I found the easiest way is to place the books in plastic bags with a desiccant and let sit for six months. It takes time but doesn't require a lot of work, which is practical when you have a lot of books to deal with. And of course if you need a book you can just take it out of the bag while you use it. This will also keep dust and mold from settling on the books. It may not take six months, but they improve with time. It's also a good way to store books, especially if they're kept in a basement or storage locker.
I used to sell books and tossed so many because I didn't know to freeze them. I put the baking soda in a bag and left them but it didn't do the trick. I'll sure try this method. Genius!
+Lauren Caddo It works for killing (active) mold. The baking soda + bag combo helps soak up the odor after the mold spores have been killed. Hope it helps - it has saved a lot of nice books for me! Cheers, MM
A lot of old books have a lot of moisture content, so you have to be very careful freezing. You can actually form frost or ice residue in your plastic bag, between pages, binding etc. I still love to freeze to kill silverfish and other bugs, but you need to get them out of the bag quickly and gently remove the baking soda and you want to do this outside so you just don't spread mold spores in your home. Freezing inactivates mold, it doesn't kill it. I have a wood box with slats so I can stand several books on edge in it and get it outside in the sun and natural air without them blowing apart and sure to flip them a few times.
I recommended first corn starch to the old books to remove moisture. Then freezer for 3 days. Followed up with denatured alcohol. It’s a very long process. I just got an old encyclopedia set but before I add them to my collection this is the process they will go through
Thanks for this tip. I managed to completely eliminate the bad musty smell from a 1969 comic. Took a while to brush all the baking powder from each page (seemed never ending!) but it's totally done the job.
I enjoyed your video and was excited to learn there was a simple and easy way to eliminate mildew odors from books. I wasn't sure if you were aware of this, after doing a bit more research online, I found out that freezing mildew/mold doesn't actually kill the spores - what it does is cause them to become dormant. Freezing them will make the smell go away for a time. If after freezing, the books are put in an environment which promotes mildew/mold growth, the dormant spores will reactivate and continue to grow. I thought you might want to have this information. I enjoy your videos, please continue to make more!
I have a hardback edition of The Four Translation New Testament published by Moody Press from 1966. My wife ordered it for me from Thriftbooks. Every time I would use it my eyes would start itching and my nose felt like I was breathing dust. I asked a book nerd friend of mine if he had a solution and he directed me to your video. After a little over two weeks in the freezer the baking soda dusted right off it has been out now for a few days with no trace of "old" smell. Fantastic!
Dear Friend, Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for doing this video! :-) Your idea of using the freezer to kill mildew & mold is absolutely BRILLIANT! (BTW, before you spoke a word - when I saw your beautiful cat, I knew I had come to the right place.) ;-) Best Regards, Fred, Virginia Beach, VA
Save those silica geek crystals that come in clothes pockets...purses .. suitcases...and put then in the bag top absorb excess moisture... never through then away...very useful
Kathleen Murphy I have been hoarding the silica packets for years now. Lol They also come in supplement bottles. I’m going to put them to good use.... just bought some old crochet magazines and need to de-must them.
So glad you found my channel. Pudgy Picker is one of my favorites! And I am so jealous of your booth space!!! I have had luck with the same freezer/baking soda method on some other items as well, but have not tried it with purses. The freezing part is to kill the microorganisms, not so much the odor removal. That's where the baking soda comes in. Another GREAT odor absorber is charcoal meant for aquariums - I have used that successfully for bigger stuff including a briefcase. Good luck :-)
Thanks for the post. It didn't occur to me to try either method, so it will be worth giving it a go before doing anything else (old books or music manuscripts would benefit a lot!). It seems the interchange with Kevin Pezzi covers an important detail: once something has been deep frozen (quarantine people tell you to do this with souvenirs from exotic places, that may have wood-borer etc), it needs to be properly dried out again when removed from freezer. Because water will condense on the cold item. In a shed, this would happen in the spring, and the mold resume growing, if it's had shelter. The bicarb would be a useful mild base to absorb the odor, and starve the mold.
Fort Radon Indeed and thank you for your comment! It is also why I stress the use of a sealed Ziploc environment, to protect it from the moisture from the surrounding environment. And yes, be generous with the bicarbonate. Thanks for stopping by and commenting :-)
Thank you so much for your tutorial on how to kill mold and mildew in old books. I just bought a fantastic history book at an Antiquarian fair and would love to have it in my home! Sincerely, Verna Peddi.
I have now put 2 books from the 1880's in the freezer (Henrik Ibsen books) which I love really much. So I hope they don't get damaged, I have made sure to seal the plastic bag it very well! So now I am excited to see how it goes when I take them out next week.
Hope it goes well and as long as the bag is sealed it should be fine. It might take longer and you might have to change the baking soda, but it should help. Put them in a nice dry bright place afterwards for a while. Good luck! Btw, Ibsen is one of my favorites! I wrote a thesis on his realistic dramas back in school :-)
I am very sensitive to mold, especially in books, because I am allergic to 3 different types of mold. I am going to try this, I am excited! ;) Thanks for sharing!
I don't know that I would recommend cornstarch as a medium to absorb odor or moisture while the books are in the freezer since cornstarch is a former of sugar (it breaks down from starch to sugar chemically). Even though it is highly absorbent, and you shake it off the books, some will remain which in itself will become a growth medium for certain mold spores answer an attractant to silverfish. I will try the baking soda method myself or buy some aquarium charcoal to but in the bag (not, obviously, on the books themselves) to absorb odor.
I just got my huge Edgar Allen Poe poem book back from my friends apartment and it’s huge with gold Pages. It’s gorgeous! but it’s completely mildew damage because she put it in her basement that has lots of leaks and damage. So it’s completely mildewy. This video come save me because I was so lost and I couldn’t find anything to help me fix it. ❤
Thanks for your great tips. I am just starting to resell books and love to learn as much as possible. I already picked up one Tom Swift first edition (can't remember which one right now), and it was definitely a good move on my part.
