WARNING!

Never never NEVER use mothballs unless you want everything in your house to have the everlasting stench of the wretched things. Seriously, there should be a warning on the box about what you are getting yourself into.

Let me start at the beginning. Last week I pulled out my beloved, gifted, beautiful cashmere sweater for the first time of the season. To my unfortunate surprise, there were three holes nibbled in the arm. I decided we needed moth balls to prevent this from happening to any more of our more valuable garments. I was pretty naive about mothballs never having used them before, but I thought they were harmless and everybody had them around the house. So I bought a box, and the instructions looked a little complicated. So I had them in my return-to-the-store pile not wanting to make any wrong moves with a potentially hazardous material. I took my sweater to get repaired at a dry cleaning place and she told me how to use them, so I put my fears aside and opened the box of death. I put a little stash of balls in a few old tupperwares and put them in all the closets I thought might need protection from the pests. The smell was a stench that could kill, but I didn't think it would cause any big problem. So I continued with my previous notion that everyone uses these, so it's no big deal. An hour or so later I checked on the smell in the closets. It almost knocked me down and was making me feel sick. I started sniffing things and when I could smell in on the clothes, I decided to remove the moth balls immediately. I left the house for a while and could smell it on myself. I was so upset, trying to think of ways to tackle this smell lingering in my house. When I got home later in the night, I was practically livid because of the smell. It had taken over. I went around spraying a deodorizing floral spray that helped for a moment, but soon turned into mothball, floral smell which is just as bad, or worse. I tried to go to sleep, but I was too frustrated, so I did some research online until after midnight. Of course I read forum after forum thoroughly warning against using the blasted things. I was fortunate to only have them in my house for an hour or two. Others were dealing with cars, clothes, closets, or furniture that held mothballs for years. But I found many possible remedies to our situation. So last night I made vinegar and baking soda mixture for each closet to help sleep since it was the only remedy I had on hand. The people that had bad mothball problems for years said that washing the clothes really doesn't get rid of it, so first thing this morning, I moved every article of clothing from all three closets outside or to the basement. Turns out one of the best ways to rid yourself of the smell is a warm ventilated area for the clothes. We are so lucky to have a pretty warm day today getting up to the 60s. So here is what our back yard looks like. I was so annoyed with the amounts of clothes I have. It seems like so much more than I need when I was transferring them outside.And here's our basement, since there was nowhere else outside for these clothes. At least it's far away from the source.And all of our coats are in a non-effected room, draped all over the elliptcal and hung from the blinds.

This is also a very expensive problem. I went to the store and bought a lot of the things the websites promised would work. This was a near 50 dollar venture including the culprit mothballs. I guess I'll just have to stay away from the after holiday clearances so make up the cost. This was much more important. Here is the list of what I hope takes care of it: charcoal briquettes to absorb the unwanted odors, extra strong dryer sheets and fabric softener, fresh linen plug-ins, a cedar scented deodorizer to keep away the moths and keep a fresh scent lingering, more baking soda and vinegar, and I actually had some coffee stashed away (used in small amounts for various baking projects, mind you) that's also good in absorbing odors, and leave a nice smell behind. How can it not work with all this being done? I'm going to leave my clothes outside for as long as possible today, and hope that nobody thinks it's a free yard sale.
So I've opened every window and lit every scented candle. It's freezing in our house since it's only about 50 outside. The house it down to 62 and it's even hard to type with my cold fingers but I'll freeze if it means I am that much closer to being done with this. I go smell the affected areas now and then and it seems to be dissipating, but I'm afraid that even when I think it's gone, I'll leave the house and others will easily smell it on me, or come over and smell it in the house. I might get desensitized since I'm here all day. But KC has a very sensitive nose, so I hope he keeps us on track with the situation. And I'm probably blowing it out of proportion, since we really only had them inside for a short while. But, oh man, that was enough.

The irony here is that I cleaned the whole house yesterday and felt like I could really relax today. Instead I have this nightmare to deal with. Soon we'll be rid of this dreadful annoyance, but until then I'll continue to fret until it's out of our house and my life completely. Don't do what I did. Use cedar hangers, or anything besides mothballs. I'd rather let the mothballs eat my clothes, and that's saying something. This will save you so much anguish. I wish someone had told me this before. I think it's getting better already. I need to go close all the windows and turn on the heat.


There are more fun Halloween posts I want to write about, but I had to get this out there first.