There is no getting around it, some old furniture stinks to high heaven. Seeping it’s sorry old musty memories into anything you care to store in it. I mean who knows where it has been??
To quickly eradicate bad smells in old wooden furniture, scrunch up enough newspaper to fill each drawer or cupboard space and leave the doors ajar for two days. The paper and ink will absorb damp and bad smells and when followed with a swipe of scented oil, lined with pretty paper, and scattered with dried lemon peel, will smell as good as new. In the most deliciously old fashioned way of course…
The Brocante Round-Up! 
The Brocante Round-Up! 
The Autumn House
Anthea’s perfect housewife book is available to pre-order on amazon.co.uk and due to be published in March. Why do I watch her programme? It’s house-porn of the worst kind, but I love knowing that someone else has a dirtier house than I do.
Sorry. It was the housekeeping advice made me think of her. I'll leave you to it now.
Thank’s for the great advice Alison!
Ooh I know, some old furniture can really pong! I found a lovely little cupboard at our local scrapyard – despite scrubbing it and airing it, it still reeked of germoline!!!
We have a big old Japanese kimono cabinet that was pretty smelly–someone told us to put some bars of Fels Naphtha soap in it, and I must say that worked quite well, though the soap itself smells a bit too strong, in my essential-oils-only opinion. Not sure if you can get FN in the UK–it's hard enough to find in the US. But I like your recommendation anyway, Alison!