Many people use air fresheners to cover up the smell of mold. But unfortunately, most air fresheners will not kill mold while also adding a pleasant scent to your room.
This is because most chemicals that kill mold effectively are also toxic to humans, so having such a chemical spread around the air so that it can get into your nose would be a very bad idea.
For that reason, the best way to freshen up air that is contaminated by mold is to kill the mold with one cleaning solution, then use an air freshener or deodorizer to get rid of any lingering smell that remains.
Below, I’ll tell you about the best ways to freshen the air in a room that’s been infested with mold.
Air Freshening Guide For Moldy Air
Step 1: Kill The Mold With A Dedicated Mold-killing Solution
This step matters the most. If you don’t kill the mold completely, it will keep producing new odor particles and spreading them around the room.
The best way to kill mold is with a cleaning solution that specifically is made for killing it. Many household cleaners may kill germs, but are not designed to kill mold effectively. This is especially true for mold that is hiding inside porous material such as grout that lies in between the tiles of your bathroom, or in carpet or drywall.
When buying a cleaner, make sure you get one that says it kills mold, not just “prevents” mold. Some cleaning chemicals will help prevent new mold from growing, but won’t be highly effective at killing mold that is already rooted in a surface that is tough to clean.
I’ve provided you with some good mold killing cleaning solutions here:
- Lemocide Lemon-scented Mold Killer – Comes in 1 gallon concentrate – One of the few cleaning solutions that introduces a proper new fragrance while killing mold – Click here to view.
- Concrobium Mold Killer – Comes in 1 gallon concentrate liquid cleaner – Kills mold on any surface, hard or soft – Click here to view.
- CleanSmart Mold Killer Spray Bottles – For smaller jobs, get a pre-filled spray bottle like this – Click here to view.
- BioCide Mold-killing Fog “Bomb” – For serious mold removal from an entire room – Activate this gas canister and it will fill an entire room full of mold-killing, alcohol-based gaseous vapor – Excellent for serious mold removal from hard-to-clean areas – Click here to view.
- Borax Powder – A powder for killing mold – Add liquid to create a mold-killing paste that can stick just about anywhere – Click here to view.
Step 2: Prevent Immediate Mold Regrowth
When removing mold, especially from porous surfaces that are hard to clean perfectly, there’s a decent chance that you won’t get it all on the first pass. The last thing you want is for the mold to start regrowing in the same places you just removed it.
For that reason, I recommend preventing its immediate re-growth by using a second cleaning solution that is intended for mold growth prevention. These cleaning solutions are meant to “stick around” for awhile and stop any bad stuff like mold or bacteria from appearing.
The good news is that you have more scent options with these cleaners. I’ve listed my favorite options below:
- OdoBan Scented Spray 4-scent Value Pack – Prevents new mold from growing on a surface – Comes with 4 different scents for a variety of fragrance options – Click here to view.
- Concrobium Mold Control Aerosol Spray – Spray anywhere to prevent mold regrowth – Click here to view.
Step 3: Prevent Long-term Mold Regrowth
The only real way to prevent mold growth over time is to prevent humidity from forming in the area that is at risk. Any location that has grown mold in the past is a prime suspect for growing mold again if the humidity problem is not solved.
In your bathroom, this usually means running the ceiling vent to remove excess humidity, or opening the window to air out the room.
Elsewhere in the house, and especially in basements, you may need to rely on a dehumidifier to keep the room dry and thus less able to support the growth of new mold.
In a room that has been contaminated with mold recently, you can also run an air purifier to suck up mold spores which spread around the room via the air. These spores are how mold spreads to begin with.
I’ve listed my recommendations here for both of these product types:
- Bissel 3-filter Air Purifier – An excellent purifier that uses three separate filtration layers – Not only will this capture mold spores with the primary filter, but it will also capture odor particles of all types with the secondary activated carbon filter – Click here to view.
- hOmeLabs Dehumidifer – Available in 3 different sizes that can cover a single room or your entire house – Click here to view.
