Ellie Peach is a registered nurse and, with nearly 100,000 followers and more than 4.5 million likes, an Instagram afficionado. Peach, who goes by @eswift95 on Instagram, took to social media to reveal that sleeping on a mattress with no bedframe had led to some unexpected consequences.
“So this is just a PSA to everyone thinking of cutting costs and not getting a bed frame and just thinking, ‘Oh, mattresses can just go on the floor,’” Peach said on TikTok, as transcribed by the Independent. “Hypothetically, one could want to change their mattress after the summertime — after it’s been on said floor for six months — and they may remove their mattress and they may find mold everywhere.”
The Instagram guru then admitted the situation was not hypothetical, and it was she who found a significant amount of mold under her mattress after not using a bed frame.
“So I changed it out with my old mattress and I thought, ‘What is that god-awful smell?’” she said. According to the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, mold exposure can lead to a stuffy nose, sore throat, coughing or wheezing, burning eyes or skin rash. Those with asthma or a mold allergy are at risk of more severe reactions.
“Mold will grow where there is moisture, such as around leaks in roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been a flood,” the CDC reported. “Mold grows on paper, cardboard, ceiling tiles, and wood. Mold can also grow in dust, paints, wallpaper, insulation, drywall, carpet, fabric, and upholstery.”
For Peach, the rampant mold had grown beyond the bottom of the mattress. It had also seeped deep enough into the carpet for her to hire a professional cleaning service to remove the smelly, potentially harmful substance.
“And I also can’t sleep in there because I’m convinced I’m going to die of mold inhalation, so I’m in the living room,” she said.
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