MOLD! Ew. Help me!

[PenelopeJune]

So our rental house is full of mold. And we're moving out in less than a month (because of the mold and our landlord's lack of action), but some of our furniture and stuff has mold on it. The mold specialist who came out today (our landlord FINALLY got them out here...we told him about the mold 3 months ago ) said we needed to wipe everything down, even if no mold is visible, and wash all clothes/blankets/towels before moving.

Well, the couch and our bed mattress have mold, so they are trash.

I just can't figure out HOW we are going to wipe everything down so that we don't spread mold to our new rental, get it loaded onto a truck, IN FEBRUARY in the midwest, and get moved in one day. (That's all that we can afford to rent a Uhaul for.)

How would you do this? I was thinking about taking all our clothes/blankets/towels etc to a laundromat so that I could do it all at once, out of our house.

But how do I clean the kids' toys? Stuffed animals and dolls? Wooden toys? (I've thrown away everything with visible mold.) Cloth furniture with no visible mold? Do I have to wash ALL the dishes and boxes and cans and stuff from the pantry?

I am feeling so overwhelmed and angry that we have to do all this.

[SunshineJ]

That totally sucks!! For the kids water resistant toys, fill the tub halfway with water and add 1-2 cups of bleach (not sure on the amount, Clorox I believe has a ratio listed on their site), toss them in there and let them sit for about 5-10 min. Drain the tub and rinse them either under running water or a sprayer if you have one then either dry them off individually or spread them out in front of a fan to dry (you don't want to just let them air dry naturally as that encouraged mold growth, and even though they've been bleached and shouldn't have any left I wouldn't take chances at this point!). Wipe down anything you can with a weak bleach water mix (and rubber gloves). Most stuffed animals can be put in the washer, however you don't want to let them airdry so I'd put them in a pillowcase on fluff for a while. Some will just have to be thrown out. For cloth furniture I'd probably have someone come out the day after we move and professionally clean it. I would also be sure to submit an itemized bill for all of this to your current landlord and take him to small claims court to be sure he paid for it.

[sunnysandiegan]

Here is a link from a prior discussion:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...highlight=mold

I typed a lengthy response in the above thread. It is not the exact same situation, but I wanted to point out it is a multi-step process. Cleaning is not the same as disinfecting. Bleach is a disinfectant. Also, mold spores do travel exceedingly well, so it is best you take the necessary precautions -- even though it is a real pain in the tush.

I am not familiar with the legal ramifications of your situation, but it sure seems like your current landlord has neglected his/her duties.

Best wishes in all of this!

[sunnysandiegan]

Here is another link:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...highlight=mold

and another:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions...highlight=mold

[PenelopeJune]

Thanks, you guys. I'm reading those links now.

We have asked the landlord to pay to replace the items that have obviously been damaged. So far we have lost our king-sized bed frame and mattress, an antique nightstand, two bookshelves, and our couch. Oh, and a sleeping bag, a basket, a pillow and pillow case, and a king sized blanket.

He SAYS he will pay for this stuff...but we're still waiting to see. I've also contacted my renter's insurance office, and they are looking into it for me. And if rent insurance will pay for it, I'm still not telling the landlord that. He has continued to screw us over, and because of him we have to move (AGAIN!) which we can't afford to do, and of course, I don't know what other things we own have been lost and we just can't see it yet.

Ugh. This is just such a nightmare. I want to just leave everything we own and start over. This comes on the heels of coming thisclose to losing the house we owned, but finally selling it in a short sale. (Same thing in the end, to me.) And the house we are moving into has some major family drama attached. Ugh! Living in a car is starting to look appealing.

[SunshineJ]

I'm so sorry. This last year has been a really tough one on a lot of folks, but that really doesn't make it any easier, does it?

[PenelopeJune]

Any suggestions on what I should do with my fabric collection? And embroidery thread/yarn/etc? I can't exactly wash all this stuff, it'd be a mess. Should I just throw it all away? There is no visible mold on anything, but it's all in the room that has been the most heavily affected. (Although I have it stored in tubs on the opposite wall.)

What about books and papers and such? None has visible mold, but I'm afraid it has mold spores that we will take with us.

I just really do not want to "infect" the next house we move into!

