De-glutening dorm furniture?

[DrummerGirl231]

This last semester my roommate and I had our dorm furniture arranged symmetrically. My half of the room was gluten free, hers was not. She left a muffin on her dresser so long with so many other things it became a big pile of slightly moldy crumbs by the end of the semester. Once I came home from church and found her still in bed with a doughnut right next to her on her bed sheet! 

Anyway, she's taking a semester off from classes, so the school isn't letting her stay in the dorms. She found a place nearby and I was able to request my room stay a private one next semester on the grounds of Asperger's and Misophonia, because I can't imagine having to ask a poor new student to deal with my sound sensitivities as well as my former roomie did. 

Now all the furniture is mine so I'm trying to de-gluten it (while wearing ziplock bags on my hands lol). I'm not planning on using any of her drawers, but I want her dresser to be my nightstand, her desk to have my old '90s TV/VCR combo on it with a Wii hooked up, and her bed to be bunked above mine. 

So far I've used Clorox wipes on everything. I know the only way to get rid of gluten is scrubbing/wiping, because gluten isn't a germ. (I figured a Clorox wipe would kill two birds with one stone since the furniture could probably use some sanitizing, too, along with wiping.)

The furniture is wooden and feels sorta plastic-ish. I know wood and plastic are both porous, so I'm not sure how well these wipes can get gluten off. I wound up buying some plastic table cloths and put one over her old dresser for my nightstand, and I plan on putting one over her old desk after Christmas break before I put the TV and Wii on it. Do these measures sound like enough? 

Also, her bed. The mattresses at school are... I'm not sure what material. They don't feel like fabric. They're kinda like plastic? Or vinyl, but not so shiny and clingy? Anyway, I used Clorox wipes on her mattress and parts of the frame where her crumbs could have drifted. I even flipped the mattress over and wiped some of the bottom of it off. Is there any way a gluten particle I missed could... I dunno, drift down onto my bed when I stack them in January? Like some sort of toxic, invisible snow? 0.o Or is gluten too sticky of a protein for that to happen? 

[kareng]

I think if you have cleaned up as well as you have, I wouldn't worry about it at all.  Obviously, you were able to clean your side when you moved in from the previous occupant.  A vacuum cleaner might be helpful getting crumbs off the mattress and out of drawers.  A roll of paper towels and water might help, too.   If you are really worried about the mattress, they make mattress pads for dust allergies that completely enclose the mattress and zip up. 

 

I think the table clothes are over kill, but they will probably look really nice, so keep them.  

[DrummerGirl231]

On 12/11/2016 at 11:36 AM, kareng said:

I think if you have cleaned up as well as you have, I wouldn't worry about it at all.  Obviously, you were able to clean your side when you moved in from the previous occupant.  A vacuum cleaner might be helpful getting crumbs off the mattress and out of drawers.  A roll of paper towels and water might help, too.   If you are really worried about the mattress, they make mattress pads for dust allergies that completely enclose the mattress and zip up. 

 

I think the table clothes are over kill, but they will probably look really nice, so keep them.  

I wasn't aware just how sensitive I was last August when I moved in... but I did wipe everything down anyway. I mean you never know what was in the drawers the previous year. 0.o 
I guess since now I'm more aware of different ways of getting glutened, I'm starting to feel like... a glutenaphobe. And I was reading all these forums about de-glutening a kitchen and it said to get rid of anything plastic or wooden because of how porous those materials are, so with the dorm furniture, I was a little nervous. 
Thanks for the reply! 
 

[kareng]

6 minutes ago, DrummerGirl231 said:

I wasn't aware just how sensitive I was last August when I moved in... but I did wipe everything down anyway. I mean you never know what was in the drawers the previous year. 0.o 
I guess since now I'm more aware of different ways of getting glutened, I'm starting to feel like... a glutenaphobe. And I was reading all these forums about de-glutening a kitchen and it said to get rid of anything plastic or wooden because of how porous those materials are, so with the dorm furniture, I was a little nervous. 
Thanks for the reply! 
 

But you aren't licking the furniture or putting it in your soup (which would dissolve some gluten into the soup).  At least I hope not?  Lol

 

[DrummerGirl231]

Just now, kareng said:

But you aren't licking the furniture or putting it in your soup (which would dissolve some gluten into the soup).  At least I hope not?  Lol

 

Mmmmmm furniture... haha jk.
Nah, I'm just concerned because of all this stuff I've read about getting glutened from touching something and then touching your mouth, because I sometimes eat finger food while doing homework or I put the side of my finger up to my lips when I'm concentrating. It seems like there are a few people on here who can be glutened from any and everything, and since I have other GI issues too, I want to be able to make sure I can effectively eliminate one cause for my symptoms.