Am I being over-protectively paranoid and daft??

[cardamomginger]

Morning everyone,
Quick question: we have an old pine chest of drawers that DH is keen to use to store DC1's clothing etc in. My problem with it is that it comes from my parents' house and my mother impregnated it with cigarette smoke for about 30 years. She's been dead for 13 years, so no new smoke added to it during that period of time. It doesn't smell of smoke any more, but the inside of the drawers do have a faint whiff of something about them. And I'm just worried about what chemicals may still be lingering in the wood - it's not painted or varnished. Am I being over the top about this? Any thoughts? Thanks!!

You are being daft

If it no longer smells then it is almost certaintly totally inert.

Just give it a really good scrub with sugar soap solution and then polish or wax it to bring up the shine and seal it.

(Yes you are being irrational but it is well within normal pregnant woman limits)

Yes and Yes

Sand it down then paint it, mind you prob more chemicals in the paint.
I think u r being everything u said in your heading, sorry.

Give it a clean, add some drawer liners (or wallpaper) if you like. It will be fine.

Thanks for the reality check !!

Clean it, air it and maybe paint it or line it and it'll be fine

If you want to get rid of any lingering smells in drawers, put in a tray of charcoal (unused from bbq) or small dish of bicarbonate of soda in each drawer for a couple of days. Repeat if smell still there. These are both natural methods of eliminating smells. You can then give it a good clean then use beeswax to shine and seal so no chemicals involved at all.

Good idea Queen!

I've clearly been watching too much "How Clean is Your House?" instead of actually cleaning my house!