Thank you!! Always nice to meet another book person! Yes, the Tom Swifts can be very good, especially the last ones in the series! Thank you again and welcome to my channel :-)
Trying this out with a book I got today, which smells pretty bad. I ordered it online knowing it would be in iffy condition, but hadn't really expected the odor. A search for how to fix the problem led me to this video/method and I am hoping that it will work!
@@iosoi3145Hello! yes the book I treated smells fine now. If I remember right it took about a week, I coated the book with a lot of baking soda and froze it in a bag. I also had the book out and open on a table on a sunny day for part of the time as well, still dusted with baking soda. It was not a particularly valuable old book but one which I wanted to be able to keep. And I’m not sure what had been making it smell so bad.
@@Plaid_Flannel_Shirt Thanks so much 👍 📖 Funny how some books have that wonderfully pleasent smell and some just smell so unfortunate. Glad to know this really works.
thank you so much - am trying this for my husband's sneakers that were left out in the rain and they grew quite mildewy...they are in great condition otherwise and we thought we would have to buy new ones - now there's hope!!
tracy scarf Freezing shoes (in a bag) is a great way to take a lot of stink out (by killing the smelly bacteria!). I do this on a regular basis with my son's soccer shoes :-)
Never put a book with mold and/or mildew on your shelves with other books because it will spread, quickly and easily. I’ve used the book in a freezer bag method, and after it’s come out of the freezer and returned to room temperature (if you open them the glue will crack - permanently) then take outdoors into the sun and use cotton balls and a little alcohol to wipe. If it still has mildew then keep it in a plastic bag away from other books so it doesn’t spread. It will go airborne. Spray Lysol on paper towels and put those in the bag as well. It’s hard not to be able to put your book(s) with others using your home library system but it’s not worth risking your other books. Mildew spreads in a large area. If you’ve ordered the book from an online used book seller, ask them to please replace the book, explaining exactly why you can’t use the copy you’ve received. I buy secondhand always and choose the ‘very good’ to ‘like new’ books offered. Hope this helps, from one book lover to another.
Thanks for posting this... I have some antique books that got caught in the rain. I put them in kitty litter but they were in storage for a while. Hoping to salvage them!
I hope you get to salvage them too. Good thinking on the cat litter, hopefully it was without perfume. Also, aquarium-style charcoal is a great way to pull moisture and odor out of damp books/paper. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
After pondering this, I'm skeptical that freezing is effective. Here's why: the contents of the shed (mentioned in my last comment) get very cold -- sometimes 20 degrees below zero (F) -- and stay cold for prolonged periods. After such freezes, the shed contents should be partially sterilized of mold if cold were indeed effective in killing it. Also, winter cold inhibits mold growth in nature but it springs backs to life in spring. Do you have any scientific data or links to it that substantiates the effectiveness of cold in killing mold?
The baking soda is the trick. Baking soda actualy sucks in sucks in the mold and mildew from the book, and prevents ice from forming on the book. Water is one of the main dangers of books. The cold from the shed may kill some of the mold/mildew, but when it heats up, the effects before the cold will occur again, reversing the process.
I have used Damprid before. I just set my books on or near it for a few weeks, and it sucks the mold smell right out of it. It works for smoke smell as well.
Nice tip to get rid of that smell from old books and I will for sure try it. My method to get rid of those nasty eukaryotes is to do a mix of H2 O2/bicaronate in a seal proof bag and a consumer humidifier. The other alternative is a autoclave, but that would destroy the book.
Thank you for posting this video. I have a very old LARGE Bible that was badly stored away. I love the book. But the mildew smell has made it impossible to read. So I am trying your method.
As a book lover, I appreciate the effort and time put in for making this video. But I found couple of serious misleading suggestions which may cause people to lose their old valuable books. 1) "Freezing" is a well-known method for removing mold (mildew) and killing almost all kinds of book-eater insects. But the process is not really "freezing freezing" that you can perform in your kitchen with a household freezer. The process is called VACUUM-FREEZE DRYING. Low pressure (vacuum) is applied to accelerate evaporation of water (humidity) by reducing the boiling temperature of water. Water (moisture) cannot be removed from book by simply placing it in a freezer unless you apply low pressure to lower the boiling temperature of water. As the name clearly suggests, we use a freezer to solidify liquid water (i.e., to convert liquid phase into solid phase), not to evaporate it. As liquid water becomes ice (solid water), it expands! Expanding water destroys the pages and book as a whole. Our aim is not freezing, our aim is to evaporate the liquid. 2) Microwave does not apply heat in a manner that a conventional oven applies. When electromagnetic waves (i.e., microwaves) hit water molecules present in the item (to be microwaved), the molecules get "energized" and vaporize (go from liquid phase to gas phase) very quickly. This phase transition process occurs volumetrically in the item (i.e., it takes place at every point in the item almost at the same time). That's why our soup is made ready under a minute in a MW oven. So, in a MW oven, do not expect heating to occur gradually from outside to inside; it happens at the same time at all points of the item. The book will certainly get a severe damage if it is exposed to microwaves; do not do it. Besides losing the book, you may get severely injured.
Hi I just found your post and am looking forward to trying this. My mum wrote children's adventure books but died when I was eight (42 years ago). I still do occasionally see her books on Amazon etc but I have some of her original collection, rescued from my Dads mouldy bookcase. I'd almost given up on them but maybe not after all. PS your lovely Cat doesn't look in the slightest bit impressed, aren't they funny :) All the best Leo
Yep,same principle. Freezing kills bacteria, which produce that unmistaken stench - but it is worse in men's sneakers, don't you think? Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
I know you did this video a bit ago...But I just found it and WOW thank YOU so much for this invaluable info. I am trying it on record album covers as we speak..just a couple to test.
