Furniture and Furnishings - How to remove musty smell...help.

My wife found an old dresser that she loved at an auction last year. When we got it home and opened up the drawers, they had a musty or moldy smell. We took the drawers out and left them out for months thinking they could just use a little air, the smell is still there. We even tried washing the inside of the drawers with windex, still no luck. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get this musty smell out of these wood drawers.
Thank you..........

I like to put dried potpourri or sachet bag, or a bar of strong scented soap or even scented fabric softener sheets in the drawers and close them. I've always found these to make the drawers (and every thing in it) smell nice.

If they've been airing for months, I'm not sure the traditional odor absorbers (air sponge, bag of volcanic rock, massive doses of Lysol/Febreeze) will help

Give them all a try, but I suspect they are bad enough that the next step is to seal the drawers with a shellac

We use Odoban for odor removal. We buy it a sams club, but I've heard there is some availablity at walmart. Put a small open bowl of it in each drawer and close them up for a couple days. If that doesn't do it, go with slick's suggestion and seal the inside of the drawers with a coat of shellac.

I used to work for a water restoration company and we came across a lot of house that had a bad musty odor to it rule of the trade was to get throw it out, but that was when it came to carpet and pad. with furniture you can try to use odor killing products don't work you will have to seal it to prevent the odor from escaping out of the wood.

One addition to the previous posts:

Seal the entire piece - not just the inside of the drawers. Outside, bottom (underneath) of the drawers and the interior of the case.

The odor is in the entire piece, so ALL of it has to be sealed.

Thanks everyone! You have all been a great deal of help. :thumbup: