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The refrigerator is an important center of the household and as such, you would think that people would remember to keep these food centers cleaned more often than they tend to.  Even though it is fairly cool inside, mold can still grow very well in these cool temperatures, as anyone who has opened a jar of spoiled grape jelly can surely tell you.  Whether it is a jar of grape jelly or a casserole left in the fridge for a bit too long, mold can grow on anything in your refrigerator that it can get onto.  This includes, well… just about everything that is not completely sealed up, such as home-canned goods that have not had their seals broken.  Mold spores are everywhere and in the air we breathe, unless the air is purified, such as in a hospital or laboratory clean room, so it is fairly hard to keep mold completely off of something we do not want it on, but it can be done.  It just takes a little effort.  Cleaning out your refrigerator and knowing what to do with moldy food (some of it can be saved, believe it or not) is essential to keeping a healthy kitchen. 

Take everything out of your refrigerator and put it either on your kitchen table or on the counters for you to deal with later.  You will go through these items after you are finished cleaning out the inside of your refrigerator.

Remove all drawers, shelves, and racks so that you can wash them in the sink in whatever household chemical you have chosen for this task.  Whether it is anti-bacterial soap, bleach, or even better, a chemical made specifically to kill mold, use plenty of it, but do not mix chemicals, especially bleach.  If you do use bleach, do your best not to get it on your hands.  Wear rubber gloves. 

Wash the inside of the refrigerator with a sponge or a rag thoroughly.  To get some things that might be stuck to the wall of the fridge or stuck to a shelf off, let some warm water and some of the chemical you have chosen soak on it a few minutes.  After you are done with the inside of the refrigerator, wash the parts that you removed, dry them, and replace them.

As for the food you took out, put back everything that is not contaminated with mold.  Anything with a high moisture content that is contaminated like sour cream or jelly must be thrown away.  Blocks of cheese or dense items like hard salami can have the molded parts cut out and thrown away.  Cut 1 inch around and one inch under the molded part(s), remove, and discard.  The rest is usable.

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If you’re planning on moving out of a house or apartment that’s been infected with mold, decontaminating your clothes before you do is a must. No one should stay in a place where mold exists for very long and cross-contaminating your new living space with the mold that can exist on your personal belongings is likely.

Most items made from cotton and polyester can be freed of the mold, however the older the mold stains are on the clothing, the harder they will be to remove. These stains can be bleached out if it’s white clothing you’re dealing with. If it’s colored fabric, you can use a brush to remove the mold from it and this will help to loosen up the mold growing in the threads. Rub a pre-wash spray into the stain and soak it in water and laundry detergent up to 45 minutes and wash. Don’t use the clothes dryer in your laundry room to dry these items; let them dry naturally outside in the sun. The artificial heat can seat the stain even further into the clothing and as some people may know, the sun is very good at bleaching things, so this could actually help your white clothing. Unless you leave colored clothes in the sun for days, it shouldn’t do any damage.

Sometimes dry cleaning can be effective in killing and removing the mold from your clothes, but it doesn’t always work.

Cleaning mold from upholstery starts almost the same way cleaning clothing does and that’s with a brush. Remove the mold from the upholstery with a brush and if you have a vacuum cleaner that has a brush attachment on it, use that to keep mold spores from taking flight. Washing the item where the mold was present with laundry detergent (test in a small inconspicuous area first to make sure it won’t damage the fabric) and a brush comes next and then take it out into the sun to dry.

Unfortunately, if mold contaminates something made of leather, you’re pretty much out of luck. Leather is discolored easily, especially by mold and since leather is skin that’s been cured and dried over time, it is very porous and mold loves porous surfaces. Even if you do clean the mold off of it, it will still be spotty and discolored in areas.

To keep mold from growing on clothes that you hang in your closet, don’t pack them into the closet so close together. Air circulation is the enemy of mold and your clothes need to be able to breathe. If air can’t get in and out of the closet, mold will grow. If you don’t pack them tightly and they still become moldy, try installing a vent.

Article by Sewage Remediation & Amp