Glad you found it :-) I have tried it on other paper products too, and it works for all kinds of mildewy paper. Last non-book thing I did it on was a small card board box holding a vintage game - I put both the box and the instruction manual in a sealed bag with plenty of baking soda and put it in the deep freeze. It took 2 weeks, and I changed the baking soda out once, but eventually the smell was gone. I sold the game online and the buyer was happy. Good luck :-)
What a great tip. Just thinking: have you used this same idea for old purses? Sometimes they look great but just cant get past the smell. Let me know if you have tried this or if you know of another suggestion. Love your videos by the way. My sister, "Pudgy Picker" lead me to your tube channel. Keep up the great work!
Freezing causes mold to change into spores.Freezing dose not kill mold only slows its growth. The mold will grow again once is removed from the freezer. That is the hard truth. Its tough when mold is entrenched in art and difficult if not impossible to totally get rid of. You are not going to get rid of it by freezing it.
Hi there! The freezing/thawing is what kills the mold, so if it has active mold on it, you definitely need to kill that before you can do anything else, otherwise you are just going to spread it around. That said, even dead mold may induce reactions in people who are allergic to mold. Wiping with wet paper towels is a NO NO, lol. Sounds like your book might be a bit far gone. You can always rip out certain pages and treat individually - I do that with maps and illustrations I want to keep.
Hi. I'm trying this with very old newspapers I found in my grandparent's home in an old 'Blake's' box (remember that ancient store?). I'm doing everything you said, except, I put the baking soda on a small tray on top of the items inside the sealed bag with lifters for aeration. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks. Thank you for posting this video! :)
+BEERCOASTERSpl Hee-hee... it's been a month. I flipped the paper over two weeks ago so both sides were exposed to the baking soda. There is still a faint smell, but, it seems to be working, gradually. I suppose she's the winner. :)
wonderful, will try ... its great that you have a deep freezer but most of us don't so all these instructions might, or probably won't work, am I interpreting correctly? I am also wondering if once you sell it a year later the spores might come alive again and you would not know it. I have CD containers that I washed down with vinegar, had a little mold, and now I will put them in the freezer once they dry off the vinegar and see what happens. Will try the bicarb for the paper book jackets.
If you only have a cool rather than cold freezer and don't do multiple freeze-thaw cycles, it is quite possible that the mold spores will just go dormant, and once the conditions are favorable again, they will proliferate. If you don't have a deep freezer, I would do multiple freeze-thaw cycles - this succession of temperature changes can be enough to shock and bursting the cells - which of course will kill them :-) Good luck! And vinegar is another GREAT weapon in many bug battles.
What about small cooler one of those big bags you have and some dry Ice blocks. Reason for the cooler so you can avoid the the whole situation with the freezing and the damp conditions. An dry ice at normal pressure doesn't go through the transition state of solid> liquid> gas. Rather it sublimates from the solid to the gas phase circumventing the dangers of moisture and possible condensation formed in the other method. It is in fact very hard to remove any kind of moisture/ condensation from the air around you. A little bit will get into the bag you may not see it but I assure you it's in there. ......Although the carbonate soda should act like a desiccant and should remove miniscule amounts of water from the air inside the bag. So what to do......Only one way to find out. Run two or three different controlled tests to find out. If the dry ice does work the drawback would be that it's quite expensive. Will do in a few as I have supplies needed on hand. Should be interesting.
Be careful of cargoculting, adding baking soda does nothing to kill mold. freezing does not kill mold spore, they will reactivate once they reach normal temperature and higher moisture content (aka.: are removed from freezer), microwave does not kill mold, the microwaves are too large to kill small living beings, if you wanna try, put a couple of small ants in there and see what happens (spoiler: nothing happens), the microwave is NOT a sterilizing tool. Unfortunatelly this is just another video telling you to do things, it will change the characteristics of the book and its smell of course, but those actions she described wont solve the mold problem, its just hiding it.
I know this is "Kay from Mad Maine" but, honestly...All I see here is Heather Graham in the Vince Vaughn / Jon Favreau movie "Swingers' (1996). Most specifically when she is seated at the bar before Mikey goes to meet her. Look it up. The clips are on RUclips.
HumanityisFamily mold sure does spread. I had a wet document that dried, Then put it in my little portable safe. It smelled slightly. When I added the other documents.... man..... now everything stinks 10 times as bad. All the papers are going into the freezer!! It’s so bad a week isn’t going to be enough. Lol
That doesn't seem to be much baking soda. Is that the recommended amount? About a quarter cup or so for 2 or 3 books? And how do I remove mildew apps off of some maps (not old or rare) I want to use for decopage......
PSA: Freezing does not kill any mold or bacteria or any other microbes. Freezing just slows the growth. If there is moisture in that bag, or any condenses from the air in the bag, there can be more mold after you take it out, especially if your freezer isn't cold enough. Mold is aerobic, meaning it needs oxygen to survive. It is the plastic bag that kills the mold, not the freezer. Gently patting down the book and pages with isopropyl alcohol seems to be a more logical approach, since it would kill the mold and remove it, although I have never tried it. Isopropyl alcohol also evaporates quickly, so if used conservatively, it probably won't leave a smell.
i just read that about putting newspaper between the book pages (not every page) and putting the book in a box with crumpled up newspapers on top of the book and closing the box for a few days and the newspaper will absorb the odors. Have you heard of this method?
I have a 50 volume Harvard Classics set that I received from E-Bay and the mold/mildew on that was so bad that it caused me respiratory issues from handling them. But I’m determined to disinfect them
Can you do this in larger quantities by placing the baking soda box in a bin with multiple books and placing in a chest freezer? Thus needing to sprinkle the baking soda on all of the books? I have about 60 books that need a good deoderizing.
