How To Deal With Molded Ornaments.

I hope this never happens to you.

Those are my ornaments. That I have been collecting for all the years of my life. And they are molded.

So this is them, still in their disgustingly molded container.

I’m going to tell you what happened quickly so we can move on with our lives: My plastic container that holds all my ornaments apparently was broken on the bottom so every time it rained, my little basement flooded, and water filled my ornament container like they were bathtub toys.

So when it came time to deck the halls, the entire collection was soggy and black with mold.

I panicked [and maybe cried] as I dug through the container and then I put it on the porch [it STUNK] I walked away. And got on google. And ya know what? NO ONE ON GOOGS TOLD ME WHAT TO DO.

I’m going to tell you what I learned by pulling together some internet information and lots of emergency phone calls to moms. Moms know things.

First, I collected the supplies. Gloves, mask, and Dawn. YES! DAWN!

So I put on the gloves and the mask [breathing mold is a bad idea, y'all] and dug through the tupperware. Here’s the truth- I ended up having to throw away about half of my ornaments. Anything that was made of cloth or porous material like clay had to go.

The ones that survived round one moved on to round two- going swimming again, but this time instead of rain water, they are in hot water with Dawn. All the ribbons had to be cut off of ornaments as well because they were mostly black with mold.

I know. Heartbreaking to read.

I dunked them in the kitchen sink and scrubbed them each for about eight minutes. Normal Dawn will do all the work you need without damaging your ornaments like bleach could. Then I rinsed them each in hot water as well.

I was told that they should dry for a bit and then give each ornament another round of the ol’ sniff test. If they still smell like mold after a round of scrubbing, you have to trash them.

So I took the crowd out to the front porch and let them lay out like beach bums and dry off.

Almost all of those guys have now made it onto the tree, sans two that still smelled like they were made of mold.

Do you like how non-emotionally I am telling this story? You’re welcome. It’s been a week or so at this point, so my heart is healed from the trauma of the experience.

And, the tree still looks totes adorbs, so it makes me feel more in the holiday spirit.

[Pardon the lack of a tree skirt... it also got molded. And apparently I have a strand of lights that need some repair work. Who knew.]

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