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No, it's not a Night Ranger reference. (What the hell is he saying in "Sister Christian" anyway? Moldering? Motoring? I have *never* known...) It's what was happening in the closet in the main office. Well, the master bedroom of the apartment that we use as the main office. (I have my own office, which is one of the smaller bedrooms. The smallest bedroom is used as the actual bedroom... and it is *small*...)
You see, the closet in that office is used for storage. Storage of all kinds of junk and boxes of books and computer boxes (in case we need them) and stuff like that. Well, it also shares a wall with the bathroom of said bedroom. If we did use it for its intended purpose as a master bedroom with bath, it'd be kind of nice. Instead, we make comics in it, and so it's clogged with computers and file drawers and an art desk that instead is used as a Horizontal Storage Surface. But anyway, back to the closet...
There was a toilet leak, lo, about seven or nine months ago. Not a big deal, though it did leak through the wall (the water was dripping at the toilet itself, but following the line into the wall). These things happen in apartments, unfortunately. Water leaked into the closet. Ever since then, I have been fighting a constant battle with the dreaded Mold Smell. I kept scrubbing everything that I could reach down with anti-mold and anti-bacterial stuff. I have a morbid fear of that black mold that gives you brain damage, you see. But despite all my scrubbing, despite constant Lysol, despite constant use of an Oust fan in the closet, the Mold Smell would not die. I concluded that somewhere, buried in the depths of the closet, something must have been Moldering. A cardboard box of books, perhaps, or maybe a fallen piece of clothing. (Some unused stuff was stored in there, but nothing of mine, really.) Quite literally, it had gotten to the point where if you opened the closet, the mold smell would punch you in the face and knock you over. It was RANK. It was also causing problems because I am incredibly allergic to mold. So allergic that just a little hint of it will make me feel like I am being stabbed behind the eyeballs with a rusty awl. So, this whole closet-o-mold-smell was really NOT GOOD. I bought expensive disposable facemasks and rubber gloves so we could excavate and investigate. This was mostly handled by PD, as the mold smell had gone beyond what I could handle, even with a facemask.
And sure enough, my theory was correct! Not only was there a cardboard box of water damaged books moldering in the closet (and really, mold growing on cardboard is a special kind of ick...), but there was also a plastic garbage bag full of old clothes on the floor with a hole in the bottom. So, the water had wicked up into the bag full of clothes, and made it into a giant Mold Bomb! AUGH! Horrible! But fortunately, convenient to throw away.
Now, everything moldy has been thrown away. The windows have been open for hours and hours, and the place where this stuff was has been treated and cleaned, the first of several passes of this. It already is better in here. Thank god!
And yes, I know, it's really, really gross. But honestly, the closet was literally floor to ceiling stuff and it was impossible to get the time to attack the problem before now. (It's also not my closet, I don't store things in it, so I have never organized it...) But hooray, we killed the mold!
You see, the closet in that office is used for storage. Storage of all kinds of junk and boxes of books and computer boxes (in case we need them) and stuff like that. Well, it also shares a wall with the bathroom of said bedroom. If we did use it for its intended purpose as a master bedroom with bath, it'd be kind of nice. Instead, we make comics in it, and so it's clogged with computers and file drawers and an art desk that instead is used as a Horizontal Storage Surface. But anyway, back to the closet...
There was a toilet leak, lo, about seven or nine months ago. Not a big deal, though it did leak through the wall (the water was dripping at the toilet itself, but following the line into the wall). These things happen in apartments, unfortunately. Water leaked into the closet. Ever since then, I have been fighting a constant battle with the dreaded Mold Smell. I kept scrubbing everything that I could reach down with anti-mold and anti-bacterial stuff. I have a morbid fear of that black mold that gives you brain damage, you see. But despite all my scrubbing, despite constant Lysol, despite constant use of an Oust fan in the closet, the Mold Smell would not die. I concluded that somewhere, buried in the depths of the closet, something must have been Moldering. A cardboard box of books, perhaps, or maybe a fallen piece of clothing. (Some unused stuff was stored in there, but nothing of mine, really.) Quite literally, it had gotten to the point where if you opened the closet, the mold smell would punch you in the face and knock you over. It was RANK. It was also causing problems because I am incredibly allergic to mold. So allergic that just a little hint of it will make me feel like I am being stabbed behind the eyeballs with a rusty awl. So, this whole closet-o-mold-smell was really NOT GOOD. I bought expensive disposable facemasks and rubber gloves so we could excavate and investigate. This was mostly handled by PD, as the mold smell had gone beyond what I could handle, even with a facemask.
And sure enough, my theory was correct! Not only was there a cardboard box of water damaged books moldering in the closet (and really, mold growing on cardboard is a special kind of ick...), but there was also a plastic garbage bag full of old clothes on the floor with a hole in the bottom. So, the water had wicked up into the bag full of clothes, and made it into a giant Mold Bomb! AUGH! Horrible! But fortunately, convenient to throw away.
Now, everything moldy has been thrown away. The windows have been open for hours and hours, and the place where this stuff was has been treated and cleaned, the first of several passes of this. It already is better in here. Thank god!
And yes, I know, it's really, really gross. But honestly, the closet was literally floor to ceiling stuff and it was impossible to get the time to attack the problem before now. (It's also not my closet, I don't store things in it, so I have never organized it...) But hooray, we killed the mold!
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