Has your house started to smell weird? Looks like there is mold growing every! From lounge walls to bathroom floors, the mold is quickly attached to every corner of the house. HELP!
As much as mold looks bad, the smell is even worst. Moreover, getting rid of it is not easy. But before you learn of ways to get rid of the mold smell and the mold itself, you need to understand why it happens.
Since your childhood, you must be listening to elders telling you that mold grows in dark and humid places. But that never meant it couldn’t grow inside your home either.
If your walls and floors remain moist or if your house is situated in a humid country, know that there are higher chances of mold attaching to your place.
Thus, to get rid of it, make sure your walls and floors are fully dry. Moreover, if you mop them regularly, make sure you use a dry mop or rag over them to remove any traces of moisture left behind.
How to Get Rid of Mold Smell in House
It is not easy to identify mold in the house until you experience a “strange” smell all around you. However, how does a mold smell? How would you differentiate it?
According to some people, mold smells sour, a stronger and humid version of the wet soil after rain and fusty.
Thus, if you have been experiencing such a smell in the house, know that it is mold and you need to find the colony right away. Mold colonies can breed anywhere!
From under the tables and baseboards to behind the wallpapers, the mold can quietly find its place anywhere dark and moist.
Hence, when you are successful in finding the colony, the next step is the model smell removal but how to remove the smell of mold? Let us get to it right away!
1. Remove the Mold
Before you can get rid of the mold smell, it is important to get rid of the growing mold or the smell will just linger on. However, how do you do it? You can either ruse bleach to kill mold or make a solution out of ammonia and water.
Both of these works great! Hence, just spritz the molded area with the solution and use a brush to rub it off. Nevertheless, make sure you air-dry the place completely so no moisture is left behind.
2. Removing the Mildew smell
So, how to get rid of the mildew smell naturally? You can do so by cleaning the mold using bleach and then opening up the windows for ventilation. Or else, you can easily make a cleaner at home that is bleach-free yet is strong enough to help you get rid of both mold and the smell.
For this, you need some white vinegar in hot water and mix it well. Pour it in a spray bottle and spritz it over the molded area. Let it sit for some time and then use a brush to rub it off.
Once you have successfully removed all the mold, use a dry rag to pat the floors and wall dry. white vinegar is a natural deodorizer and will quickly help you get rid of the smell of the disgusting mold.
Preventing Mold and Mildew from Growing
When you have worked so hard to get rid of the mold and mildew, you need to make sure it does not come back and make the place smelly again. So, after mold odor removal, how can you ensure that it does not come back? Here are a few tips that we are sharing that will surely come in handy:
1. Manage humidity in your house
As we already mentioned that mold and mildew breed quickly in humid places. Thus, if your floors and walls are wet all the time, or if you do not wipe your floors dry after cleaning, the moisture will trap inside the floor and walls and hence, make great breeding grounds for fungus.
Thus, open the windows for proper ventilation that will help manage the humidity in the house.
2. Use a Humidifier
Even if after opening windows you are unable to control the humidity in the house, use a humidifier for the purpose.
3. Dry the Wet Areas
To ensure the mold does not grow, make sure you thoroughly clean your walls and floors dry with a dry rag or mop. Remember, wet walls and floors absorb moisture and hence, lead to the growth of mold.
Thus, make sure you wipe your floors and walls dry after cleaning them with mop or soap.
How You Use Air Freshener to Get Rid of the Mold Smell?
Air freshener is only a temporary way to get rid of the mold smell. Hence, if you want to get rid of it forever, make sure you first find the hiding mold and mildew colonies and remove it using bleach or whatever you can.
Next, dry the floors and walls fully to prevent the mold from coming back. Moreover, add some vinegar to hot water and clean the place as the vinegar works as a natural deodorizer and will help you get rid of lingering mold smell.
Also, open the windows for ventilation, as it will also help remove the smell much faster. Meanwhile, you can use an air freshener to breathe through it until it’s all gone.
Hire a Professional
When should you hire a professional? As soon as you want! Usually, removing mold and mildew on your own is not easy because even if you are successful in getting rid of it, you need to find ways of its prevention which only professionals can help you with.
Therefore, when you start experiencing the moldy smell in your house and can identify the mold colonies, it is the right time to call in professionals for help.
Experts from a good mold removing company will come prepared. They have all the essential tools that let them quickly remove the mold and mildew and get rid of the odor.
But are the mold removal services expensive? Depends on the nature of work and whom you hire! But of course, hiring professionals is worth it.
Why? This is because mold and mildew if left untreated for long will damage your walls and floors from the deep inside while increasing health risks.
Thus, if you do not know how to remove mold or do not have time to do it, we suggest you call in professional mold removers for the work before it is too late!
Ventilate Your Place
What most of you make the mistake of doing is keeping your windows shut out of the fear of cleaning dirt and dust off the floors every day.
But what you do not understand is that the longer you leave your windows closed, the more humid your place will become, and hence, it will increase the chance of mold and mildew growing everywhere.
Thus, what we suggest is that to maintain a certain level of humidity in the house and just for the sake of your health, open those windows. As much as fresh air is good for you, it is all also good for the house.
Relax and Enjoy!
Hence, when you spend a few hundred dollars on hiring a professional for mold removal, you need to make sure that it does not come back, and the only way to do it is to increase ventilation in the house.
Open windows will reduce the growth of mold and also make your house smell fresh!
John Wesley is passionate about cleaning industry especially vacuum cleaners. He is having more than a decade of experience in repairing and selling vacuum cleaners from a well known retail shop. When he’s not testing and reviewing latest vacuum cleaners for this site, he likes to spend time with his partner, 2 kids, and doing house projects.
