Gross Household Discovery

[Laurajean]

So I've had a throat injury and also severe Laryngitis. Went to the doctor who gave me meds, and also several suggestions, one of which was to use a humidifier. I don't own one, but I had one once and emptying it and cleaning it was annoying. So I decided to go the old fashioned way, and put a huge pot of water on simmer on my stove and let the steam put moisture into the air. So I've had it on the stove steaming all day yesterday and today, shutting it off of course when I go to sleep.

I live in tiny cottage, so it didn't take long for all my windows and everything else in sight to steam up and get condensation. Then today I decided to add a small clip-on fan to the kitchen, to push some of the steam out of the kitchen and into the other rooms. As I was looking around for a place to clip it, I discovered brown liquid dripping from my window edges, ceiling vent, recessed lighting, etc. Just gross brown drips, everywhere.

I immediately thought of nicotine, having cleaned out my mother's house after years of her smoking, and I remember wiping BROWN off every surface. When I bought this house last year I didn't notice any of this brown residue, and didn't smell any signs of the former owners being smokers.

So I'm not sure if there were smokers here before me, and only now, due to all the steam is it surfacing, or if it's just dirt?! Although it's a very yellow-ish brown, so I'm suspecting nicotine.

So, just thought I'd share that not only am I getting lots of moisture for my throat and house plants, I'm also doing a bit of early spring cleaning running around like a lunatic with paper towels wiping off brown drippings from everything! LOVELY.

 

[sourland]

Talk about the dangers of second hand smoking. Good luck with the clean up.

 

[EweSheep]

Didn't your previous male friend smoked in the house before you kicked him out? He must have been smoking while you were gone to work.

 

[silkiechicken]

It's probably dirt. That said... careful with saturating air to the point where walls and windows rain or you'll have a mold problem very quickly. Here in the PNW, mold is everywhere and can make people sick when mold ends up in the walls where you can't see it and clean it up right away. Some schools a few years back were wrapped and de molded because it was making students sick.

 

[maple]

I've got brown sticky gunk on the top of my cabinets in the kitchen and really focused over the stove area...I bet it's just from cooking. It is yucky and hard to get off though. No smokers in my house hold ever...bein in my childhood home.

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
No, I let him smoke out a cracked window for 2 days and then when I realized how much he smoked I made him smoke outside the rest of the time so I wouldn't keep losing heat out the window. I don't work in the winter, so I was here the whole time, so I know that couldn't be it. It's everywhere!

 

[EweSheep]

UGH!

I had a beautiful off white kitchen and now it's turning tan. We are not smokers and we figured it has to be the pollution in the air. It was nasty!

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
Thank you, but I'm not too worried about a few days of condensation as it is EXTREMELY dry in my house. I have a woodstove and get bloody noses often from the dry air. So no mold worries here. It'll only be for a couple of days to moisten my throat.

 

[EweSheep]

My house is so dry that everything crackles!

 

[Laurajean]

Quote:
Hmmm... could be from cooking; hadn't thought of that. It is mostly in the kitchen, although that's where the steaming water is too, so I wonder if the same thing would happen if it were in the other rooms?