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Help me unravel this mystery before I burn the contents of this room down

315 replies

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 11:39

As the title says, I am feeling like purifying this room through fire after a week of cleaning. washing and replacing stuff has proved unsuccessful to remove the stench a short term lodger left behind.

The room was spring cleaned before his arrival. He was around for 3 weeks. He had massively smelly feet (I said that as the mother of a sporty smelly child that I could barely stand at times, but this is in a different league, more than ten times worse and resistant), after a week around I asked him if he could do something about the smell stench, he apologised (he was lovely and polite otherwise) and said he would get odour eaters to sort it.

It didn’t make a difference so, as I had told him when I rent the room that I would be going in to open the window to ventilate the room every morning, I got the super strength version of Odor Eaters and sprayed all his shoes every morning and left the window open the whole day. This helped the smell not to extend to other rooms as before.

The last of his 3 weeks, he had a cold so stayed at home, therefore I was unable to spray shoes if open the window. He left the room tidy but the stench is still there. It smells as if you have crossed bad smelly feet with buttery toffee and is of such strength you feel like vomiting.

The room was also left covered in some white fluff, very similar to the fluff you may find under the bed if you don’t clean for years, but it was EVERYWHERE, all around the floor, walls, furniture, picture frame and a lot of it has gone into the radiator. I cannot imagine such amount of fluff being produced in three weeks, much less so by a single person no matter how dirty they could be.

I have removed more than bucket load of fluff, vacuum cleaned and washed the walls, floors, furniture and the inside out of the radiator, used a whole can of Odor Eaters, Oust and a full bottle of Ecover as well as leaving the window open every day, one week later the stench is now a smell but is still unbearable.

I have bought a new duvet and pillows. But I am convinced that this situation can be due to either an endocrinology related issue or bacteria, and therefore not safe. Shall I burn all the bed linen? the whole room? I am at the end of my tether, have spent a week cleaning and again every day over the last week and the smell is still there.🤮🤮🤮🤮

OP posts:
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Daffodilsarentfluffy · 21/03/2024 12:45

Plug in air freshener.. For pets. Actually works on doggy smells!

TeaAndStrumpets · 21/03/2024 12:44

Begsthequestion · 21/03/2024 12:33

These are good: https://onaonline.com/product/ona-block/

Usually used to get rid of the smell of a grow house/weed smoke, and so are very effective.

Also, dry coffee grounds - leave some in dishes around the room. Can be used grounds. Works well.

Coffee grounds are a very good idea. DD once bought a car which reeked of dogs and a few weeks of leaving coffee grounds in it removed the smell.

Jellycats4life · 21/03/2024 12:44

He said he’d get some Odor Eaters? 😂

Sounds like he needed to see a doctor. It is NOT normal to stink that much.

NorthCliffs · 21/03/2024 12:43

I get phantom smells (usually cigarette smoke so sharp it stings the inside of my nose) as part of my migraine with aura symptoms. Have you ever suffered?

MrsSlocombesCat · 21/03/2024 12:42

It’s the mattress. Could you have it professionally cleaned? Obviously his sweat from his body and feet would have soaked into the mattress while he was sleeping. You might have to get a new bed if you can’t get the mattress clean or change it. My first husband had incredibly smelly feet and it permeated everything in the room.

Paradiddlediddle · 21/03/2024 12:40

Agree with @mauvish - it’s unlikely to be anything except in your own mind at this level of cleaning. Leave the window open for a month. Only other thing left to do is mop the walls and ceiling with sugar soap.

OrigamiStar · 21/03/2024 12:39

How mysterious. No advice, OP (though when we moved into this house, which had been a student house, we employed a cleaning company that usually does industrial cleaning and crime scenes 😀) — but when he actually lived there, was it definitely his feet? When you asked him about it, did it seem like news to him? I mean, I’m struggling to imagine how an ordinary person who went out into the world, worked, had friends etc could function if he was that strongly smelly. Did he appear to shower/bathe/wash his clothes regularly? Is the fluff he left behind smelly? Did that only appear during the week he spent ill in bed?

mauvish · 21/03/2024 12:37

Is there anyone else in the house? Can they smell it too? Or are you on your own?

