Sydney had a two week run of bad weather and cyclonic storms in the second half of April dumping a lot of rain over the city and driving up the humidity levels.

Even after the rain stopped the hygrometer in our apartment showed levels above 100% and we started to notice musty, mouldy smells. When we finally started looking for the source of the smell, we found mould in and under most of our clothes drawers, the wardrobes, the shoe cabinet and in a few other places.

We tried airing the apartment, heating, but noting helped. No wonder, given that the humidity outside was still over 80% and we had to wash all the mouldy clothes and put them up for drying.

In the end we bought a dehumidifier and watched with amazement how much water it filtered out of the air each day till finally the bad smell disappeared and our laundry dried without starting to smell as if we had left it in wet heap for a week.

Martina is now also trialling a “biological” dehumidification solution by hiding lumps of coal wrapped in pieces of cloth in drawers, shoes, boxes etc.