tacosuplex Asks:
unfuckyourhabitat Said:
A weak bleach solution (1:10) in a spray bottle and some scrubbing with a scrub brush (gloves and ventilation, people!) should help battle what’s there. Preventing it from forming again requires diligence in keeping the moisture low. So either a dehumidifier, a fan, open windows, and/or wiping down the shower after each use will go a long way. Regular cleaning, too.
Passive UnFucking.
This post results from a combination of two things: an idea I shamelessly stole from a friend, and some frankly terrifying SCIENCE I learned at my job.
First, the science!
Did you know that mold/mildew/wet rot/dry rot are present in your home environment ALL THE TIME? It’s true (and terrifying). Most of the time these organisms remain completely dormant, and therefore harmless. They become a problem when the moisture content in the atmosphere reaches a certain percentage, at which point they begin to grow and multiply. All it takes to stop this growth is reducing the moisture level to below their growth threshold. I’m afraid I don’t know the exact number offhand… it’s something like 18% or 20%. The precise percentage point isn’t necessary to make the application of this knowledge practical, however, which is where my shamelessly stolen Great Idea comes in…
I visited a friend’s house a while ago and noticed one of these babies whirring away contentedly on top of her toilet tank. I asked her about it, and she said she felt like her bathroom was always damp & musty, and she’d purchased it in a fit of disgust over the situation.
Folks, her bathroom was neither damp, nor musty, which in the height of humid mid summer in a bathroom used by three grown adults was something remarkable, indeed. I immediately resolved to get one of my own.
It was another month before I actually bought one. Over the course of that month, my bathroom sink drain developed an odor. Several drain volcanoes failed to remedy the situation, and after a week of waking to brush my teeth in a sink that smelled unpleasantly like wet dirt, I was over it. I bought this little dehumidifier and plugged it in on the bathroom counter.
GIUSE, LET ME TELL YOU. The odor was gone within two days. TWO DAYS. I did nothing else but plug this sucker in, and - BAM. Mildew growth halted! I still get some light mildew in the shower, but 1) that’s to be expected, and 2) it’s still significantly reduced from the non-dehumidifier days. The towels, bathmat, and shower curtain/liner dry out quicker, which allows less opportunity for them to get gross, too. The reduction in overall musty grossness in the bathroom makes unfucking it a whole lot easier, as well.
And for anyone worried about that sort of thing: there’s no compressor in this machine, so it hardly makes any noise at all. No more than a desk fan would. I leave mine on all the time, and I dump out 1.5 cups of water every two or three days.
The lessons here?
- Science says that all you need to do to slow or stop the growth of mold/mildew/rot is to reduce the moisture level in the atmosphere below the organisms’ growth threshold. It doesn’t NEED to be 100% dry; that doesn’t cause the organisms to be any more dormant than they are at any other point below the threshold - at least not for our practical purposes as UfYHers.
- Slowing or stopping growth of gross things in your bathroom makes it smell better and makes unfucking it easier.
So, my recommendation is to invest in a tiny dehumidifier (apparently on sale on Amazon lately for under $50… I paid more than that… drat!) of your own, and begin passively unfucking your bathroom in between the times you actively unfuck it.
I don’t even know how to put into words have grateful I am to Unfuck Your Habitat. Not only do I mentally feel much better for not living in a heap, but I really do think it’s helped my health a lot. We haven’t been able to come up with any proof of what caused my headaches to start, but one of the many theories is constant exposure to mold in the kinda gross basement I live in. Not only is everything in my bedroom moldy, but the room itself is. There’s visible mold on the walls, ceiling, and carpet. That part I’m sort of clueless as to how to tackle, but I’ve been working on being better about emptying my dehumidifier every day and running a fan 24/7 to get the air moving.
One of the most frustrating mold issues is clothing. My dresser is “built in” in the sense that the previous owner cut a hole in a wall between my bedroom and one of the closets and shoved a dresser in it. Well, that closet contains the worst of the mold and anything I put in that dresser is visibly moldy and stinky within hours, so for literally years I just never folded any clothes because why bother if they’ll just be moldy before I’m ready to wear them, so I just got dressed out of laundry baskets instead. I moved all my scrubs to the bathroom closet so at least my work things would stay relatively clean and neat, but I had no idea what to do with the rest until I acquired an extra bookcase recently and started shoving clothes onto it just for a place to put them. Now my clothes are all folded neatly on a bookcase right next to the dehumidifier and everything stays mold-free!
