I was going to post about Christmas in Paris and my mom’s visit, but I figured a post about mold would be more interesting.

Over the last month, mold has been growing in my kitchen and living room, and spending my free time cleaning mold has really annoyed me.

I watched some YouTube videos (spending my time on that annoyed me even more) and I got schooled in mold. It turns out when it’s more humid inside than outside, mold can grow in your apartment.

Who knew?

Certainly not me. Coming from South Carolina, where it can’t possibly ever be more humid inside than outside, or living in drafty apartments with no insulation in Baltimore, or having an open window and door lifestyle in Santa Monica, I never had to worry about mold.

Amazingly, I happened to pick the most well-insulated apartment in Frankfurt with no venilation. Turns out the steam from all my cooking is the culprit. Steam. From cooking. And, When my landlord came over to talk to me about the mold, I was cooking.

The two of us walked around, opened every single window, and kept them open for 5 minutes (refer to prior post about snow). Then he told me I had to do this TWO TO THREE TIMES A DAY (and yes, I do find this ironic given my hatred of open windows in winter).

I laughed when he gave me these instructions. I told him I couldn’t believe that there were other people in the world that were actually doing this all day and there was absolutely no way I was going to do it.

I had repeatedly questioned him about the previous tenants and why they didn’t have this problem. He said they were singles and they must have just gone out for pizza (I mentioned that, I too am single, but I didn’t mention the stash of cookie cutters I found when I moved in).

Turns out, he’s going to have to install venilation in the kitchen.

After we came to an agreement, I pulled out a warm loaf of pumpkin bread that I had just finished and offered him a slice.

A peace offering for a moldy topic.