Cleaning Under the Bed: Part 2, Moth Eaten Memories

Yesterday I left off with these boxes of memories to deal with.

I have a post written about storing everything I found under the bed (because it certainly isn't going back there!) but today I want to talk about the most time consuming part of the process, sorting my childhood creative writing and keepsakes. The white box is a collection writing and art. I put things in there up until the end of high school. The blue box is souvenirs from my trip to Cuba in Grade 11.

Moth Eaten Memories

Before I started this I took a break. Clearing out under the bed took a lot of energy and I knew I my body and mind needed a break.

Then I got started!

I prepared my work space. I expected to vacuum the boxes, but it turned out to be unnecessary. The small box was to put my souvenirs into and the red cauldron is my vinegar water to clean off dust. I put down a tablecloth on the floor to make it easier to clean up.

My workspace

The memories from Cuba

These were easier. I have a collection from Cuba. It includes some flyers and shells, some soap that reminds me of being there and a pop that happened to have my last name on it. I sorted the papers and folded them. I threw out a few band aids and other random things. And I fit it all into this nice small box. Now if I want to go through my memories I can. I even know where I put it.

I folded all the papers in the yellow binder so that I could fit them in with my objects.

But I left out a small collection of beach decorations to put up in my cabinet of curiosities.

The white box, my art and writing.

This box may look a bit worn but it's very special to me. It survived the house fire when I was in grade 10. My father made for me when I was a child. My doll phase was short but I kept the box for my special things. I haven't added anything to it since highschool, but I keep it under my bed and it is an archive of my juvenalia. It turns out keeping your writing and art in an unsealed box under a mildewed bed for 20 years isn't a good idea. Not only were all the papers mildewed,  they were also moth eaten!

I also found some of my grandparents books. These books were already damaged. Apparently I chose the worst possible spot to store them.

I don't like house moths. We see them in the bedroom and remove them when we can catch them. It turns out that the source of the moths may have been my precious memories.

But I have no intention of decluttering these. I want a functional home, a happy home, but also a home where you can keep the special things that matter to you.

So instead I'm cleaning them up. My plan is to restore them as best I can and then give them a file archive box where they can be safe when I want to look at them. And I think I'm more likely to when they are nicely organised!

Disclaimer: I'm not an archivist or a professional restorer. I also haven't researched the best way to preserve damaged papers. I'll let you know how it goes once I'm done the process.

I started by taking everything out of the box and putting it out in the sun in hopes of getting rid of the mildew.

Sunning my writing on the clothes drying rack

It turns out I should have put heavier rocks on those papers! An entire file of them flew away and spread itself across the walk. So I recovered old poetry from the morning glory and put everything in a garbage bag.

A bag of frozen writing.

I put the bag in the freezer. This is how a have learned to deal with moths. I want to kill any eggs that might think of hatching. The bag was to protect the food more then anything.

Frozen books, 100 years old.

That's as far as I've gone. When we had a pantry moth infestation we put rice and pastas in the freezer for 3 days. It sounds like 12 hours is enough. These have been in overnight so the moths should be good and dead, now it's just a matter of removing detritus and dust. I'll let you know how that goes!

Have you ever had moth problems in your house? What ways did you find worked well to address them?