You only need 3 ingredients to remove/reduce mildew smells from old books, and you most likely have all of them in your kitchen. Safe, easy, quick and FREE!
I found the easiest way is to place the books in plastic bags with a desiccant and let sit for six months. It takes time but doesn't require a lot of work, which is practical when you have a lot of books to deal with. And of course if you need a book you can just take it out of the bag while you use it. This will also keep dust and mold from settling on the books. It may not take six months, but they improve with time. It's also a good way to store books, especially if they're kept in a basement or storage locker.
Thanks for this tip. I managed to completely eliminate the bad musty smell from a 1969 comic. Took a while to brush all the baking powder from each page (seemed never ending!) but it's totally done the job.
So glad you found my channel. Pudgy Picker is one of my favorites! And I am so jealous of your booth space!!! I have had luck with the same freezer/baking soda method on some other items as well, but have not tried it with purses. The freezing part is to kill the microorganisms, not so much the odor removal. That's where the baking soda comes in. Another GREAT odor absorber is charcoal meant for aquariums - I have used that successfully for bigger stuff including a briefcase. Good luck :-)
Dear Friend, Thank you SOOOOO MUCH for doing this video! :-) Your idea of using the freezer to kill mildew & mold is absolutely BRILLIANT! (BTW, before you spoke a word - when I saw your beautiful cat, I knew I had come to the right place.) ;-) Best Regards, Fred, Virginia Beach, VA
Thank you so much for your tutorial on how to kill mold and mildew in old books. I just bought a fantastic history book at an Antiquarian fair and would love to have it in my home! Sincerely, Verna Peddi.
I have a hardback edition of The Four Translation New Testament published by Moody Press from 1966. My wife ordered it for me from Thriftbooks. Every time I would use it my eyes would start itching and my nose felt like I was breathing dust. I asked a book nerd friend of mine if he had a solution and he directed me to your video. After a little over two weeks in the freezer the baking soda dusted right off it has been out now for a few days with no trace of "old" smell. Fantastic!
I am very sensitive to mold, especially in books, because I am allergic to 3 different types of mold. I am going to try this, I am excited! ;) Thanks for sharing!
I used to sell books and tossed so many because I didn't know to freeze them. I put the baking soda in a bag and left them but it didn't do the trick. I'll sure try this method. Genius!
+Lauren Caddo It works for killing (active) mold. The baking soda + bag combo helps soak up the odor after the mold spores have been killed. Hope it helps - it has saved a lot of nice books for me! Cheers, MM
A lot of old books have a lot of moisture content, so you have to be very careful freezing. You can actually form frost or ice residue in your plastic bag, between pages, binding etc. I still love to freeze to kill silverfish and other bugs, but you need to get them out of the bag quickly and gently remove the baking soda and you want to do this outside so you just don't spread mold spores in your home. Freezing inactivates mold, it doesn't kill it. I have a wood box with slats so I can stand several books on edge in it and get it outside in the sun and natural air without them blowing apart and sure to flip them a few times.
I recommended first corn starch to the old books to remove moisture. Then freezer for 3 days. Followed up with denatured alcohol. It’s a very long process. I just got an old encyclopedia set but before I add them to my collection this is the process they will go through
I enjoyed your video and was excited to learn there was a simple and easy way to eliminate mildew odors from books. I wasn't sure if you were aware of this, after doing a bit more research online, I found out that freezing mildew/mold doesn't actually kill the spores - what it does is cause them to become dormant. Freezing them will make the smell go away for a time. If after freezing, the books are put in an environment which promotes mildew/mold growth, the dormant spores will reactivate and continue to grow. I thought you might want to have this information. I enjoy your videos, please continue to make more!
Thanks for your great tips. I am just starting to resell books and love to learn as much as possible. I already picked up one Tom Swift first edition (can't remember which one right now), and it was definitely a good move on my part.
Thank you!! Always nice to meet another book person! Yes, the Tom Swifts can be very good, especially the last ones in the series! Thank you again and welcome to my channel :-)
Save those silica geek crystals that come in clothes pockets...purses .. suitcases...and put then in the bag top absorb excess moisture... never through then away...very useful
Kathleen Murphy I have been hoarding the silica packets for years now. Lol They also come in supplement bottles. I’m going to put them to good use.... just bought some old crochet magazines and need to de-must them.
