An Expensive Mistake

Olivia   April 3, 2017   30 Comments on An Expensive Mistake

For the last few years that we’ve had our truck and camper, California has been in the middle of an epic drought. Well, that drought ended this year with a bang. We’ve gone from no rain at all to so much rain dams are overflowing, roads are being carried away in mudslides, and trails are flooding. I know we need the rain, but honestly. I am sick and tired of it.

And now I have even more reason to hate the rain.

Last week I brought our truck home from the barn to clean it out in preparation for helping a friend move over the weekend. At some point during the winter, I had noticed that the windows on the camper were slightly open. We shut them, but I had it in the back of my mind that we were probably screwed. And we were.

Do you see what I see? That ball of fluff? Apparently it was actually a lot worse than I was thinking. Not only had moisture gotten into the truck, mice had moved in as well.

I dragged all the blankets out and straight into trash bags. Then I started pulling everything else out. The mouse thing is disgusting, but it’s actually pretty easy to clean. What’s not easy to clean?

Mold.

And it was in everything. Including the mattress.

As I am highly allergic to mold, I did all of this with a mask on.

And sadly it means that we can’t salvage much of anything from the truck. All the pillows, curtains, mattress and padding had to be trashed. Some of the camping equipment like the chairs and tent have mold, but those can be scrubbed, disinfected, and left outside to dry.

Mattresses cannot. It’s also very hard to tell from photos, but the hardware inside the truck shows some spots of mold and given how much was in the fabrics, I know it’s in the truck bed and camper lining.

The truck will be going in for detailing to steam clean and chemically destroy the mold. I’ve already spent a ton of money buying new linens and will have to buy fabric and make new curtains as well. The most expensive loss is the mattress. We had a read mattress instead of an air mattress and we’ll have to replace that later this week.

Next year we’ll bring everything inside for winter.

30 thoughts on “An Expensive Mistake”

  1. Teresa

    Oh that is too bad! You can’t wash the bedding in hot water and some vinegar to kill the mold? It might be worthwhile getting a cover for the mattress that keeps it sealed (like hospital mattresses) even if you take it off to sleep on it.

  2. roamingridersite

    Oh no 🙁 mold allergy is no joke. Can you take the camper in to be detailed as well? Once it gets hot I’d worry the humidity will make any remaining mold flourish.

  8. Alex

    OMG that is so freaking annoying. And its the type of mistake that would have me beating myself up over because it would have been simple to prevent. 🙁 That sucks so much.

    1. Olivia Post author

      I’m definitely pissed about it. Of course we don’t know who opened the windows so we cannot blame ourselves or the other for that. But the mice got in not through the windows so I suspect we might have gotten mold even with the windows closed and we just need to bring everything in next year.

  9. jenj

    Oh noooo… oh man I am SO sorry. I’m super paranoid about mold in our camper too. I really hope you’re able to get everything fixed and back to normal. 🙁

Comments are closed.