Rid musty odours?

Place bowls of fresh coffee grounds in the drawers, change it out every few days until the smell is gone

I would try sanding the insides of each drawer and then put on a coat of poly or shellac. Do this on 1 drawer and then do the sniff test. The smell may also be coming from the other inside wood surfaces.

The first thing I do is put everything out in the sunshine for as long as possible. This is a great first step before chemicals etc.

If possible, take the drawers outdoors on a sunny day. Leave them in the out of doors during the day for several sunny days.

Can you try putting the drawers outside in the sunshine? I've had really good luck getting rid of musty odors that way. Make sure they don't get rained on, though, and you may need to put them out a couple of days in a row. Bring them in at night, so they don't get dewy.

Clean with OdoBan then seal with a primer like Kilz original.

Hello,

Check for woodworm etc! Spray the inside of the drawers with Febreeze or leave mothballs in the drawers or Citronella candles. Best wishes.

I've heard rubbing tea bags on them and leaving coffee grounds in them for several days will help!

Use several small bowls of used coffee grounds and/or charcoal. Those items absorbs smells.

UV light, such as from sunshine, blacklights, or tanning beds, actually has disinfectant properties. (No, tanning beds are not advisable for treating virus exposure. Many of the doctors in my aquaintance, mostly dermatologists, want to ban tanning beds outright due to their links to skin cancer.) Placing outside in direct sunlight for hours at a time over several days is probably your best option.

You can intensify the UV exposure by positioning mirrors, or even shiny foils like aluminum or mylar, aimed at your drawers.

But UV isn't the only benifit of placing smelly furniture outside: there is also more air circulating.

You can intensify the benifit of fresh air by opening, or even removing the drawers from the case furniture, to air out seperately. Weather and electrical access permitting, you can even set up an osolating fan.

If sunshine & fresh air aren't enough, you can try Frebreez-type products. Chemically, the plurality of the things humans can smell involve a structure called a "benzene ring" (not to be confused with the chemical "benzene"). Frebreez-type products neutralize that structure before it can interact with the receptors in your nose. But, that doesn't work for everything we can smell.

You can also try cedar oil or clove oil. While very potent, clove oil, aka oil of cloves, is sometimes used in baking or candy-making; it can often be found in specialty grocery stores or craft shops. Cedar oil, aka oil of cedar, is not safe to eat at any concentration; you may find it in a craft shop with the soap and/or candle making supplies. Both have natural anti-microbial properties which can help with the root cause while masking the odor in the meantime. Mix one or both aromatic essential oils in a furniture polish base, such as linseed or walnut oil.

How to Eliminate Odors in Wood

Your best hope for sealing in any odors is shellac. It makes an excellent barrier coat over all wood species, and it sticks to almost anything. 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 mice, mildew, musty, smoke, urine 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.

If you can, clean them after sanding. Dry in the sun. Stay well!

Thankyou.x