OK, as someone who used to try to salvage old books donate to my library with these techniques, I have to say. They Don't Work. Please TEST before advising on something like this. IF you are lucky enough to get them to work, I guarantee it will take a LOT longer than a couple of days.

I got two mid-century upholstered chairs in great condition at a thrift store about 20 years ago. But they stank of mildew and cigarette smoke. (This was before Febreeze, which I'd use today.) What I did (successfully) was to use upholstery cleaner first to scrub the fabric. (Murphy's soap on the wood.) Then I sprinkled baking soda all over the fabric once it was thoroughly dry. I left that on about a week, then vacuumed it off. I stored the chairs outside in the sun when weather permitted. I used some obnoxious carpet deodorizer powder, too -- it was almost worse than the mildew, very strongly scented. (This I'd substitute with Febreeze these days.) After maybe a month or 6 weeks of trying everything I could think of, the chairs had no noticeable odor and I still use them today. But it takes a lot of time and work. Plus the spores could still be there to recur if allowed to.

If the item you need to deodorize can withstand the chemistry, I think bleach (either chlorine or something like OxyFresh) might also help, but I haven't tried it for odor so it's only a suggestion to try if willing to take the risk!

I've always had success with anti-bacterial dish soap and anti-bacterial laundry detergent. Smells are usually gone after one good wash down. Never hurts to try!

Mist upholstered furniture with cheap vodka.

Also great for removing mildew sent after "flood" in basement.

You are welcome.

Oops typo: scent not sent.

Sorry.

got to agree with Stevie -- the other things really don't work well -- baking soda is good for many things but takes time & re-application to de-mustify anything. i recently bought a canister set and one of the smaller canisters was sour smelling --washing didn't help, so I put some whole cloves and boiling water and let it steep. worked fine and no clove smell remains either.

if fading is not an issue -- sunshine helps --

I second Stevie Russ on the vodka. I'm a vintage clothing collector and this is the best way to remove odor from vintage textiles. You can also add essential oils to the vodka spray. I use a lavender spray for bed linens and clothing.

I find that coffee is superior to baking soda for absorbing odor. I don't drink coffee, but I buy it just to use in my fridge for food smells. I would be interested in how the other suggestions stack up.

I had some success, with my art books anyway, by interleaving each book with baking soda inside individual ziploc bags, then putting all the ziplocs inside a heavy duty black garbage bag and setting it in the summer sun for at least a week, followed by putting the individual bags in the freezer for a few days one by one. I had a serious mold problem following a pipe breaking in the ceiling of my studio. Foxing remained but the odor was gone and the mildew seemingly dead.

Good to know about the vodka solution. Wonder why it works better than just spraying rubbing alcohol, which also doesn't stain ? Not to mention cheaper by the gallon. Anybody know ?

The Murphy's Oil Soap I get. But I don't see how absorbing an odor is going to do anything to stop the SOURCE of the odor. I tried both coffee grounds, and baking soda on my Craig's List credenza, and it did nothing. I'm going to try the soap this weekend.

Febreeze!? Wouldn't you use anything but this fake stuff?

Charcoal also works for the drawers and cabinets of vintage furniture. I find that it works best if you sue a real wood charcoal vs the pressed briquets. My wife bought some shoes that had a strong leather odor to them. Didn't bother me, but she didn't like smelling like a saddle. We put them in a drawer with some bowls of charcoal for a week and voila. No odor....

Movers arrived with our entire household of belongings and furniture reeking of mildew and many of our pieces were covered with black, white and green mold along with rust.

Plus, every single piece of furniture we owned was damaged in some way. Combine the mold with missing boxes and it's a nightmare.

We were paying $942. monthly for 14 months of climate controlled storage.

I don't even know how to begin managing this kind of moldy mess: we had thousands of books along with lots of art, drawings, paintings and manuscripts.

Just a huge sentimental loss of everything we held dear, childhood things....

Seeing this post here I'm hoping someone might have a suggestion on how to deal with this kind of mildew/mold issue on a larger scale.

Yes, we are suing the moving company.

I bought a mid century buffet that had a musty smell. I read on an on-line site that vanilla on old newspaper worked. I took old newspaper (about 2 weeks) crumpled it up and shook
vanilla on it, newspaper does not have to be soaking wet. I put this inside the drawers and cabinets of the buffet and in about 2 weeks the musty smell was gone. I did re-wet the newspaper once w/more vanilla.

The best stuff I have used (learned it from a costumer....) is called "Fresh Again" -- I used to get it from Greenberg and Hammer in NYC, but alas, they are no more...so have to get it online. They have different products for different kinds of funk --- smoke, sweat, mildew etc etc....you spray it on...wrap the item in plastic overnight and when you open it...no more smell....and it's pretty reasonable at about $6/bottle.

