Matt Kelly ("Mold man") explains that mold and mycotoxins adhere strongly to paper and cannot be fully removed; even intensive cleaning (HEPA vacuuming, EC3 sprays, compressed air, page-by-page cleaning) may still trigger reactions in ultra-sensitive people. His practical advice: discard nonessential books/papers, HEPA-vacuum or blow off and microfiber what you must keep, place important documents in storage for later access, and consider re-evaluating items once you are less reactive.
How do you clean books and papers? You're living in your apartment, your house, somewhere that you know there's a mold problem. You gotta move. You're trying to figure out how to clean things, how to pack things up, get ready to go. You have all these books. Where do I. Yeah, you kind of see some of my stuff. Stack of books there. Everybody has their favorite books. I had someone who collected old newspapers, and they're like, how do I clean my papers, Matt? And I don't know if you want to hear this or not, but paper does not clean well, and it doesn't even clean all the way. So there is no way to get mold spores, fragments, mycotoxins, all the way out of paper. And it seems like it'd be easy. It seems like you just HEPA vacuum a book and. And it'd be fine, right? But it's not. People who are on the far end of that sliding scale of sensitivity, no matter what they do. I've heard it time and time again. Hepavac it, spray it down with EC3, microfiber it. There's even people that have tried to clean every individual page in a book, but it still bothers them because this stuff just clings to it. And people who are ultra sensitive still react to it. Now, is that everybody? No, no. There are people who can, you know, use compressed air outside, hepavac it, spritz it down, whatever, and they're okay. Right? But those aren't the people usually asking the questions. Those people have moved on, healed, gotten better. Most of the people asking these questions are having chronic issues and high sensitivity. But for some people, a lot of people, paper is a no. And I remember. Oh, I remember the story, but I don't remember who it was. It was another practitioner or doctor that had had mold in their office, and they had all their university books, all their studying books, everything behind their desk. And no matter what they did, they couldn't save one, and they all went to the dumpster. Thousands of dollars of books or tens of thousands of things that were sentimental as well. Right? And that happens now? Do you have to throw them all out? No, I just did the video on. What does putting stuff in storage do? It doesn't kill mold, doesn't kill mycotoxins. It just separates it from you and delays hard decisions, but you still have it. So later, once you've healed more and you're not as sensitive, maybe you can clean that to a level that it's not causing you to react. Is it still there on the Books or on the papers, yes, but are you reactive? Maybe you've healed yourself that you're not reacting to it. But if you're ultra sensitive, those aren't things you'll move into your new space. At best, you, you'll blow them off with compressed air, you'll microfiber them down wet, wipe them and put them into storage. That's about your only option. Now. Everybody has important papers and things, and I tell people to just, you know, put them in a storage, because if you need access to important papers, you know, what if you get audited, God forbid, you need to be able to have your papers. But it's not something you're going to move into your new space. And for the ultra sensitive, it continues to be a problem. I talked to a lady the other day that had been out of mold for months, staying in the new place, and opened up a book to read to one of the kids, one of their kids, and she started reacting immediately and realized this was a book from the old house, this wasn't a new book. And it just goes to show how sensitive people can be and how those books bring the problem with us. So be careful. You don't have to toss them, but make some tough decisions. What you don't need, just get rid of it. Things that you do need, you can clean it first, like I said, compressed air, spray it down, microfiber, put it in storage, and maybe when you're better, you're not going to be as react. But those mold and mycotoxins, they're like Velcro to paper and will always be there. Hopefully you get to the point where you're not reactive. Hope that helps.
Do you have questions about mold in your home or body? Book a consultation with Matt, AKA the Mold man, to guide your home and body to the next level of healing.
