CasaSugar

How-To: Eliminate Mold in Your Home

CasaSugar — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 11:00:41 -0700

Mold is not your friend. Being exposed to mold in your home can cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems, and is very hazardous to your health. So, if you see it, or smell a musty odor in your digs, you need to remove it. Mold grows in moist areas, so anywhere you've had water leaks, flooding, or high humidity, especially bathrooms and kitchens, you're likely to have a problem. To learn how to eliminate mold in your home, read more.

The first step is to remove the mold and clean the surfaces where you found it. To prevent inhalation, you should put on a mask or respirator before you begin, and also put on goggles, rubber gloves, and clothes you can wash immediately after.

You'll want to begin by misting the moldy areas or dampening them with a sponge; this will keep airborne particles to a minimum.
To remove mold from hard surfaces like counters, plastic, porcelain, glass, etc., you'll need to scrub them with a non-ammonia soap or detergent using a heavy duty sponge or a bristle brush.
If you find mold on any porous surfaces like paper, drywall, or carpeting/carpet padding, you'll need to discard them entirely, as mold cannot be removed completely from them. Sorry!
If you're working with a hard surface that's wood, scrubbing may not work entirely, so you should sand the surface down to remove the mold.

The second step is to disinfect the affected area with either a bleach and water solution or another disinfectant. If the surface is clean, you can use 1/4 cup of bleach diluted in one gallon of water. If it's dirty, you should use more bleach.
Let the disinfectant sit for 15 minutes, then rinse it with clean water.
The last, and crucial step, is to dry it immediately (so no more mold grows!). Dry it with a cloth and then use a blow-dryer, fan, or dehumidifier to dry it thoroughly.
Be sure to wash and dry your clothes and any rags that you used, and dispose of any other mess.

Casa Quickie: Natural Mold Defeaters

CasaSugar — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:15:00 -0800

Grapefruit seed extract, along with essential oils such as clove, lavender, and tea tree oil, have antiseptic properties and operate as natural fungicides. If you're dealing with mold when cleaning a bathroom or kitchen, try adding one to two teaspoons of essential oil to two cups of water in a spray bottle. You can also mix 20 drops of grapefruit seed extract with one quart of water. Not sure where to buy essential oils or grapefruit seed extract? Check here for a variety of oils, or here for grapefruit seed extract.

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Recipe For Clean: Make a Mold Defeater

CasaSugar — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 08:15:15 -0700

Of all the ick-worthy parts of cleaning my house, nothing makes me wrinkle my nose and say "ew" like mold does. Not only is mold gross-looking, it's also bad for your health, especially if you have asthma or respiratory issues. If you've assembled your home cleaning kit, you have all the natural ingredients needed to banish mold from your home. I have a great Recipe For Clean for getting your surfaces mold-free. Use it on tile, in the fridge, or on any other mold-ridden surface to get your house so fresh and so clean.

Supplies

2 teaspoons tea tree oil
2 cups water
Spray bottle

To find out the steps for this DIY, just read more.

Carefully pour all of the ingredients into a spray bottle.
Put the bottle top on, and give the mixture a good shake.
Spray on moldy surfaces.
Let sit then gently wipe, but don't spray clean.
If the mixture is too potent smelling for you (tea tree oil is strong) then mix with some drops of essential oil.

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How To: Kill Shower Curtain Mold

CasaSugar — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 10:30:00 -0800

FitSugar recently came to me with an icky shower curtain mold dilemma. The base of her shower curtain has been taken over by a gross pink mold. Despite efforts to tell it what time it is, putting it in the washing machine with a stain-killer, and letting it sit for hours, no dice. Unfortunately, mold thrives in the warm, damp environment of bathrooms, and the shower curtain is no exception. With a quick Google, I found that most of the advice recommended is just what Fit had tried, the washing machine. Then, I came across an archive of a Wall Street Journal article by Sam Schechner called "Testing Ways to Kill Shower-Curtain Mold." Success! To hear a summary of Schechner's techniques for battling that repulsive pink mold, read more.

He tested five methods, slicing up the same nasty shower curtain into fifths. He sprayed one slice with bleach (Tilex Mold and Mildew Remover), one bleach free of chlorine (Seventh Generation Shower Cleaner), "soaked another slice in a bathtub with a bottle of distilled vinegar," dumped another "in a washing machine along with bleach and white towels (for friction)," and "scrubbed one slice with a mixture of water, dish soap, and tea tree oil." A pretty thorough experiment, huh?

