Registry Cleaner Removal

Hello,

I never realized that I would have so much work to do when I rented this quaint 88-year old cottage that is listed on a historical registry. The place has a lot of character, but has suffered some neglect.

With the summer heat we have been having, a mildew smell in two rooms has drawn my attention.

The living room has wall to wall carpet and it is a dark room with not great ventilation. Only one window. It also has wood paneling on the walls, and the ceiling panels are made of an old fashioned plywood called beaverboard. There is water damage on two areas of the ceiling and one panel even looks like it might cave in one day while I am there. I know this is a job for the landlord, but meanwhile I have to do something about the smell. I have read about various carpet cleaning things to try. baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice. etc. For the walls and ceiling I would like to wipe them down with something too. What do you suggest? I dont want to harm the color of the wood paneling.

The other room is a walk-in closet where I keep my clothes. When I go to work, I always feel I have a mildew smell on them. I did a home mold test in the closet and some mold grew in the petre dish, but not anything out of the ordinary, say if you left a uncleaned beer bottle out by the sink for a week, after 5 days I saw similar growth.

I also have some mold growing on the rubber edge of the fridgerator doors. I figure bleach solution will do that.

This isnt a perfect place to live by any means. Some of this, or all of this, the landlord should take care of. But I can spend a weekend cleaning and see where things stand after that. I want to get the musty smell out of the room.

What are your suggestions?

thanks much

we are having similar issues with a house we just bought.
First day after closing, we noticed alot of humidity in the basement…now we smell the den through out the house. We are tring to figure out how to get the smell out of the carpets, but the walls we washed them down with lysol and let it air dry. The basement is much better now, if worried about the wood work possibly use Murphy’s Oil Soap. Good Luck!