I'm asking because such a persistence of the smell would make me wonder if it's actually detectable by others. We can suffer from odour hallucinations, often (not always) due to mouth or sinus problems, so I'd want to check that it's detectable by other people too.

(I've had a cold and I keep smelling cigarette smoke in my house, though no-one has ever smoked here! So the smell is just something that my body is wrongly detecting - it's not really here!)

LaughterLentil · 21/03/2024 12:36

If it were me, I'd be repainting the room, throwing all the bed linen, duvet, mattress, and armchair, and starting again. gross

martinisforeveryone · 21/03/2024 12:35

Sounds like some good ideas, but what about so much fluff? The description doesn’t sound like tissue left in with laundry. It’s even more mystifying than the smell.

Begsthequestion · 21/03/2024 12:33

These are good: https://onaonline.com/product/ona-block/

Usually used to get rid of the smell of a grow house/weed smoke, and so are very effective.

Also, dry coffee grounds - leave some in dishes around the room. Can be used grounds. Works well.

Verv · 21/03/2024 12:33

All I can suggest is zoflora everywhere and use a carpet shampoo machine filled with yet more zoflora on the mattress. then fling window open and air it for a week.

Alphabet1spaghetti2 · 21/03/2024 12:31

I think I would get a carpet cleaner and use it to clean the mattress and then leave it propped up with the windows open for a week. You’ve eliminated everything else I can think of.
If you have a friend with cats, you could try a clean tray of cat litter, or fill some old tights or socks with clean cat litter and leave in the room. It’s a good odour absorber, even better if you can get cat litter which contains carbon. It works well on getting smells out of cars. (I say that as a cat owner).

Janetsmug · 21/03/2024 12:31

Is the smell stronger anywhere in particular OP? Is it coming from the mattress for example? I would have thought the measures you've already taken should sort any general room smell so would be looking for a specific source. If it is the mattress the bicarb trick may well work, or the same process with biological washing powder (sprinkle liberally, leave overnight then vacuum) because it contains enzymes that will 'eat' any bacteria which may be causing the smell. Let us know if any of the suggestions work, it would be driving me mad so really hope you manage to sort it.

DarkDarkTimeOfLife · 21/03/2024 12:29

Was there a mattress protector on? Is the smell just absorbed into the mattress from his feet as he lay in bed?

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:29

colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:27

This wins the thread.

All these years ignoring plans for a zombie apocalypses have left me totally unprepared.

I won’t laugh anymore…

OP posts:
NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:28

The mattress was covered with 2 protectors, one of them plastic backed. So if it comes from the mattress it naught be from the underside.

OP posts:
colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:27

TeaAndStrumpets · 21/03/2024 12:08

Sounds like he was a zombie op. Good job he left.

This wins the thread.

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:26

BewitchedBotheredandBewildered · 21/03/2024 12:11

Are you sure he hasn't left any shoes under the bed, or in a cupboard?

Sure he hasn’t. At this time I am at skin cell deposit removal stage.

OP posts:
colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:25

My guess is the mattress.

whatageareyou · 21/03/2024 12:25

I would get new bedding and you need a carpet cleaner - not just hoover

Throckmorton · 21/03/2024 12:25

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:22

That was my first port of call. Nope, didn’t work 🙁

Bugger! So much for their adverts!! How about the stuff you put on pet wee that's enzymatic? I mean, you'd have to put it everywhere, but it beats fire (maybe)!

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:25

FadedRed · 21/03/2024 12:21

Could you be pregnant? It can make you very sensitive to odour.

That would be lovely! But I don’t think I (or anyone around me) would survive a day of two with the hormonal chaos of being pregnant and menopausal at the same time.

The lodger would be dead by now…

OP posts:
NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:22

Throckmorton · 21/03/2024 12:08

Febreeze? The adverts would suggest it might work. Worth a try certainly!

That was my first port of call. Nope, didn’t work 🙁

OP posts:
FadedRed · 21/03/2024 12:21

Could you be pregnant? It can make you very sensitive to odour.