I receive a fair share of e-mails and I have to say, you guys are asking the BEST questions!
I LOVE answering your questions personally so don’t hesitate to write in!
With the growing number of e-mails, I’m starting to notice some questions popping-up again and again. To me, this indicates all of us Creative Furniture Re-Stylists have some common concerns. So, with your consent (the e-mailer’s), I think I’ll start posting and answering some of your questions here on the SI blog to benefit us all.
Thank you Sue in the Sunshine State for your excellent question.
[box] “Hi Denise, I was wondering if you could give me a tip on how to get the odor of mothballs out of fabulous furniture that I’m finding at thrift stores.
I live in Florida which enables me to put the furniture outside in the sun but it is also quite humid, so they don’t really like keeping the furniture outside for that reason.
Any suggestions or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much and I love the work that you do.”[/box]
To answer your question Sue, I’ll share the nastiest experiences I’ve ever had with a musty, moldy, mothballed dresser.
It was a vintage high-boy dresser I curb-shopped. This dresser was absolutely stunning and in perfect condition. (I wish I had taken a picture to show you)
Perfect in every way except for the stench of mold and mothballs that permeated and assaulted my nostrils the minute it was placed in the back of my van. If I was smart, I would have put it back where I found it.
Instead, I brought it home and it ended up sitting in the back of my garage for months while I tried to figure out how to get that awful old musty smell out of the wood.
I never did. All those awful musty odors were permeated right into the wood.
Now don’t let my story deter you. Depending on the wood and age of your furniture, removing musty smells (and this includes the old stench of mothballs) can be a challenge… but it can be done!
I’ve had other pieces which weren’t quite so bad and have had great success.
The key to getting rid of musty odors: It usually requires more than one solution and a lot of time and patience.
Here’s 5 Ways To Remove Musty Smells From Your Wood Furniture
1. Wipe and Clean
Bacteria and germs can permeate porous wood causing awful “old-smell” odors. To eliminate the smell, kill the bacteria and germs by cleaning the inside of the drawers and all surfaces with a sponge dampened with vinegar, Murphy’s Oil Wood Soap or any Anti-Fungal Detergents. Then let dry in a well ventilated area.
2. Vinegar & Other Odor Absorbing Substances
Fill a plastic or glass container/ bowl with vinegar and place in each drawer. Close the drawers and wait a few days to see if the vinegar absorbs the odor. Other odor absorbing substances like charcoal, coffee grounds, kitty liter or baking soda may also help.
3. Natural Sun Light / Dehumidify
Porous wood absorbs moisture and smells from it’s surrounding environment. If your piece smells like a thrift store or old attic, try leaving the piece to dry out in the natural sun light. If you live in a humid environment, try placing your piece with a dehumidifier in a small enclosed room. Leave it running for a few days to suck the moisture and odors out of the wood.
4. Strip and Sand
Strip and sand the piece. If the odors are caught in the original finish, this will help by removing the finish and letting the natural wood breath. If there is still a slight odor after stripping and sanding, using method #2. The odor absorbing substance should get rid of any remaining unpleasantness.
5. Bleach or Vodka
Put bleach or cheap vodka into a spray bottle and mist the entire piece inside and out. Then leave it in the sunshine or another moisture free area to completely dry. This will help disinfect and eliminate odors.
So how did my nasty experience with “high-boy” end… I re-claimed the gorgeous hardware and put the piece out on my curb for garbage collection.
The interesting part of the story is even with missing hardware, someone curbed-shopped it from MY driveway! I really hope they had better luck removing the odors than I did. I’d love to think that stunning piece got a new lease on life and is sitting pretty in someone’s home.
Once again, thank you Sue for this great question.
If you have any other methods of Getting Rid Of Mothball Smell & Other Musty Odors… PLEASE PLEASE SHARE! I would love to learn more techniques so next time I can be the one to save the “high-boy”.
Have the best day!
Denise x
Hello again... I'm so happy you dropped by! Let's keep in touch! Follow me on social media or sign up for a dose of furniture painting inspiration and diy tutorials. :) 
I moved back into my elderly parents home, to help take care of them, in 2014, To “keep the peace”, I stored a dozen pairs of my beloved Levi’s 550 100% denim jeans and some other shirts in a couple of 60+ year old dressers that had a nauseating musty smell (no visible mold), because my 80 yr old mother was emotionally offended when I initially didn’t want to store my clothes in her antique dressers (won’t make that mistake again!).
