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Get Rid of Chest of Drawers Odor

How To Rid Chest Of Odors & Bad Smells

Whether you have a chest, chest of drawers, a wardrobe, dresser, or bedside table with drawers, all wooden furniture can and often does develop a bad odor. A musty smell is often caused by mildew or molds. The older your chest the more likely it has developed an odor that originates from the inside and sometimes the outside as well. Stinky smells can develop from both outside and inside smelly influences. It’s not just what has been kept inside drawers and dressers that can cause odors. Chest odors are also influenced by outside environmental odors. Moisture is often the culprit. Mildew and molds love moist high humidity environments. Left unchecked moisture and various resulting molds can lead to rotting wood and dry rot.

A Smelly Pine Chest of Drawers

Wood and wood composite materials are actually very porous. Like clothes, wooden furniture chests can and do absorb odors. Contrary to our first inclinations, odors do not usually just settle into the drawers of a chest. Any and all wood that is not well sealed will quickly begin absorbing orders from the air and contact with objects; such as, smelly clothes, smoke, foods, medications, and many other items found in most homes. A chest exposed regularly to cigarette smoke or very strong smoke as a result of a fire will smell like smoke. The smoke odor will be absorbed into all unfinished unsealed surfaces both inside and out.

Getting Rid Of Odors In Chest Of Drawers

Warnings!! — Removing bad odors from furniture can be difficult and time consuming. No single method or technique is necessarily best and some can potentially damage furniture. You must exercise good judgment and be cautious. Best results are often obtained by applying multiple methods incrementally. Adjust your methods and techniques according to the specific type of chest, the kind of wood and construction. Warning – some chemicals amy cause glue to deteriorate. You might consider starting with a simple less risky method and then incrementally build upon it as necessary.

The Basic Concepts of Removing Odors from a Chest of Drawers

The way I view it there are 4 very different concepts when it comes to ridding chests and wardrobes of odors.
1. The Fresh Air Treatment: Where you chase, evaporate, or purge odors from the wood.
2. Neutralize Odors: Wash and scrub all inside wood surfaces with odor neutralizing solutions.
3. Substitution: Substitute a more pleasant odor for the bad odor.
4. Block the Odor: Seal the inside with a suitable wood sealant.

Fresh Air For A Pine Wardrobe

You may want to consider carefully washing all inside surfaces first – see the section for more information. It’s hard to beat direct sunlight and fresh air for this concept as the initial method or follow-up drying method; but, fresh air alone is usually only effective for treating mild odors. Warm air and a fan are a reasonable substitute for outdoor sunshine. Be sure to remove all drawers and open up all compartments so air and light can reach all surfaces.

On the plus side the fresh air treatment is passive, meaning you don’t have to do a lot of work except occasionally rotate to expose all possible surfaces to a turn at getting direct sun exposure and air. Warm sun is better but hot sun can soften glue – use caution! Heat helps to evaporate or drive out odors from deep inside the wood while sunlight has somewhat of a sanitizing bacteria mold killing effect. The downside is that it takes a long time; it may not be successful at completely removing the odor and you must protect it from animals.

Just as walk-in closets often have forced air ventilation you can use the same concept for a chest of drawers. You can install one or more small fans and vents to push fresh air into a chest or pine wardrobe to displace stale odor laden air. This will keep the items in your storage chest in a fresh air environment so they are less likely to absorb foul odor from the chest. Small fans are a good long term solution for all chests, chest of drawers and wardrobes. If the bottom of the chest at the floor is open you might place a small flat fan under the chest. Add some potpourri or a subtle fragrance dispenser along with fans and vents for a pleasant smell of success. Over time a fragrance will substitute itself as the predominant smell of your pine furniture unless the odor is originating form live mildew or mold. You must kill the mold to kill the odor or block the mold odor from escaping into the chest.

Good ventilation combined with any or all of the odor control methods mention here is the long term answer to preventing musty or stinky smelling drawers. If your chest of drawers is open underneath you might consider placing one or more small thin fans on the floor under the chest.

Wash Your Chest of Drawers

Warning! Washing with water, bleach and or chemicals may damage finishes, the wood, and / or glue; use extreme care. If you wash it you must get it wet but do not soak it. If you use solutions, chemicals or treatments to wash wooden furniture do it sparingly and according to instructions. Musty odors are often caused by mildew or molds. Washing all inside and / or bare wood with a dilute solution of household bleach is a reasonable method to kill odor causing mildew, molds and fungi.

