irishrose

After you've cleaned it as best you can with bleach, seal it up with a bar of original Irish Spring soap. Be sure to leave one in over the winter. It's done wonders for my 1926 White and for a piece of luggage I purchased to to store another machine.

wilburness

I have a featherweight box that WAS full of mold and stunk!! I tried many different methods and I think I have it licked now. I did a search online and what worked was to wash it with warm soapy water and rinse with warm water. I used Dawn dish soap. I then put it out in the sun and let it dry. Then I wiped it out good, all the corners, with a a 50/50 solution of white vinegar and water. Then I put it out in the sun to dry for a week. I brought it in at night so it would not collect dew during the night. It has been stinky free for a week now and I have had it in the house. The article also suggested to put a couple of little silica packets that come in shoes or purses etc, to keep it smelling good. This I have not found yet but will use them when I find a few.
The manuals were also stinky and the suggestion of putting a couple of fabric softener sheets in between a few pages. Put them in a sealing bag and let them sit for 4 days. this has helped big time but not all the smell is gone. So I have just left them in there. not hurting anything and the smell is going away.
In the article I read it mentioned that putting the article out in the sunshine was the best thing. for some reason the sun rays helped kill the mold and mildew smell. Sunshine is free.
Good Luck

yel

I might try sitting it n the sunshine for a few days .....also if you have smelly tupperware you put newspaper in it .......might work on the cabinet

miriam

Glenn has a real good tutorial on furniture finishing. I have used vinegar to loosen the glue on antique furniture. It could remove the veneer if you aren't careful. Bleach will raise the grain of the wood. I think the odor eaters, the soap or the baking soda and a big garbage bag could help until you can refinish the cabinet. I have set a box of baking soda inside a smoke smelly cabinet. Borax will take off mold better than bleach. You sure want to dry it off fast though.

grandmahoney

I have a piece of furniture that I have had for year that I bought at a auction. That had a musty smell to it. I have never gotten the smell completely out of it. And I have tried every thing. The thing that helped most was after I had it completely cleaned and sanded and repaired it was apply several coats of varnish following the directions on the can. I also had to varnish the insides of the drawers. I varnished everything on it and it did help.

miriam

We did that on one, too. Finally gave up and got rid of the piece.

nanna-up-north

Well, day 1 of vinegar soaked cloths in plastic bags placed in the drawers..... It's much better this morning. I'm going to leave it a few days..... don't have anything else in the drawers anyway. And I like the idea of soap over the winter. We'll be leaving soon, hopefully before any snow flakes fall, and I still want to try the FMQ on it before we leave. I guess I'd better get busy.

Sandra-P

I bought a Featherweight and had the same problem. I put it, the case and all in the sun everyday for about a week. Then a very weak bleach solution, and some charcoal, the same kind they use for aquariums, after that I put in a bar of the Irish Spring soap, left it over the winter, ( we are snowbirds too) and when we got back home the musty moldy smell was gone. Took some time but hopefully yours will stop smelling. We bought a wood kitchen table in Florida and it smelled like cigarettes. I have used odoban on it and keep using it when we are there. When we come back for the season, it still has a faint smell of the ciggys. I am hoping it too will eventually get better with time.

ppquilter

I have put a fabric softener sheet in my sewing machine drawers. It helps.

mjhaess

Sams Club sells a product called Oda-Ban. It is great for odors.