For the past two years, I have tried everything I can think of to get that musty old wood smell out of my jeans. Vinegar, baking soda, bleach, ammonia, various detergents, EnviroKlenz, Benefect….. Soaking them for hours in a tub full of the same things mentioned above that I’ve tried in the washing machine…. Even hanging everything out in sunlight for days.
The smell has decreased but the mold that is causing the smell remains. The problem is, I’m severely allergic to ten species of molds. Just sniffing these jeans after they come out of the dryer either triggers a severe sinus infection or at least intense sinus and facial pain.
I’m about to give up and throw out all of those clothes.
Forgot to mention I even steam ironed the clothes several times, thinking steam heat kills almost everything. But that didn’t work either.
Unless someone here has an idea that I haven’t tried yet, these clothes are going out with the trash. The smell bothered me so much last night, that I got up at 4:00am and packed them back into laundry baskets and covered them with bath towels.
You might’ve already tried it, but if not, it can’t hurt to try soaking in Borax. A couple times a year, I have to wash a load of extra-stinky laundry that’s accumulated. I tried everything under the sun to get the odors out, but they just wouldn’t budge. I stumbled on the suggestion of Borax, tried it, and was shocked when it worked. I typically run the stinky clothes through a quick rinse to get them wet. Then set my washing machine on the deepest water setting with the warmest water temp recommended (depends on the type of fabrics being laundered), and add 2-4 cups of powdered Borax right where the water fills the tub. Let the machine fill and move everything around for 5 mins, then pause the cycle and let everything soak for 4+ hours (ideally, overnight). After, un-pause and let the machine finish the cycle. Then, run through the normal detergent wash and dry as recommended. It’s worked for all the pungent must I’ve had, so it might just do the trick. HTH.
My sister had a box of baby clothes get damp and moldy in a assuage shed. We tried everything to get the smell out to no avail. Until we soaked them in odoban. Odoban is a eucalyptus based germ fighter that works great on pretty much anything. We’ve found the lavender one isn’t too bad in the long run. You will have to wash the clothes again afterwards but it might help. Best of luck!
Fire restoration companies use lacquer base BIN . My family had a paint store and supplied a couple of these companies.
You cannot use a water based product for this as the stains will come right through.
Wondering if after all the cleaning, sanding, etc., you still have an odor. If sealing all of the wood with a polyurethane, varnish, shellac???? Might it work??
It sure will Diane. An odor-blocking primer works best… like a BIN Shellac Primer. Be sure to read the label so it specifically states odor blocker.
I’ve used alcohol and cedar oil to spray down stinky things such as old furniture.
Any suggestions for getting perfume smell out of wood. I’m sure someone spilled some in a drawer. Sprayed bleach and set in sun last summer. Still smells. Then I used a oil primer. Still smells. Help
I’ve inherited a secretary desk that belonged to my great great great grandparents. It smells something fierce. Will the methods above be safe to use without damaging the stain and Patina?
bought a beautiful chest of drawers supper cheap with a foul odor and after searching I found the solution,,,after everything else failed I emptied it out then out to the garage with it and used sealer on every inch of the inside,,,let it dry a few days took it back inside and problem solved
What kind of sealer
I I don’t know what the person above used, but we had a house fire, and everything that couldn’t be removed was sealed in
“ Rust-Oleum® Zinsser® Clear B-I-N Sealer. This dewaxed shellac solution eliminates the toughest odors such as food, pet urine and cigarette smoke, and it won’t yellow with age for lasting preservation of the original appearance.” Actually, we used oil base white, but I sure wish I knew about the clear at the time.
My mother in law told me Borax gets the mildew smell out of books. Just put in a container and cover with Borax. Wonder if it would work for furniture too?
I just sprayed this smelly piece down with MOLD STAT. After reading this blog for about 30 minutes, I took my ETHANOL HAND SANITIZER gallon and used a micro cloth saturated and a wet sponge to clean every nook and cranny inside and out. Letting in dry in front of a fan for now. It is 66 degrees outside with cloudy skies expecting rain at some point. I will then attempty to sand the top only. DO I CHALK PAINT THEN POLY or POLY THEN CHALK PAINT IT? To give the piece no room to breath and grow mold.