Mildew  on furniture: I have a couple of ideas, for your *smelly*curio cabinet---now that it is all wiped out...Place a slice of white bread in a dish (yes, it must be white bread not the healthy wheat stuff !!) Saturate with white vinegar---close up the cabinet for 24 hours, check the odiferous cabinet, you might have to re-do this several times...If this fails, you might   repaint, shellac or varnish the interior...this should seal in the odor....

Musty odors from books and magazines can be removed by wrapping items in   newspaper and placing them in a brown paper bag, leave undisturbed for 24 hours...I usually leave them longer, change the newspaper and do it again...

Hmmm...you're wondering how I know about this...In my spare time (haha), Estate Sales, Vintage Shops & Clothing Shows are high on my list for research of clothing construction & books on clothing of by-gone eras...as a mini customer I need to know how things were created...but I also needed to know how to keep my house from smelling like mildew from my new-found treasures...Good Luck !!

Thelma

Mildew  on furniture: you might try a citrus based cleanser. You can bet that if there's a smell, there's still mildew in there somewhere. I've found that citrus based products do a wonderful job on most surfaces....and they're a dream come true for people like me with sinus that object to strong cleaners like bleach.

Sloan

Mildew  on furniture: We have a product made here in Canada called Deodoroc Perky Pucks.  They are little round things - about a dozen or so in a box.   To use them, you completely enclose the piece of furniture in plastic or some other covering so it is more or less airtight - and then place some of the pucks inside and outside the cabinet - in any drawers, etc.   Then you leave it for an extended period of time.   (There are directions pertaining to use on the package.)   The pucks absorb the odors.   When you are done you leave the pucks out to air out and then they are reusable again.  This works especially well on mildewy furniture because of the porosity of the wood. I am sure you will be able to find a similar product in the US - ask at Home Depot or some place like that.

Penny

Mildew  on furniture: A few years ago a furniture restorer told me how to get rid of mildew on some of my furniture. Mix a tiny amount of Clorox in water, wipe down, let dry, then sprinkle baking soda on it and set in the sun for a day. Don't know how long to do it for mini furniture. Maybe you could just check it every hour or so.

Connie in Georgia

Mildew  on furniture: To those who are trying to get yucky smells out of stuff, have you tried Fabreeze?

Alice Zinn- Pt. St Lucie FL

Mildew  odor: About the odor in the cabinet...a friend used to deal in used refrigerators etc and used charcoal briquettes to keep them smelling sweet and prevent mildew. If you barbecue you may already have some in the garage.  

Thelia Orloff

Website update: I was recently notified that my old website no longer existed. This didn't bother me until I realized that I had links on my new site to the old one. Primarily, they linked to pages that showcased some of my completed projects. I had many views of those projects and lots of information/ideas for the do it yourselfer since almost all of them were scratch built for the most part. I spent the majority of the night trying to re-create those pages. I managed to do a synopsis of the text I used before but all of the pictures are there and they came out pretty clear. If you're interested in seeing some of my old projects click on the link below and Click on the ARTIST page. There is a listing of the titles of the projects with separate windows for the description and picture. I thought these would be good inspiration for our newbies on the list and I'd be more that happy to share any techniques I used if these projects spur others to attempt any aspects of them. http://minipearls.homestead.com/Weewilliewinkies.html

Pearl & Jordan

Removing odors.  In addition to using newspapers to absorb odor, sprinkle them with baking soda.   Change every other day for a week, and if it's still "fragrant" then spritz Fabreeze or a similar fabric deodorizer.  Leave the doors open till the Fabreeze dries and that should remove the last of the scent.   It works on more than fabric -- a tip from my friend Ann, who is gradually furnishing her life-scale Arthur-style house with period furniture, much of it  from barn auctions, extremely musty and needful of TLC.

Loretta

Removing odors: There is a trick car dealers use to get the stale odors out of used cars. They tear of sheets of dryer fabric softener and stuff them under the seats. I did the same thing in the cabinet under my bathroom sink, when someone left a wet rag under there and mildew seeped into the wood.

Carol Wagner

Instead of balsa: I often use the foam trays that meat come packaged in. Unlike balsa, it can be cut in any direction and does not split. It can be sanded on the ends if needed, stained or painted. I have made shelves, cabinets and wood cook stoves from it for my roomboxes. Cut with scissors or X-acto knife, use foam glue or Elmer's school glue. Use spring clothespins for clamps.

Roy