Keeping a healthy and happy home is hard enough without having to deal with mold in your home and around your food.  Most of us have enough problems with our kids and spouses eating healthy and having healthy lifestyles without having to worry about the mold that grows in our refrigerators.  We are typically too busy to think about cleaning out our refrigerators most of the time, but this really needs to be done at least once every few months to discourage mold and mildew from residing in one of the most important appliances that we own.

Make sure that you know what things in your refrigerator need to be replaced.  This includes items that are outdated or are obviously contaminated with mold.  Depending on the item, it may or may not be able to be saved after mold starts to grow on it.  In fact, most items in the refrigerator cannot be saved after mold begins to grow.  This is usually because most items in our refrigerators are very moist and porous, which allows the mold to infect the entire container of food. 

Very moist items are things like mayonnaise, sour cream, jellies, jams, and anything else that you can scoop out with a spoon.  Unfortunately, not only moist items are affected heavily by mold.  Porous items (items that are not very dense) are also heavily affected, such as meats and dairy products, such as individually sliced cheese or shredded cheese.

Any eggs in the refrigerator that are cracked before we intend to use them should be thrown away, since the shell is what protects the inside of the egg from bacteria. 

Fruits and vegetables need to be checked for mold regularly and anything that has mold on it should be thrown away immediately before it has a chance to infect everything else around it.  Clean out your fruit and vegetable drawers as often as you need to in order to keep the free of decaying matter like stray lettuce scraps.

Actually cleaning out the refrigerator is a time consuming task and can take a few hours.  Begin by taking everything out of the refrigerator and setting it aside.  Remove everything in the refrigerator that can be removed, such as shelves, drawers, and racks.  Wash these in the sink with warm, soapy water if you can fit them there and allow them to dry.  Wash every surface that cannot be removed and rinse it thoroughly.  Replace all the items from the sink and go through all the food you took out to clear out the outdated items.  Wash the bottoms of jars that have become sticky before putting them back.

Miami Flood Damage Cleanup

Did you know that mold can grow on your lawn and kill all the grass that you worked so hard on during the spring, summer, and fall?  Well, you might have known that mold spores and fungi like mushrooms can grow in your front and backyard, but maybe you were not aware of the mold that can grow underneath the blankets of snow that fall during the winter.  It is true: if snow falls on your lawn and does not melt for a long period of time, mold can start growing and kill the grass underneath.  This is especially true if the grass has not stopped growing before the snow falls and if the snow is thick and wet.  Another significant factor is that the ground the snow falls on top of is not frozen. 

The only real symptom that you should be able to see besides the mold growth itself is the appearance of large circular patches of dead grass.  These circles can be from 3 up to 12 inches wide, but in the most extreme cases of snow mold, you may not be able to distinguish one patch from the next because the mold has killed so much of your lawn.

Pink snow mold appears to be the most dangerous to your grass and it is caused by a mold called Microdochium nivale.  This mold, when it matures, can be a light to a dark pink color.  This is the most dangerous kind of mold to your lawn because it kills not only the blades of grass, but also the roots.  This needs to be treated as soon as possible before it kills your entire lawn, if it has not already. 

Gray snow mold can be caused by a few different species in a genus called Typhula and it can be anywhere from gray to white in color.  These molds typically do not do more damage to the grass than affecting the blades; the roots are not typically affected.

Snow molds like to grow in temperatures that are just above freezing and in moist conditions.  Even though it is called “snow” mold, it can also be caused when leaves are left covering a patch of grass for too long.  

Preventing snow mold is not too difficult, but sometimes it will occur, anyway.  Do not fertilize your lawn less than six weeks before cold weather starts to come in and causes the grass to stop growing.  This can cause a spurt of green growth that the mold will feed on after it starts to grow underneath the snowfall. 

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