I brought home to Canada in January a ton of books from my parent's basement in Georgia. They stayed in the garage all winter. Does that mean the mold is already dead?
Does this actually work and does this method work the same for magazines? Or would the baking soda damage the paper, which is of different texture and quality than a book, including the cover which is on colored glossy paper?
I have some old paperback cookbooks that smell very bad. I wonder if my small UV-C air sanitizer would work on the smell if I put the books and the sanitizer in a plastic container with them. Any thoughts?
Hopefully you see this, would this work for older mad magazines? I’ve bought a few that definitely has mold or mildew growing on the cover and it’s disgusting smh as soon as you touch the cover you can tell bc it feels dirty/dusty & I want to clean them but since it’s a magazine I got to be careful so I’m wondering if this will work
Oh my God. Thank you for this! I was about to clean my shelves, but I have allergies of paper dust and mold and have no idea how to clean those all. Now I'm asking your permission to post this video on my blog. May I? :)
Hi, thank you for your video. I am looking for a way to get smells out of cd covers, booklets, and boxes without damaging the art of stripping the ink. Mostly cigarette and cologne or something like that smells. Do you think this would work for that? Thanks!
I have some card Super Nintendo thin cardboard boxes that are dry but smell strong of mildew and have brown spores inside and on the covers of the manuals. Would putting them in the freezer with this method damage the boxes (E.G make them damp after defrosting.)
Hi there i like your video i have found it very helpful. One question i have though, is do you empty your chest freezer of food while you have the moldy objects in it. Or is it safe to leave food in due to the zip lock bag being used . Thanks in advance
Are dehumifers worth using and do they kill mold already in a room or do they just stop new mold appearing also is salt effective and ok to use in dehumifers that have crystals in the top of dehumifer when Crystal's have run out I have mold in my bedroom and I dont wanna have to keep buying more dehumifers
do you know what temperature the freezer must be at to kill the mildew? I have a student refrigerator with a small freezer inside of it,which I can't fit the books into, so I can turn up the temp as cold as possible but it won't freeze everywhere. I hope I explained it properly. Thank you.
+seeamerica1 No, I has to be a deep freezer, which means really cold. Mold spores are hardy things, and putting them just in a cold environment will just make them go dormant. Sorry. By the way, if you live in a cold environment, putting them outside (sealed!) on very cold Winter days/nights will also work. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching :-)
Sorry, just saw this comment. Again, I don't really recommend using a microwave because it is hard to tell sometimes how a book is made. Leave it too long in the microwave, and any glue holding it together might melt. Also, and metallic staples or threads in the bindings or cover could catch fire. However, assuming you are willing to take the risk, I recon 15 secs should kill the *active* mold. Not necessarily true for the far more resistant mold *spores*. Freezing/thawing is better :-)
I found the easiest way is to place the books in plastic bags with a desiccant and let sit for six months. It takes time but doesn't require a lot of work, which is practical when you have a lot of books to deal with. And of course if you need a book you can just take it out of the bag while you use it. This will also keep dust and mold from settling on the books. It may not take six months, but they improve with time. It's also a good way to store books, especially if they're kept in a basement or storage locker.
Instructions start at: 2:09
I used to sell books and tossed so many because I didn't know to freeze them. I put the baking soda in a bag and left them but it didn't do the trick. I'll sure try this method. Genius!
+Lauren Caddo It works for killing (active) mold. The baking soda + bag combo helps soak up the odor after the mold spores have been killed. Hope it helps - it has saved a lot of nice books for me! Cheers, MM
Froze my book with lots of baking soda for a couple of months. Took it out. vacuumed every page lovingly. Still smells.
A lot of old books have a lot of moisture content, so you have to be very careful freezing. You can actually form frost or ice residue in your plastic bag, between pages, binding etc. I still love to freeze to kill silverfish and other bugs, but you need to get them out of the bag quickly and gently remove the baking soda and you want to do this outside so you just don't spread mold spores in your home. Freezing inactivates mold, it doesn't kill it. I have a wood box with slats so I can stand several books on edge in it and get it outside in the sun and natural air without them blowing apart and sure to flip them a few times.
I recommended first corn starch to the old books to remove moisture. Then freezer for 3 days. Followed up with denatured alcohol. It’s a very long process. I just got an old encyclopedia set but before I add them to my collection this is the process they will go through
Thanks for this tip. I managed to completely eliminate the bad musty smell from a 1969 comic. Took a while to brush all the baking powder from each page (seemed never ending!) but it's totally done the job.
I enjoyed your video and was excited to learn there was a simple and easy way to eliminate mildew odors from books. I wasn't sure if you were aware of this, after doing a bit more research online, I found out that freezing mildew/mold doesn't actually kill the spores - what it does is cause them to become dormant. Freezing them will make the smell go away for a time. If after freezing, the books are put in an environment which promotes mildew/mold growth, the dormant spores will reactivate and continue to grow. I thought you might want to have this information. I enjoy your videos, please continue to make more!
@@jeannecarstens9230 i want to know too, mildew in my drawers and stuff
@@jeannecarstens9230 So how you kill it?
@@jeannecarstens9230 I got rid off my Crime and Punishment book just to avoid it infect the mold on the rest of my books. It was a good translation :(
I have a hardback edition of The Four Translation New Testament published by Moody Press from 1966. My wife ordered it for me from Thriftbooks. Every time I would use it my eyes would start itching and my nose felt like I was breathing dust. I asked a book nerd friend of mine if he had a solution and he directed me to your video. After a little over two weeks in the freezer the baking soda dusted right off it has been out now for a few days with no trace of "old" smell. Fantastic!
