Basement apartments, aquariums, and mold

[Skydvr]

After a traumatic brain injury (seems a bit redundant, aren’t all brain injuries traumatic?) a few years ago, I’ve been dealing with some severe depression and haven’t been able to keep up on the tidyness of my apartment. I’m finally starting to turn things around and as I am cleaning and scrubbing everything (down to the walls, insides and unexposed sides of furniture. Pretty much every surface that I can), I am trying to figure out how to mitigate the mustiness and mold that builds up on everything over time. Having a rimless aquarium doesn’t help much, but at least it is only 20 gallons and loses just over a gallon a week, which is less half of what my dehumidifier can pull in the 10 or so hours I am gone for work.

Living in a basement apartment in the woods of New England requires a bit of upkeep to prevent everything from getting musty and keeping wood and leather from getting moldy.

What are some things other people do to make this task easier, or less frequent?

Any recommendations for keeping clothing from getting musty in closets and dressers? Same for books.

Running a big, noisy, power hungry dehumidifier 24/7 is less than ideal. It will also severely incress the evaporation rate of the aquarium, which I sometimes have difficulty keeping up with. I am starting to run the dehumidifier again, but may switch to only running it a few days a week once I get eveything back under control.

 

[Phyber]

Any windows that you could open or have some sort of small "whole house fan" setup done in the basement?

You're going to have evaporation, or musty air. You could try a tank lid though.

 

[andrewkw]

Unfortunately your big noisy power hungry dehumidifier is probably the way to go. Unless it's still warm enough for AC or cold enough to turn on your heat. I live in a very humid cold climate and this time of year it can be difficult to keep humidity reasonable. As the nights get colder my windows fog when I wake up ect.

 

[vetteguy53081]

ventilation, product called DAMP RID is a great start followed by wipes that contain bleach and then paint and polish

 

[ZoWhat]

Run your furnace/AC fan 24/7 to constantly recirculate air. Change your furnace filter the 1st week of every month.

PERSONAL NOTE:
Hang in there. I went thru major league depression in 2013. So bad I became agoraphobic. What brought me out of it were two things: 1) seeing a Dr and getting on Paxil 20mg, 2) Having a PROJECT everyday OUTSIDE my house to keep my mind busy! I volunteered A LOT at my church just to keep my mind busy.

The LAST thing, the WORST thing for you is to sit around and sink into your problems like quicksand.

Depression is real and very very hard to break out of. It's not a "just toughen yourself up" thing. You gotta work hard to break out of it. My suggestion is to get on the right meds and get busy volunteering. Heck volunteer at a local fish coral shop for min-wage or even for free, just to do SOMETHING....

KEEP YOUR MIND & BODY B.U.S.Y.

Praying 4 you

 

[fish farmer]

Do you have a window you can put a good AC in? I have an AC unit that I can run on dry mode so it is just dehumidifying.

My basement is the same as yours. I don't live down there but I have been running a dehumidifier 24/7 to keep thing from getting too damp in the summer. I used to run it 4 hours on, 4 hours off during the winter or not at all.

Once I tried to cross ventilate my basement during the summer with two fans one in and one out. Warm moist Vermont air in made it rain in my basement.

 

[ca1ore]

Yup, fresh air ventilation when the outside air will help based on temperature and humidity. A/C or dehumidifier when it will not. I use one of those room A/C units on dehumidifier mode with an a exhaust hose to keep heat out of the room during the summer. Nothing needed in the Winter.