r/moldyinteresting

We moved into a newly built home about a year ago. For the first six months, we stored some boxes and other items in an otherwise empty room. The boxes were filled with books, and the other items were a couple of filing cabinets and office chairs. All of the books and items had been in our office in our old home. When we moved out, we learned that we had a mildew problem in that old home. In the new house, which had no smells, we suddenly realized that many of our things had a strong mildew odor. This was especially true of the things that had been in the office.

We got rid of the filings cabinets about a month after moving. We kept the contents of the filings cabinets in boxes, as well as the boxes of books. The room developed a strong chlorine-like odor. About five months after that, we moved everything out of the room. The room continued to have a strong chlorine odor, even when empty. We believe this to be a byproduct of the mildew/mold. Opening up the windows managed to make the smell go away substantially.

We have spent the last few weeks trying to deal with the lingering chlorine odor. We have been running two air purifiers (AustinAir) and a 1/4 HP air mover blower fan for most of the last ten days or so. When even a single air purifier is running, the smell goes away almost completely. However, when we test leaving the fan and air purifiers off in the closed room for three hours, the smell comes back.

The room itself is totally clean, at least superficially.

What steps can we take to get rid of this smell? Is it worth brining in ozone treatment?