Safe and effective mold killer

1229534_bathroom_cleaning_sprayHere’s a safe, cheap, environmentally sound way to kill mold in the bathroom:

You can use Borax and white vinegar to make a spray that you can aim directly at the mold in the tub or shower. Once you spray it , leave it to sit for 30-60 minutes and then go back in and wipe it off. Presto, the mold will start coming off and you did not have to inhale toxic chemicals to do so. Just mix about 2 ounces of Borax and a cup of white vinegar and you are ready to go.

As a back up and a maintenance tip, you can also periodically spray the moldy “areas” with straight vinegar and just let it sit there and soak in. The vinegar will kill the mold that might be growing and it will halt the growth of new mold.

It may be less effective than bleach, which kills mold on contact (edited February 2009: check this link for more specifics on bleach’s effectiveness against mold).  But bleach fumes aren’t particularly people or pet-friendly, either.

2 Responses to “Safe and effective mold killer”

  1. Jonathan says:

    FYI, bleach does not actually kill mold. It only bleaches the color so you think it’s gone.

    • Jen says:

      The following article sheds some light on this:

      http://www.spore-tech.com/viewCategory.asp?idCategory=78

      It’s true that since I wrote this article, health agencies have revised their thinking on the effectiveness of bleach. But it does in fact kill some types of mold on some surfaces. So it looks like the answer is somewhere between the original article and your comment. :) That said, I edited the article with an update. Thanks!

Leave a Reply

XHTML: You can use these tags: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>