We are two weeks in to trying to clean a really cute but really smelly (cigarette smoke and mildew) dresser. So far we stripped the finish (and hopefully the cigarette tar) off with TSP and we have put baking soda in each of the drawers. Also we left the whole thing out in the sun for a couple of days. Nothing is working yet. I think the odors are just too saturated into the wood. We'll probably try all of the things listed here. Will definitely report back if any of them work.

I just cleaned up 2 vintage suitcases that I swear to you could knock out an entire subway cart unconscious if you opened them up. I used just about everything to get rid of the smells and stains and you know what worked the best? Sunlight.
Nice hot all day long sunlight.
And a lot of Lysol.
Mind you this was PVC and fabric and not paper.

Sky Violet: OH NO! That's awful.
Since mold is a living thing, a lot of mold-removing products are enzyme-based. I had luck with one called Moldzyme in my bath. Stinks real bad, but kills the mold.

For that much stuff, tho...

Freezing and sunshine I'd think? Lots of vacuuming?

Here's a website for battling mold: http://moldblogger.com/how-to-remove-mold-from-books/

Good luck!

white vinegar will remove most smells, it's phenomenal really, and it's a good cleaner. Surprised that wasn't top of the list.

I'm right in the middle of a de-mildewing a sweet second hand dresser with a ton of drawers. I removed all nine of the drawers and used murphy's wood soap on the inside and outside. Then I sprayed a combination of bleach and water on the outside of the drawers and they are all "cooking" in the sun. I realized after taking out the drawers that the back of the dresser was the mildew-making culprit. It was made of pressboard and was completely soaked and flaking. I just removed the back, washed out the inside section with murphys again and sprayed the areas between the drawers with bleach/water. Already the elements are starting to smell odor free. As a final plan for stink removal my mother recommends painting the inside of the dresser and the drawers with zorbx (https://www.zorbx.com) which she swears will take the smell out of anything! I'll report back in a couple of days!

As long as it's not a bad case of mould or mildew or something similar, I've found that rice can get rid of musty smells. Just put a couple of trays of it in the place you want to demustify, and leave for a few days (depends on how bad the smell is).

Spoiler alert this is a creepy problem.
I am in the process of rehabbing a long abandoned cabin. The mice (well rats really) have made this their home for the passed 5 years. Access is impossible so I have to use what is already in place. The oven has been home to aforementioned rats and well the smell is overpowering. I have cleaned it out but not used any chemicals on it, YET. I would like to use the oven someday but I wonder if the smell of urine and god knows can be eliminated ever? Any help much appreciated.

@CD Lane - try Nature's Miracle for the urine / god knows what smells. You should be able to pick it up in any pet store and if the smell is really bad, stock up on it. Nature's Miracle contains enzymes that eat feces and urine (and I assume other biological matter) - I don't want to gross anyone out, but repeated applications saved a cream colored wall to wall carpet from a very, very sick german shepherd's ... er, explosions. My mother was away at the time and I didn't clue her in for months about what had happened in the middle of her living room hours before she arrived home. She never even knew, that's how good this stuff is. However, since the stains are old, it may be less effective, but still worth a try.

@lyndale. Thanks. I will try that out. I now know you HAVE to get rid of all smells cuz apparently rats have a olfactory sense that is far superior to that of dogs.
You can tell how I spent my Memorial day holiday.

For the ratty oven, maybe it's just me but I would never be able to eat anything out of that. I would imagine rat turds falling from a missed spot into my food. I would throw that stove out and get a used one from a used appliance place (with turds that you don't KNOW about :-)) or even buy a new one on clearance or a low end model that's not too expensive. New would probably be more energy efficient anyway. Also, if the ratty one is gas be careful of clogged gas line, after 5 years spiders, turds, dirt or anything could have clogged the gas line. May need someone who works with gas (gas company or plumber) to check it out.

CityKitty . Yeah that would be nice to simply toss it but said oven resides in a cabin that requires a 1/4 mile hike up a very small steep trail or to be walked across a rather large swift river to be gotten out or to get anything else in for that matter. It's electric from the 50's and frackin heavy. I have the same feelings about the cleanliness of it and may spend all my time up there simply BBQing because of it. That said i would still love suggestions.

CD, Re the rodent/stove combo, as the unhappy current owner of a thoroughly "moused" oven, you need to open the whole top of the oven up and get rid of the insulation blanket that wraps around the inside. When you open it, you'll quickly realize enzyme products won't take care of what's in there (I use and love them for dog/cat messes). You can buy new insulation blanket online- they are expensive for what they are, but it's the only way you'll fix the problem...

Vinegar gets rid of the smell of urine like absolutely nothing else.