Mold on furniture

tegan Have you Googled it to try ad see what sort of mould it might be.
There is stuff on there. I would also suggest you use a face mask.

Often poor ventilation behind a cupboard on an outside wall can cause this. The outside wall is cooler and gets more condensation than interior walls.

Tegran, we had a similar problem years ago. It was a watdrobe against an outside wall. The solution was simple, treat the mould with an anti mould treatment to kill off the spores, then we moved the wardrobe about 2 inches from the wall to allow the air to circulate behind.

I think you've hit the cause there Tegan, humidifiers aren't enough, you need air circulating which humidifiers don't do. Even leaving a window open just a little bit would help.

I've tried the clove oil [although it keeps reminding me of my toothache]. The good thing is that, because the carpet is going to be replaced I can slosh the solution around and not have to worry about it staining the carpet and also the new plugs I've had put in mean that I can plug the dehumidifier next to the drying wood. And I've got the cd player working again. I need some vinegar anyway so I'll try that as well. I do dry clothes in the house and, even though I have the dehumidifier on there is no flow of air. Need to open the windows more.

I had this problem when we lived in an old house without central (or much else!) heating.
I wiped the wardrobes down with vinegar diluted 50/50 in warm water and it worked.
It also worked on my shoes that went mouldy in the wardrobe. I think it's caused by damp and lack of circulating air?
If the wall's not damp just making sure the wood's dry before moving it back might be enough.

I think it lack of airflow - we had that on the side of a wardrobe even though there was a gap between it and the wall.

...it's very old and is flush against the wall. The top is very unstable but can't be screwed down as that would make it difficult to move around. Perhaps if, when I've washed and dried it, a coat of wax would protect it from the damp.

Y'know I bought something from a hardware shop which, if I'd had a voucher with me would have given me one of those for free, but forgot the voucher. Strange thing is, now the furniture is away from the wall the 'cuckoo spit' type mold has gone down leaving jist a white sheen. It's like Day of the Triffids in my living room at the moment. On top of that, the cd player [reason for the work being done today] isn't working. Think I'll have a and ponder. Mind you, given that the S.O. and the dog are away at the moment at least I've got another life form in the house [looking on the bright side] . I'll just go and ask it what it would like to watch on the telly tonight.

Dresser - oops!

I have had this on pine furniture and I brushed it off as best I could with a stiff brush (I should have worn a face mask I suppose, but I didn't). If the back is not too rough, you could use a wood cleaning liquid product as well. You may need to leave a bigger gap behind the dreeser if you can without the top being dangerous to encourage air flow.

According to this you might not even need anything more than washing up liquid. Good Housekeeping (scroll down)

Wonder if this would work on wood