Seriously, until you’ve lived in a mold pit you have no idea how gross it is. I don’t know if all these little efforts at keeping the mold at bay is really what’s helping my headaches, but either way it’s certainly not a bad thing to start cleaning up.
I once lived in an apartment with black mold (from the other unit in the house), and I didn’t know it, and in the course of a few months, I developed asthma and my occasional migraines became chronic migraines. If you rent, your landlord is most likely legally obligated to deal with the mold. If you own, or if you’re living with someone else who owns the property, you’re not likely to see much improvement to your health until the mold is gone. There are lots of solutions for dealing with the visible mold, which will definitely help, but if the mold remains in the “invisible” spaces (walls, floor, ceiling, etc.) you’ll continue to be sick.
I don’t mean to be all doom and gloom, but mold is serious shit and should be dealt with.
unironic-enthusiasm Asks:
unfuckyourhabitat Said:
Use a cleaning brush or old toothbrush to scrub off as much mold as you can. After that you have two options:
1. Wipe them down with a vinegar/water mix and then follow up with shoe polish once they’re dry, or
2. Set them out in the sun for as long as possible, and then shoe polish.
mandarose replied to your post: I kinda need a hand. I live in a housing commission house with very poor ventilation. Both rooms get mould spots on the walls and the paint bubbles up from the excess moisture due to shitty ventilation. What’s the best way to clean the mould from my walls without introducing too much extra moisture? I do my best to keep the rooms warm to stop this happening, but it still gets in spots I cannot reach. Any preventative tips would also be greatly appreciated.
Actually, bleach should never be used on mould. My father is a home inspector, and he’s always telling his clients that bleach actually helps encourage the root system of the mould to spread.
I checked the CDC website before I answered that, and they recommend bleach: http://www.cdc.gov/mold/faqs.htm
unfuckyourhabitat Said:
OK, if you’re frequently getting mold, this suggests a couple of things: your bathroom stays humid too long and you have poor ventilation. If you have a bathroom fan, run it longer than seems necessary. If you have a window, keep it open, and perhaps even put a fan in it pointing outside as an exhaust.
Most commercial mold sprays have bleach in them. You can take a (clean) spray bottle and fill it with a 1:10 bleach/water mixture and use this to clean. Your goal is to prevent the mold/mildew from forming in the first place. So start with a good scrubbing with the bleach solution (wear gloves and make sure there’s plenty of ventilation). Then every time after using the shower, wipe down the excess water left and give a pre-emptive spray with either a weak bleach solution or straight white vinegar (not both). Ventilation is important!
wolfinshadow replied to your post: Thanks to you, our bedroom is unfucked and has stayed unfucked for ten whole days omg this has never happened before! But we do have a problem with the bedroom. The flat downstairs is unoccupied and has a severe mould problem, so we find it creeping up one of our bedroom walls, too. I’m getting tired of cleaning it off every three or so weeks. Do you have any good mould-busting tips?
Thanks. I have notified our letting agents and they are going to Send A Man Out to sort it :)
Oh, I’m really happy to see this. Mold is not something to fuck around with. I’m not even kidding that I went from being healthy as a horse to developing severe asthma within a few months, and as soon as I moved, it went away. I’m glad you’re getting it squared away.
lionessonacheesegrater Asks:
unfuckyourhabitat Said:
Mold is serious business, and you should really have your landlord take care of it. Surface mildew (like in bathrooms) is one thing, and can usually be treated with a bleach solution or commercial mildew spray, but mold from things like pipes within walls is very different. You can treat the surface stain, but chances are, there will still be mold underneat, and it can cause all sorts of respiratory and immune problems. Call whoever owns your flat. They need to take care of it.
laughingrachel Asks:
unfuckyourhabitat Said:
Unplug it. Take it somewhere with good ventilation. Use a diluted bleach spray and wipe it down thoroughly. Leave the door open for as long as possible. If the bleachy smell lingers after the mold is vanquished, wipe everything down with hot hot water a few times, then with white vinegar, then water again. Leave the door open so everything dissipates.
