To challenge you to find where the smell in my kitchen is coming from?

[deeedeee]

Smells like off milk, it's driving me insane! Can't find it and the inlaws are coming for the day tomorrow!

Bin has been cleaned, recycling drawer, fridge, looked behind fridge, behind cooker, cleaned all cupboards, floor and surfaces scrubbed.

What is it??

[Bluetrews25]

Chuck some Jeyes' fluid down the drain inside and outside. And / or have a prod at it with a bendy wire thing. Smells vile initially, but will probably sort it. Had this at MILs - she kept throwing solid food down the sink and blocked it up. dirty cow she was
Alternatively, is it your old plastic washing up bowl? Some old plastic things start to smell sweaty, I kid you not!

[LakieLady]

A few years ago, we came back from holiday and found the kitchen stank. Like OP, cleaned everything to within an inch of its life, but the smell remained.

Then DP twigged that the smell was much worse when we were running hot water, and thought it might something to do with the boiler. He took the casing off and found a fossilised mouse fused to something in the boiler.

We then found mouse shit in one of the cutlery drawers ... but not till we'd eaten several meals.

[user1494701553]

Had a nasty 'rotting' smell in the kitchen. Cleaned out fridge and all cupboards but it got worse. We thought dead mouse behind a cupboard. Called exterminator, they quoted £150 (2 companies). Anyway, wanted to sleep on it so started dinner, opened oven and whoa!! Had forgotten about an old 'cauliflower cheese bake' from a week ago! Rank!! We hadn't used oven since then and omg! The smell was unbearable! Go rid and within 10 mins the smell had gone! All sorted, plus no dead mouse and even have a sparkling clean fridge and cupboards so not all bad :-)

[needalittleL]

So......did you find it?

[NeedMoreSleepOrSugar]

You've probably sorted it by now, but if its not the trap as Unlucky suggests, it could be the drain outside.

We've had a strange smell from the drain twice - first was some leaves and gunk that had got trapped and were rotting on top of the drain cover and the second time it was building work (involving drains) several doors up. We only solved that one after several days when another neighbour mentioned it to us! Both times the smell came and went - presumably with changes in the wind direction (first one) or water usage (second one)

[honeycrumpet]

I have a sink tidy thingy, a bit like this one, and I have to clean it out regularly as water sits and becomes stagnant in it. It smells horrendous if I don't keep an eye on it! Do you have anything like that?

[unlucky83]

I have a different kind of sink but the plumbing underneath is likely to be the same ...if it was installed a few years ago using the waste kit Ikea supplied. (They have a bad reputation and lots of plumbers don't like using them -will make up the waste using standard parts)
I've attached a photo of it - the red arrow shows the 'trap' bit ...and the other photo is the new style -if it doesn't look like either it won't be an ikea kit -it will likely be one made up by a plumber (and it should be better!)

[Pestilence13610]

Seal around the sink?
Dead rat in water tank?
Burn the washing up cloth, sponge and brush.
What washing up liquid are you using? Morning Dew used to smell like this to me.

[deeedeee]

unlucky, I'm wondering what sink you have, because ours i an ikea sink too. We've the double belfast sink? Is that the same as yours?

[deeedeee]

well my mother and father in law couldn't smell it!! and when I came home from work too I couldn't smell it either!

UNTIL I did the washing up and then the smell wafted back, so now I'm thinking it's the sink/drains!

[deeedeee]

well my mother and father in law couldn't smell it!! and when I came home from work too I couldn't smell it either!

UNTIL I did the washing up and then the smell wafted back, so now I'm thinking it's the sink/drains!

[TheOtherGalen]

I have no idea how I ended up here but now I just really want to know what the outcome is.

[KinderSurprised]

I once had a bag of carrots fall behind the tumble dryer, was convinced we must of eaten them until every time the dryer was on the rotten stench would hit you, dh pulled it out & discovered the nastiness

[Dailymaildailyfail]

Another vote for drip tray! At work we had the same stench, turns out someone had spilt milk in bottom of fridge and it had drained out into the drip tray. Another suggestion would be under things- if someone spills milk or something and it has run under a microwave or toaster and not been cleaned up, it too will stink. If all else fails- ZOFLORA THE SHIT OUT OF YOUR KITCHEN!

