Mold Contaminated Belongings: Do You Have to Throw Everything Away?

You just found out you have mold toxicity. Now you're looking around your home at your furniture, your clothes, your books, your bedding, and wondering if every single thing you own is contaminated.

It's one of the first questions I hear from clients who are newly diagnosed. Do I have to move out? Do I have to get rid of everything and start over?

Here's my honest answer. Yes, you do need to remove yourself from the environment. How far you need to go with your belongings is very personal and depends on you. In this article, I'm going to walk you through how to figure that out without guessing, and without selling or tossing everything out of fear.

This content is for educational purposes only and does not diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. Always consult a licensed healthcare provider.

Why Belongings Can Hold Onto Mold

Mold is airborne. You breathe it in, but it also settles into porous surfaces. That includes:

• Furniture
• Carpet
• Clothes
• Linens
• Paper materials

This is why so many people run into the same frustrating cycle. They get rid of everything, or they clean everything with special products, and they still end up having issues. Then they start wondering whether they have to sell it all.

That's exactly the question I want to help you answer.

Do You Really Have to Get Rid of Everything?

Not necessarily. But there is one part that is non-negotiable: you have to get out of the environment that is making you sick.

If the source is a roof leak, your AC, or the space behind a dishwasher or washing machine, you need to get away from it and see how you feel in another environment. Staying put and hoping your belongings are the only issue won't work, because your body keeps getting re-exposed.

"You cannot heal in the environment that is making you sick."

Once you're out, the question becomes which of your belongings came with you, and which of those are still causing symptoms. That's where the simple test below comes in.

The Bedroom Test: How to Tell Which Belongings Are Contaminated

Say you've already done step one. You moved out of the moldy home, and you took some of your things with you: furniture, clothes, books, everything. Now you're in a new place and you're still having symptoms.

Start with the room that matters most: where you sleep. Sleep is the foundation of your health, and it's how your body naturally detoxes. Here's the process I recommend to clients:

1. Move out everything you know is contaminated. At the very least, take it out of the room you sleep in.
2. Pack it up. Put it in a box and tape the box shut. Store it in a room you don't sleep in, or in the garage.
3. Pay attention to how you sleep. Notice whether any symptoms come up at night.
4. Read the result. If you sleep without symptoms, you may simply need to let go of the items you removed. If you still react, there's probably some other contamination in the bedroom, so repeat the process with what's left.

It's a simple way to take the guesswork out and let your body give you the answer.

How Your Body Tells You What's Contaminated

Once you've been exposed and you're dealing with mold illness or mold toxicity, your body tends to react to new exposure pretty immediately. The reaction can show up in different places:

I always tell people: trust your body. It's pretty good at knowing how to heal and what's causing the problem. You just have to work with it and pay attention.

For a fuller symptom picture, see my guide to Ochratoxin A symptoms, testing, and how to detox.

When You Have to Let Something Go

As you work through your belongings, you may notice a pattern. You flare up when you're in a certain room. Or when you use a certain item. Or when you eat a certain food.

That's information. If you keep reacting to a specific thing, that's a sign you likely need to get rid of it.

I know how hard that is. I know it's heartbreaking for many people, and I know it's financially and emotionally difficult. But if you keep reacting, your body is being re-exposed over and over, and it can't truly heal that way.

I went through this myself. I was living in an apartment with very toxic mold, and I was dealing with skin rashes, vertigo, heart palpitations, and muscle jerking and twitching. I felt like I was going crazy. When I left that home, it was almost like everything cleared up. When I went back, it all came back.

That pattern is what finally made it click for me. The environment was the problem.

If you'd like help finding where mold might be hiding, I put together a guide on how to check for mold in your home. And once you're out of the exposure, here's how to recover from mold toxicity, step by step.

Where to Start

Letting go of your belongings, or your home, is not easy. But I promise you, in the long run it may be the best thing you can do for your health: physical, mental, and emotional. It's also the first step in truly healing.

You don't have to figure this out alone, and you don't have to guess which items are the problem. If you want a personalized plan built around your body, your home, and your history, I'd love to help.

Ready to Stop Guessing? Virtual appointments are available worldwide. 🌿

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Healing is possible when you focus on healing the root cause. I'd love to help you get your health back on track! - Ashley Drummonds