I did not smoke inside my apartment. I'd use the front porch in the warm months and my enclosed sun-porch off the kitchen in cold weather.
When I smoked, and the cigarettes in the ashtray were fully extinguished, I'd dump the ashtray into a sealed quart ziplock. When the bag was full, I'd toss it into the trash.
By sealing those nasty-nasties in the closed plastic bag, I protected myself from smelling that crappy dead cigarette odor.
Today as I passed through the sun room on my way downstairs to do laundry, I realized I hadn't dumped my ashtray before going out of town on the 4th. I stopped, opened the partly-filled baggie, and dumped the old cigarettes in.
The putrid odor of those old butts caused me to gag.
As I quickly zipped the bag shut, I recalled learning about aversion therapy as an undergrad. The dictionary describes it as " a type of behavior therapy designed to make a patient give up an undesirable habit by causing them to associate it with an unpleasant effect."
Aha! Something new for my quit tool box. Each time I think I want a cigarette, I will open the bag, take a deep whiff and gag away.
I'll keep you posted~
