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China Elevator Stories
Discovering Mold in Our Flat in Shenzhen
My Chinese fiancé and I find out we have a mold problem.
17/05/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
In May 2013, I leave Shenzhen during mold season. My Chinese fiancé and I make sure most things are safely stored in boxes in our apartment before we leave Shenzhen for our wedding in Austria. We have to leave a few things unboxed because they don’t fit into the boxes.
When we return to our little apartment in Shenzhen after being away for 7 weeks, the first thing we do is clean the apartment and wash clothes, bedding, and everything else that can be washed.
Every once in a while, I scream: “Oh my god, there’s another one!” upon discovering another item that is completely covered in mold.
The first thing we find completely covered in mold is a leather belt. Really? A leather belt? The next things are spices and rice. Some bugs crawl out of one of the small spice jars when I open it.
I decide to go to the supermarket to buy mold inhibitors. I’m not very lucky with my search, though. I end up buying the most acidic vinegar I can find—9°, it says on the bottle. During the next few days, I still smell mold whenever I return home to our apartment, so I guess the fight is not over yet.
Before the start of this year’s rainy season, I ask a friend from Guangdong province what they do to avoid mold growing everywhere you can imagine. She recommends turning on the air conditioners and using the dehumidifying option (抽湿). If you plan to stay in Shenzhen (or any other humid place) long-term, it might be a good idea to invest in a dehumidifier, as these usually work much better than air conditioners for dehumidifying the apartment. She then tells me to hang my bedding to dry in the sun whenever the weather is nice. During the colder seasons, it would be good to use an electric blanket, which you can turn on a while before going to bed. This will dry the sheets.
These options aren’t environmentally friendly, but considering that mold is bad for health and really hard to get rid of in humid places, prevention is probably the best way to deal with it.
My husband’s recommendation for storing winter clothes during the rainy season is to put them in vacuum bags. This will save space and stop the clothes from turning into little mold monsters.
Have you ever had problems with indoor mold?