Mould appearing on things around the house...???

[midgwit]

We bought our house a few months ago (it's from around 1900) and we've found mould appearing on things since we moved in. There's none on the walls and it doesn't seem damp, but mould keeps appearing on things like shoes and bags etc.

We assumed at first it had happened whilst things were in storage, as we stored a lot of things for a few months between selling our apartment and buying the house, but now it's appeared on things that weren't in storage. Took some boots out of the wardrobe this morning and mould had appeared on them, only wore them a couple of weeks ago!

Does anyone know of any reason why this could be? Or have any tips for getting rid of it from the items and stopping it happening again? We've never had this issue before anywhere else we have lived.

Are you opening windows if you’re drying washing indoors/after showers etc? We’ve had this in two 1920s/30s houses. We have a dehumidifier now too.

I live in 300 year old house. Dehumidifiers are your friend.

Our house is a similar age - yy to dehumidifiers. We have one of these upstairs and downstairs. It's cured our mould problem.

I suppose there must be damp somewhere - unless your stored stuff has "infected" your non-stored stuff? Seems unlikely though. What about the damp course etc - is that all ok? Our house is from the same era as yours and the damp course was basically non-existent. Someone told me that old houses always have some element of damp no matter what (don't know how true that is). We have a dehumidifier now and the slightly damp whiff we used to get sometimes has gone, so that could be worth a try, all else being well?

There's no smell of damp in the house and nothing came up during either of the surveys we had (but suppose they might not have been too thorough). The people we bought the house off only had it for 2 years as they had just bought it to renovate and sell on and I think I remember seeing they had a damp proof course done but could be wrong.

My partner is a complusive window opener and we have those little dehumidifier things around the house (the cheap ones you can get in a supermarket) but might need to invest in a good one.

There's no mould around windows and it's not black mould on the shoes etc, it's the white fluffy kind?

It could be that the shoes/bags had a bit of moisture on them when they were put away. I had this with a pair of boots once. No damp problem, just put away in a cold cupboard immediately after I took them off. Now I make sure to leave my shoes under the radiator for an hour or so to completely dry before I put them away and have never had a problem since.

Yes as Kitsharrington says they could have been put away damp, this happened to DHs walking boots and wellies, he got them out after a while and there was white fluffy mould on them