Life aboard is a constant battle against mold and mildew. Something gets damp, and, before we’ve even realized it’s damp, it’s been colonized by some mold. The most recent mold growth was in our emergency cupboard. We keep our first-aid kit, grab bag and emergency water together. We’d noticed some dampness in the dry goods cabinet and eventually traced it to a water bottle leaking in the emergency cabinet higher up and a few feet away.

All sorts of things in the emergency cabinet had gone moldy, including, surprisingly our emergency money: nasty fuzzy black mold was growing on it.

Black mold growing on our emergency Bens.

We got out the bleach solution and soaked or wiped everything down. It was nerve racking to put money into bleach solution. There was much discussion about whether the ink would disappear or whether the paper would fall apart. However, neither happened. We rinsed the bills well and carefully put them to dry.

Laundry drying.

The bills still look like legal tender. I think we’ll be able to spend them in an emergency. I put them away in a plastic bag instead of a paper envelope. (And resolved to regularly check the integrity of the emergency water bottles.)