Once the flood water has receded from your home, you're left with the difficult task of deciding what personal items can be easily salvaged and what must be thrown out. The two key factors affecting your choice are the source of the flood water and how long an item has been submerged. Here is how these play into your decision to keep an item and some tips for saving some of your personal effects.    

The Flood Water Source

The more contaminants the flood water has in it, the more difficult it will be saving an item from the flood. Water from a supply line rupturing in your basement contains few contaminates, such as chemicals and microorganisms. An item soaked with this water may only need to be rinsed off and dried to be safe to use.

Water from a ruptured city sewer line contains a high concentration of hazardous microorganisms. Items soaked with this water need extensive disinfecting to be safe. Some items may not survive the cleaning process and should just be thrown out and replaced.

The Duration an Item is Soaked

Water damage from contaminated water is one factor, but how long an item has been soaked is the other concern. The longer items have been submerged, the harder it is to salvage them. For example, if your wall-to-wall carpet has been under water for longer than one day, there is a risk that it will develop mold or mildew. This makes the carpet difficult to clean so it will be safe for you and your family to be around.

Tips for Saving Specific Items From a Flood

When dealing with contaminated flood water, work with a water damage specialist to determine how to clean soaked items properly so they are safe to use. If the flood water is from a clean source, such as a water line to your kitchen faucet, here are some tips for cleaning and saving soaked items.

• Metal and glass kitchenware can be cleaned with a mild detergent, rinsed off and dried.
• Most glazed ceramic and pottery items can be cleaned and saved. Porous dishes need to be steam cleaned and disinfected before they are safe to use again.
• Photos can be dried between sheets of paper towel with a book placed on top of them to prevent the photo from curling. Photos should be removed from picture frames and dried this way.
• Important original documents should be allowed to dry, then photographed or copied, and then discarded.
• Wood that has been submerged for several hours will swell with the water. When dried, wooden furniture, picture frames and other wooden objects will rarely return to their original state. This may leave frames and small furniture items unusable.
• Clothing, blankets, linen and throw rugs should be professionally laundered before using.
• Draperies that have been sitting in flood water for a long time need to be cleaned and inspected for mold and mildew by a water damage restoration company.

If there is any doubt about the safety of an item after a flood, it should be discarded and replaced. You and your family could face serious health issues if you keep an item that has been contaminated or at risk of developing mold and mildew where you can't see it.