How to Get Rid of Mold on Your Books -- Tips, Tricks, and More 

Ha! Yep! :)

Good luck!

I will in the future, just waiting until I get another one! :)

Good luck! :)

Yep! :) I still think all books should be covered in gold because gold is cool though. :P Happy reading and collecting. :)

Awe man, sorry you had so many. Sometimes RU-vid really goes crazy on those things! :(

100% agree, chambers like that are for your safety, plus the safety of your books and everyone and eyeverything else!

Decon chambers ... looked on eBay for such a thing and it's $900. Wondering if a Lumin (cpap machine cleaner) would suffice? Also, @AntiqueBookCollective, I would have liked to seen your UV-C light set up. 👀

First things first, your photos and such should be alright, but I'd hit them all with a lot of UVC light before putting them back into storage. (Gotta kill whatever spores that might have gotten on them.) Now, for the book itself, I would hit each and every page with UVC light to try and kill the mildew and spores and then I'd employ the freezer method. With it being winter there is less moisture in the air and, once you've UVCed the pages for a few minutes each, the book should be pretty dry. (And, if not, then just leave it out, open, and it'll finish drying out.) The ice things shouldn't be an issue, but be sure to stick it in a sealed Ziplock and, if possible, use a freezer that doesn't frost up. Give it a day or so, but not too long. :) Once that's all done, the mildew will probably still be alive, at least a tiny bit of it, but all old books have at least some mildew. All that matters now is how you store it. If you keep it in a dry place then it shouldn't get any worse any time soon. But, please note, the mildew that you started with won't magically disappear just because it's dead. That's where all the scary alcohol, bleach, and peroxide things come into play. Some folks want their pages clean of everything and they accept that risk. Depending on how bad off your book is, it might be something that you'll still need to do, but that's up to you. Something I'd do if I were in your shoes is at least photograph every single page of the book and maybe make a new book--even a binder--do people can go through a clean version of what you've got and not fear damaging the original piece. :) As for storing the book afterwards, a bag may or may not be needed. It all depends on how bad the mildew was. While I wouldn't store the book with other ones that I cared about, I don't know if I'd go as far as to treat it like it caused the Black Plague either. Hahaha That's up to you though! I've got some other videos on this channel that go over how to store books, so those will be worth checking out. :) (Keep it dry, indoors, and lay book on its side are three biggies for that.)

Sure, the "old book smell" is the smell of the books decaying. However, excess moisture just speeds up the decaying process and renders your book unreadable. I've had and read books 250 years old and older that are beautiful and the Bible I bring to church every Sunday is 170 years old. So long as you keep a book dry and oil its cover you're going to be able to enjoy it much longer. :)

Sorry, but I don't have any recommendations yet, only ever used one brand. Mine are just ones that sit on my tale, but I'd be interested in buying handheld ones in the future that allow me to bring them to bear as needed, so I'd look for something like that if I were you. Sorry I don't have any specific brands or such for you though.

Good luck! :)

That's interesting! Thanks for sharing. PPE is always needed when dealing with chemicals, for sure. :)

Really!?! That's nuts! I never would have thought of that, but it makes sense! Thanks for the comment. :)

@@antiquebookcollective yeah but once it didn't helped 🤷

@@1384853 Interesting.

Yep, that could help for sure. :)

As I'm sure you know, mold spores are out there and can spread whether we see them or not. It's likely that there are spores on the books. That being said, there are things you can do to kill off some of that mold, I like Clorox wipes for newer books that aren't as fragile as antiques, but, even then, I do use some Clorox wipes (and I add rubbing alcohol to that sometimes, depending on the book) and I wipe the book down with that to kill mold, germs, and even some bad smells. It's not 100%, you won't kill it all, but I find it's enough most of the time to get rid of everything that I can. Hope that helps, no one likes throwing away stacks of books!

That sounds like mold to me, and mildew is a type of mold. You'll need to do something to get rid of it because mold is dangerous for your health.

If you've got mold over the entire page then I don't think that just some bleach could save you. You might want to look into getting a pro to clean it and do things properly.

Sorry, but I don't have any exact tips for that, but I'd suspect it's the same as what I would do for books. Hydrogen peroxide would likely work great, just be sure to dilute it with water (I'd throw in a little rubbing alcohol to increase your chances of killing the mold off), and then you probably want to use a q-tip to apply it and rub on the paper. Be super careful and pick a little test area to be sure that there aren't any bad reactions. I actually went through a whole set of books about a month ago where I used Clorox wipes on the pages themselves and that sure did well for me. Of course, I'm not a conservationist and a true one could likely help you more, but that's just what I'd try. Good luck!