The first step is to grab a clean empty spray bottle. An empty window cleaner spray bottle or similar will work just fine. Mix 1 part regular strength household bleach with 9 or 10 parts water into the spray bottle. If mildew or mold is severe you should consider a more concentrated solution of approximately 1 part bleach, 5 parts water on infected areas. Remove all drawers and open all compartments. You must gain access to spray every square inch of raw wood; inside, outside and underneath the drawers as well as the raw wood inside of the chest frame. Do this on a surface that will not be harmed by bleach. Do not spray the decorative outside finish areas of the drawers or chest frame. Spray enough to fully wet the surface but do not soak it. Let it dry completely. Now spray it with a light coat of orange oil.. But only if this is your last wash treatement. Do not put oil on the wood if you plan additional washings with baking soda or other solutions.

Another option is to wash and scrub the inside wood areas with plain household ammonia solution. Let it dry completely. The ammonia and it’s smell will evaporate away as it dries.

Bleach and Baking Soda To Get Rid of Bad Furniture Odor

You can also try Baking Soda – AFTER THE BLEACH !!! Warning: Do not mix baking soda with bleach! Bleach first, baking soda 2nd. The baking soda will be absorbed into the wood fiber and will remain embedded in the wood. Bleach (chorine) on the other hand will evaporate and decompose inside the wood when fully dry. Use separate treatments if you decide to try both bleach and baking soda; bleach first, allowing it to dry VERY COMPLETELY and then baking soda.

Common household baking soda is an excellent odor killer / neutralizer. Many products contain baking soda as the primary ingredient for the exact purpose of neutralizing odors. It has many therapeutic qualities. You could even take a sip or two to help with your sour stomach being caused by the foul odor coming from your furniture. Dissolve as much baking soda as will dissolve in a given amount of warm water to create a fully saturated solution. Apply with a spray bottle or wash cloth to all raw portions of the wood. Rub it in and let it dry completely. Get it wet but do not soak it.

Another option is to first wash the chest inside and out with soap oil. Let it dry completely. Then optionally wash only the inside raw wood with a dilute solution of bleach. Let it dry completely and then apply a light coat of orange oil to all the inside raw wood surfaces. The orange oil will have a pleasant smell that will gradually fade away.

Good chest ventilation and a consistent fresh air environment in your house will help prevent you from having smelly drawers in the future.

Sweet Smelling Chest of Drawers.

Adding some type of mild fragrance dispenser to a chest, wardrobe or dresser can be effective in freshening up a bad smelling chest. The gentle scent of potpourri or something a bit stronger will immediately go to work substituting itself for objectionable smells embedded in the chest as well as the contents. The wood will immediately begin absorbing the fragrance. Try combining fragrance with better ventilation for even greater effectiveness. If your chest is not an antique treasure, or is not too precious to modify, you might consider adding ventilation holes if it has poor ventilation and use one or more small fans to provide a continuous supply of fresh air to the inside of your chest.

If You Can’t Beat The Odor Seal Your Chest of Drawers

A method that is all but guaranteed to eliminate bad odors from a chest of drawers is to coat all inside surfaces of a pine chest of drawers, dresser or pine wardrobe with a good coat or two of varnish or plastic urethane paint as a sealant. You should wash all the inside surfaces with a dilute solution of bleach and let it dry completely before you paint the inside. Do not apply orange or any other type of oil before painting.

I highly recommend 2 or more thin coats rather than 1 thick coat. On the first coat use the appropriate solvent to thin the paint; cut it up to a 50/50 mixture. This will provide better penetration deep into cracks and faster drying time. You want a deep seal not just a surface coating. The solvent will draw the sealant deeper into the wood fiber and run deeper into the cracks. The solvent will also help to kill the bad odor originating deeper inside the wood. Let it fully dry before you give it a second coat. If the wood is very porous and / or has numerous or large cracks you may want to use 3 coats or do a third coat of paint without thinning it.

This will effectively trap the smell inside the wood by blocking its escape into the inside of the chest. You may be one those people who considers this extreme and should only be considered as a last ditch method to rid a chest of foul odor or you may a person who wants to jump right to it as your first and only how to fix it solution. The fact is it works! And, remember good ventilation will most likely prevent future odor problems.

Whatever method or combination of methods and techniques you end up trying I wish you all the best in getting rid of that bad odor in your chest or pine drawers.