Hi Guys, sorry this is a bit of a long and boring post for most but if anyone has ever had the same problem I hope you understand!! Especially for a clothes and vintage lover where your wardrobe is definately not replaceable!... This sunday I had to invest in some well needed wardrobe maintenance... the organised amongst you probably undertake this each season, and probably switch winter and summer wardrobes.. I however, am not organised. And really didn't want to spend all this sunday sorting out my clothes either, but unfortunately I had no choice..
This was because the other week I discovered that a few of my favourite clothes had gone mouldy!.. I know!.. completely gross!... and before anyone closes the browser totally grossed out I'd like to point out that I do clean our flat! A lot! and I wash my clothes!.. however being a basement flat in rainy England we are definately victims of damp.
We already knew a bit about the problem last year when the wallpaper started to peel on one of the walls behind our bed and mould came through. Our landlord, as with all others it seems was hopeless and suggested making sure everything was ventilated.. blah blah blah!.. all of which we of course do.
I took the matter into my own hands and after much googling bleached the walls down, cleaning off all mould and the surrounding area. I then dried it out, painted a
nti-damp paint on, this stuff is thick - almost plasticy, then once that was dry painted our regular
wall colour over the top... for almost a year this seemed to have worked. There is still no mould showing through any of my painted bits, we air the flat, have no condensation in the mornings and often have the heating on.. however the other week when cleaning (see!) i noticed that the actual floor from the same corner behind the bed was mouldy instead. Completely grossed out I
scrubbed the lot clean but while doing so noticed that it had spread to a pair of shoes under the bed, and then later discovered some of my clothes in the wardrobe were also mouldy... the wardrobe which is the other side of the room and has no mould anywhere at all visible in it!
My only conclusion is that the spores have spread so again much frantic emptying out of everything occured, and a lot of cleaning.
I took the worse effected bits to the Dry cleaners, the rest went in the washing machine and everything was thoroughly inspected.
This is the pile of bits I think I may just bin.
Then Sam and I made a trip to John Lewis and came away armed with
plastic storage bags,
lavender scented knitwear bags,
cedar blocks and
all manner of wardrobe accessories. Any favourite vintage items were bagged up, and placed into the far closet (as yet unaffected) all the high street items and less favoured vintage (or by the end bits that wouldn't fit in the other wardrobe) went back into the original one.
We also placed
Silica Gel packs at the top and bottom of the wardrobe (we have a huge one of these under the bed) in the hopes of stopping any moisture in the future
place has a good selection of products..
hopefully this will help for a while, our landlord eventually sent someone round who said that the problem is from outside and is going to dig a trench outside then fill it with bitumin(?!) to prevent a water barrier between the soil, although i am still slowly going to start building up more bags and anti damp products - I'm also going to try to edit some clothes so my wardrobe isn't so full.... fingers crossed!! xx
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