[unlucky83]

I would pull your sink drains to pieces!!!
I had a terrible smell -had gradually got worse over time and wasn't sure exactly where from but thought it was the sink - did all the bicarb and vinegar and hot water down both plug holes (sink and a half) and the overflow - several times still stank. So moved onto bleach - still stank... then zoflora. Took a week or so and still couldn't work it out.
Ours is an Ikea sink and it has a funny trap thing not a traditional u-bend. It was a pia to clear it out when it blocked once before - took ages, was really fiddly and vile - had to stick my hands ups inside the trap and drag bits of yuk out ...
So I decided it would be easier to take the whole waste off altogether... I could give it good check over ...and could see into the drain to outside...would really find the problem - and I did!
Even though I'd done all that chemical drain clearing before there was still quite a bit of gelatinous, slimy stinky yuk in the pipes and in the trap - which wouldn't have helped with the smell but it wasn't bad enough....
The real culprit was the overflow...and the fact it had been badly fitted.. There are short pipes sticking out of the trap that you can use to attach waste pipes from other things (eg a dishwasher) but they are sealed off - when you want to use one you must have to drill a hole inside it into the trap body.
The overflow was fitted to one of those -and the fitters obvious thought an overflow only needed a small hole...so the pipe feed from the overflow to the trap was a couple of cms wide but inside the hole into the trap was less than 1 cm wide...leaving a nice edge for things to catch on ...and worse the overflow grid in the sink is quite open...
I think a couple of months before something biggish (possibly a piece of lettuce or spinach ) had gone down and got stuck at that tiny hole -then any other bits that had gone down had got stuck behind it ...there was a disgusting rotting mass backed up for a couple of cm inside the pipe and it reeked.
Because the pipe feeding to it was quite big it would hold quite a bit of water - and it must have been slowly getting through (or evaporating ...no wonder it stank!) - when I 'cleaned it' etc it seemed fine - I guess you would have only realised it was blocked if you forgot you were filling a sink and came back to find the floor flooded...
I've made the hole bigger so it shouldn't happen again ...
and no more bad smells!
well unless DP is cooking ...

[Oldraver]

Like others have said, if it is a fishy/slightly pissy smell, check any electrics.

I've twice had this in our house...first time it went on for months and I kept telling myself I knew the fishy smell meant something....then the dishwasher blew and burnt the socket which had been badly wired.


Next time I got right onto it and found the ceiling light had started to break down

[HelsBels5000]

Right. I want the make and model of your fridge. Please I WILL FIND THE DRIPTRAY.

[Newtssuitcase]

have you sniffed all of your eggs.

Lats year we had a smell for about 2 weeks. Turned out an egg had gone bad. I only discovered it when it exploded all over my hands. We had to keep the windows and doors open for the whole of the day to get rid of the stink. Ive literally never known anything stink like that.

[Spring2016]

Sour milk under fridge drawers? I had a mystery odor in kitchen, cleaning and searching like you have been. It turned out it was just from used coffee grounds in the kitchen compost bin. Now they go in their own separate coffee can with tight lid, and lined with compost bag, instead of the kitchen waste compost. Compost bin is empied daily, but the bin opened a lot in the day so the smell wafted out.

[NameGotLostInCyberspace]

I also will say fridge! Pull it out
...my drip tray stuck my kitchen out and its non removable.. cut my hands to bits .

[ParadiseCity]

I am convinced it is the fridge. It MUST have a drip tray somewhere.I think you should post the make and model and I bet a fellow MNer will advise.

[TeenAndTween]

Rat that has come in through gap between outlet pipe and wall, and eaten into a packet of scrub-sponges and died and gone off?

(Took us about 3 months to find that one. Only visiting the house at weekends).

[Glittermakeseverythingbetter]

We had this problem recently. It was the fridge.

[TheMerryWidow1]

dishwasher?

[Gumps]

I'm sure I read that carpet glue can make a bad smell if it has got wet repeatedly. Have you got a mat or something in there that it could be?