Here are the results:

The spray with Tilex Mold and Mildew Remover trial, which cost $3.29 for a 32 fl. oz. spray bottle, was easy, requiring no scrubbing. The result? The curtain smelled "like a noxious swimming pool," but "came out practically bone-white."
The spray with Seventh Generation Shower Cleaner, which cost $4.99 for a 32 fl. oz. spray bottle, required 14 minutes of scrubbing on just the one section of curtain. The result? The curtain smelled like "sweet lemon soda," but a "grayish pattern remained where the black mold had been," although not so noticeable from across the room.
Soaking the curtain in distilled vinegar and water, which cost $1.29 for a 16 fl. oz. bottle of Heinz distilled white vinegar, required "slightly less elbow grease than some methods," but still took an hour to soak. The result? It smelled "like someone had made a salad in our bathroom," and still left visible gray stains.
Washing the curtain with NOW tea tree oil and dishsoap, which cost $5.95 for a 1 fl. oz. bottle of oil and $1.99 for Palmolive, required what felt like nearly "a full upper-body workout at the gym." The result? The curtain smelled like "a massage parlor" but resulted in "minimal payback for all that effort."
Bleaching the curtain in washing machine on a hot-water cycle, which cost $1.29 for a 24 fl. oz. bottle of Clorox Ultra Regular Bleach, didn't require any work aside from letting the washing machine do its thing. The result? It was left with a "light bleach odor," but "big rust-colored stains remained," even after a second washing.

So, I guess the Tilex did the trick in the stain department, but is still toxic. Letting it air dry might get rid of the chemical smell, but still, who wants to inhale the smell of a "noxious swimming pool?" That can't be good for you or the environment. In terms of results, The Seventh Generation Shower Cleaner sounds like the second best option, but is 70 minutes of scrubbing time (14 mins. x 5) really worth it? It might be better to find a way to recycle, reuse, or repurpose your moldy nylon shower curtain, and buy a new one. Ahh it's hard to be So Fresh and Clean sometimes.
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Simple Style: Porcelain Glove Molds

CasaSugar — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:19:51 -0700

I'm always coming across porcelain glove molds in antiques stores, junk shops, and flea markets. These handy finds, originally used for making gloves, are very versatile accent pieces. You can use them to display jewelry and other trinkets, or screw them into the bathroom wall to serve as clever towel racks. Or, you can simply display them alongside other pottery, as in this home I saw featured on Apartment Therapy San Francisco.

Do You Have Crown or Baseboard Molding in Your Home?

CasaSugar — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:30:55 -0800

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Cool Idea: Hang It With Ribbons

CasaSugar — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:45:03 -0700

My all-time favorite ice cream shop, Ici, announces their rotating handmade flavors on cute framed signs. While I love everything about the signs, from the font to the bold, black frames, my absolute favorite part of these ice cream signs is the pretty red ribbon with which they're hung.

If you have crown molding in your house, you also probably have a line of molding below it, which is known as a picture rail or picture molding. Using picture frame hooks and some ribbon, you can re-create this very cool look. Are you going to try it at your home?

Cool Idea: Useful Moldings

CasaSugar — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:30:52 -0700

French industrial designer Mathieu Lehanneur created Useful Mouldings, modular units made of resin-reinforced plaster meant to be fixed to the wall, which double as ornamentation and a shelf, CD organizer, odds-and-ends holder, or a bench. The design combines elements of both design and architecture, merging pieces of furniture with the structure that supports them (kind of like a built-in), making the object disappear into their environment. Useful Mouldings gives something that's traditionally been an ostentatious ornamentation a function beyond aesthetics; that's something I'd like to see more often in the design world. Lehanneur's designs are certainly modern, but there's no reason why the same product couldn't be designed with traditional taste.
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Cool Idea: Lamp Kit Hanging Light

CasaSugar — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:00:29 -0800

I spotted this photo in the portfolio of interior stylist and designer Sibella Court, and was wowed by the hanging light fixture. To me it looks like a lampshade was simply attached to a basic Lamp Cord Kit ($12), and then dangled from the molding. The shade would probably need to have a bulb clip top fitter, too. I love the juxtaposition of the lowbrow lamp cord with that debonair black bell-shaped shade.

I'd love to try this at home. I'm thinking of making my own with a shapely lampshade frame and a reproduction Edison bulb. What do you think?

Love It or Hate It? Cardboard Fireplace

CasaSugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 11:00:50 -0800

I spotted this Cardboard Fireplace ($24) at Urban Outfitters and I kind of love it. For one, the bricks remind me of the cardboard bricks I used to play with when I was a kid. And two, I love a good faux fireplace - my "crackling fire" DVD plays on repeat in the Winter. But I do wish this fireplace had a prettier mantel, like a white one with ornate moldings. What do you think?