Have you ever taken your clothes out of your washing machine or dryer only to be hit with a foul odor? This smell can be sour smelling and mold might and mildew might have set in if the clothes have been in there long enough. Perhaps you washed a load of clothes and forgot about them for a few days or even a week. You could have put them in the clothes dryer days before and forget to turn them on. When doing laundry, you really need to make sure the clothes are washed and put into the dryer promptly. If you put them up damp, the mildew and mold will set in later causing this damage to ruin these clothes. It will even settle into the ones that were dry and ruin them all.

Most of you do not even realize what water damage can do to your clothes until it has already been done. This is usually when you realize that some of these clothes had been laying around for some time. This can happen relatively easily and when clothes have been packed away for a long time, perhaps in storage, if water or moisture gets to them, they can be completely useless. By then of course the damage is done and you will end up having to throw them out. This damage is the same as the damage that can happen in when washing and drying clothes. Clothes stored in cardboard boxes often end up with mildew and mold damage if they are exposed to moisture or water.

This damage will get into so many places even when you are extra careful. Try putting your unworn clothes in air tight bags or plastic bins with lids. Make sure the container or bag is thoroughly dry before you put clothes or fabrics of any kind in them and make sure there is no dampness in the clothes or fabric either. They should be fresh and clean and dry when you pack things away. If you are storing in the attic or basement, sometimes plastic bins are better because rodents and insects can not get to them as easily if any were to show up there. If you get mice in the attic or basement, they love to nest in old clothes.

Once mold or mildew has set into fabrics, it can be almost or entirely impossible to remove it. Usually mold or mildewed fabrics will end up in the trash because they are ruined for good. The best safeguard for valuable clothes that you wish to store is to keep them in a closet close at hand and covered in a plastic bag. This way you can check them easily from time to time to make sure no water damage or any creepy crawlies are damaging them.

Aydan Corkern is a writer an you can visit his sites for more information:
water damage restoration and water damage miami.

[tags]mold,mildew,laundry,fabrics,washing machine,dryer,storage bins,plastic storage bags[/tags]