Weird smell in house

[Slightyamusedandsilly]

I feel a bit like I'm losing my mind.

There is a weird, slightly chemically / over ripe fruity smell in my house. It's not overt and so far, it seems to be only me who can smell it!

I get the nose blindness to it when I've been at home for a while, but when I first walk in the front door, I can smell it in the hall. Occasionally, I can smell it upstairs on the landing too, but most of the time I don't notice it.

I looked it up online and the way I've described it came up as a possible refrigerant leak. I don't have air con (who the hell needs it in the UK!) but I do have a dehumidifier, which uses refrigerant, so I've unplugged that.

I have pets, who can be a bit smelly so I've cleared up their areas. I have cleared the hall (half thinking someone might have left a piece of fruit in a coat pocket) which has reduced the smell a bit, but still get a vague hint of it when I walk in the front door after being out for a while.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I read online that it can be gas, but it really doesn't smell anything like gas, and also, there is no gas line into the hall where the smell tends to be.

could be:

Dead mouse under floorboards or in wall
Blocked drain or leaky pipe in walls
Fridge problem - drip tray full, drain point blocked
mould growing somewhere unventilated (down back of furniture or similar?)
insulation problem - air not flowing properly

Damp hessian door mat/wicker plant pot? I've smelt similar before and it was those

I had a smell in my bedroom like a dead mouse or rotting food. After finding nothing and being completely puzzled, I eventually discovered it was an overheating plastic fitting in a beside lamp. It had got so hot it was discoloured and the smell was horrid but also nothing like I thought it would be.

There is nothing in the hall now AND I've bleached washed the floor. The smell is less but it's still slightly there.

Yes, there could be something under the floor boards but with the cat, I don't think it would be vermin (it'd be very brave mice). I did think fruit somewhere, but nope. It could be the dehumidifier but it's been off all day now, so the smell should go. It COULD be the fridge I suppose (the refrigerant chemical) except it doesn't smell around the fridge. I do need to get a carbon monoxide alarm.

I should say that in the past I HAVE had olfactory hallucinations (peri meno) but this is only in the one area so I'm sure it isn't that.

I'll replace the cat tray and thoroughly clean the floor there too in case its seeping through to the hall.

We had a funny smell in our house for ages (more like gas) and it turned out a wet towel had been left under the bath when we'd had some work done, is there anything like that maybe?

Is it def not gas? My partner thought I was bonkers sniffing it in a new place, but turns out there was a small leak inside. I should be working for British Gas as a detector

Had a dead rat under the floorboards last year. It did not smell fruity!!!!

My son left his Christingle orange in the shoe cupboard in a PE bag. Found it three weeks later. It stunk and had gone blue. Maybe one of those hidden somewhere?

Had a dead mouse under the bed, thanks to cat hunter. It was absolutely foul. Even when found and carpet scrubbed it lingered on my side of the bed. Yuk.

Another one to say is it someone vaping? Apologies if you’ve already replied to that!

another vote for a satsuma. They absolutely honk when they go off. I can smell them a mile off

Have you got a melon in your fruit bowl? The cantaloupe ones smell like that. Or daffodils? Look lovely but stink . My money is on melon!

The kids and I kept noticing a weird fishy smell in our kitchen - not unpleasant, just like we'd been cooking fishfingers! One of the electrical sockets in the kitchen was dodgy and needed sorting out - the electrician said you can often smell a problem before you realise there's a problem (overheating socket stopped working and had to be replaced). But you said your smell is more fruity than fishy so I reckon someone's using a fruit flavour vape maybe.

The source oc mine was the doormat

got wet and manky and no one noticed

took days of crawling around 😂

I could have written this same post!
I smell it by the wall between the hallway and kitchen. It doesn't smell like dead mouse. It's more a rubbishy/overripe fruit smell.
I do have a partial blockage in the sink pipe, so I suppose that's the most likely candidate, but I swear the smell is in the wrong place.
Earlier I was googling "fox den smell" because I'm worried that they've tunnelled under the house.
Sorry, no answers but solidarity for sure!

Have had this twice. First time took us ages to locate it. Second time was wise to it!
The answer: mouse brought in by cat had escaped death by cat, but then crawled up into the hot motor at the back of the fridge, presumably because it was a toasty place to rest, then overheated. Delightful warm decomposing mouse corpse surrounded by its excrement was found when we resorted to pulling the fridge out.

badly dried wet trainers? They never smell quite right ever again.
mouldy banana?
decomposing potato?

When my dehumidifier died I could smell the weird smell even when it was unplugged. Shut it in a room or outside for a few days and see if that makes a difference.

Otherwise, a de days ago I was cutting up a red pepper and it had the most awful sickly sweet chemical smell, my daughter came downstairs asking what new polish or oven cleaner I was using because it was making her feel sick.

So could it be some fruit or vegetable?

@Willweeverfindout we had exactly that. Awful smell in the hall all over Christmas, couldn’t work out what it was. Went to sort out DS’s bag day before going back to school 🤢

Have also had dead rodent in the cavity wall smell.

And the one time I could smell something horrible and DH couldn’t was when I was pregnant. We had just moved into our new house, and I kept saying we needed to move again the smell was so horrible! Luckily when my hormones calmed down the smell went

I've just remembered another weird one - L'Occitane soap! I was convinced we had a gas leak because of the sickly sweet smell outside. Turns out it was every time someone used the new L'Occitane soap and the smell was around the drain outside!

Similar to a PP above I had a hot dead mouse. Mine was under the washer dryer. Took days to pinpoint the location of the smell. Another recent scent was the overflow in the back of the sink bowl which had become clogged by slime. It’s amazing how you can smell something sometimes in the hallway/a different room but can’t work it out when you’re right next to the thing!

I thought I'd come and do an update on the mystery whiff.

• As I said, I totally cleared the hall. Everything. Bleach washed the floor.
• I turned off (and it's stayed off for now) the dehumidifier.
• As someone else recommended, changed the cat tray (which wasn't nearby, but just in case).
• I also emptied the kitchen bin liner, which DID have a random over ripe orange in it.

I THINK the smell has gone, although I'm now paranoid and keep wandering around the house, sniffing. If the neighbours see me they'll think I'm losing my marbles.

I was going to suggest a mouldy citrus fruit somewhere. They sit there in the fruit bowl, the side facing you looks fine and dandy.

Then at some point this smell appears, stronger and stronger and it always puzzles me even though it happens again and again, that the side of the fruit you cant see has gone all moudly and white/blue

The smell of that is exactly what you describe.

Do you have many houseplants? This will probably sound daft but I once smell a fruity musty smell and it took me ages to realise it was flower spikes on a perperomia caperata. Even if you don’t have one of these go and check any plants that you have…..you never know….it could be that simple.
Hope you find the source soon 🤞

I wish @Legomum789 but unfortunately I have the opposite of green fingers and any plant I buy is dead within a month. So I've given up on greenery in the house, as much as I like it.