Mold, mold and what may have been making me sick.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 11-27-2010, 07:15 PM

I was in the process of putting clothes in the master bedroom closet when all of the sudden, the closet rod fell down!

After I stopped feeling

about it, I decided to remove all of the clothes off of the entire rod and put them on the floor. What did I find in the corner, hiding out and being sneaky?!

MOLD!

I was a bit

about things at that point, so I decided to move the box that had the shampooer in it out of the closet to get the rest of the hanger and to see if it was bad anywheres else.

Ugh....

It sure was!

The entire bottom right corner of the closet was covered with mold about 6 inches out and a foot up. It was all over the baseboards too.

I decided to just wait and deal with it afterwards. (Did I mention I had a showing about an hour and a half after this happened?) I came home and decided that after any other "surprise" showings that may have happened, I'd clean out the closet. I have put all of the clothes into plastic trash bags and as such, they'll need to all be washed. That goes for all of the socks in the sock basket, along with the basket of clothes that I had just put in there today.

Now mind you, I'd been sick with the flu and my allergies were always bothering me... always! I've had itchy skin, congestion, post-nasal drip, itchy ears, coughing, etc but I thought that was something else. I cleaned out that area good with some bleach water and I'm fanning the closet out to dry it. Once that's done, it'll all get sprayed with Febreze and I'll wipe the rest of the closet down too. I just wanted to get rid of that mold!

So if these symptoms do go away, I found the culprit.

**Palooka** · 11-27-2010, 07:23 PM

Glad you found that and yep, mold can do that to ya.

**lparker** · 11-27-2010, 07:39 PM

So did the box with the shampooer leak or do you have a leak in the wall?

**MomToTwoBoys** · 11-27-2010, 07:46 PM

I think that something in the shampooer box may have leaked and a lot of what was up the wall is probably condensation from the shampooer itself. I checked both the wall and the corner and there wasn't any damage that I could see on any part other than perhaps the bottom corner. It's so small and barely noticeable. I'll keep an eye on it, though.

**stinkbug** · 11-27-2010, 07:51 PM

My question also...where did the mold come from?? It has to have a moisture sourse. And..if it's a problem, you're going to have to disclose it at selling......

**MomToTwoBoys** · 11-27-2010, 07:58 PM

I checked the paint in the middle of the wall and there's no cracking. There's also no cracking in the corner where the larger patch of mold was existent. We have siding on the house and all of the siding in that area is good and secure. I hadn't moved anything out of that corner in literally 5 years, so I'd have no clue what could be causing it other than the shampooer box that was in there. It wasn't exactly dry when I put the shampooer back into the box, either.

**HappyMama** · 11-27-2010, 08:18 PM

Originally Posted by stinkbug

My question also...where did the mold come from?? It has to have a moisture sourse. And..if it's a problem, you're going to have to disclose it at selling......

Yes that is true!

**BlissMommy** · 11-27-2010, 08:22 PM

Glad you found it!

**2ndGenGranola** · 11-28-2010, 06:53 AM

Keep the shampooer in the garage or something like that. I have found that even new shampooers will have a minimal leak in them that is enough to cause problems especially when they sit.

**Imarachne** · 11-28-2010, 07:57 AM

Yeah--mold is bad. I'm allergic to it and it can be anywhere this time of year. Hope you are feeling better .

**MomToTwoBoys** · 11-28-2010, 11:26 AM

I'm definitely feeling better this morning. I still have a slight cough, but that'll go away soon. I'm not as congested as I was, and I figured that within a few days, the rest of the symptoms will go away too. I haven't been itchy either.

**fernykins** · 11-30-2010, 09:33 AM

That is why my kids gutted my bathroom(a leak in the wall) went into my bedroom. Its helped some with my breathing. I still have some of the problems. To many years I'm sure with the problem.
Fern

**AnW819** · 11-30-2010, 09:39 AM

I am always congested and my nose is always stuffed up, and I pretty much feel crappy all the time, and we have mold in the downstiars bathroom. On the floors and bottom of the walls, and I clean it, it comes right back because dad really needs to just take care of that bathroom. I guess now, this is probably why I am sick all the time to =/

Sorry about your problem, mom!

**Libby** · 11-30-2010, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by 2ndGenGranola

Keep the shampooer in the garage or something like that. I have found that even new shampooers will have a minimal leak in them that is enough to cause problems especially when they sit.

I was going to ask why was it stored in your bedroom closet and not in your basement?

I scrubbed and scrubbed at the grout in the corner of my bathtub - its mold. Vinegar didn't work, bleach didn't work. Something in TILEX MOLD & MILDEW kicked its arse. I literally sprayed it on and it ate the mold away. I washed the rest of the tub/walls with it too to remove any trace and *touch wood* so far so good. There's two options on that product - spray and let sit or spray and wipe...the let sit option got it gone for me.

Think you could use this on your closet wall/baseboards w/o it eating the paint? Maybe do a test patch to see first?

Either way, hope its gone for good! BTW I hope your head is better too, that had to hurt!

**jas** · 11-30-2010, 01:40 PM

Yikes mold! Glad you found it when you did. In our old house everytime I would do the dishes I felt like crud. Yep I know doing the dishes does not rate up there with the fun things in life. When we redid the kitchen and took out the old cabinets the whole area behind the sink on the wall was full of Black mold! After the leak was fixed and the new cabinets were in doing the dishes was not near as bad anymore. That stuff is terrible. I don't like it when it is damp here and the ground and stuff with leaves gets moldy. Argh!!