Preventing Mold in a Custom Closet

Heather Towner • September 19, 2022

Mold in a custom closet is no trivial matter. The spores can spread elsewhere in your hallway or bedroom, reducing your health and quality of life as you breathe in the mold-ridden air. How do you prevent mold in your custom closet?

Here’s how to prevent mold in a custom closet:

Treat mold at the source
Add silica packs
Use an air purifier
Clean your custom closet
Promote airflow
Store only dry clothing

In today’s guide, you’ll learn more about the above measures so your custom closet can be as clean and pristine as the day you had it installed!

1. Treat Mold at the Source

Even if you scrape mold away, until you understand what’s causing it, the fungi will continue to return.

What causes mold in the first place? According to Wet & Forget, a disinfectant brand, mold spores propagate in wet, warm environments. If your closet has had a water leak or you put your clothes in the closet damp, then it’s only a matter of time before might see mold growing on the surfaces of your custom closet. Worse yet, your clothes could even get moldy.

Using a mold killer such as distilled white vinegar will treat the current spores, but you must eliminate moisture and humidity to keep mold out.

2. Add Silica Packs

You’re probably aware of silica gel as the stuff that comes packed in shoe boxes as well as the packages of some products you order online. What exactly is silica gel, though? It's a form of silicon dioxide that works as a dehumidifier and drying agent. In other words, silica kills off the exact two features that mold spores like the most.

You can also rely on silica packs for treating condensation, fogging, spoilage, mildew, corrosion, and rusting. Buy some silica packs and stuff a few in the pockets of your favorite blazer or jacket. Tuck a few into the soles of your shoes, and place packets on shelves adjacent to ties, belts, or linens.

3. Use an Air Purifier

How clean is your air? If you have a mold problem in your custom closet, then the answer is not nearly as clean as you would think. You need an air purifier to improve the breathing conditions in your custom closet, especially if the closet is built in a kids’ room or your bedroom.

HEPA filters, which are short for high-efficiency particulate absorbing filters, will clear the air of more than mold. Pet hair and even smoke may be cleaned from the air as well so you and your entire family can breathe easier. This is important, especially if any of your family members deal with a mold allergy and/or asthma. Both conditions can become more severe when breathing in mold in the air, which can make breathing difficult.

4. Clean Your Custom Closet

A clean closet is a happy closet, right? More so than that, a clean custom closet is one in which it’s a lot easier to identify a potential mold problem.

Some people assume that mold only comes in black and white shades, but that’s not true. Mold can appear in nearly any color imaginable, including green, gray, brown, pink, purple, red, blue, and orange. Granted, some types of mold are likelier to show up in certain parts of the home than others–like pink mold in your bathroom–but you have to be on the lookout regardless.

5. Promote Airflow

Custom closets are enclosed spaces. When you shut those doors, the air can stagnate and even become humid. How? Simple: they’re enclosed.

You have several methods to combat this. One is to install a closet exhaust fan that routes warm air to the attic so the humidity doesn’t linger in your closet.

Much more simply, you can remember to air out your custom closets from time to time. Just as it sounds, you should open the door of your closets and allow them to stay open for several hours at least. This allows the warm air to exit and ambient air to enter. When you finally shut the custom closet doors, that ambient air will be trapped for a while until it too becomes humid.

6. Store Only Dry Clothes

You might accidentally be contributing to your custom closet’s mold problem without even realizing it. If your clothes come out of the dryer a little damp, don’t just store them in a laundry basket and put them away in your closet. The clothes are damp and will soon be warm, creating a hotbed for mold to form. Give your clothes adequate time to dry before storing them.

Here’s another valuable tip in the same vein: discontinue the use of garment bags. You may think the bags are protecting your favorite clothes from mothballs, but all they’re doing is making your clothes warmer, more humid, and more appealing to mold.

Conclusion

It’s heartbreaking to see mold in your custom closet, but it doesn’t have to be the end of the world. The measures discussed here today will make a noticeable difference in preventing mold so you can enjoy your custom closets again!