XP: Smelly cabinets

DharmaChick

DH & I recently bought a house and we have been getting settled in over the past few weeks.

The kitchen is one of my least favorite parts of the house right now.  It's not that bad, it does get decent light and has good counter space.  But a lot of it is just old.

The part that bugs me the most is the cabinets.  We can't afford to replace them right now, and refacing isn't the big issue.  The interiors had an old, splattered matte brown paint that was dirty and not cleanable.  A couple of them had a bad smell, especially in warmer temperatures. We primed and paint over this with a clean white paint, and the smells also seemed to be gone...

However, now that the heat has hit, it got the true test - and failed.  a couple of them still have a pungent smell!  I'm not sure what to do at this point, but I don't want to put clean dishes or food in them.  Any ideas about how to kill the odor in a way that is kitchen (food) safe?

TIA!

CutesBoots

Stick a box of baking soda in them?

DharmaChick

CutesBoots:

Stick a box of baking soda in them?

I think that this is my next attempt, I just have my doubts that it will work in this case.

Lisa78

I was thinking baking soda too....could you try spraying them with white vinegar? I've found that gets rid of a lot of smelly stuff when it dries.

daisyterp

I have heard that cheap vodka can make a good odor neutralizing cleaner as it's filtered with charcoal.

DharmaChick

Thanks, I'll have to give these a shot.  I wish I knew what the source of the smell was (or maybe I don't...) because the info could possibly help me figure out how to get rid of it.  The only way to describe it is pungent - like something crawled up there and urinated - seriously, it's nasty.

Prulove

Try putting some unbrewed, ground coffee in a glass dish.Leave it in the cupboard with the door closed for a few days. Or find some charcoal, and do the same thing.