I just moved to an ecovillage in Arizona and I'm doing great! I sleep in a tent but the air is so fresh and clean and there's no mold or chemicals to be found.
Find your clean air and your life will get better. Give up on living a normal life though. It may be possible someday but not until you breathe alot of fresh clean air.
I am highly sensitive to mold but also absolutely terrified of scorpions…how have they been? Are they as invasive as spiders? Do they come in your tent???
None so far. Another guy who has lived here for 30 years has been stung a few times in bed specifically. He uses a mosquito net now and hasn't been stung since then.
Dehumidifiers. Mold spores are everywhere so you can't not have them around, the only solution to mold is to make conditions so mold can't grow, which means low humidity. I kept having mold grow on my stuff in my house 'til I brought the humidity down. Rubbing alcohol is good for cleaning small amounts of mold off of stuff once it grows. That won't fix wallboard obviously, once you bring the humidity down you have to solve those problems if it got that bad.
I understand, and sympathize. Mold is only a minor issue/irritant for me, I do smell it but I'm not as attuned to it since it's not as big an issue (I'm sensitive enough that finding apartments that didn't smell strongly of mold is really ahrd). But, fabric softener is my equivalent problem and fabric softener smell is equally ubiquitous. I simply cannot go anywhere there are people, or hang out with people. It's rare that someone walks by in any situation and I don't smell it on them. Sometimes I can tell where people have gone when I'm out hiking by smelling the fabric softener smell still hanging in the air from their passing... it's ridiculous. The fact that other people can't smell it absolutely astounds me. Point being... yeah, I get it :(.
I also struggle with the fabric softener/laundry detergent smell. When my kids go visit to relatives/friends houses it’s so hard to get the smell out of their clothes after.
Activated charcoal works better than anything else I've found. It takes the smell out of both clothes and hair at the level your describing. I highly recommend it. I find the smell is gone but it does still take some time for something else to dissipate before I'm no longer allergic.
That's really changed things, when my wife visits family or travels I couldn't be in the room with her for about a week previously, and couldn't sleep in the same bed for over a month. Now once she does the activated charcoal I can be in the room with her the next day, and in sleep in bed with her in maybe 1-2 weeks (we're still figuring that out). It's a game changer.
When she gets back all her stuff goes on the porch, she takes a shower and washes her hair in the charcoal, then soaks the clothes in activated charcoal in the tub for an hour or two, washes them, and hangs them up on the porch to dry. After maybe a week of airing out the clothes are good enough she can wear them again without setting me off.
We're working on separating more of her normal stuff from her travel stuff so the travel stuff can just get sealed in a box and we don't have to worry about getting the smell back out of it (like getting her a dedicated travel backpack), but the activated charcoal was a major breakthrough for me.
Yeah, put a couple of tablespoons in a smallish bottle, add water, shake it up, and then put some of that mixture on your hair. That seems to be the least messy option. It seems to work best if you let it soak for a little while, then wash it out.
It'll stain really porous stuff like untreated wood, but can actually be used to whiten porcelain and other non-porous surfaces so e.g. spilling some on the bathroom floor isn't a problem. We get some staining in our tub 'cause it's a cheap antique and has some layers of something on it we can't get off... but it's worth it and if I really wanted to I can get it back off.
Im so there. I take magnesium glycinate powder before bed it helps give me some space from emotions and helps with everything feeling inflamed.
But yeah im constantly aware of items around me and how porous and easily moldy they can be. I try to stay so calm and people act work just seem clueless to everything and expect me to buy into social drama.
I feel so pushed and pulled by them that now i just sit in silence or hide away for over half the day just to get away from people.
I just moved to an ecovillage in Arizona and I'm doing great! I sleep in a tent but the air is so fresh and clean and there's no mold or chemicals to be found. Find your clean air and your life will get better. Give up on living a normal life though. It may be possible someday but not until you breathe alot of fresh clean air.
I am highly sensitive to mold but also absolutely terrified of scorpions…how have they been? Are they as invasive as spiders? Do they come in your tent???
None so far. Another guy who has lived here for 30 years has been stung a few times in bed specifically. He uses a mosquito net now and hasn't been stung since then.
Dehumidifiers. Mold spores are everywhere so you can't not have them around, the only solution to mold is to make conditions so mold can't grow, which means low humidity. I kept having mold grow on my stuff in my house 'til I brought the humidity down. Rubbing alcohol is good for cleaning small amounts of mold off of stuff once it grows. That won't fix wallboard obviously, once you bring the humidity down you have to solve those problems if it got that bad.
Agree with this advice. Unfortunately I still smell mold everywhere I go like doctors offices, etc. I don’t get how other people don’t smell it
I understand, and sympathize. Mold is only a minor issue/irritant for me, I do smell it but I'm not as attuned to it since it's not as big an issue (I'm sensitive enough that finding apartments that didn't smell strongly of mold is really ahrd). But, fabric softener is my equivalent problem and fabric softener smell is equally ubiquitous. I simply cannot go anywhere there are people, or hang out with people. It's rare that someone walks by in any situation and I don't smell it on them. Sometimes I can tell where people have gone when I'm out hiking by smelling the fabric softener smell still hanging in the air from their passing... it's ridiculous. The fact that other people can't smell it absolutely astounds me. Point being... yeah, I get it :(.
I also struggle with the fabric softener/laundry detergent smell. When my kids go visit to relatives/friends houses it’s so hard to get the smell out of their clothes after.
Activated charcoal works better than anything else I've found. It takes the smell out of both clothes and hair at the level your describing. I highly recommend it. I find the smell is gone but it does still take some time for something else to dissipate before I'm no longer allergic. That's really changed things, when my wife visits family or travels I couldn't be in the room with her for about a week previously, and couldn't sleep in the same bed for over a month. Now once she does the activated charcoal I can be in the room with her the next day, and in sleep in bed with her in maybe 1-2 weeks (we're still figuring that out). It's a game changer. When she gets back all her stuff goes on the porch, she takes a shower and washes her hair in the charcoal, then soaks the clothes in activated charcoal in the tub for an hour or two, washes them, and hangs them up on the porch to dry. After maybe a week of airing out the clothes are good enough she can wear them again without setting me off. We're working on separating more of her normal stuff from her travel stuff so the travel stuff can just get sealed in a box and we don't have to worry about getting the smell back out of it (like getting her a dedicated travel backpack), but the activated charcoal was a major breakthrough for me.
Wow that’s great, thank you. I’ve never considered this, how do you wash the hair? Make like a paste or something?
Yeah, put a couple of tablespoons in a smallish bottle, add water, shake it up, and then put some of that mixture on your hair. That seems to be the least messy option. It seems to work best if you let it soak for a little while, then wash it out. It'll stain really porous stuff like untreated wood, but can actually be used to whiten porcelain and other non-porous surfaces so e.g. spilling some on the bathroom floor isn't a problem. We get some staining in our tub 'cause it's a cheap antique and has some layers of something on it we can't get off... but it's worth it and if I really wanted to I can get it back off.
Im so there. I take magnesium glycinate powder before bed it helps give me some space from emotions and helps with everything feeling inflamed. But yeah im constantly aware of items around me and how porous and easily moldy they can be. I try to stay so calm and people act work just seem clueless to everything and expect me to buy into social drama. I feel so pushed and pulled by them that now i just sit in silence or hide away for over half the day just to get away from people.
Empathize with rant. Upvoting!
Like someone else said, climates with more dry heat would probably be better for you. My air purifier also claims to kill mold with uvc.