Replies

1. 
   Qtrmeg | Jul 05, 2003 07:27pm | #1

   Ya, I'd like to know as well. Anyone?

   Some sort of wash, miracle product?

2. 
   ilporcupine | Jul 05, 2003 08:08pm | #2

   I'm not an authority, just throwing it out ther for consideration...

   First things that leap to mind with lingering odors are always good old baking soda, and activated charcoal, to absorb odors. Can use baking soda as a rinse if you can wet surfaces.  I also have had luck with janitorial odor neutralizer and products at the grocery store, i.e; "Fabreze"

   Also available some locales, commercial fire restoration contractors use an ozone generator in a chamber to neutralize odors in upholstered furniture.

3. 
   Stuart | Jul 05, 2003 08:50pm | #3

   I like a product called Atmosklear.  It comes in a spray bottle similar to Febreeze, but it somehow eliminates the odors instead of covering them up with a perfumey smell.  They sell it in stores here in Minneapolis, but you can also get it mailorder from their website at http://www.atmosklear.com.  It also works good for the car interior, getting rid of cigarette smell, etc.

   Putting the drawers out in the sun for a while to air them out will probably help as well.

1. 
   ilporcupine | Jul 05, 2003 09:13pm | #4

   Yep. That's what I had in mind. Similar products obtainable at janitorial supply houses. A little less cost, maybe, than mail order. (And I'm a sucker for instant gratification..:-)

   B

4. 
   bill_1010 | Jul 06, 2003 12:50am | #5

   clean them up with a mild solution of bleach and water with a damp rag.   Then let them air out in mild sunlight.  

   if that fails, go to the hardware store and find some clear or amber shellac dilute that 3# cut with one part denatured alcohol to 3 parts 3# cut.  Apply with a brush and viola it should take care of it.

5. 
   Dinosaur | Jul 06, 2003 05:50am | #6

   My about-to-be-ex-wife inherited one from her grandmother and brought it home just before our son was born 5 years ago. It had a really nasty musty smell.

   I tried diluted bleach. No luck.

   Tried straight bleach. No better.

   Tried baking soda, vinegar, car deodorizer, and even paint remover and sanding the drawers down to bare wood. Still stunk like the inside of a buried casket.

   Finally tried to cover the smell with new stain, varnish, and paint. And we covered the entire insides of the drawers with pressure sensitive vinyl shelf paper.

   It stayed in the kid's room for five days--the time it took me to build him a new dresser.

   Five years later, that old dresser is still out on the back deck, with a piece of Durock scrap on top of it and a Wagner cast-iron hibachi on top of that.

   It still stinks.

   Dinosaur

   'Y-a-tu de la justice dans ce maudit monde?

1. 
   AlanRoberson | Jul 06, 2003 06:21am | #7

   Spray it with Kilz oil base. Or boil it 'till soft.

6. 
   florida | Jul 07, 2003 02:23am | #8

   Look in the yellow pages for a disaster cleanup contractor. Might be under carpet cleaning. They're the guys who make your house liveable after the water heater leaks while you're out of town for a week. They use ozone generators to rid houses of the bad mildew smell that comes with week old wet carpet. It will absolutely get rid of the musty odor. Exposure to sunlight will also do the trick but slowly and it plays he!! with the wood.