How to get a smell out of a bag

Hey y'all, I bought a pre loved Gucci Marmont bag with the microfiber lining. When the bag came it was in pristine condition....except the interior smelled extremely metallic, like I couldn't stand it.
It's been 4 months now, and I have put baking soda 4x and let it sit for 1 week at a time, I used charcoal bag deodorizers, I had it sitting open by a window in sunlight, and I used coffee and let it sit for a week and then baking soda after.
This strategy has helped 80%, but there's still a faint smell....anyone have a trick that will work to get the remaining smell out?
Lover girl, if you search read prior pages on this thread, and possibly others in this handbag maintenance section, there Are lots of suggestions like what you’ve done above, and there are others like stuffing with newspaper, Using febreze Etc! Good luck and please post back if you’ve tried anything else that works! :smile:
 
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I bought a vintage LV epi backpack and it reeked of musty/dusty smell. I tried everything, it seemed. I almost gave up and was about ready to reconsign it and take the loss, then I tried the silica gel packs that are packed in shoe boxes, OTC pills, etc. I put about twenty in there. Zipped it up for a few days. The smell definitely lessened and it seemed the silica gel packs took in the smell. So I put a new set of twenty. Zipped it up again for a few days. May have had to repeat one more time until it was completely gone. Highly recommend silica gel packs. Fish them out of your vitamins, shoe boxes!
 
I recommend the silica packs as well, but mostly lavender and sunshine!
My vintage bag arrived with a musky old closet smell and my first course of action was to give the bag a very gentle wipe with a microfiber cloth (first dry, then a lightly damp cloth inside), and lightly clean the leather pockets with leather cleaner. After it dried I put about twenty silica packs in there to remove any must and make sure it dried properly.

The most helpful thing has been lavender though. It's quite expensive to buy dried lavender sachets for your closets and drawers, which is what everyone recommends, so I bought a $3.99 box of lavender tea with 25 tea bags in it. The lavender works wonders. It's even bringing back the original yummy leather smell somehow. I place about ten inside at a time on a paper towel (in case the teabags have oils on them) and refresh after a few days. I also place some in a plastic bag with the purse so that the lavender smell infiltrates the outside of the bag too.
The other thing is to let the bag sit outside in the sunshine, obviously not so much it bleaches the bag though!
 
I have a strange odor problem with a Coach Campbell bag I bought new about five years ago online. I only paid around $100 for it, but when it arrived it looked a little too "old lady" for my tastes so I vowed to resell it. Fast forward to about a week ago when I finally decided to dig it back out.

Unfortunately, I left the plastic protective wrapping on the purse. I thought (at the time) that a buyer might dig the wrapping, which would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed NWT. But I now know it was a mistake and the entire purse reeks of plastic, not a whiff of leather scent at all. I've had it hanging inside with a couple of bamboo charcoal bags inside and it's made not one whit of difference in a week.

Is this a lost cause? Might lavender (or lavender tea, as @Farkvam above mentions) be helpful? Wait until spring and set it out in in the sunlight? Any other ideas?

I still intend to sell it, but pouting over it for the last few days has gotten me a little attached, so who knows what I'll do. Either way, I don't want it to reek.
 
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I have a strange odor problem with a Coach Campbell bag I bought new about five years ago online. I only paid around $100 for it, but when it arrived it looked a little too "old lady" for my tastes so I vowed to resell it. Fast forward to about a week ago when I finally decided to dig it back out.

Unfortunately, I left the plastic protective wrapping on the purse. I thought (at the time) that a buyer might dig the wrapping, which would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed NWT. But I now know it was a mistake and the entire purse reeks of plastic, not a whiff of leather scent at all. I've had it hanging inside with a couple of bamboo charcoal bags inside and it's made not one whit of difference in a week.

Is this a lost cause? Might lavender (or lavender tea, as @Farkvam above mentions) be helpful? Wait until spring and set it out in in the sunlight? Any other ideas?

I still intend to sell it, but pouting over it for the last few days has gotten me a little attached, so who knows what I'll do. Either way, I don't want it to reek.
If you intend to sell it or not, I would still try the lavender tea bags inside and outside the bag (making sure not to make direct contact with the bag). It'll make it smell strongly of lavender for awhile but after some time it'll dissipate and hopefully leave behind the original smell of the bag, or a neutral smell.

If you keep it longer, the sunshine and fresh air helps. If you keep it permanently, simply using it and filling it with your own items is one way of getting rid of an unwanted smell.
Hope that helps!
 
I have a strange odor problem with a Coach Campbell bag I bought new about five years ago online. I only paid around $100 for it, but when it arrived it looked a little too "old lady" for my tastes so I vowed to resell it. Fast forward to about a week ago when I finally decided to dig it back out.

