Mould drama

[Cloclomomo]

Recently I had to store some stuff in a friend's safe (jewellery and important documents like my marriage certificate). When I came to collect them, the friend mentioned that they had a mould problem in their safe caused by damp to the wall it is drilled into. She showed me one item that was covered in mould

I'm now worried that the items I stored in there are going to grow mould and contaminate my own safe. They were in there for two weeks. Does anyone know how quickly mould colonises? What should I do, particularly with all the documents?

There are no signs of mould yet, but everything smells quite musty. I have tried to put things in direct sunlight. Any other suggestions?! I'm desperate and my MIL is scaring me that mould is highly toxic!

A whole house full of mould is an issue. A few bits of paper are not.

You can get a duplicate marriage cert for under a tenner, its not actually crucial and doesnt need to be in a safe.

Jewellery will clean up with a wash or the appropriate cleaner.

It wouldn't even occur to me to stress about this.

Mould won't just start growing on documents or jewellery now it's been removed from the source of damp.

If it was clothing I'd wash it but I'm pretty sure you're not going to die from a marriage certificate that has been stored for a brief period in a mouldy environment.

Clean your jewelery, that cant be affected.
Dry out paper documents then seal them in a polythene bag with some bicarbonate of soda. It kills mould.

I had the same problem years ago with a poly pocket of documents that I left on a damp window sill for weeks. They joined my usual filing system and have never 'contaminated' anything else. Once you remove the moisture the mould dies and just leaves the stain.

Thank you so much everyone for the perspective! I'll try the bicarb tip