Frugal Friday

[ecosophia]

Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.

Rule #1:  this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc.  I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #2:  this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.

Rule #3:  please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about.  Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.

Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.

With that said, have at it!

Comments

Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

I recently received a user book which has some minor mold damage on the outside page surface, and a little on at least one internal page. It is otherwise pristine. My thought was to dab a little bleach based mold remover on, and then let it sit. This will cause slight degradation to the paper, but perhaps is better than leaving it as it is to continue to degrade via mold.

Does anyone have a better solution?

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

This web page gives some advice on various ways to clean old books

https://www.maids.com/blog/how-to-clean-books/

Is the mold still active? If it is, you might want to stick the book in the freezer for a while before cleaning. Keep the book separated from your other books until you're sure the mold is no longer active and won't spread to your other books.


JLfromNH/Jaundice Cynical Chicken

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for this! The technique info is helpful for my planning and the freezer suggestion solves a potential problem I didn’t know to ask about.

Do you have a sense of a reasonable amount of time to keep a book in the freezer as an initial mold removal step?

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

I think a day or two might do it, though you could leave it longer, just in case. I do the same thing to any flour that I buy to cut down on flour weevils.

JLfromNH/Vermilion Tottering Grouse

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

Art restorations are often done with hydrogen peroxide, which degrades to water.

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

Which makes it superior to bleach in this case. Thanks very much for this information.

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

I am sure it is possible. They used to do this for comic book restoration in the collectables market. As to what technique is used, I have no idea.

Caldathras

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

I had no idea comic books could be restored like this and their delicate nature gives me hope for keeping this book intact as a first time restorer — thanks for sharing!

Re: Book preservation question

[slclaire]

I have successfully treated the leather covers of books and leather clothes and boots that had mold on them with a commercial product called Microban which is labeled as a mildewcide, bactericide, fungicide, deodorant, and disinfectant. It's not bleach-based so it does not affect the color of leather goods, but since I haven't tried it on paper I don't know how it might affect paper products. I bought it at a specialty retailer for cleaning products, but you can probably source it online if you can't get it locally.

Re: Book preservation question

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks, this is great to know. For clothes I’d used lemon and salt in the past but it wasn't efficient or practical to manage the spore dispersal risks from scrubbing. This may be a better l option for that if I ever need to do that again in the future, and I appreciate having it in my knowledge toolbox moving forward.

For the book it looks like spot testing with peroxide is worth doing as an initial step after a stint in the freezer. If that doesn’t work then I will look into this next.