Dear Friend, Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for doing this video! :-) Your idea of using the freezer to kill mildew & mold is absolutely BRILLIANT! (BTW, before you spoke a word - when I saw your beautiful cat, I knew I had come to the right place.) ;-) Best Regards, Fred, Virginia Beach, VA
Save those silica geek crystals that come in clothes pockets...purses .. suitcases...and put then in the bag top absorb excess moisture... never through then away...very useful
Kathleen Murphy I have been hoarding the silica packets for years now. Lol They also come in supplement bottles. I’m going to put them to good use.... just bought some old crochet magazines and need to de-must them.
What a great tip! Thanks for sharing. The list of uses for baking soda is endless!
So glad you found my channel. Pudgy Picker is one of my favorites! And I am so jealous of your booth space!!! I have had luck with the same freezer/baking soda method on some other items as well, but have not tried it with purses. The freezing part is to kill the microorganisms, not so much the odor removal. That's where the baking soda comes in. Another GREAT odor absorber is charcoal meant for aquariums - I have used that successfully for bigger stuff including a briefcase. Good luck :-)
Thanks for the post. It didn't occur to me to try either method, so it will be worth giving it a go before doing anything else (old books or music manuscripts would benefit a lot!). It seems the interchange with Kevin Pezzi covers an important detail: once something has been deep frozen (quarantine people tell you to do this with souvenirs from exotic places, that may have wood-borer etc), it needs to be properly dried out again when removed from freezer. Because water will condense on the cold item. In a shed, this would happen in the spring, and the mold resume growing, if it's had shelter. The bicarb would be a useful mild base to absorb the odor, and starve the mold.
Fort Radon Indeed and thank you for your comment! It is also why I stress the use of a sealed Ziploc environment, to protect it from the moisture from the surrounding environment. And yes, be generous with the bicarbonate. Thanks for stopping by and commenting :-)
Thankyou ! My Dad has over 600 old books - its gonna be a long spring/summer x
I tried it and it worked!! thank you so much! i was scared of the freezing part, but it worked like a charm 👌✨
now it no longer smells of mildew 🥰
GREAT Info! I had never heard this and have had books that I've gotten rid of over the years due to the Smell! Thank you soooo much! I LOVE my books!
Thank you so much for your tutorial on how to kill mold and mildew in old books. I just bought a fantastic history book at an Antiquarian fair and would love to have it in my home! Sincerely, Verna Peddi.
It would’ve been nice to see how you finished the process.. thanks for sharing!
I have now put 2 books from the 1880's in the freezer (Henrik Ibsen books) which I love really much. So I hope they don't get damaged, I have made sure to seal the plastic bag it very well! So now I am excited to see how it goes when I take them out next week.
Hope it goes well and as long as the bag is sealed it should be fine. It might take longer and you might have to change the baking soda, but it should help. Put them in a nice dry bright place afterwards for a while. Good luck! Btw, Ibsen is one of my favorites! I wrote a thesis on his realistic dramas back in school :-)
Can we have an update please?
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Loved this info and I used it on my old magazines. Just glad I picked up a box of 2 gallon Zip Lock bags when I saw them!
I did keep it in the bag for a long time after freezing and finally all the smell was gone. I just left the soda at the bottom of the bag.
I am very sensitive to mold, especially in books, because I am allergic to 3 different types of mold. I am going to try this, I am excited! ;) Thanks for sharing!
Any luck?
@@danatube8258 That was 11 years ago. I have no idea if I ever tried it 😂.
I don't know that I would recommend cornstarch as a medium to absorb odor or moisture while the books are in the freezer since cornstarch is a former of sugar (it breaks down from starch to sugar chemically). Even though it is highly absorbent, and you shake it off the books, some will remain which in itself will become a growth medium for certain mold spores answer an attractant to silverfish. I will try the baking soda method myself or buy some aquarium charcoal to but in the bag (not, obviously, on the books themselves) to absorb odor.
I've been doing this for awhile & it does work!
I just got my huge Edgar Allen Poe poem book back from my friends apartment and it’s huge with gold Pages. It’s gorgeous! but it’s completely mildew damage because she put it in her basement that has lots of leaks and damage. So it’s completely mildewy. This video come save me because I was so lost and I couldn’t find anything to help me fix it. ❤
Thanks for your great tips. I am just starting to resell books and love to learn as much as possible. I already picked up one Tom Swift first edition (can't remember which one right now), and it was definitely a good move on my part.
Thank you!! Always nice to meet another book person! Yes, the Tom Swifts can be very good, especially the last ones in the series! Thank you again and welcome to my channel :-)
You have the best tips - thanks so much for sharing with us!
Trying this out with a book I got today, which smells pretty bad. I ordered it online knowing it would be in iffy condition, but hadn't really expected the odor. A search for how to fix the problem led me to this video/method and I am hoping that it will work!
Hi, been a while, but I'm curious if it helped?
@@iosoi3145Hello! yes the book I treated smells fine now. If I remember right it took about a week, I coated the book with a lot of baking soda and froze it in a bag. I also had the book out and open on a table on a sunny day for part of the time as well, still dusted with baking soda. It was not a particularly valuable old book but one which I wanted to be able to keep. And I’m not sure what had been making it smell so bad.
@@Plaid_Flannel_Shirt Thanks so much 👍 📖 Funny how some books have that wonderfully pleasent smell and some just smell so unfortunate. Glad to know this really works.
thank you so much - am trying this for my husband's sneakers that were left out in the rain and they grew quite mildewy...they are in great condition otherwise and we thought we would have to buy new ones - now there's hope!!
tracy scarf Freezing shoes (in a bag) is a great way to take a lot of stink out (by killing the smelly bacteria!). I do this on a regular basis with my son's soccer shoes :-)
Mold, mildew, fungi have spread throughout my bookshelf. Help!
