Stinking drawers - please help!

[jumpingjackhash]

I've just taken delivery of a beautiful antique chest of drawers, but they really smell (smokey smell)!

I've left them open to air for a couple of days, wiped the insides out with warm soapy water (only used a little, don't want to damage the wood) and they still smell. I've tried scented drawer liners, but they're just adding to the smell with the fragrance of an old lady's handbag.

Please, please, please can someone suggest how I can get rid of the smell so I can put my clothes in and not smell like an old-lady-tramp when I put them on?!

Many thanks!

[whomovedmychocolate]

Vinegar, baking soda, lemon oil. In that order of attack see here

[jumpingjackhash]

Brilliant - thanks whomovedmychocolate, will put some baking powder in each drawer to start with! I knew a MN-er would be able to help!

[PigletJohn]

I have a vicorian dinner table that my great-aunt used to keep in the kitchen where she boiled fish for her cats.

I asked an antique restorer who told me that (as well as sponging it with a barely damp cloth and immediately rubbing dry) I could clean it with White Spirit on a rag, because it was French Polished, which dissolves in meths (not in white spirit). This will strip off any wax polish as well as dirt, you might need to polish it again afterwards. Obviously try it out on an unseen part like a leg.

She was not keen as it removed all the patina (posh name for old dirt and polish) that marks a true antique, but it did the trick.

[OsbegaEthelwulf]

Use bicarbonate of soda ...NOT baking powder

[Cutiecat]

Could you Febreeze the wood? Check the bottle first as I am not really familiar with this product.

[jumpingjackhash]

Bowls of bicarbonate of soda (not baking powder!) in there now. Hopefully they'll do the trick!

[OsbegaEthelwulf]

I would scatter the bicarb into the drawer itself rather than in a bowl; will be much more effective

[OsbegaEthelwulf]

oh and see if you can get hold of some cedar wood ball/thingies once you have hoovered out all the bicarb as this works very well in drawers and cupboards rather than scented liners. NIce clean natural smell as opposed to perfumey/old ladies handbag

[ceres]

i think vinegar would be more effective than baking powder for this.

just put bowls of white vinegar in the drawers, close and leave for a couple of days.

[jumpingjackhash]

OK, will conduct experiment - bowl of bicarb in one drawer, scattered in another, vinegar in another!

Will try the balls once the whiff has gone, thanks OsbegaEthelwulf