My insurance company is pretty sure they will not cover this. If it were caused by, say, a tree falling on the house and then it got rained on, they'd cover that. Leaky walls and random mold...no. Seriously, why? I still paid in my money every month on time. My stuff is still just as ruined.

[sunnysandiegan]

Has your fabric been closed up in the bins the whole time the mold has been a serious issue? If so, I would use hot soapy water to wash down the bins themselves (outsides, leaving the contents inside) and move on. If the bins spent 25% or more of the time open, then I am not sure if I would keep it without taking the time to wash each piece of fabric on HOT and drying on HOT.

I don't know about books and papers. Sorry.

Do you have a paper trail of the specific dates and communication with your landlord? Your insurance company is the same as most insurance companies regarding this issue. As far as I know, the severity of all this could have been avoided by PROMPT attention to the matter by your landlord. Mold doesn't grow instantly from one tiny incident. It grows when the conditions are good for mold to grow and those usually occur over a period of time.

[Hey Mama!]

We have had to move from two moldy houses and I have done nothing to our possessions. So far, so good. My youngest dd is allergic to mold and her allergies have improved greatly since moving into this new house. I had no idea that we should have washed everything to try to get rid of invisible spores. OP, I live in the same town as you, so I'm gonna be nosey and ask who your landlord is. We got threatened w DFS from the allergist at Children's Mercy if we didn't move but even he did not mention washing everything.

[sunnysandiegan]

Hey Mama! I am not surprised. Mold is seriously misunderstood and people are undereducated about it.

[PenelopeJune]

sunny, no. The fabric has not been closed up the whole time. Darn. I THINK my embroidery thread and felt has been closed up, though.

On the paper trail issue...yeah, actually, I do have some stuff. First, I have photos dating back to early December, when we first found the mold. At that point, I just called him to tell him about it. (And I wrote down the dates of the phone calls.) Then I have two emails, both with pictures attached, dated 12-14 and 12-19-09.

He originally wanted ME to clean it up, and keep it clean. He wanted me to clean it with bleach, every other day or so, to keep it cleaned up. Now, if it were a tiny area contained in one room, I might have considered this. But this is extensive, in every room of the house.

I wrote in my last email to him: I keep finding more mold around the house. I think you really need to get a mold expert in here to contain this before the entire house needs to be condemned. This is getting very dangerous. Here are the new patches of mold I found, since you were here on Dec 16th: (Insert pictures here).I am not able to clean all this mold up. I am not qualified, and according to the EPA, it is dangerous for an individual who is not a mold expert to attempt to clean up large quantities of mold because it releases so many mold spores into the air.


Anyway, at that point, he got a guy in here to tell him how much it would cost to remediate the mold. The guy came the week before Christmas. Since that point, he has done NOTHING. Well, he did get a roof on half the house (the ceiling leaked on my daughter in her bed, back in September, and the roof was finally repaired in December.) He also got quotes for replacing the windows, but never moved on it. Yes, if he had done something when we very first told him about the problem, it probably wouldn't be such a big deal.

Hey Mama, do you think it's possible that you brought the mold with you to the second house? I'm of course not trying to blame you, I just wondered if it was already present in the second house or if you think that your belongings brought the mold. That is what I'm afraid will happen in our case. I'll PM you the name of the landlord.

[sunnysandiegan]

Oh, mama, I feel for you! It sounds like the problem started in September when the landlord didn't address the leaky roof right away. And, maybe the roof had been leaking before then and that is just when it was enough to cause a noticeable problem. I'm so sorry you are going through this.

[Hey Mama!]

Hey Mama, do you think it's possible that you brought the mold with you to the second house? I'm of course not trying to blame you, I just wondered if it was already present in the second house or if you think that your belongings brought the mold. That is what I'm afraid will happen in our case. I'll PM you the name of the landlord.

I don't think so. We moved into an old Victorian that was half-assed redone. The stone basement walls were covered in mold, and when we had damp weather the whole house would smell moldy. I actually found mold growing in the laundry room on the window jams the first day we moved in. The first house was owned by my mom and did not mold until we had a couple of floods in the basement. I guess I was a bit misleading, we moved from her house because she wanted it back. We moved into the victorian house in Oct 2008 and I didn't know the extent of dd's problems until our appt with CMH July 2009. From what I have gathered, it is going to be hard to find a house in this town that does not have a mold problem.