Thanks for the post. It didn't occur to me to try either method, so it will be worth giving it a go before doing anything else (old books or music manuscripts would benefit a lot!). It seems the interchange with Kevin Pezzi covers an important detail: once something has been deep frozen (quarantine people tell you to do this with souvenirs from exotic places, that may have wood-borer etc), it needs to be properly dried out again when removed from freezer. Because water will condense on the cold item. In a shed, this would happen in the spring, and the mold resume growing, if it's had shelter. The bicarb would be a useful mild base to absorb the odor, and starve the mold.
Fort Radon Indeed and thank you for your comment! It is also why I stress the use of a sealed Ziploc environment, to protect it from the moisture from the surrounding environment. And yes, be generous with the bicarbonate. Thanks for stopping by and commenting :-)
I have used Damprid before. I just set my books on or near it for a few weeks, and it sucks the mold smell right out of it. It works for smoke smell as well.
Nice tip to get rid of that smell from old books and I will for sure try it. My method to get rid of those nasty eukaryotes is to do a mix of H2 O2/bicaronate in a seal proof bag and a consumer humidifier. The other alternative is a autoclave, but that would destroy the book.
Thanks for posting this... I have some antique books that got caught in the rain. I put them in kitty litter but they were in storage for a while. Hoping to salvage them!
I hope you get to salvage them too. Good thinking on the cat litter, hopefully it was without perfume. Also, aquarium-style charcoal is a great way to pull moisture and odor out of damp books/paper. Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
thank you so much - am trying this for my husband's sneakers that were left out in the rain and they grew quite mildewy...they are in great condition otherwise and we thought we would have to buy new ones - now there's hope!!
tracy scarf Freezing shoes (in a bag) is a great way to take a lot of stink out (by killing the smelly bacteria!). I do this on a regular basis with my son's soccer shoes :-)
I know you did this video a bit ago...But I just found it and WOW thank YOU so much for this invaluable info. I am trying it on record album covers as we speak..just a couple to test.
Glad you found it :-) I have tried it on other paper products too, and it works for all kinds of mildewy paper. Last non-book thing I did it on was a small card board box holding a vintage game - I put both the box and the instruction manual in a sealed bag with plenty of baking soda and put it in the deep freeze. It took 2 weeks, and I changed the baking soda out once, but eventually the smell was gone. I sold the game online and the buyer was happy. Good luck :-)
I have now put 2 books from the 1880's in the freezer (Henrik Ibsen books) which I love really much. So I hope they don't get damaged, I have made sure to seal the plastic bag it very well! So now I am excited to see how it goes when I take them out next week.
Hope it goes well and as long as the bag is sealed it should be fine. It might take longer and you might have to change the baking soda, but it should help. Put them in a nice dry bright place afterwards for a while. Good luck! Btw, Ibsen is one of my favorites! I wrote a thesis on his realistic dramas back in school :-)
Thank you for posting this video. I have a very old LARGE Bible that was badly stored away. I love the book. But the mildew smell has made it impossible to read. So I am trying your method.
I just got my huge Edgar Allen Poe poem book back from my friends apartment and it’s huge with gold Pages. It’s gorgeous! but it’s completely mildew damage because she put it in her basement that has lots of leaks and damage. So it’s completely mildewy. This video come save me because I was so lost and I couldn’t find anything to help me fix it. ❤
I don't know that I would recommend cornstarch as a medium to absorb odor or moisture while the books are in the freezer since cornstarch is a former of sugar (it breaks down from starch to sugar chemically). Even though it is highly absorbent, and you shake it off the books, some will remain which in itself will become a growth medium for certain mold spores answer an attractant to silverfish. I will try the baking soda method myself or buy some aquarium charcoal to but in the bag (not, obviously, on the books themselves) to absorb odor.
