8/20/2014

How to get the old vintage smell out of your bags


Use steam! I found out that it is the best way to get the annoying smell out of your stuff. I've tried baking soda, febreze, airing it out but nothing really helped. Suddenly I came up with the idea to use my little steamer. I bought it a year ago when I started buying second hand furniture. I wanted to be sure when I bought a chair, even if it looked clean, had nothing nasty hidden in the fabric. I've been using the steamer ever since for cleaning older stuff or delicate fabrics and I can tell you it's worth the money.

So what did I do with my bags?
I grabbed my little steamer, held the bag up side down and started filling the bag with steam. Then I turned the bag around to let the steam out and repeated this several times. After a couple of minutes of doing this, I filled the bag with paper and let it dry. After the bag was completely dried, there had been a 80-90 percent decrease of the smell. To get rid of the last 10-20 percent, just repeat the process. 

If you would like to try this out yourself, please remember a couple of things:

- Don't let the steam near the leather (vachetta) because the heat and moist can damage/darken it, or leave water stains.

- Also don't forget to fill the bag with absorbing paper afterwards to let it dry completely. If the bag isn't able to dry properly, the moist of the steam will just feed the mildew/mold that could be in your bag and worsen it.

- Use the steamer on fabrics that can handle the heat, like cotton. Otherwise you might also damage the inside of your bag.

I used this method now on two of my vintage Louis Vuitton bags, and it really worked out great. I hope my little tip can help others!

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