Never put a book with mold and/or mildew on your shelves with other books because it will spread, quickly and easily. I’ve used the book in a freezer bag method, and after it’s come out of the freezer and returned to room temperature (if you open them the glue will crack - permanently) then take outdoors into the sun and use cotton balls and a little alcohol to wipe. If it still has mildew then keep it in a plastic bag away from other books so it doesn’t spread. It will go airborne. Spray Lysol on paper towels and put those in the bag as well. It’s hard not to be able to put your book(s) with others using your home library system but it’s not worth risking your other books. Mildew spreads in a large area. If you’ve ordered the book from an online used book seller, ask them to please replace the book, explaining exactly why you can’t use the copy you’ve received. I buy secondhand always and choose the ‘very good’ to ‘like new’ books offered. Hope this helps, from one book lover to another.
Thanks for posting this... I have some antique books that got caught in the rain. I put them in kitty litter but they were in storage for a while. Hoping to salvage them!
I hope you get to salvage them too. Good thinking on the cat litter, hopefully it was without perfume. Also, aquarium-style charcoal is a great way to pull moisture and odor out of damp books/paper. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
Brilliant. I would put a drop of oregano oil, it will kill any mold or mildew. If you mixed it with the baking soda it wouldn't be wet at all.
thank you for this. i just purchased 3 sets of encyclopedia for php 1600= us$32. some of them are moldy. im gonna try this and wait for the results. 😊
After pondering this, I'm skeptical that freezing is effective. Here's why: the contents of the shed (mentioned in my last comment) get very cold -- sometimes 20 degrees below zero (F) -- and stay cold for prolonged periods. After such freezes, the shed contents should be partially sterilized of mold if cold were indeed effective in killing it. Also, winter cold inhibits mold growth in nature but it springs backs to life in spring. Do you have any scientific data or links to it that substantiates the effectiveness of cold in killing mold?
The baking soda is the trick. Baking soda actualy sucks in sucks in the mold and mildew from the book, and prevents ice from forming on the book. Water is one of the main dangers of books. The cold from the shed may kill some of the mold/mildew, but when it heats up, the effects before the cold will occur again, reversing the process.
Some molds grow with cold and moisture very well
I have used Damprid before. I just set my books on or near it for a few weeks, and it sucks the mold smell right out of it. It works for smoke smell as well.
Great tip from a great card player, thanks Kay.
Freezing it doesn't kill the mold. It just slows the growth down.
Yeah, don't trust random videos online.
Nice tip to get rid of that smell from old books and I will for sure try it. My method to get rid of those nasty eukaryotes is to do a mix of H2 O2/bicaronate in a seal proof bag and a consumer humidifier. The other alternative is a autoclave, but that would destroy the book.
Thank you. I will try out this very helpful tip.
Thank you for posting this video. I have a very old LARGE Bible that was badly stored away. I love the book. But the mildew smell has made it impossible to read. So I am trying your method.
As a book lover, I appreciate the effort and time put in for making this video. But I found couple of serious misleading suggestions which may cause people to lose their old valuable books.
1) "Freezing" is a well-known method for removing mold (mildew) and killing almost all kinds of book-eater insects. But the process is not really "freezing freezing" that you can perform in your kitchen with a household freezer. The process is called VACUUM-FREEZE DRYING. Low pressure (vacuum) is applied to accelerate evaporation of water (humidity) by reducing the boiling temperature of water. Water (moisture) cannot be removed from book by simply placing it in a freezer unless you apply low pressure to lower the boiling temperature of water. As the name clearly suggests, we use a freezer to solidify liquid water (i.e., to convert liquid phase into solid phase), not to evaporate it. As liquid water becomes ice (solid water), it expands! Expanding water destroys the pages and book as a whole. Our aim is not freezing, our aim is to evaporate the liquid.
2) Microwave does not apply heat in a manner that a conventional oven applies. When electromagnetic waves (i.e., microwaves) hit water molecules present in the item (to be microwaved), the molecules get "energized" and vaporize (go from liquid phase to gas phase) very quickly. This phase transition process occurs volumetrically in the item (i.e., it takes place at every point in the item almost at the same time). That's why our soup is made ready under a minute in a MW oven. So, in a MW oven, do not expect heating to occur gradually from outside to inside; it happens at the same time at all points of the item. The book will certainly get a severe damage if it is exposed to microwaves; do not do it. Besides losing the book, you may get severely injured.
Great tip! I'll have to make some room in my tiny freezer to try this out. Wonderful info for any Bookaholic. :)
Thanks so much. I am going to give it a try.
Thank you, great advice.. can't wait to try it out!
Will definitely try this out!
Hi
I just found your post and am looking forward to trying this.
My mum wrote children's adventure books but died when I was eight (42 years ago). I still do occasionally see her books on Amazon etc but I have some of her original collection, rescued from my Dads mouldy bookcase. I'd almost given up on them but maybe not after all.
PS your lovely Cat doesn't look in the slightest bit impressed, aren't they funny :)
All the best
Leo
very touching Leo. I'm glad you are doing that in memory of her after all those years!
Leo Richardson put them in front of a dehumidifier.... then freeze and do the other suggestions
This process also works well for removing the stench from shoes that can't be washed, like those sandals or pumps you like so much.
Yep,same principle. Freezing kills bacteria, which produce that unmistaken stench - but it is worse in men's sneakers, don't you think? Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
I know you did this video a bit ago...But I just found it and WOW thank YOU so much for this invaluable info. I am trying it on record album covers as we speak..just a couple to test.
