Already I neglect my blog-posting schedule. Maybe you didn’t realize I had a schedule, but I do, and I’ve been neglecting it. It is just hard to know what to post when everything going through your head is a hissing, snarling, complaint about your “terrible life.” (As if.) You know the saying: if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all. So I haven’t been.
It is also hard to write a blog post when all of your spare moments are spent trying to bring some semblance of order back to your upturned house.
Let me explain. Everything needs attention in order to thrive—even the backs of closets and the bottoms of mattresses—and MOLD has become the character that sneaks into my life and seems to punish me for my inattention to such details.
It began in our first apartment, which we moved into last summer. I don’t remember when exactly we found and fought the first outbreaks of mold in that apartment, but afterward we tried to keep the air circulating and dry—especially in the bathroom. But it only got worse, culminating, in January, with the discovery of copious mold on the wall behind our bed, covering the boards of our bed frame, and on the bottom of our mattress. This explained why Gil, with his allergies, was starting to wheeze—and it was the reason we beat a hasty retreat from that apartment, carefully discarding or cleaning any of our moldy items, and landed instead in our adorable “cottage in the woods.”
Imagine our dismay, when, a few weeks into living here, we found that my Birkenstocks had molded in the closet. Had molded in the closet—or were moldy when we brought them with us? Either is possible, though the second is more likely. In any case, I had to throw them away and pray they hadn’t spread to anything else.
Long story short, we found mold on a few other items before we finally checked under our mattress and found that the mold had re-grown right where we killed it. So we did what we should have done before: we hauled our memory-foam mattress (a wedding gift from my parents) to the dump. And now we’re sleeping on an old mattress of my parents’ that they happened to have around—currently on our living room floor, while we finish cleaning and airing out the bedroom.
Now, I realize that on the scale of possible life catastrophes, this whole thing really only registers on the side of “slight nuisance.” But the fact is that while we’re here in the thick of it, it’s making me want to tear my hair out, scream, and hide under my covers until it all goes away. (Because I am still five years old.) Every time I come home from work and look at the contents of closets and shelves that have been shaken out across the floor, I feel stress rise inside me like a tsunami. Everyday chores (which I have a hard enough time with, as you know) still need to be taken care of, but I can hardly walk two steps without tripping over a laundry basket or pile of books: my nightmare situation. Couple that with the niggling fear that even after we sort this all out and put everything away we will somehow have missed some mold or that it will come back, and this is all just a recipe for headaches.
But.
Enough complaining—even in the midst of this frustrating mess, I can see (if I look very carefully) that it is in many ways a blessing. I thought about this as I was vinegar-and-tea-tree-oil-mopping the bedroom floor the other night. Let’s start with little things: I have been wanting to finish cleaning and organizing our house for ages, and now it’s being forced to the forefront of my attention. Also, now I don’t have to worry about the mattress all the time anymore.
But there are bigger things, too: this is all a reminder, as Dad pointed out to me, of why it is good that our treasures are not on this earth. On this earth, thieves, or rust, or moths, or mold can and will take even our most precious possessions away. Dealing with all this can’t help but loosen my hold on all of our stuff; especially when I have to get rid of things I never would have imagined throwing away. And that perspective, I think, is a real blessing.
Also, I just have to say that my husband has been incredibly helpful with this whole process. In addition to helping with all the tasks that need to be done, he has been ever the anchor keeping me from running around squawking and flapping my arms. It is a blessing to have such a partner, and it is a blessing to be reminded what a blessing that is.
———
P.S. Any advice you have for dealing with mold would be greatly appreciated. What I have gleaned so far, from articles like this one: a) don’t use bleach, because it makes mold come back quicker, b) mold needs moisture to grow, so focus on keeping things DRY and well-ventilated, and c) mold spores are everywhere in the air, so don’t even think about trying to totally remove them from your space. Just focus on making it so there’s nowhere for them to grow.
Does anyone have anything to add to this? Specifically, do you have any advice for how to keep difficult areas, like the bathtub and shower curtain liner, dry? Thank you in advance.
July 14th, 2011 at 9:29 pm
I am so sorry. We had major mold problems here. I think, at first, we simply had too much stuff in too small a space. But it’s also a very old house and has not been updated. There are no fans in the bathroom or kitchen. Our solution was to purchase a de-humidifier, which lived in our bathroom and, in winter, would pull out 2 gallons of water a day (a day!). I think the bathroom was the primary cause of moisture in our air, because most of our mold issues went away once we implemented the de-humidifier. We also had some air-conditioner units last summer, and that removed the need to use the de-humidifier, as air conditioners dry and ventilate too.
