What things can you keep after mold contamination?

One question people ask me is, what possessions can I keep? What if I clean it? How can I clean my things so I can keep them?

What part of we lost almost everything did not sink in? I know, I know, your in denial, I get it, I was too. I even tried to clean things and we were successful with a few items but not very many.

We kept very little.

I tried to clean fabric items such as towels, linens, blankets and clothing by soaking them in bleach water and letting them dry in sun.I spent hours soaking everything in tubs and I had laundry strung out all over my in-laws yard(we were living with them).

After soaking them, I washed them twice with soap and let them hang dry in the sun each time. I waited a week and then wore an outfit I had “cleaned.” Within two hours, I went home sick from work. I tired it a couple more times before it sunk into my head that all fabric items were lost including things like couches and mattresses. I could not tolerate being around them.

The bleach may have killed the spores, but there were enough dead spores in the material to cause me to react.

Next we tried to save wood furniture. It’s not as porous of a material. I picked one piece of furniture that held sentimental value to me and we washed it in a bleach solution and let it air dry in the sun outside. We washed it multiple times trying to get into all the cracks and crevices.

We even wore respirators, of course now I know that spores can soak into your skin so the respirators didn’t do anything to keep us safe.

The day before Thanksgiving that year, my husband brought it into our home. Within a couple of hours, I had stopped preparing food and went to just “lay down for a few minutes” because I didn’t feel good.

I was slow realize what was happening. After awhile, hours it dawned on me that I could be reacting to the bench. So my husband packed it out of the house and by the next day I was feeling much better. That meant, all furniture items were lost including our grand piano, furniture, wooden utensils, photo frames, cabinets, home decor. We could not keep anything made of wood.

Paper items are also not saveable, there is no way to clean them and the cleaning wouldn’t work as they are porous. So all your tax papers, scrap books, photographs, piano music and so on are lost.

There is also no way to clean electronics so items including your TV, computers are not saveable.

There is no way to reach all the crevices of your appliances, so the stove, fridge, washer, dryer and others are lost.

I took my jewelry to a jewelry store and had them clean the piece in the ultrasonic. Of course, I reacted when I tried to wear some of the pieces.

So what did we keep?

We were able to keep dishes. Glass and ceramic dishes. My in-laws went into our house, since they weren’t as effected, gathered them up and washed them in their high powered dishwasher with bleach on the sanitation cycle and again with regular soap. These things included, pots, pans, baking dishes, plates, cups and silverware.

We were also able to keep my cast iron skillets. We soaked them in bleach, scrubbed all the seasoning and finish off with a brush and let them air dry. Yes, they rusted. So then we scrubbed the rust off and re-seasoned them in the oven and they have been safe for me.

That’s it. That is all we were able to safely keep. Dishes and cast iron skillets.

There is a chance you could keep more items than we did. Every person handles the mold poisoning differently. For example, my husband did not seem to be effected by the bench, but I was. I found a home for the grand piano and that family does not seem to be effected by the piano, but I could not be in the same house with it.

Remove it all and then re-introduce one thing on a day you feel good and pay attention to how you feel. If you react, even slightly, it is not safe for you to keep it. It’s not worth your health. You will not get better if you keep things you react to.

Here is another blogger's post on the topic. It is one of the first posts I read when I started asking the question what I could save. I would try to clean something and try to save it, only to react and relapse, setting me back about 4-6 months on my treatment. After a few tries, we decided there was NOTHING in that house that was worth my health. It’s just stuff. Material things.

I would get upset because the blogger said I should be able to save something and I couldn’t. Keep in mind it is very different for every person. It depends on YOU and YOUR BODY and how it’s effected. While some things might have been safe for that other blogger, or for my husband, they were not safe for me. Pay attention to your body and it’s reactions.

I have also learned that bleach is not as effective at eradicating mold as ammonia. Would it have made a difference in what I could have kept if I had used ammonia? Possibly, but there was nothing I owned that was worth my health. And there is nothing that I once owned that is worth my trying to reclean and re-introduce it to me now that I am so much healthier. I simply don’t feel like relapsing again. It’s not worth is to me to get sick again.

Here is the blog post, they have updated it from when I first found it several years ago. It now suggests using ammonia and not bleach: http://www.survivingtoxicmold.com/saving_your_possessions Give it a read.

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