How to get smell out of old wood cabinet?

Use charcoal or cat litter, as well as baking soda. Leave any of the three in the cabinet but refresh it every five days or so. Also keep the cabinet open to fresh air. If nothing works, seal the inside with a polyurethane.

Charcoal will work best and fastest. Cat litter tends to have too many synthetic scents and the natural ones are dusty. You can also use black and white newspaper to line all the shelves for a few days. An open bowl of vinegar will freshen the air as will a bowl of coffee beans. Be sure the cabinets have been wiped out with a natural cleaner not a heavily scented one, in this case a paste of baking soda and liquid soap (dish soap) works well and then wipe clean with white vinegar in a spray bottle so you an get into the seams and corners

You can add a coat of varnish to seal the wood.

Hi Deborah,

1. Fill a bucket with white vinegar. Wet a clean cloth with the vinegar and wipe down your wooden furniture. ...
2. Sprinkle baking soda onto a damp sponge. ...
3. Rinse your sponge with warm water and wipe off the furniture to remove the baking soda. ...
4. Bring your wood furniture outside, if possible, and place it in the sun.

All else fails you seal the odor in with shellac not varnish.

How to Eliminate Old Furniture Odors When Nothing Else Works?

Your best hope for sealing in those smells is shellac. It makes an excellent barrier coat over all wood species, and it sticks to almost anything, including urine. Zinsser makes a great product for this purpose, called Bullseye® SealCoat™. It’s a clear dewaxed shellac that you can apply to those drawer interiors easily with a brush. It dries quickly and should help to diminish that any smell. And since it doesn’t contain wax, you can apply other finishes like lacquer or varnish over it — they’ll stick just fine. SealCoat is also handy to have around the shop as a general purpose wood finish and sanding sealer. So, I’m sure you’ll find other uses for what’s left of the quart you buy.

Try OdoBan. It can be bought at a hardware store in the cleaning aisle.

I have also found that charcoal works for smells.