outside in the shade, inside-out, fan blasting at it. I did a light spray of bargain vodka on the lining and underarms, nothing on the wool shell, and let it evaporate. Then a quick pass with a steamer held about a foot away just to warm the fibers. Smell dropped by like 90 percent in an hour. If a trace lingers, I hang it by an open window overnight with a bowl of activated charcoal nearby. Pro tip before you commit: test your spray on an inside seam to make sure it doesn't spot.