I have my fingers crossed that one of you Mom's out there has an answer for me! I saved a big box of all of my childhood favorite books so I could share them with with my children someday. They have been stored in the basement for many years now and although they are in good shape, they smell like the basement. Any tips on how I can de- stink them?
Thanks!!!
Hey L.! I haven't had to try this yet, but two tricks I've heard of are dryer sheets, or plain old newspaper. Layer it through some pages and let it sit awhile.
Hope this helps!
Open them up so air can circulate through the pages and put a bowl of vinegar in front of the books with a fan on low speed blowing the vinegar fumes over the books. Do this for several hours. Should work !
First off you need to determine if it is just musty smell or if there are mold spores. Mold spores can lie dormant in a book for a very long time. It is very expensive to get mold out of books and the mold can spread to all your other books. That's why libraries try not to keep water damaged books (unless rare or expensive enough to justify the cost of mold abatement).
If just mold - don't use dryer sheets directly on the book if you want the book to last. Unless you are positive the sheets are acid free, lingin (sp?) free and absolutely dry. You could use the sheets near the books.
What has been recommended to me by a preservation librarian (not all librarians are trained to preserve books - many do things that are really BAD for books) is
first off to try standing the book up with the pages fanning out. Give it a few days like this. If that doesn't work, stand the book up the same way in a wooden chest or wardrobe. Add crumpled newspaper around the book (not touching, especially if the book pages are already yellowing). Keep closed up for about two weeks. Change the newspaper every so often (it must be newsprint paper).
Afterward, don't store the books in a bookcase with doors or one with the books tightly packed in.
Unfortunately sometimes you just can't get the musty smell out of the books - but it does fade over time. I have several of my own books that are a little musty after 2 children. My mom gave my second boy a series of Raggedy Ann and Andy books that were hers as a child. They are so musty and right now both my son and my asthma is acting up. There's no way I can tackle this right now.
Hi L.,
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Taking them out of the basement and airing the books is the first step, over time I've found the smell will fade. I get the lavendar laundry bags/sachets from Trader Joe's to tuck into storage boxes & ward off musty odors. Keeping one of those in with the books for awhile might overcome the basement smell.
PS - someone gave us an old childhood Golden book about a train called 'Tootle' from the '50s that smelled like that - its such a long, long book I hate to read it but my 4 year old son likes it...we've read it so many times, I have to say the smell has disappeared!
Take the books and pile them into a large trash bag.On top of the stack, place a small tray of kitty litter. Seal up the bag, leave it for several days. When you open the bag, the books should smell a lot better. If a trace of the odor remains, change the cat litter and close the bag up again for a few more days.
Good luck!
