I have now retrieved my furniture from storage, more than a year after I moved into my house. I delayed doing this in part because there were interior construction projects I needed to complete, like installing the wall base and assembling the hanging doors, and in part because I knew there would be fragrance on the furniture as a result of my two year rental during construction. (How I ended up in a rental with fragrance residue is a traumatic story, which I will skip for now.) I expected the fragrance to cling to the upholstery and I was prepared to replace the 30-year old fabric if necessary, but I was surprised to find that the fragrance was much more deeply bonded to the wood. Wood is permeable, but there was a chemical sealant on it, so I expected it to be protected. My theory is that the fragrance bonded with the furniture polish I used, which was a mixture of beeswax, carnuba wax, and olive oil. I experimented with half a dozen different solvents before determining that repeated applications of vinegar would remove the fragrance. One of my chairs required daily wipe downs for three weeks, and it is now lighter than the other chairs, but there is no detectible fragrance, and my VOC meter is registering 0.0 total VOCs in the house. Even if my meter is not 100% accurate, I am sure this is the cleanest indoor environment I have ever had.
