Oder Eaters What You Will Need

•A lidded air-tight plastic storage box large enough to fit the book or paper item to be deodorized.
•2 or 3 boxes of baking soda.
•A screen or rack fitted to the inside of the box. It must be something that allows air to flow around the book or other paper item.
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1.Empty the baking soda into the bottom of the box and level it out.
2.Place a couple mugs upside down on the bottom to hold the small rack.
3.Place the book closed on the rack and leave it. After a couple of weeks, begin opening pages and leave it again. This could take months. Keep checking every week or so, until all signs of the musty odor have gone. It may help to replace the baking soda at some point.
Prints, old magazines and other paper items can all be saved using this proven method Baking Soda N Oders works in freezer and refrigerater also just open the box and put in the crisper if you like.

I asked a friend who collects 70’s comic books. He wraps (each separate) with Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil paper for about 10 days, each laid flat where direct sunlight (or outside) can warm up the foil. Not only does it help thicken the pages nicely but also releases the smell from storage. Hope this helps you too. Good Luck!

I’ve never tried this method, but I read about it in the message forums…I found it for you, hope it helps!!

About musty books-I use cat litter. I use the cheapest basic kind, but I think any kind would work. Wrap the book in s thin layer of tissue paper or put in a paper bag, this is just to keep the litter from getting in the pages or binding, then put the wrapped book inside a plastic bag or tote with a lid. Spread a couple of lbs of litter under, over, and around the book. Close it up and leave it for a few days. If that doesn’t do it, dump the litter and replace with fresh, do the whole process over, It might take a couple of weeks. This works for many things, leather jackets, boots, tupperware, wooden boxes that silverware is stored in, etc. And if the item is washable you don’t need to wrap the item before putting it in the kitty litter.

I heard Odor Air-Magnet suggested once, so I tried it. It is made by Osmegen, Inc. Their website is www.naturalmagic.com. Get the original odor Air-Magnet – the company offers a lot of fruity or flowery smelling versions which I don’t feel work as well. Odor Air-Magnet is available at my small local hardware store, but not at Home Depot.

What I do is put the open container of Odor Air-Magnet container inside a plastic tub with whatever I am trying to freshen. I put the lid on the plastic tub, and let it work for a couple weeks. It found it is actually best to crack the lid of the plastic tub slightly to allow a little air circulation. And keep the tub in an area that isn’t humid, or it defeats the purpose of what you are trying to do.

It seems to help – it doesn’t get rid of mustiness that is very bad – maybe repeat the treatment – I think the worst thing to deal with is magazines printed on slick paper. Maybe comics, with their porous paper would work better. Oh, and after you are through, you are left with a sweet-smelling item, that you may want to air out for several weeks after treatment.

Colleagues of mine at work tried cat litter, and it didn’t work for them, but I really don’t think they did it right.

To prevent mustiness in the first place, keep humidity under control in basements, etc. and don’t store paper items, etc. in damp areas. Yes, I have seen leather items suffer with this, too.

I would be curious to know about other people’s experience with this problem.

I’ve been reading other people’s replies to this query. VERY interesting – lots of things to try. Applauds to all!

I have tried the kitty litter, baking soda, charcoal, and air/sunshine methods all with great success. I can vouch for all of them for books, comics, and even doll clothing.

We often get collections of books from people who were smokers, or whose books have absorbed cooking odors or have just become musty with age…we have a few of what we call “stink boxes” :) ~ just large Rubbermaid containers with lids and cat litter. The litter that we’ve found works the best for us is called Swheatscoop ( [URL removed] ) because it’s not perfumey and there’s not a lot of dust involved. It works great to draw the odors out, since, as the website says “Naturally Eliminates Odor. Thanks to our patented process, this litter’s natural wheat enzymes work continuously to neutralize litter box odor…” It usually only takes a day or two to work. (I use this brand for my cat box too!)

That aroma comes from a decade of aborbing moisture from the air in the basement. Newsprint used for comic books is highly absorbent stuff, so what you smell is basically wet paper with the tang of whatever was in the ink -probably a soy bean by-product.

Thus, drying out the paper will make the chemistry slow down and the smell will stop radiating from the pile. On a small scale, you basically have the same project that a museum faces when attempting to preserve old paper, vellum, fabric, etc.

And the trick is to let the drying take place slowly in places of low humidity and some movement of air. Slowly, because you don’t want the paper to wrinkle or warp while drying out. An air conditioned space, or an area with a dehumidifier is not a bad choice. I would be inclined to let the comics sit in stacks so their own weight helps keep them compressed and flat.

One of the ways to measure how much drying has taken place is to weigh the comic books before you start, then at intervals of every week or so – you’ll be amazed how much all that water weighs. As a last step, fan the pages carefully a few times. How long will it take? Depends on a lot of factors, but I would figure at least a month.

The idea of sealing the mags in plastic document bags is OK ONLY if they are already at optimum water content. You do need some moisture in the fiber for everything to remain supple. But if there is too much moisture, the document baggie simply becomes a compost pile. The books are right when they open easily and feel right when handled.

Hope that helps.

I use ordinary charcoal brickets to remove smoke,musty smells and just about any offensive oder from certain items.I place item/s in a big plastic trash bag,add a ladies knee hi stocking full of charcoal(DO NOT PLACE CHARCOAL DIRECTLY ON ITEM/S )and tie the bag up.leave for at least a week and then check for odors.May take a month or longer depending on the smells but this has always worked for me :)

I once used newspaper to get rid of odors in a refrigerator. We had rented our home in Key Largo for the summer and the renters stored bait (uggh…worse than regular fish) in both the refrig and freezer compartment. We tried swabbing with Lysol, Clorox, baking soda…no luck..still way fishy. We read on line about a method of wadding news paper loosely and stuffing the whole unit with it top and bottom while it was left running. After two weeks, no smell at all. Discarded newspaper and the refrig still smells great a year later. The article said that the carbon in the newsprint absorbs the odor. Perhaps a variation of this would work. Newspaper in a dessicator…the ones with all the stacked trays would let you layer the comics well for circulation.

Put musty books in the freezer, or you can put the comic book in a container with ground coffee.

I have tried both ways and they both work real good.

“He wraps (each separate) with Reynolds Wrap Aluminum Foil paper for about 10 days, each laid flat where direct sunlight (or outside) can warm up the foil. Not only does it help thicken the pages nicely but also releases the smell from storage.”

Looks like the best one to me! Who want to spend months and dollars to make a few pennies!

Now why didn’t I see this 2 months ago when I had a leather purse that smelled like cigarette smoke? Shame I didn’t have the “umph” to ask the question. Thanks, guys, I’ll remember this one.

By the way, baking soda is great for gum disease. Use your finger and push the soda down into the gum in and around your teeth. In about 2 weeks, you’ve got pretty pink and healthy gums. Works great

I’m posting this question on my comics forum. Since I have always stored comics in comic bags, this has never been an issue for me; however, it is a great question. I will post any responses I get. Unfortunately, I fear that most of these responses may help cause further damage to fragile comics, as kitty litter would potentially cause dimples on the pages. I may be wrong; just a fear I would have in even trying this method.