wooden wine crate

I sometimes pick up discarded wooden wine boxes from liquor stores
and use them to hold books. There were a couple of boxes I kept in
the bathroom with some old books I considered expendable but still
found useful occasionally, and they didn't get moldy or anything.
They were there for years. So, I considered wine boxes safe.

I picked up another one from a liquor store a few days ago. I didn't find
it on the street, like the others. Instead, the proprietors got it from the
basement for me. I kept it standing up on one of the utility shelves in the
hall and put some books upright in it. For the last few days, I've smelled
some kind of mold and eventually traced it to the new box. Now that I've
removed it, there seems to be a residue of moldy odor on the books that
were in it. Unlike the books that were in the bathroom, these are books
I really need. So, I'd like very much to know whether, now that the box
is gone, I can expect the books to return to normal or, at least, not
to get any worse. Also, if there are any remedies for the afflicted
books, I'd like to know about them.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Allan Adler writes:

I picked up another one from a liquor store a few days ago. I didn't find
it on the street, like the others. Instead, the proprietors got it from the
basement for me. I kept it standing up on one of the utility shelves in the
hall and put some books upright in it. For the last few days, I've smelled
some kind of mold and eventually traced it to the new box. Now that I've
removed it, there seems to be a residue of moldy odor on the books that
were in it. Unlike the books that were in the bathroom, these are books
I really need. So, I'd like very much to know whether, now that the box
is gone, I can expect the books to return to normal or, at least, not
to get any worse. Also, if there are any remedies for the afflicted
books, I'd like to know about them.

In the absence of any advice on this question, I took a cotton ball and
soaked it in clorox. I rubbed the cotton ball on all exposed surfaces
of one expendable afflicted book that I'm using for a guinea pig, including
the 3 surfaces that are edges of the pages. Then I put the book in a
plastic bag with the cotton ball (maybe I should have used a fresh
cotton ball soaked in clorox) and sealed it. I'm going to leave the
bag alone for a couple of days and then check on it. I'm hoping that
the treatment the book has received and the fumes from the clorox-soaked
cotton ball in the enclosed space will do in any remaining mold on the
book and also get rid of the smell.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

Allan Adler writes:

Allan Adler writes:

I picked up another one from a liquor store a few days ago. I didn't find
it on the street, like the others. Instead, the proprietors got it from the
basement for me. I kept it standing up on one of the utility shelves in the
hall and put some books upright in it. For the last few days, I've smelled
some kind of mold and eventually traced it to the new box. Now that I've
removed it, there seems to be a residue of moldy odor on the books that
were in it. Unlike the books that were in the bathroom, these are books
I really need. So, I'd like very much to know whether, now that the box
is gone, I can expect the books to return to normal or, at least, not
to get any worse. Also, if there are any remedies for the afflicted
books, I'd like to know about them.

In the absence of any advice on this question, I took a cotton ball and
soaked it in clorox. I rubbed the cotton ball on all exposed surfaces
of one expendable afflicted book that I'm using for a guinea pig, including
the 3 surfaces that are edges of the pages. Then I put the book in a
plastic bag with the cotton ball (maybe I should have used a fresh
cotton ball soaked in clorox) and sealed it. I'm going to leave the
bag alone for a couple of days and then check on it. I'm hoping that
the treatment the book has received and the fumes from the clorox-soaked
cotton ball in the enclosed space will do in any remaining mold on the
book and also get rid of the smell.

When I took the book out of the bag a few hours ago, it smelled awful.
I set it down on a newspaper in the bathroom and left it alone and now
it does have a kind of odor but more like a bleachy odor than a moldy
odor. I'm inclined to pronounce it cured, or at least recovering. On the
other hand, I only experimented on this one book and left the others out
for the duration of the experiment. Since the apartment was warm and humid
and dark during the day, I left the air conditioner on while I was out and
left the lights on. It appears that the books I left out also seem to
have recovered.

So, that seems to answer all my questions.
--
Ignorantly,
Allan Adler
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.