A Mold Avoidance Sabbatical Guide

How to Conduct a Mold Avoidance Sabbatical: Using the Locations Effect

This article will provide guiding principles to choosing a location and type of lodging for a Mold Avoidance/Locations Effect sabbatical.

Those two sabbaticals are not always the same thing, but here I am talking about them as if you are doing both at the same time.

This article will still be helpful if you’re looking to do a locations effect sabbatical with only moderate mold avoidance.

This post contains affiliate links to relevant books and products that I use and recommend. Upon purchase, I earn a small commission through affiliate links at no extra cost to you.

To conduct this sabbatical you will need to find temporary safe accommodation in the cleanest environment you can access. 

I have written a post on mobile safe homes and safe trailers, a customized trailer, and vans. It is not easy to find a trailer that meets the needs of those very sensitive to mold as well as chemicals.

A tent creates a good baseline for many.

Hotels are also an option for those who don’t have severe MCS, see my article on finding a good hotel.

Here is my Visual Packing List of Some of My Favorite & Unusual Supplies I Bring with me on a Sabbatical.

(See the comment box on each image to see my notes on each one).

Avoidance Test Run 

Almost everyone I know has felt better in a “good location.”

Some people will say they felt 80% better in Cayman Islands or had many symptoms go away while camping in a national park or while vacationing in the Rockies or Aruba.

From watching this over the years, I can say that pristine outdoor air is where you get the big boost, but you still have to be as particular about the indoor air.

In a good location, sometimes in a fantastic location, you may have a higher tolerance for regular, imperfect, housing. But not everyone is so lucky. 

For those who are already hypersensitive or are coming from a house that is less moldy than most, a lot of caution has to be taken before assuming that you’re going to be OK in any building.

Something I feel that has been lacking in support groups is experience in how to choose safe housing for this experiment. Buildings the world over are moldy.

My series on the Locations Effect in Substack goes over what to look for for people with MCS, mold sensitivity, and I review 17 locations.

 A Few Common Mistakes are:

• Going to a good location but choosing a regular hotel or rental online that has not been vetted or even carefully analyzed. It should never be assumed that simply choosing something that looks clean online is not moldy. Most buildings in almost every climate are moldy.
• Many people who are sick with these types of illnesses have traveled, whether it’s domestically or internationally, and have often felt better in a new location. That is a huge clue. However, it’s also very possible that you have traveled and not felt better anywhere else either because you were going to similar locations, bad locations, bringing a lot of your stuff, or you were choosing regular housing that was moldy or toxic. If you don’t think the locations effect applies to you because you have traveled before, that is not enough info to go by if you have chosen regular hotels and rentals in the past.

• It’s a mistake to think that because a climate is drier or because you’re going to a beach location it will be better. Islands are also assumed to be better but are not always so. There are beaches that have terrible air quality. Drier climates have moldy buildings just like everywhere else. Of course, lower summer humidity and less rainfall may mean there are more buildings that are a better choice. But a drier climate does not guarantee safer housing or better outdoor air. 
• I talk about many of the locations I have been to that were bad in Substack.

Find a Good Location

People have felt remarkably better in places that are exceptionally pristine – these might be in the mountains, tropical coastal areas, or the desert. Those are the most popular choices, though forests and grasslands and all types of ecological areas can be good. 

There are some factors here that are individual, not everybody does well with altitude, not everybody does well in a tropical setting if it’s hot.

How to select a location is covered in the Substack location effects series.

The Island Effect

I talk about the effect of the water an winds in Substack.

Choosing Lodging for the Sabbatical

A tent is less risky as you have way more control over the environment you are sleeping in (but it could be difficult to off-gas).

A tent can be hard for someone who is extremely sensitive to temperature. But there are lots of tips and tricks in my post on camping.

I have made progress in a tent even when 90% bedbound.

No one can recommend exact buildings (this is why).

Though I do share my process for selecting buildings in Substack (and I have been able to find safe housing easily the last many years).

Tenting on Sabbatical

Here is my post on camping. 

I go through options for tents for people with chemical sensitivities as well as how to keep your tent and gear as mold-free as possible.

When looking at glamping setups, they can certainly be very moldy. When glamping, look for well-built simple structures, raised off the ground. Otentiks can be found across Canada.

