How to Remove the Smell of Mothballs from Furniture

My mother-in-law has some beautiful pieces of antique furniture that she wanted me to have and I really wanted to have them. Until I brought them home and realized the smell of mothballs wasn't just in her house it was in her furniture too. Leaving the furniture outside to air out, wasn't something that I was able to do. I couldn't drag a dresser in and out of the house every day, but I did find an alternative method that worked. It took a couple of weeks, but the dresser no longer smells like mothballs.

Instructions

1. Place your piece of furniture near an open window and set up a fan to blow directly on to your furniture towards the open window. Let the fan blow on it for a few hours each day.

2. Wrap charcoal briquettes in newspaper. Use 4 or 5 charcoal briquettes and crumple a newspaper around them. Make one of these charcoal briquette sachets for each drawer or door on the piece of furniture. Charcoal will absorb the mothball odor.

3. Sprinkle lavender essential oil on crumpled newspaper. Newspaper will absorb mothball odors and the lavender will both help to get rid of the mothball odor and leave a nice scent.

4. Open all of the drawers and doors of your furniture and stuff with the lavender crumpled newspaper and one charcoal briquette sachet. Close all of the drawers. Let sit for a week.

5. Open all of your drawers and doors and remove the newspapers and charcoal. Throw away the newspapers and charcoal. If the odor is still present, repeat for another week.