When I was spring cleaning at the end of last year, I had a bit of a scare when I checked on a couple of my leather bags. I spotted bits of mould starting to take hold, and it absolutely freaked me out! After I had gotten rid of the mould on the bags the best I could, I realised that it could be due to the high humidity where I live (the tropics) and the room where the bags were stored.
So I looked around for ways to control the humidity and barring buying a dehumidifier and storing bags in a specially built cabinet, one recommended method was to use silica gel.
Most of us will be familiar with silica gel – it is those white little sachets you sometimes see in food packaging or new bags or wallets that clearly say “Do Not Eat”. The purpose of these sachets is as a desiccant where the silica gel within absorbs the humidity in the air and keeps the products fresh for longer. When humidity decreases, the incidence of mould similarly decreases. There are a myriad of uses of silica gel but what I’m primarily telling you about today is about the use of this silica gel to reduce the incidence of mould on your leather bags.