Glad you found it :-) I have tried it on other paper products too, and it works for all kinds of mildewy paper. Last non-book thing I did it on was a small card board box holding a vintage game - I put both the box and the instruction manual in a sealed bag with plenty of baking soda and put it in the deep freeze. It took 2 weeks, and I changed the baking soda out once, but eventually the smell was gone. I sold the game online and the buyer was happy. Good luck :-)
What a great tip. Just thinking: have you used this same idea for old purses? Sometimes they look great but just cant get past the smell. Let me know if you have tried this or if you know of another suggestion. Love your videos by the way. My sister, "Pudgy Picker" lead me to your tube channel. Keep up the great work!
Great tip! Thank you for sharing 💛
Thank you so much!!! Any tips how to remove visible signs of mildew?
Freezing causes mold to change into spores.Freezing dose not kill mold only slows its growth. The mold will grow again once is removed from the freezer. That is the hard truth. Its tough when mold is entrenched in art and difficult if not impossible to totally get rid of. You are not going to get rid of it by freezing it.
Hi there! The freezing/thawing is what kills the mold, so if it has active mold on it, you definitely need to kill that before you can do anything else, otherwise you are just going to spread it around. That said, even dead mold may induce reactions in people who are allergic to mold. Wiping with wet paper towels is a NO NO, lol. Sounds like your book might be a bit far gone. You can always rip out certain pages and treat individually - I do that with maps and illustrations I want to keep.
Wrong.
Wonderful!!!!! I totally needed this tip, thank you!!
Hi. I'm trying this with very old newspapers I found in my grandparent's home in an old 'Blake's' box (remember that ancient store?). I'm doing everything you said, except, I put the baking soda on a small tray on top of the items inside the sealed bag with lifters for aeration.
I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks.
Thank you for posting this video! :)
+classiclistener01 And the winner is...? ;-)
+BEERCOASTERSpl Hee-hee... it's been a month. I flipped the paper over two weeks ago so both sides were exposed to the baking soda. There is still a faint smell, but, it seems to be working, gradually. I suppose she's the winner. :)
thank you so much for this=) cant wait to try it!
Good luck and thanks for commenting :-)
can the spores spread to the house or other books?
mildew spores are everywhere, in every house
TheFinnishBolshevik j
yes
wonderful, will try ... its great that you have a deep freezer but most of us don't so all these instructions might, or probably won't work, am I interpreting correctly? I am also wondering if once you sell it a year later the spores might come alive again and you would not know it. I have CD containers that I washed down with vinegar, had a little mold, and now I will put them in the freezer once they dry off the vinegar and see what happens. Will try the bicarb for the paper book jackets.
If you only have a cool rather than cold freezer and don't do multiple freeze-thaw cycles, it is quite possible that the mold spores will just go dormant, and once the conditions are favorable again, they will proliferate. If you don't have a deep freezer, I would do multiple freeze-thaw cycles - this succession of temperature changes can be enough to shock and bursting the cells - which of course will kill them :-) Good luck! And vinegar is another GREAT weapon in many bug battles.
What about small cooler one of those big bags you have and some dry Ice blocks. Reason for the cooler so you can avoid the the whole situation with the freezing and the damp conditions. An dry ice at normal pressure doesn't go through the transition state of solid> liquid> gas. Rather it sublimates from the solid to the gas phase circumventing the dangers of moisture and possible condensation formed in the other method. It is in fact very hard to remove any kind of moisture/ condensation from the air around you. A little bit will get into the bag you may not see it but I assure you it's in there. ......Although the carbonate soda should act like a desiccant and should remove miniscule amounts of water from the air inside the bag. So what to do......Only one way to find out. Run two or three different controlled tests to find out. If the dry ice does work the drawback would be that it's quite expensive. Will do in a few as I have supplies needed on hand. Should be interesting.
Be careful of cargoculting, adding baking soda does nothing to kill mold. freezing does not kill mold spore, they will reactivate once they reach normal temperature and higher moisture content (aka.: are removed from freezer), microwave does not kill mold, the microwaves are too large to kill small living beings, if you wanna try, put a couple of small ants in there and see what happens (spoiler: nothing happens), the microwave is NOT a sterilizing tool.
Unfortunatelly this is just another video telling you to do things, it will change the characteristics of the book and its smell of course, but those actions she described wont solve the mold problem, its just hiding it.
thanks for sharing...going to try it.
I know this is "Kay from Mad Maine" but, honestly...All I see here is Heather Graham in the Vince Vaughn / Jon Favreau movie "Swingers' (1996). Most specifically when she is seated at the bar before Mikey goes to meet her. Look it up. The clips are on RUclips.
Great! Thanks for the tip!
I followed the freezer advice given and it ruined the hard cover of my book and it still smells of mildew!
Thank you for the wonderful tips! I love my old books and was afraid of the book mold spreading to the other books in the library :)
Yes, molds spread easily, especially in a humid environment. Hope this helps :-)
HumanityisFamily mold sure does spread. I had a wet document that dried, Then put it in my little portable safe. It smelled slightly. When I added the other documents.... man..... now everything stinks 10 times as bad. All the papers are going into the freezer!! It’s so bad a week isn’t going to be enough. Lol
Excellent tip! TFS.
That doesn't seem to be much baking soda. Is that the recommended amount? About a quarter cup or so for 2 or 3 books? And how do I remove mildew apps off of some maps (not old or rare) I want to use for decopage......
PSA: Freezing does not kill any mold or bacteria or any other microbes. Freezing just slows the growth. If there is moisture in that bag, or any condenses from the air in the bag, there can be more mold after you take it out, especially if your freezer isn't cold enough.
Mold is aerobic, meaning it needs oxygen to survive. It is the plastic bag that kills the mold, not the freezer.
Gently patting down the book and pages with isopropyl alcohol seems to be a more logical approach, since it would kill the mold and remove it, although I have never tried it.