Unfortunately, I left the plastic protective wrapping on the purse. I thought (at the time) that a buyer might dig the wrapping, which would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed NWT. But I now know it was a mistake and the entire purse reeks of plastic, not a whiff of leather scent at all. I've had it hanging inside with a couple of bamboo charcoal bags inside and it's made not one whit of difference in a week.

Is this a lost cause? Might lavender (or lavender tea, as @Farkvam above mentions) be helpful? Wait until spring and set it out in in the sunlight? Any other ideas?

I still intend to sell it, but pouting over it for the last few days has gotten me a little attached, so who knows what I'll do. Either way, I don't want it to reek.
Can you put it outside for a few days?
 
I have a strange odor problem with a Coach Campbell bag I bought new about five years ago online. I only paid around $100 for it, but when it arrived it looked a little too "old lady" for my tastes so I vowed to resell it. Fast forward to about a week ago when I finally decided to dig it back out.

Unfortunately, I left the plastic protective wrapping on the purse. I thought (at the time) that a buyer might dig the wrapping, which would prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was indeed NWT. But I now know it was a mistake and the entire purse reeks of plastic, not a whiff of leather scent at all. I've had it hanging inside with a couple of bamboo charcoal bags inside and it's made not one whit of difference in a week.

Is this a lost cause? Might lavender (or lavender tea, as @Farkvam above mentions) be helpful? Wait until spring and set it out in in the sunlight? Any other ideas?

I still intend to sell it, but pouting over it for the last few days has gotten me a little attached, so who knows what I'll do. Either way, I don't want it to reek.
My go to are these packets, freshwave odor removing packs. A local grocery store carries them. Now, they do have an intense smell themselves. I had a vintage unlined leather Coach pouch that had a weird smell. I propped it open with a cut straw, put a pack in a little dish and put it inside it. A few days later, it now smelled like the packet, per the label, plant oils. So I took the packet out and let it air out a few days and the smell of the packet dissipated.
Yeah, a two-step process, but hey, it works. For less than $10. They work great in my little galley kitchen when I am sautéing and the smell lingers.
 
My go to are these packets, freshwave odor removing packs. A local grocery store carries them. Now, they do have an intense smell themselves. I had a vintage unlined leather Coach pouch that had a weird smell. I propped it open with a cut straw, put a pack in a little dish and put it inside it. A few days later, it now smelled like the packet, per the label, plant oils. So I took the packet out and let it air out a few days and the smell of the packet dissipated.
Yeah, a two-step process, but hey, it works. For less than $10. They work great in my little galley kitchen when I am sautéing and the smell lingers.
Thanks for the tip!
 
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Maybe put a opened box of baking soda in the bag to absorb the odor? I've also heard charcoal but I'd be leery of getting it dirty.

Hey, want to be my neighbor too? Welcome to the forum!
I sometimes buy scarves that unknown to me have a perfume odor. I ask sellers whether the scarf has odor and some are not truthful. If I pay a high price for the scarf and the seller doesn't admit that odor exists, it goes back. It costs $45 to get the scarf dry-cleaned at a specialty cleaners that has an "ionic" capacity to get rid of the odor. Sometimes I return the scarf to the cleaner to redo, which they do, at no charge.

My home-made solution is to take a plastic bin of medium size and a tight cover. Put the unfolded scarf in it along with 3-4 Arm & Hammer baking soda boxes that have sides that facilitate the bs absorption (as opposed to ripping the top off and spilling the powder all over the scarf & bin). I check the scarf periodically, shaking it to get different parts exposed to the bs. I also move the bs boxes around the bin. After a month the odor usually is gone.

If your purse odor comes from the inside, I'd try stuffing the purse with baking soda boxes that have the exposed sides. Change the boxes after a month. I imagine exposure to fresh air is a pretty good solution but I don't have the yard for it.
 
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I was able to get the perfume smell out of my Burberry tote by placing it in front of the AC vent, propped open with a water bottle. I left it there for about 4 weeks -- to be honest, I put in in a room we don't often use and I forgot about it in there. I wouldn't have tried it in the winter with the heat but since we're running AC I figured I'd take advantage of it, since it was no additional cost and absolute minimum time/effort. I'm very happy with it and plan to take it out for the first time tomorrow. Before it smelled like horrible fake watermelon and now it just smells like leather.

I'm going to see if I can use this "airing out" method on the vintage Bottega Veneta I just got. It smells like an old bookstore, not in a blatant mildew or mold way, but it is definitely musty and slightly papery. I wonder if it was in someone's closet next to old books or cardboard boxes. It's a pretty small bag and is leather lined so I'm still trying to figure out how to best prop it open. I'm going to try the airing for a week and see if there is any noticeable improvement. With how well the other bag turned out, I'm trying not to be impatient -- but this odor isn't nearly as strong as the perfume odor so I'm crossing my fingers that I can use this bag without needing the full 4 weeks. If it still has an odor a month from now, I'll try some of the other methods mentioned in this thread. Will report back then.