There are certain areas of your home that, because of their exposure to moisture, are going to be more prone to having unpleasant, lingering odors.

Situations that involve excess moisture will often lead to musty odors, but the primary problem isn’t the smell. It’s what the odor could mean and other issues that the moisture could cause.

Moisture can easily lead to mold and mildew that thrive in damp environments. Knowing this, the musty smell could be mildew odor.

In the bathroom, you may come across this smell coming from the sink.

The combination of water and organic debris that passes through the pipes can accumulate. This will then encourage mold and mildew growth and when it does grow, it will give off an odor.

If you come across mildew odors coming from your bathroom sink, then use the following information to help get rid of the odor.

Get the Appropriate Cleaning Products

Knowing that your sink’s drain needs cleaning, you may think to go out to get a commercial drain cleaner. If that’s the course of action you take, then be sure that you do not try any other cleaning methods soon after.

Chemical drain cleaner mixed with other products can lead to a chemical reaction that produces toxic gas. So, keep that in mind if you use a drain cleaner.

Drain cleaners can also be especially harsh on your sink’s drain because of the various chemicals it contains. Because of this, it is better to opt for natural cleaning products that will be just as effective without harming the sink’s drain.

A combination of either baking powder and distilled white vinegar or baking powder and hydrogen peroxide can be used to clean the drain and remove the sink mildew — and thus also eliminate the mildew odor.

The great thing about either combination is that the products are easy to find and you might already have them at home.

While using bleach may seem like a good idea when trying to clean sink mildew, it, like commercial drain cleaners, can be too harsh on the sink drain.

Clean the Bathroom Sink Drain

Once you have decided which products to use to clean the sink mildew and eliminate the mildew odor, you can proceed with the cleaning.

Cleaning Sink Mildew with Distilled White Vinegar and Baking Powder

When using baking powder and distilled white vinegar, you will also need to run water down the drain to help with the cleaning.

First, dump ½ cup baking powder into the sink’s drain. Then, follow it up with 1 cup of the white vinegar. Let it sit for approximately 15 minutes, allowing the froth to settle. This solution will not only kill pathogens, but it will also loosen up any debris and mildew that are stuck in the drain.

From there, continue the cleaning process by running hot water down the drain for 1 minute. After 5 minutes, finish it off by running cold water for 1 minute.

Cleaning Sink Mildew with Hydrogen Peroxide and Baking Powder

Using the hydrogen peroxide mixture is a similar process, but simpler. First, pour ½ cup baking powder down the drain. After 20 minutes have passed, follow up with 1 cup of hydrogen peroxide to create a solution.

To prevent this musty mildew odor from returning, consider cleaning your sink’s drain on a more regular basis instead of waiting for sink mildew to form and start emitting an odor.

Professional Mold Remediation Services

While cleaning up sink mildew in your bathroom is seemingly simple, the process for cleaning up mildew and mold elsewhere in your bathroom — and your home — is not.

Mold can not only result in property damage, but it can also cause people exposed to it to suffer from negative health effects. The longer mold growth goes unaddressed, the more damage it will cause, and the more harmful it can be to people’s health. So, if you come across mold growing in your residential property, then you must act immediately. Otherwise, you risk an even worse situation.

Mold survives in warm, moist areas. The bathroom shower is a perfect place for it to grow quickly.

RestorationMaster has professional mold remediation services available to help residential and commercial properties with mold emergencies. Within our mold remediation services, our professional technicians will find, contain, and eliminate all cases of mold at your home or business. This process ensures the situation does not get any worse while we work to ensure thorough mold removal.

Following the removal, our mold specialists will also work to prevent the mold’s return, applying anti-microbial products to the previously affected areas. Not only can we properly address your mold issue, but we will also do what we can to prevent it from becoming a problem again.

About Vince Sandri

Vince Sandri is a content writer and blogger with more than 12 years of experience. His expertise is in creating content related to disaster restoration, including information about preventing and reacting to natural disasters like flooding, water damage, fire and smoke damage, mold growth, storm damage and more.
Vince has been the main contributor to RestorationMasterFinder.com since 2014. Over that time, he has written numerous service pages and blogs for disaster restoration providers featured on RestorationMasterFinder.com. Vince has done extensive research and covered a wide range of topics relating to disaster restoration to help homeowners, business owners, and property managers better protect their property. He understands the problems that disasters like flooding, fire, smoke, and mold can cause as well as the best ways to respond to these issues to limit the damage.
Vince completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at Aurora University and his master’s degree at DePaul University. He has been writing SEO website pages, blogs, and press releases since 2012. Vince is also a musician and can be seen playing in the Chicago, IL area.