Martinis.

Fingernail polish remover
Fingernail polish

Don't get me started. On hard modern finishes, silicone-containing aerosol sprays may do no harm, but on old or compromised (i.e., dull) varnish or shellac finishes--in other words, those that would seem most to benefit from something that promises beauty "instantly"--such products can turn the fragile older finish into a gummy mess that you can scrape off with your fingernail and contaminate the old wood below, making it all but impossible to refinish.

This evil stuff is banned at my house. If I want to smell lemony freshness, I'll sniff a lemon drop.

TV remote. Hubby left it laying on our leather ottoman. The battery acid leaked and the remote adhered to the leather. We had to pry it off. It discolored the leather & changed the texture, leaving a white rectangle shaped mark about 1" by 2".

They're nasty on modern wood furniture too, Mag. When I found the front page of the newspaper in the process of being imaged into my brand stinkin' new coffee table, I banned them from my house too!

Not putting felt padding on the bottom of items. They scratch when moved.

Cats!

Hand Sanitizer dripped on an end table-- and ate right through the finish to the bare wood :(

I usually lurk, but had to pass this along to others.

A (now ex-)DH armed with Windex. You'd think he was Greek. (I say that last bit with all fondness because we LOVE that movie.)

Believe it or not, a glass top. Condensation and focusing of light between the glass and the top finish. Bumpers underneath the glass allow some circulation, but it may still degrade over time.

Potpourie with cinnamon oil...left in a ceramic bowl on a table somehow the cinammon oil leeches out of the bottom of the bowl and dissolves the furniture finish.

Steam from an iron...even if you are ironing on top of a towel :(

Wow! I'm almost sorry I started this thread because reading these things is going to make me paranoid! How does oil leech out of a ceramic bowl??? And hand sanitizer? What was it? The alcohol?

Who knew?

I have to believe it's the alcohol. The label says 62% Ethyl Alcohol. My son got a few drips on the table (my daughter has had the flu so we're all trying not to spread it). Drips on the wood floor left white spots, which I was able to remove with a Magic Eraser. Needless to say, the hand sanitizer is now in the kitchen. It was Walgreens brand.

Those cutout sunglasses the optometrist gives out after he dilates your pupils. My son left them on a black finished coffee table. When they were eventually picked up a few days later the imprint of the glasses was clearly visible. It took a month or two but has faded now.

when I purchased my fine bedroom set they told us not to leave anything plastic on the finish. I had a stack of clean socks on top of my bureau for a couple of days and the grippy/non-slip bottom of my son's socks at through the finish!

I've had terrible experience with three things (so far):

1) laundry stain remover - bottle was in a mesh basket, fell over, leaked over a shellaced table and ate the finish

2) mosquito repellant - the super deep woods oily version. Ate a plastic cap of a near by bottle before staining a wooden shelf.

3) lit liquid fondue fuel. My ex set my kitchen table on fire (actually, to be precise, the fuel was on fire and he slopped it everywhere. It ran down the table onto the floor), and took the finish right off the table, in a long streak.

SOS pads! My husband once used them to get some masking tape residue of a lacquered cabinet when we moved. True story and yes we are still married

I had a mixture of Oxi Clean and water in a spray bottle for a stain on the rug. Well the mixture leaked out of the bottle and took the finish off a table right down to the bare wood.

Ball point pen ink...:(

Oh my word! So much damage by so many things!

Excuse me while I run downstairs and move the hand sanitizer off the table...

Well, hasn't eaten the finish, but it's hard to get off - dried milk!

Spray foam insulation

pants with back pocket rivets, snaps, zippers (sweatpants) or rhinestones will scratch DR chairs. Oh, and if the furniture refinisher forgets to tell you that he just sprayed the last coat of lacquer on the seats that day, nylon wind pants will leave a very nice impression in soft lacquer!

Movers who take the table pad *off* the table, then proceed to use it as a work surface to wrap small items. Movers who take the mirror off your dresser and lay the screws down on top, then "sweep" them off into their hand when they have them all off. And these guys move antiques, came highly recommended!

But really, anything with alcohol, acetone, or lacquer thinner (Goof Off!) will damage finishes. Mineral spirits/paint thinner/turpentine/naptha actually isn't that bad on clear finishes, though I wouldn't let a leaky can or a wet rag sit on a table. I don't recommend dusting with it (though it's better than Pledge!), but if you're refinishing or renewing a finish, using a tack cloth dampened with mineral spirits before applying a new finish will get dust off without raising the grain.

Those little soft plastic ducks that your kids get as prizes (thanks!!) at the pizza and game places. Had one sitting on a chest (new and expensive) and the finish just dissolved.

Clorox IN the original bottle, not open or spilled. I had a bottle "eat through" the original plastic bottle and leak in my laundry cabinet! It destroyed my nice cabinets! If the bottle the bleach comes in isn't safe for storage, what is???

Live Butterfly Pavillion (hatch your own butterflies kit). My daughter had it on a table on her room and the green leaf pattern on the bottom of the cage permanently transferred to her white table.

Windex Spill on Travertine (left bright blue stain when bottle tipped over on its side on the bathroom counter...it did come out with water though).

Second the comment on plastic. I left a plastic eraser (to do crosswords) on the bedside table. It ate through the finish to the wood.

On the way to school, my son laid a warm bagel, wrapped in a napkin, on a mahogany console table. It left a perfect, bagel-sized dark mark on the finish. A bagel!!! What the whuck?

do floors count? Dogs!