damp living -- a lament from Wales

[Blueberry]

Clorox to get rid of the mold. Sounds like you have a challenge in keeping it out. Do you have central heating and air? That can make a huge difference. Even my 1912 house (very old for the US) doesn't have significant mold problems - I'm sure because of the central heating and cooling. And we're a bit drier, I expect. Can you use a dehumidifier?

[tulip]

Straight white vinegar kills most molds. Stubborn ones succomb to tea tree oil. All of it will be stinky.

Dehumidifier would really help, as well as increasing air circulation. Probably going to have to trash that mattress, though.

Surely there are Welsh solutions to this common Welsh problem. What do your neighbors do?

[OakLeaf]

Anything that traps moisture (bedding, carpet, curtains, unfinished wood floors under carpeting) is a breeding ground for mold.

A 10% solution of bleach is usually recommended on floors, etc. It seemed to do the job adequately after Hurricanes Charley/Frances/Jeanne. Use a sprayer, scrub with a brush, let it stand 10 minutes, mop or sponge up any excess moisture, let it dry thoroughly.

There are mattress and pillow covers designed for allergy sufferers that aren't as loud or uncomfortable (or as potentially toxic) as the old vinyl covers. If your mattress actually has visible mold, though, I agree with Tulip, it's done.

If you have carpet and can't or don't want to replace it with hard floor covering right now, keeping the air circulating will help keep the mold down.

Dehumidifiers are expensive and loud, but sometimes necessary. You could run one only when you're not home.


ETA: Yes, it will come back, because the spores are in the air, but you can clean off the large visible colonies that are breeding in your house, and that will cut down on the number of spores you're exposed to. Air filters can be helpful too (not the ionization kind, just regular filtration), but again, potentially loud and expensive. If there are actual colonies living in your drywall, you'll need to rip out the walls. Decontamination of a seriously infested house is a big deal.

[KnottedYet]

I live in a basement apartment in a soggy dip in the ground in Seattle.

Mold and mildew are a part of my life, sigh. I clean it off surfaces with Simple Green spray every week or so, and rub baking soda into my mattress where it grows each time I flip the mattress. You may need to flip your mattress fairly often if it seems to get moldy quickly. I throw away shower curtains and bath mats when they get grody, as cleaning them seems to be hopeless. I usually keep closet doors open so drier air will circulate. (the back of the closets are against the underground wall.)

When it is sunny I rush to open windows and lay things out on my porch in the direct light.

I've never used bleach in the house, because the smell of bleach makes me pukey.

I need to get the algae off my car one of these days, too.

Ahh, the joy of damp climates!

[sfa]

We used bleach to get rid of a mold problem in a closet in our house and it hasn't come back. We just used a bucket of bleach water and scrubbed and scrubbed until it was gone. There are still some stains on the walls, but it's not too bad. That would take care of the mold on hard surfaces, but I think it's harder to get rid of it on soft surfaces like your mattress. I have no idea how to get rid of that.

These days we make liberal use of a dehumidifier to keep the rooms from developing any new problems. We don't have central air conditioning, so summers can be bad, but the dehumidifier helps a lot. In the winter we always need to remember to open the closets and leave them open from time to time--they are uninsulated so when the dampness and coolness combine, we could develop new mold easily. Just keeping them open every once in a while seems to dry them out enough to prevent it.

Good luck!

Sarah