Why Amish Windows Never Grow Black Mold (The $3 Trick)

My name is Darlene Hollis, and I cooked in a school kitchen for thirty-five years, under a state inspector who would write you up for one gray corner on a windowsill. You have a window that sweats all winter. You scrub the black off in March and it is back by Thanksgiving. You did the work. That black is not there because you are a poor housekeeper. Black mold on a window is not a cleaning problem. It is a water problem. Glass is the coldest thing in the room, so the warm damp air from your cooking, your shower and your own breathing lets go of its water right there. It puddles on the sill, and mold spores find it. Take away the wet and they have nothing. The home demonstration agents from the extension service taught farm wives to air the house every day, and by 1939 Tennessee had agents in more than eighty counties. It was curriculum. It just quit being taught. The fix is a three-dollar gallon of plain white distilled vinegar, sprayed on straight, left a full hour, then wiped dry. After that, every cold morning, one dry rag and under three minutes wiping every pane that is crying. I used to spend around twenty dollars a winter on mold-and-mildew spray, and the black kept coming back. In this video I show you why the Amish farmhouse windows near Ethridge stay clean, why the vinegar goes on straight, why a spray-and-wipe only does half the job, the toothbrush for the sash crack, the baking soda paste for rubber gaskets, how to fix a stained sill, why blinds and houseplants make windows sweat, and the morning window walk. I also tell you where it falls short. If the black keeps blooming out of the wall or the ceiling, that is a leak, and no rag fixes a roof. WHAT YOU WILL NEED Plain white distilled vinegar, one gallon, about $3 Spray bottle, $1.25 Old flannel rags, free An old toothbrush Baking soda, for rubber gaskets Semi-gloss trim paint for stained sills, about $18 a quart A WORD OF CAUTION Never mix vinegar with bleach, or use one right behind the other on the same sill. The two together put off a gas you do not want in a closed-up winter room. Keep vinegar off marble and natural stone, because acid etches it. Subscribe for the old, cheap ways of keeping a house that nobody teaches anymore. #blackmold #windowcondensation #vinegarcleaning #moldremoval #homemaking #oldfashionedtips #frugalliving #cleaningtips