Blog Post

How to Prevent Mold from Growing in Your Closet

Bret Carr • May 19, 2020

Nobody wants to see that their closet has orange, brown, or even black spots in it. The last thing you want to have to deal with after moving into a new house or the one that you're currently living in is some form of these colors of mold. Smelling that musty odor can feel defeating if you just bought a new home or keep your living space as tidy as possible. Luckily, there are a lot of instant things you can do to prevent mold from growing in your closet. This article is a compilation of the best practices you can immediately implement so you don't have to worry about this issue again.

So what is the best way to prevent mold? The best way to prevent mold from growing in your closet is to limit the amount of moisture and humidity that exists between your clothes, on the shelves, carpet floor, and between the walls. Many closets are located in close proximity to bathrooms with showers and moisture from the hot water can often humidify the nearby closet space even if the door is shut. It’s easy to intuitively understand this to some extent, but sometimes it's not always obvious if a closet is failing to check these boxes to prevent mold growth. If you have reason to believe your shower is going to increase the humidity of nearby closet space, then it is all the more essential that you invest in a really good exhaust fan if you haven't already. See the below checklist to ensure you are doing everything possible to prevent the growth of mold.

How to Determine if Your Closet is Excessively Humid

The Innovative Humidifiers blog shared a useful test to determine if you have too much humidity in a given room. In an ideal situation, you want your closet space to be slightly more arid than the rest of your house, if possible. This is especially useful to establish if you have a shower that borders your closet, as this will naturally bring closet humidity levels up when in use.

NINJA TIP: Use the Ice Cube Test

Take a glass and fill it with water and three ice cubes. Put the ice water in the room or closet you want to test, close the door, and wait for four minutes. If water condenses on the outside of the glass, then you have high levels of humidity in the room. For the purposes of preventing mold growth, you should strive to achieve a level of humidity where no water condenses on the outside of the glass.

If you notice that water immediately condenses on the outside of the glass, then there are a few ways to dehumidify your space. Silica packs or equivalent products can be placed in your closet to reduce humidity levels. These packs contain anhydrous calcium sulfate, which acts to absorb moisture from surrounding areas.

You shouldn't keep your entire house as arid as your closet space because it can worsen asthma symptoms and bring about some other inconveniences. Keeping a closet at 40-60% humidity will massively prevent mold and mildew growth.

Mold Prevention Checklist

*Quick Note: If you're planning on remodeling your closet, make sure that you inspect all nearby areas for mold. Having mold in other areas of the bedroom or house can contribute to this problem, even if you are adhering to all the guidelines mentioned below. Check to make sure there is no mold in the above attic and that there are no other signs of leaky plumbing. It's worth taking a few minutes to look behind the shelving areas, before filling them with clothes for the first time.

Are you ensuring your clothes are dry before putting them away?

Daily life gets busy throughout the workweek. If you're in a rush, it might be tempting to take clothes out of the dryer before they're ready and put them away. In order to prevent mold growth, it's important that you ensure that all of your clothes are dry before folding them or hanging them up in your closet! Sometimes bulky items such as coats or sweatshirts don't dry as consistently as the rest of the load that was put in. If you live in a naturally humid environment, then it's important to be even more sensitive to this fact.

Are you keeping damp or wet clothes off the floor?

It's easy to forget about wet clothes whether you're getting back from a ski trip, working out at the gym, or throwing swim clothes on the ground after getting back from a pool party. It's important to remember that no matter what time of year it is, most people are involved in varying levels of activities that get their clothes wet. Even storing shoes that just stepped on wet grass can increase the chances of mold growth on your closet floors.

Do you store your activewear clothes primarily on wooden shelves?

If you go to the gym, workout frequently, get your clothes wet skiing or anything along those lines, then it's tempting to just throw those clothes down and reuse them, instead of washing and drying them every time. However, putting damp clothes on wooden shelves, in particular, can be the biggest contributing factor for mold growth!

Do you deep clean and wipe down your shelves at least once a month?

Keeping clothes in tight proximity to each other makes it hard for air to adequately circulate throughout the entire room. It is highly recommended that you let your closet space breathe. Take down all the clothes on hangers, especially the ones you haven't touched in a long time, and turn on a fan for 15-20 minutes so you get some circulation in the room. Even if you don't have to deal with east coast humidity on a daily basis, not all houses adequately circulate air throughout each room.

Is your closet or closet wall affected by shower moisture?

Not every house has perfect spacing between rooms. Sometimes your closet and bathroom can share the same wall, which increases the chances that mold will grow between the walls and eventually become visible on the other side. The best way to ensure that this won't be an issue for houses or condominiums is to invest in a good exhaust fan. If it takes more than 15 minutes for your exhaust fan to completely dehumidify the bathroom after a hot shower, then consider an upgrade if you're really concerned about this as a contributing factor to mold growth.

Is your humidity below 50% in your custom closet? Extensive research from the U.S Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows that a closet should have no more than a 50% humidity rating. Anything more than this increases the possibility for molds such as Cladosporium and related cultures to thrive.

If you routinely deal with wet or damp clothes...

Throughout all seasons of the year, you can participate in a wide variety of activities that get your clothes wet. As mentioned above, moisture-wicking ski clothes, swimsuits, and workout clothes don't actually keep them dry, which means that the moisture is absorbed elsewhere such as on the carpet floors or on other clothes that it comes into contact with. If you routinely participate in activities that lead to damp clothing, then consider using wire shelves instead of the built-in wooden shelves.

Mold has a higher tendency to grow on wooden surfaces. Placing clothes, especially ones that you dirty frequently, are better off stored on a wire shelf material. This allows more circulation to take place between clothes and is more forgiving to damp clothing.

If after adhering to the above guidelines you still have adequate concern for mold growth in your closet, then it would make sense to consider purchasing a digital hygrometer. These devices help you measure humidity levels more accurately than the ice cube method and help "dummy check" your control measures. A Digital hygrometer is an inexpensive option for giving you the certainty that you need to ensure that your humidity levels are within the CDC standards.

Conclusion

In short, make sure that there is adequate ventilation throughout your closet, humidity levels are kept within the appropriate range, and be diligent about only storing completely dry clothing in your closet. Preventing mold in your closet is something everyone can do and it doesn't require a significant amount of time or outside investment, if given proper attention.

This site focuses primarily on helping you organize your closet space for convenient and proper storage of all your clothing items. Having an organized closet not only allows adequate room for each of your clothes but also prevents mold and mildew from developing in condensed areas.