As a book lover, I appreciate the effort and time put in for making this video. But I found couple of serious misleading suggestions which may cause people to lose their old valuable books. 1) "Freezing" is a well-known method for removing mold (mildew) and killing almost all kinds of book-eater insects. But the process is not really "freezing freezing" that you can perform in your kitchen with a household freezer. The process is called VACUUM-FREEZE DRYING. Low pressure (vacuum) is applied to accelerate evaporation of water (humidity) by reducing the boiling temperature of water. Water (moisture) cannot be removed from book by simply placing it in a freezer unless you apply low pressure to lower the boiling temperature of water. As the name clearly suggests, we use a freezer to solidify liquid water (i.e., to convert liquid phase into solid phase), not to evaporate it. As liquid water becomes ice (solid water), it expands! Expanding water destroys the pages and book as a whole. Our aim is not freezing, our aim is to evaporate the liquid. 2) Microwave does not apply heat in a manner that a conventional oven applies. When electromagnetic waves (i.e., microwaves) hit water molecules present in the item (to be microwaved), the molecules get "energized" and vaporize (go from liquid phase to gas phase) very quickly. This phase transition process occurs volumetrically in the item (i.e., it takes place at every point in the item almost at the same time). That's why our soup is made ready under a minute in a MW oven. So, in a MW oven, do not expect heating to occur gradually from outside to inside; it happens at the same time at all points of the item. The book will certainly get a severe damage if it is exposed to microwaves; do not do it. Besides losing the book, you may get severely injured.
I just found you on youtube and watched this video. I like the information. Thank you. I also have a question. I have some books that smell like cigarettes. Will your method help with a cigarette smell? Thanks again and I am looking forward to watching more of your videos!
I have some card Super Nintendo thin cardboard boxes that are dry but smell strong of mildew and have brown spores inside and on the covers of the manuals. Would putting them in the freezer with this method damage the boxes (E.G make them damp after defrosting.)
Yep,same principle. Freezing kills bacteria, which produce that unmistaken stench - but it is worse in men's sneakers, don't you think? Thanks for watching and commenting :-)
Hi, thank you for your video. I am looking for a way to get smells out of cd covers, booklets, and boxes without damaging the art of stripping the ink. Mostly cigarette and cologne or something like that smells. Do you think this would work for that? Thanks!
What a great tip. Just thinking: have you used this same idea for old purses? Sometimes they look great but just cant get past the smell. Let me know if you have tried this or if you know of another suggestion. Love your videos by the way. My sister, "Pudgy Picker" lead me to your tube channel. Keep up the great work!
Trying this out with a book I got today, which smells pretty bad. I ordered it online knowing it would be in iffy condition, but hadn't really expected the odor. A search for how to fix the problem led me to this video/method and I am hoping that it will work!
@@iosoi3145Hello! yes the book I treated smells fine now. If I remember right it took about a week, I coated the book with a lot of baking soda and froze it in a bag. I also had the book out and open on a table on a sunny day for part of the time as well, still dusted with baking soda. It was not a particularly valuable old book but one which I wanted to be able to keep. And I’m not sure what had been making it smell so bad.
@@Plaid_Flannel_Shirt Thanks so much 👍 📖 Funny how some books have that wonderfully pleasent smell and some just smell so unfortunate. Glad to know this really works.
Hi I just found your post and am looking forward to trying this. My mum wrote children's adventure books but died when I was eight (42 years ago). I still do occasionally see her books on Amazon etc but I have some of her original collection, rescued from my Dads mouldy bookcase. I'd almost given up on them but maybe not after all. PS your lovely Cat doesn't look in the slightest bit impressed, aren't they funny :) All the best Leo
Hi. I'm trying this with very old newspapers I found in my grandparent's home in an old 'Blake's' box (remember that ancient store?). I'm doing everything you said, except, I put the baking soda on a small tray on top of the items inside the sealed bag with lifters for aeration. I'll let you know how it turns out in a few weeks. Thank you for posting this video! :)
+BEERCOASTERSpl Hee-hee... it's been a month. I flipped the paper over two weeks ago so both sides were exposed to the baking soda. There is still a faint smell, but, it seems to be working, gradually. I suppose she's the winner. :)
I brought home to Canada in January a ton of books from my parent's basement in Georgia. They stayed in the garage all winter. Does that mean the mold is already dead?
HumanityisFamily mold sure does spread. I had a wet document that dried, Then put it in my little portable safe. It smelled slightly. When I added the other documents.... man..... now everything stinks 10 times as bad. All the papers are going into the freezer!! It’s so bad a week isn’t going to be enough. Lol
i collect old magazines and bought one for $13 on amazon this year and it smells bad like mildew will this work for my mag and how long should i leave it in the freezer ?
Lovely lady, and I'll try it on an amazing book my dad had that I have loved for years. Life How Did It Get Here, by Evolution or Creation. Hope it works, thank you!