Canvas is a no-no unless it’s very new or in a very dry climate. I want to see it raised off the ground.

No used tents on flat surfaces.

Yurts and domes are tricky and are not very likely to be good. They need to be looked at carefully for off-gassing and mold.

Trailers for a Sabbatical

Airstreams can be rented from many different places but you want to go as new as possible there.

An off-gassed Camplite or off-gassed fiberglass trailer could provide a good baseline home.

If you have never lived in a metal trailer before you have to take some caution here, as not everybody can tolerate metal.

Here is my post on trailer options.

There are sites that rent converted vans and trailers like Outdoorsy.

Indoor Lodging for a Sabbatical

The way I would go about finding good rentals or hotels is outlined on Substack.

Sometimes new buildings have a better success rate, but new buildings are moldy more than half of the time, even with the most mold-safe materials.

Depending on where you are in the world, it is possible for older buildings to be better built.

There are many building types that are moldy from the get-go.

In some countries, building practices are so poor that the building will be moldy within a year.

The HVAC type has to be considered as well.

I have at times done well with an Airbnb that has an outside sleeping space, but even then there was a learning curve because a moldy building can be felt and even smelled from 100 feet away or more (up to 200 ft).

And tiled, or concrete patios go moldy fast as well, especially if you put plastic down on them.

My Tips and Tricks for Packing for a Sabbatical

You can see a visual packing list here on Amazon with notes on each one, of all the items I bring on a trip that will involve travel and bnbs or hotels.

This includes being prepared for a balcony or patio sleeping and items needed for travel.

Many of these need to be off-gassed if you have MCS.

These are some of the key items:

• Caution with cotton in high humidity environments, like camping in a tropical setting, especially if hand washing clothing. A compact microfiber towel on the other hand dries quickly.
• I use plastic shoes (crocs) which I love. If you are camping you’re going to want rubber or plastic shoes. They are good for beaches too. Easy to wash and they look decent. You can leave them outside.
• This dish soap works well as an all-in-one soap – dish, laundry soap, body soap, and shampoo in a pinch. But when travelling light I bring laundry soap in bar form.
• I used mylar bags to sequester items when I was very sensitive. Careful, if the aluminum starts to flake off or become dust form, discard these immediately.
• I use aluminum tarps to sequester a bed. I may be sequestering off-gassing, mold or bacteria. Throw out often. If the aluminum flakes off or becomes dust form discard immediately.
• I used to bring a heating blanket everywhere I went so I could sleep with the window open, on a balcony, or in a tent. You will almost certainly have to wash or air those out before using it if you have MCS.

Decon During a Sabbatical 

• I would not go to extremes to avoid your items from your home, I would only avoid large items from a moldy home like pillows, blankets, tents if stored inside, sleeping mats.
• Unless you have HT on you, you can bring smaller items. We don’t want you to become hyper-reactive.
• I would not do extreme “decontamination” between places, like when you go out during the day. This can lead to increasing your sensitivities and many people end up in an endless cycle of hypersensitive leaving them homeless, unable to work or get better.

Warning: You can get worse by doing extreme mold avoidance. You absolutely can get stuck in homelessness, reacting to everything and unable to get a foothold to get back to stability. If you don’t repair your limbic system you won’t break free from this. Also going to extremes can worsen your limbic system dysregulation, keeping you in a state of survival. So make sure to choose a sabbatical location/housing situation that is not going to increase your stress (at least not for more than the first few days). My Substack and Facebook page talk more about this.

A Few Final Notes:

• I would aim for 3 weeks if you aim to test whether you home or home location is problematic for you. However, do note that there are also phycological factors at play with locations and leaving the home you associate with being sick in.
• Changing locations/using this locations effect sabbatical can have three purposes: to determine if your home base is moldy, to create a healing burst (but still go back home after), or to find a new place to move to.
• Follow up with “brain retraining” so that you can heal the underlying cause. If traveling makes you more stressed, this impedes detox and recovery.
• If you go extreme with decontamination and leaving all items behind you will become hypersensitive which can easily make you sicker.

In my Substack, I will be going through a run-through of helping someone pick a location. I also have two very detailed posts that fully outline what brain retraining is.