​@@antiquebookcollective Thank you so much for the suggestions! I appreciate it a lot. I'll try and wipe them down any way with a cloth at least and I'm considering paying a Document Restoration service to treat my diaries here in Ireland. I emailed them earlier today, and hoping for some feedback soon! I do have the equivalent of Clorox Wipes for multipurpose cleaning, called Multipurpose Surface Wipes. That would work, right? I know its a little strange, but my diaries and journals are all I have of past memories and a record of my journey that I'm hoping to turn into a book, and that they might become destroyed by mold, or might not be saved from further damage, really gives me anxiety! Thanks again, really appreciate the tips!

@@Irishjay_94 I hope the pros can help! My wipes are bleach based, I think, and I actually added alcohol to it because it is supposed to be good at killing mold. It's not strange at all, it's a big thing for a lot of people! Just know that one of the most important things for keeping your documents safe is low humidity. Dehumidifiers are the key to that and they can be cheap too. :)

It's likely the beginnings of a mold or mildew issue, but you might be able to nip it in the bud by cutting down on how much moisture your book is exposed to.

I'd avoid it. I did a video where I put baking soda on some books long term and it was a mess. Putting it on the pages would be a much, much bigger mess. If your book isn't moldy now and it doesn't have a history of being around mold, then you're most likely going to be fine. Just focus your energies on storing your book well. (I've got a video on that too, highly recommended that one.)

@@antiquebookcollective thanks I appreciate your great advice. Oh k have another question I’m getting another book from the 1800S it looks good a little foxing but what if I find some of those black molds that look like black poop . How do I remove it. ? God Bless.

@@haydendude To be rightly honest, I don't have any good ways to remove it that's safe for antique books just yet. That being said, there is a difference between mold and foxing. Black spots that are just foxing are no problem--foxing is just part of the aging process for books. So it's worth figuring out if it's mold or just foxing. :) That being said, I recently went through an entire set of books from like 1910 and they had mold way back in the day that has since dried up and died and I wiped each page down with a Clorox wipe that I watered down with alcohol. While that isn't recommended, it's the route I took. The books already had water damage as well--hence where the mold came from--so I wasn't too worried about doing a little more harm. End result looks great though, but I'm going to sit on them for a little longer before I decide if it was a good move or not on my part. To kill the mold I kept the books very dry and bathed them in ozone and UV light. I talk about using those two things to kill mold in other videos and that's the route that I take to make sure that books are as sterile as I can make them. Hope that helps, God bless.

@@antiquebookcollective yes. It does.thank so much liking forward for your next video. Oh any idea where to buy a good uv light like yours ?

@@haydendude Honestly, I picked mine up on the clearance rack at Office Depot! Hahaha Amazon sells a lot of them and they look pretty good there. I haven't done a video with recommendations yet because I haven't gone out and tested a ton of them just yet though.

Huh, I've never heard that one! I hope they don't submerse the book to do it, but I could see the evaporated bleach killing mold and everything else. Very interesting!

Oh no! Sorry thats happening, especially with such valuable books! I have bad news, though. The UV light used for money scanners isn't the right one to kill mold and whatnot. You need a UV-C light. Those can be relatively cheap, though. I'd recommend getting a dehumidifier for where you keep your books as well, again, those can be cheap, because your issue is, at least in part, a moisture one too. I hope that helps!

@@antiquebookcollective thank you. Ive ordered a dehumidifier and hydrogen peroxide. Ive separated the worst away from the good ones. Problem with folio society if mould gets into the slipcase its no longer useful as one as its the perfect ground for mould to grow. Ill update you on my rescue once i feel ive done enough for it to not come back. Oh im defeated today honestly 😭😞

@@QuaesitorDei Sorry it's happened, you'll get on top of it soon! :) The dehumidifier will go a LONG way, trust me. I've got plenty of other things beyond that that I use, but that'll be the big one for you. Happy collecting. :)

@@QuaesitorDei If it helps, I have an entire video on properly storing books too. It could be worth the watch. :)

Yep! Ozone is great at killing mold. Ozone is also something that occurs naturally, but that doesn't mean it's good for us to breathe. :)

Clorox is my go-to. :)

Thanks

@@iiiajayiii1978 Yep! :)

Yep, it's a danger, for sure, but there aren't a lot of ways to clean mold once it sets in. (Hence why I tell folks to keep it from taking root in the first place! An ounce of prevention beats a pound of cure!)