Mumsnet Talk

There is a definite smell of poo in the house and it seems worse in the living room. DS has ongoing continence and bowel issues so its not uncommon to find a patch of wee or a small piece of poo that has escaped but its normally where DS is sitting and I can clear it up straight away.

The smell has been there for about 4 or 5 days - I've had all the windows open, pulled all the furniture out and cleaned underneath and behind it, and taken all the cushions off the sofa and given that a good clean, but the room still has a definite underlying aroma of shit.

I don't know where else to look

Have you got any plant pots in the room? If so, have a sniff around them.

The ceiling? Like in mission impossible, it's there above your head, swinging in the breeze.

Sensible suggestions:

fireplace
wastepaper basket/log/coal basket (tee hee - log basket)

No, no plant pots. I've just checked the ceiling! I'd have been well impressed if DS could have got one up there, that would have been hilarious.

DP suggested we might have to look inside the frame of the sofa in case a small creature has somehow burrowed into there and then died. I think its unlikely. It definitely smells of poo and not of rotting bodies.

Do you have a skirting board with the tiniest of gaps between it and the wall or floor? I've had to deal with poo in there, t'was grim.

Personally I'd hide behind the wallpaper

But I guess that's not very likely here

I once thought my living room smelled of poo, checked all shoes for something trodden in outside. It turned out to be not poo at all, but a new pair of wellies which had an oddly pooey undertone to their new-rubber aroma.

Thanks for the laugh you gave me when I read your post. Cunning poo indeed!
But seriously, you have to get down on your hands and knees and sniff (channelling your inner bloodhound). I know it sounds daft, but it works.

Remember, you are smarter than the poo!

If I were a cunning poo, I would hide under the tv stand or round the corner on the window sill

Behind a book on a bookcase?

Could it be under DVD? Etc? Pushed in something?

Do you know anyone with a dog? (hound type are best, lab,GR, spaniel) bring it in, and it will go straight to the source for a sniff, just watch carefully.

My dd gas been known to hide poo inside toys, any toys to look in?

You are all doing very well at channelling your inner poo - very insightful. I am now sniffing about like a bloodhound. I don't know anyone with a dog. We have a cat who is currently licking her own bottom. I don't think she is related to the poo smell though.

I think its unlikely one of the DCs will have put poo into anything - DS is six and normally quite good at cleaning up after himself. The smell seems worse near the door and at one end of the sofa. There isn't much around there where it could be hidden apart from the radiator. I wonder if it could have got in there?

Do you know anyone with a dog? (hound type are best, lab,GR, spaniel) bring it in, and it will go straight to the source for a sniff, just watch carefully.

Yes. And then it will piss on it!

It's like a post-apocalyptic episode of The Crystal Maze

I cant be of any help with suggestions, but I had a cunning poo I didnt know about. DS2 came and used our old cylinder hoover we keep in the garage to vacuum his car. Its usually kept on the bottom shelf of a metal unit. He came in and said he was covered in poo as he had gone to pick up the cylinder and some was tucked under the handle...not sure how it got there at all

We once had a dreadful fishy smell that we tracked down to my toddler son's rocking cow. It had a handle that pulled out leaving a hole to the hollow inside. When we pulled out the handle the smell was revolting - he'd done a wee inside it then put the handle back on!

We had another unidentified fishy smell which also had to be hunted down, I won't lower the tone here though by going into detail.

Right, I know this is going to sound really weird but I had exactly the same problem recently. I have an elderly cat whose be know to have the odd accident. I was convinced he'd pooed somewhere in the dining room and was going mad trying to find the source. Same as OP, windows open etc etc but still a pervading smell. I finally found the culprit. Daffodils! Yes really. I've got a few vases of cut daffs and they do have an odd pooey smell. Well, to me anyway. Do you have any daffodils in the room, iwould? If not, please ignore me as even I think I sound a bit mad.....

I'm starting to worry that we've somehow upset the cleaner and she's secretly sewed a string of turds into the curtain linings while we were out.

OP, thank you for cheering me up with this thread. Cunning poo indeed

No advice, just award for best thread title of the week.

Will try channelling my inner poo now...

RiffyWammal I want to know

<stamps foot>

Ooh, xigris, yes we have had daffodils in the room for a week! But I threw them out a couple of days ago, and the room still smells. Surely the smell wouldn't linger that long?

Ps. You don't sound mad at all. I'm the one asking strangers to track down an errant poo.

I agree with xigris - usually lily's though.