removing musty (and other) smells from books - here's how

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OK all-

Several options:

1) placing them in an area with lots of air circulation (fans, outdoors).

2) sunlight, although this option would not be viable for all books, especially the Hemingways. Keep in mind sunlight will fade book cloths, leathers and may cause pages to yellow or darken - use your best judgement.

3) for rarer materials, use the "garbage can" method. You will need:

two containers, one large enough to contain the other, the larger one having a lid

odor-absorbing material like baking soda, activated charcoal, zeolites, or (tada) kitty litter (unscented - unless you want your books to haev a fresh scent)

your object(s) which should be able to fit in the smaller of the containers

place your object(s) in the smaller container. at the bottom of the larger container, place your odor-absorbing material. just sprinkle it in the bottom of the container, enough to cover the bottom of the larger container. place the smaller container in the larger container and then place the lid on the larger container to create a sealed micro-environment. this does take several months, but it does work. it may also take several replacement cycles of the odor absorbing material to remove all of the smell. this would work great for any odor including smoke.

good luck everyone!
tara