What do you take when you leave a moldy apartment or home?

[Guest guest]

I've heard that some people take not even the shirt on their backs. Others take

only glass and metal. Others take furniture that is hard, glass, metal, and

clothes because they can wash or boil them.

I'm not planning to take anything upholstered. I have a glass and metal Ikea

desk and various container store metal/enamel drawer systems.

I was recently away for 2 weeks while we were checking out another city, and

during that time I felt better. I have chronic lyme and that has rendered me

sick in various ways plus much more vulnerable to chemicals and mold toxins.

However, I did not realize the following symptoms were mold related:

1) Cracking my big toes all the time. It's incessant and I thought it was lyme

related as that *is* a lyme symptom (crepitus of joints). It feels as if there

is pressure in the joint and they have to crack. Perhaps lyme started it and

mold exacerbated it. Also picking at my nails and cuticles. All that stopped

while I was away and I really only noticed toward the end of my trip and then on

my return how it started up again.

2) Wheezing and irregular heartbeats improved tho did not completely go away.

Tickle cough from sinuses draining much improved.

3) Depression lifted. I do feel I get a dark depression related to mold. However

travelling is also entertaining. And it was sunny and beautiful where we were.

Still, I think it was mostly mold-related

4) Not periodically brain foggy. Also MUCH less frequent urination. I thought

frequent urination was just a fact of my life but when away it lessened greatly

5) We did encounter one mold disaster in a b & B that was REALLY moldy and I

started coughing a lot and itching all over and having urinary frequency and

urgency (I think its my body's way of getting rid of the toxins) so we left at 2

am. Our blankets and clothes smelled moldy from that place--really moldy. There

was much more obvious mold there than in my own home, but I'm well aware my own

home has a problem in the wall cavities as it is an old building and there has

been much water intrusion and during building wide renovations there were many

many leaks and even 'floods' from bursting pipes in my apartment and many

others. Anyway, we threw out the nice wool blankets as you can't really wash

them.

My question here is--though I brought wool blankets and pillows from home it

didn't seem to cross contaminate me while in a healthy environment, and I didn't

smell mold on them.

So the question is--what can I bring? Can I bring my high quality wool blankets

if I air them in the sun for a few days or weeks? Can I bring a library table

with polished paint on it, or a refinished maple dresser? I would like to bring

these things.

I'd like to know how others have done. I assume washing clothes or boiling them

is sufficient. Mold is everywhere, and I can walk in a mulchy forest with fallen

leaves and obvious outdoor mold and feel okay. It's indoor molds and I'm not

sure what combo is in my building or other places, that make me ill and always

have though it's much worse now.

I am well aware of the different approaches people take--from " radical mold "

avoidance where you have to ditch everything and run to the wilderness everytime

you think you have a mold hit...to someone trying to stay in their home and

remediate and ozone. Etc.

Thanks.

Another issue, of course, is that sometimes you can tell a place is perfect (we

stayed mostly at a totally nontoxic b & b with hardwood floors that had no mold at

all nor toxins), but in house or apartment hunting there are probably places in

which there may be a subtle mold issue that is not obvious as you walk through.

[Guest guest]

It's so hard to know what to take. I emptied a whole huge basement of stuff that

was mostly contaminated but saved a few things:

Dishes and glasses seemed to wash up well but I could not do the washing! Too

much mold dust on it just killed me

Some plastic items were saved-luckily I had some heirloom blankets in sealed

tupperware bins and they washed out fine. The bins got thrown out though.

Some surprising things were saved: Some art that had been sealed in a glass

frame was surprisingly unmoldy although the frame was thrown out.

Some plastic toys were ok but I gave them away anyway because I was too scared

of them.

The frig was ok and we didnt throw it out.

But anything wood, paper, cardboard, fabric, plastic was just doomed. It broke

my heart to get rid of stuff (I threw out a pool table!). My sister took some

stuff and yes, I warned her about the mold and she accepted the responsibility.

PS-don't wash your moldy stuff in your own washer/dryer-they may get cross

contaminated and then unusable.

--- In , " cocopollyphenol " <cocopollyphenol@...>

wrote:

>

> I've heard that some people take not even the shirt on their backs. Others

take only glass and metal. Others take furniture that is hard, glass, metal, and

clothes because they can wash or boil them.