My husband and I spent a loooong day last weekend cleaning out my parents' water-damaged basement. For years it has been full of towering stacks of clutter, dust, and spiderwebs, but this summer I discovered that it is now full of standing water and mold. There is also some kind of black sludge on the floor that only came up when full-strength bleach was poured on it. I threw away my shoes and socks after our cleaning marathon. Sadly, we only made a tiny dent in the work that has to be done.
What I learned:
Problems that are ignored don't get better. That is true for both my parents and myself. I wish I had realized sooner that this basement had gone from messy to health hazard.
You can justify keeping almost anything, but that doesn't mean that you actually have a good reason to keep it.
When you have too much stuff, you will keep buying the same things over and over and have duplicates.
You may think it's fabulous to have a dozen large boxes of family photos, but your daughter and son-in-law will look at them with horror, and will be tempted to toss them all without looking after you are gone. So much for the memories!
Even if you have great stuff, if there is too much of it, it becomes a burden instead of an asset.
I've been reading Unclutterer for a long time but not really getting much done in my own house. Now that I've seen where my justifications and disorganization can get me, I'm inspired to get going and clean stuff up!
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Posted 9 months ago #
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Oh dear, STLMom!
I hope you are wearing protective gear to do that cleaning. Black mold can really do some respiratory damage. It might be worth the cost to hire experts for that job.Posted 9 months ago # -
STLMom: This sounds EXACTLY like what we went through when helping my MIL clean her house (other than the mold. We had a cockroach infestation. Ewww.)
She has vast quantities of stuff, some of it good, some of it not. For example, a large 4-drawer dresser stuffed with jewelry (and more than that in other places) that is everything from diamonds and gold to cheap mardi gras beads. We don't know the difference between the real pearls and the plastic ones and all of it will probably end up in a yard sale some day. It made it really clear to me that I needed to take better control over my own space.
Posted 9 months ago # -
scrape it across your upper front teeth and the real ones feel grainy. I can tell if you want some help.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Amen STLMom! Before I really started cleaning, I was always buying duplicates - most notoriously, of CLEANING supplies! There's a moral in there somewhere...
Posted 9 months ago # -
Parsifal -- On the way to my parent's house, we stopped to buy bleach, bathroom cleaner, and garbage bags. As we cleaned we found four 1-gallon bottles of bleach, at least three containers of every cleaner known to man (three toilet bowl cleaners, three window cleaners, three wood floor cleaners, three rust removers, etc.) and literally hundreds and hundreds of garbage bags of every size, shape, and color! And then my dad went out and bought refills for his Swiffer Wet Jet, as if he didn't have at least four regular mops and buckets -- which he obviously never uses!
Oh, and I am staying out of stores that sell organizational supplies from now on. My dad has every organizing item you can buy, and half of them were empty because they were behind something else and he couldn't even get to them. The ones in use were full of things he doesn't need. His whole basement is an illustration of the phrase, "You can't organize clutter." Speaking of which, my dad has an entire shelf of books about cleaning and decluttering!
When my dad talked about his stuff, he used lots of the same justifications that I use when I talk about my stuff. But it was pretty easy to look at his stuff and realize that it made no sense for him to have most of these things. I need to take a serious look at my mini-hoard before it grows into a giant hoard like his.Posted 9 months ago # -
STLMom, if you're going to be cleaning up mold, wear:
- Long-sleeved clothing that you aren't too attached to;
- Long, sturdy rubber gloves;
- And definitely some sort of face mask. Don't use the cheap 5-to-a-pack disposables unless there's absolutely nothing else to be found in the store, as they don't seal well against the face. I've had good luck with a semi-disposable triangular hard plastic mask that flips open so that you can replace the little triangles of filter material. I've had *better* luck with a P100-class half-mask respirator, but then you're looking at about $25-$30 USD for the mask body and the initial set of filters.
Be sure to take a hot shower and wash your hair after a session of cleaning up, too.
Disclaimer: I've had a severe but non-lethal mold allergy since about 1976. Can't stand the stuff.
Posted 9 months ago # -
STLMom, good luck and DO be careful!