Isopropyl alcohol also evaporates quickly, so if used conservatively, it probably won't leave a smell.
Any liquid will damage a book!
Thank you so much! I have a bunch of old Disney books I thought had been ruined by an old boyfriend when he put them in his shed.
i just read that about putting newspaper between the book pages (not every page) and putting the book in a box with crumpled up newspapers on top of the book and closing the box for a few days and the newspaper will absorb the odors. Have you heard of this method?
Thanks for the tip.
You're welcome :-)
I trried the freezer didnt work :(
I have a 50 volume Harvard Classics set that I received from E-Bay and the mold/mildew on that was so bad that it caused me respiratory issues from handling them. But I’m determined to disinfect them
That's a good point--keep them separated from your other books to prevent spreading. Here in Florida the stuff spreads like wildfire. Gross!
Can you do this in larger quantities by placing the baking soda box in a bin with multiple books and placing in a chest freezer? Thus needing to sprinkle the baking soda on all of the books? I have about 60 books that need a good deoderizing.
I brought home to Canada in January a ton of books from my parent's basement in Georgia. They stayed in the garage all winter. Does that mean the mold is already dead?
Soaking in urine gets rid of mold smell too
Wondering if you think this would also work for silk fabrics?
how cold should the freezer be?
I am hoping that this method work for old documents that have that musty smell books get
Yes, it should. Just remember to seal them properly :-)
Does this actually work and does this method work the same for magazines? Or would the baking soda damage the paper, which is of different texture and quality than a book, including the cover which is on colored glossy paper?
Great tip!
+Chiari Johnson Easy for sure. Good luck! Cheers, MM :-)
I have some old paperback cookbooks that smell very bad. I wonder if my small UV-C air sanitizer would work on the smell if I put the books and the sanitizer in a plastic container with them. Any thoughts?
I hate to say it but freezing will not kill mildew only inactivates it. It will reactivate once co editions return to normal
Yes. Really, she should take down this video.
Hopefully you see this, would this work for older mad magazines? I’ve bought a few that definitely has mold or mildew growing on the cover and it’s disgusting smh as soon as you touch the cover you can tell bc it feels dirty/dusty & I want to clean them but since it’s a magazine I got to be careful so I’m wondering if this will work
great job!
Oh my God. Thank you for this! I was about to clean my shelves, but I have allergies of paper dust and mold and have no idea how to clean those all. Now I'm asking your permission to post this video on my blog. May I? :)
Yes, please feel free to repost :-) I am so glad you found the video to be helpful. I love this book trick, and use it all the time!
Hi, thank you for your video. I am looking for a way to get smells out of cd covers, booklets, and boxes without damaging the art of stripping the ink. Mostly cigarette and cologne or something like that smells. Do you think this would work for that? Thanks!
I have 2 large 150 year old books which is all hand illustrated and quite rare. Does this method work for my books?
You don't say if, in your demonstration, that the three books came out mildew free. How did they smell after a week in the freezer?
I have some card Super Nintendo thin cardboard boxes that are dry but smell strong of mildew and have brown spores inside and on the covers of the manuals. Would putting them in the freezer with this method damage the boxes (E.G make them damp after defrosting.)
Thanks for the video ! Will doing this remove those pesky yellow/brown spots that appear on the head/top edge of the pages?
dianejwren.com/Mold%20Web%20Site/Images/CaseStudyMold11.jpg
Giancarlo Roman This is the question I'm looking to answer as well. If anyone knows a solution for those spots please let me know, thanks.
Hi there i like your video i have found it very helpful. One question i have though, is do you empty your chest freezer of food while you have the moldy objects in it. Or is it safe to leave food in due to the zip lock bag being used . Thanks in advance
A sealed(!) Ziploc is fine to use next to food products. The cold will take care of the rest - thanks for watching and commenting :-)
thanks sister
Are dehumifers worth using and do they kill mold already in a room or do they just stop new mold appearing also is salt effective and ok to use in dehumifers that have crystals in the top of dehumifer when Crystal's have run out I have mold in my bedroom and I dont wanna have to keep buying more dehumifers
The moment the video started and I saw your face, you reminded me of Éowyn from Lord of the Rings. :)
what about using a hair dryer to kill the mildew then in a tote with baking soda?
I have this copy of Lone Wolf By Joe Dever book 27, Vampirium. Worth over £100 at eBay Uk. But it has lots of brown stains. How to rid it?
do you know what temperature the freezer must be at to kill the mildew? I have a student refrigerator with a small freezer inside of it,which I can't fit the books into, so I can turn up the temp as cold as possible but it won't freeze everywhere. I hope I explained it properly. Thank you.
+seeamerica1 No, I has to be a deep freezer, which means really cold. Mold spores are hardy things, and putting them just in a cold environment will just make them go dormant. Sorry. By the way, if you live in a cold environment, putting them outside (sealed!) on very cold Winter days/nights will also work. Hope that helps. Thanks for watching :-)
Oh wow, thanks for the reply, now I have to find someone with a big freezer as it's warm where I live.
Череп Ворона
Sorry I don't use twitter.
Sorry, just saw this comment. Again, I don't really recommend using a microwave because it is hard to tell sometimes how a book is made. Leave it too long in the microwave, and any glue holding it together might melt. Also, and metallic staples or threads in the bindings or cover could catch fire. However, assuming you are willing to take the risk, I recon 15 secs should kill the *active* mold. Not necessarily true for the far more resistant mold *spores*. Freezing/thawing is better :-)
I would like to try the microwave for some sewing patterns, can you direct me to instructions, please...
I left my books in the freezer for 2 years. Took them out and they were moldy.
keith seifert lol
@@Fortheloveofclassics Keith forgot about the soda baking part
@@elliottvaughn Did not forget that. This "cure" didn't work