Love hearing other people talk about eukaryotes too! Your method sounds good too. I should have emphasized that the most important thing about freezing is to KILL the mildew because you definitely don't want it to spread to your other books. The deodorizing/odor extraction is the long-wait part. And yes, autoclaving would probably destroy most books, lol. TFW! (So, did you use to work in a lab setting too?)
PSA: Freezing does not kill any mold or bacteria or any other microbes. Freezing just slows the growth. If there is moisture in that bag, or any condenses from the air in the bag, there can be more mold after you take it out, especially if your freezer isn't cold enough. Mold is aerobic, meaning it needs oxygen to survive. It is the plastic bag that kills the mold, not the freezer. Gently patting down the book and pages with isopropyl alcohol seems to be a more logical approach, since it would kill the mold and remove it, although I have never tried it. Isopropyl alcohol also evaporates quickly, so if used conservatively, it probably won't leave a smell.
I have a 50 volume Harvard Classics set that I received from E-Bay and the mold/mildew on that was so bad that it caused me respiratory issues from handling them. But I’m determined to disinfect them
Are dehumifers worth using and do they kill mold already in a room or do they just stop new mold appearing also is salt effective and ok to use in dehumifers that have crystals in the top of dehumifer when Crystal's have run out I have mold in my bedroom and I dont wanna have to keep buying more dehumifers
i just read that about putting newspaper between the book pages (not every page) and putting the book in a box with crumpled up newspapers on top of the book and closing the box for a few days and the newspaper will absorb the odors. Have you heard of this method?
Will this Kill the Mold? I have 2 old lord Byron and Robert Burns poetry books from the mid to late 1800's that were my great grandmothers. They are signed to her from her parents. They are super moldy and im very allergic to mold. Would this kill the mold spores? My other option is just to scan the signed page or frame it.
I spent 7 years living in a very damp basement flat, and (probably because of this) my books all have mildew on them. I have hundreds of books, and I don't want to throw any out, so I'm going to try your method over the next few weeks. However, do you think I should keep the cleaned books away from the ones with mildew? Also, all of the books are currently in my bedroom, so do you think it's a good idea for me to get them out of there before I start (if I do this, I'm going to clean the room and the bookshelves before putting clean books back in there). All the best, and thanks for the advice!
I have a question for you. I was given a couple big boxes of old books, one being from 1840's. They were not stored properly, so i'm going to need to clean them all, so i have been reading a lot of articles about cleaning old books. My question for you is should I do this before I do my cleaning, or should I do the cleaning first, and if they still smell try this?
I have some old paperback cookbooks that smell very bad. I wonder if my small UV-C air sanitizer would work on the smell if I put the books and the sanitizer in a plastic container with them. Any thoughts?
Yes, LOVE baking soda! Btw, the most important thing about freezing is to KILL the mildew because you definitely don't want it to spread to your other books. The deodorizing/odor extraction with baking soda is the long-wait part... TFW!
Can you do this in larger quantities by placing the baking soda box in a bin with multiple books and placing in a chest freezer? Thus needing to sprinkle the baking soda on all of the books? I have about 60 books that need a good deoderizing.
What about small cooler one of those big bags you have and some dry Ice blocks. Reason for the cooler so you can avoid the the whole situation with the freezing and the damp conditions. An dry ice at normal pressure doesn't go through the transition state of solid> liquid> gas. Rather it sublimates from the solid to the gas phase circumventing the dangers of moisture and possible condensation formed in the other method. It is in fact very hard to remove any kind of moisture/ condensation from the air around you. A little bit will get into the bag you may not see it but I assure you it's in there. ......Although the carbonate soda should act like a desiccant and should remove miniscule amounts of water from the air inside the bag. So what to do......Only one way to find out. Run two or three different controlled tests to find out. If the dry ice does work the drawback would be that it's quite expensive. Will do in a few as I have supplies needed on hand. Should be interesting.
I don't recognise the difference mildew or mold. My many of my new (merely 5 years) books are getting rusty stains. I tried putting them on open book rack, put naphthalene balls beside them. They are not going back. I am very very sad and worried. Some of them are not even read completely. Please help.
This seems to be a great method.Thanks for sharing it! I have a question:Is there any problem reusing the ziploc bags throught the freeze-thaw cycles?Can the mildew get "stuck" in it? Thank you!