Of course, now that we’re moving, I am finding little patches of mold in corners behind bookshelves or where the piano was. But there is nothing growing on our clothes anymore!
Speaking of moving, I have been amazed at how normal our daily life is even though nearly all our possessions are boxed. Makes one wonder what all that stuff is really for anyway.
July 15th, 2011 at 1:33 am
Today I learned the word, “niggling.”
July 15th, 2011 at 4:12 am
Oh, Erin, I’m so sorry. I too would find this so frustrating and totally overwelming. We had mold problems when we lived there too, which we solved by moving to a different state.
Regarding the shower curtain liner – is it plastic? It is my opinion that the cloth ones dry better … as long as you keep them pulled open. It also might help to squeege down your shower walls every day after bathing.
July 19th, 2011 at 3:44 pm
This is a very troubling situation. It happened to me once too and I ended up getting pleurisy (very painful, old fashioned disease which involves inflamation of the pleura- the thing that connects your lung to your chest cavity). The first thing I would do is contact my landlord and raise the concern, putting in the light of what it is: a serious health hazard.
When this happened to me, I got the landlord to provide a dehumidifier and pay the electric bill because I had to control the climate far more than I would have without the mold issue.
The only other tip I have is that when you shower, you should leave the door or curtain open for about an hour afterward to let things dry out. Once they are drier, you should close the curtain so the curtain will drip thoroughly dry as well. You can also get anti-fungal curtain liners.
I am sorry you two are going through this and I hope you find a solution soon. Summer is a weird time for mold.
July 21st, 2011 at 11:23 am
On the contrary, Erin, I think you are quite justified in feeling freaked out and overwhelmed by the mold attack. I think everyone has already given good advice, but I will second the dehumidifier recommendation.
July 25th, 2011 at 5:25 am
Light and air are what mold hate. Fact of life in B.A. They sometimes did brilliant things there like put windows in closets for that very reason especially since there exists central air only for the extremely wealthy. One did have to be diligent to air it all out periodically. I kept a fan going 24/7 in the bathroom that didn’t have an outside window. Here in MO I have a dehumidifier going 24/7 as our humidity level here is pretty high.
Your frustration reminded me of my lice infestation when Gil was just 5. In that country lice are not treated as they are in the USA plus when you share close space with 11 million other people, lice also become a way of life. Only the diligent don’t have them. I was determined to be one of the diligent ones. I was reminded more than once that I was not in Kansas anymore when I would enter the neighbors’ house and the teens would be pulling lice off each other like a bunch of baboons. Anyway, using public transportation resulted in a lovely infestation of Gil and myself (I think they were repelled by Matt’s blood type). Being an international greenhorn, I had not thought to pack lice killer as part of my moving inventory. Come to find out the locals stated that the local lice were not affected by their own insecticides, that they drank them like champagne. I still remember the overwhelming feelings of frustration this brought on. Besides the motherly ones like would I give Gil brain cancer when I put the stuff on his head. Well, I bought it and put it on my head and when I rinsed, I lost count at 70 bugs in the tub. I can still feel my skin crawling and my anger welling at this inconvenience in my life. And I had the knowledge there were still bugs in my hair, their babies laid on my roots and the same on/in my son’s fair locks. So I called the local that would cut our hair to ask advice. After all this was prior internet so I couldn’t google it. Anyway she rushed over and for hours stood there combing each strand of hair and coating it in keosene oil. (With Gil’s and my amount of hair you can imagine!) It burned beyond belief. I can still remember where Gil was standing and crying silently as his scalp was on fire. For 2 weeks afterwards we had to iron our pillowcases each night and morning (as we didn’t have a dryer and they have to be killed with heat) as well as we had to rinse daily our hair with vinegar as that will kill any live ones. We never did get them again, I think because when we moved we didn’t use the bus system as much and Gil was always taller than his classmates and the little vermin couldn’t jump that high.
Anyway I feel your frustration, hang in there and remember your dad’s reminder that our true treasures are not on this earth….
August 4th, 2011 at 3:10 pm
So sorry to read about your mold troubles. You may find this site helpful: http://moldrecovery.blogspot.com/
August 8th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
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