Posted 9 months ago # -
Thanks, everyone! I used a face mask -- not the cheapest, and not the fanciest. I also wore long rubber gloves, washed my clothes twice, and threw away my shoes. I took some long showers, too. I must not have a mold allergy, because I haven't felt any problems since doing the cleaning.
I'm back home now, in another state, and my parents are finishing the clean-up. They have hired a company to tear down the drywall, install a sump pump, and seal the walls. And then they will see if that does the trick. They also have two dehumidifiers going 24 hours a day (with hoses going into the floor drains) which is bringing the humidity down. My parents have filled another dumpster, and I'm getting daily updates on the clean-up. I just hope they can keep up the energy to finish the job, since my dad is very reluctant to hire help.Posted 9 months ago # -
STL, all of the black mold can prevent a house from being sold. In our county houses are condemned when they have black mold in them.
There was an area in Baltimore some years ago that got a lot of water damage when the remnants of a hurricane came through. Almost the entire neighborhood developed black mold and the houses became unsellable. I actually believe that there may have been some political payola going on in order to get these houses condemned. But, still it is a real problem when selling a house.
Ask the folks in New Orleans about black mold!
My sister's house set in about 6 feet of water for a long time. They had to have the entire house stripped down to the studs and treated for mold.
These experiences of cleaning up someone else's mess of clutter are inspiring to us NOT to leave such for our loved ones to clean.Posted 9 months ago # -
ROFL....ditto on the cleaning supplies. I could open a store...lol. I think it is partially the mind set that it will motivate you to get busy cleaning. It is amazing the motivation that springs forth in the cleaning supplies section of the store. What happens to it on the car ride home? :)
STLmom, I'm in the STL outskirts. We should exchange addresses & threaten a pop in for an extra kick of motivation....lol. J/k
Posted 9 months ago # -
STLMom said : Even if you have great stuff, if there is too much of it, it becomes a burden instead of an asset.
this is so true!
even the nicest designer-y stuff just beomes a huge hassle when there is too much of it.thanks for the lessons from the basement.
i am just mighty grateful that basements are extremely uncommon in this neck of the woods....in fact i don't know anyone with one.
i am so glad my parents don't have one.
they have sheds, instead.....Posted 9 months ago # -
being raised in Michigan, i've never lived in a house without a basement.
believe me, I've seen my fair share of flooded, a bit damp and mildewy, and buggy basements. that's just how it is, unless it's a finished area.(they don't ALL flood, but usually are all damp to some extent)
i don't know if they evolved from root cellars or "storm shelters" from tornadoes and just grew into what they are now. the washer/dryer, hot water heater, furnace, sump pump, storage space, living space/playroom would be in the basement. some are walk outs and some are total underground basements.
in each home i've lived in, it's been part of our living space, so if we didn't have it- the house would be much smaller. and, I suppose people use their attics for storage if they've no basement. i've never been in or stored anything in the attics of any of the 3 homes we've owned. probably a good thing.
my daughter and her dh who just moved back from seattle are building a home here, complete, without a basement. they didn't have one there and don't see the need for one now.Posted 9 months ago # -
Irishbell, sometimes I'm jealous of the folks with the big, sunny, finished walkout basements. Ours is basically just a hole in the ground surrounded by rocks that hold up the house - but my boyfriend's parents have one that is basically a whole extra apartment under their house.
But we get too many tornados to not have at least the cellar hole we do have - one of my decluttering goals is to at least make it nice enough down there we can sleep comfortably when there are storm warnings. A tornado went right down the street I used to live on last summer, about 8 blocks from my house.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Sweetpea, I would love to threaten a pop-in, but I've moved out of state. I should change my sign-in but I would never remember a new one!
I've finally finished unpacking and doing laundry (two kids at camp for two weeks = seven loads of laundry)and I've started sorting some piles of paperwork, my nemesis. My own basement is on the to-do list, but I think my desk needs to be cleared out first, before school starts.
Genny, when I was cleaning the black mold off my parents' wall, I was thinking, "it's like a Katrina house!" I hope that the company my parents are hiring can stop the water problem and get rid of the mold.Posted 9 months ago #
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