A trick that I learned from a used book dealer friend of mine: Place the books into an air tight bag (trash bag) with Kitty Litter. The amount of litter varies with the number of books and amount of smoke. Let sit, checking every month or so. The smoke smell will gradually be removed. Any yellowing will not change, however.
Beth At 11:19 AM 4/28/2008, you wrote: >Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2008 14:46:23 +0000 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Hi, all, >I am helping my 82-year-old parents clear out their house in >preparation for moving to something more manageable. My mom used to >sew, and I am finding boxes and boxes of patterns from the 60s and >70s -- Simplicity, Butterick, McCall's, Vogue. Likewise, there are >four double closets full of, um, typical suburban clothes and shoes, >mostly from the 70s. My question is whether there is a market for >them, given that they have been kept for 40 years in a house with at >least two and sometimes four cigarette smokers. Everything in the >house has a strong cigarette smoke smell; many things are brown with >what I guess is deposited tar. (Veimru: Yuck.) > >So before I tell my dad it should all go in a dumpster, I just >wanted to check whether there was any point in trying to find a >buyer for them. > >Likewise, though off-topic (because they are not costume books; >apparently I developed that obsession on my own) are the books in >the house rendered worthless by the smoke and tar? > >I am also hoping for some suggestions about how to get the smell out >of the clothes, patterns, or books that I might want to save. >Thanks for any thoughts you might share. >Lauren >[EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
