To ask you to help me find the mystery smell in my house?

[peachgreen]

My house smells like sour milk. It's HORRIBLE. I cannot for the life of me pinpoint what it is and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions of what it could be, especially if you've had a similar issue.

It smells worst in the hallway, lounge and the dining room, gets slightly better in the kitchen and utility room. Downstairs toilet smells fine. It isn't coming from the fridge or freezer, or the sinks or dishwasher. The house is 1950s with solid poured concrete walls internally and externally so there's nothing in the walls. There is a big "basement" under the floor which is inaccessible without tearing up the carpet - but the smell isn't stronger lower down. And no, I haven't spilled milk anywhere!

We're generally a pretty clean household although I'll confess that with an excitable 1 year old I'm not quite as on top of things as I would usually be, but we're talking a week's worth of dust, not a month's worth of old food!

HELP. It's driving me bonkers.

The drip tray at the back of the fridge can be another culprit.

Could your toddler have sicked up some milk somewhere and it's soaked in? Puked milk smells vile.

I had this happen to me once and I went and bought 10 boxes of bicarbonate soda and scrubbed all of my downstairs carpet with soapy water then sprinkled bicarb everywhere. I vacuumed in the morning and the smell was gone.

Trust me, milk has been spilled somewhere!

OK, I've had a mystery smell and I looked and looked and couldn't locate it. Then I realised I was doing it wrong - I just shut my eyes and tracked it down with my nose. Went straight to it, even though I "knew" I'd looked there.

Humans actually have a pretty good sense of smell but we tend to ignore it and use our eyes instead. You will find it - just relax and let your brain do the work.

(For anyone who's curious, it turned out to be a massive dead rotting rat. I sincerely hope your smell is something less disgusting!)

Borrow a friend or relative's dog for an hour. They usually like to have a good sniff in new environments so would likely go to the source of an interesting smell.

If the smell is worse at night, it could be a light fitting, if they're old. They start melting and stink to high heaven.

Second the bicarb idea, but try and track the smell down to its source first- do the sniff test as a pp said.

Like the idea of "looking" with eyes closed to find smell

Back of/underneath the fridge where milk has been spilled and the main part has been cleared up, but the bit that trickled underneath was missed.

Or, despite what you think, there is a slow leak from a radiator. Put kitchen paper round the base of each one - both at the thermostat and the bleed valve end - and that could show you where a tiny drop is trickling down each time.

Rotting mice do smell sour, yes. My money would be on that.

Are you suuuuure it's not the fridge? As in have you definitely cleared it out and cleaned all parts? It might not smell bad when you open it but whatever is inside can emit a smell from out the back.

Okay, I've now bleached all the sink drains, cleaned out the washing machine and dishwasher filter, cleaned the fridge drip tray and cleaned the microwave. So none of those are the culprit. Will try the eyes closed sniff test tonight with DH. I have a horrible feeling that a dead animal is the most likely culprit - the "basement" is about 6 feet deep so I have no doubt we get animals in there shudder.

Going to double check the fuse box when the baby is in bed and at the weekend will do a Big Hoover with bicarb - it could do with it anyway!

Thanks all - I'll keep you updated!

This is absolutely rank but there was a rogue smell similar to what you describe and it turned out to be DD's cat.
Well, not the cat itself but she was the culprit, for bringing in a gopping dead vole and hiding it under the sofa. Fucking disgooootang

Cat brought in a mouse which died under our bed. The smell was vile. Even when I had found it and cleaned the carpet where it had expired it took days to go.

If your electrics are tripping I would be concerned and get an electrician in bad smell or not.

I had this not long ago.. it was mouldy red onions. Honestly the smell was horrifying and they had practically turned to liquid in the bag, makes me feel sick thinking about it!!!

Of course it could be the new underlay, carpet. My friend once had an awful smell. It was their newly painted room, the paint was giving off the odour.

No cats thankfully! @justasking111 yes it's first on the list when I get back to work and we have some money!

Dead mouse under floorboards smelled like a Gas leak.

You could have a blind mans buff night with each of you and your husband wearing a blindfold to sniff the smell out. 😳. A new slant on 50 Shades... 😊

I get mice (old house and I live rurally) and recognise the smell of a dead one a mile away, it's not sour milk. Not even close.

The only time I've had the sour milk smell was I left a creamy chicken pie in the boot of my car one summer, it rolled out the shopping bag and it went off, and that was the smell, so I'd assume it's food someplace that's went off. Possibly your child stowed something somewhere.

Dead mouse under floorboards smelled like a Gas leak

Yes that's closer to the smell.

Along with potatoes and onions going off and leaving a rank smell I’ve also had it with cauliflower and red pepper - the cauliflower being the worst of the lot. And when we were looking with our eyes it looked fine - it was the underneath that smelt like satan - top looked perfect.

Good luck on your hunt!

Okay it DEFINITELY smells of rotting food / sour milk rather than gas so that's good - it's as if there's a bin bag lurking somewhere (there isn't). I don't really leave DD unsupervised for long enough for her to have stashed anything anywhere but never put anything past toddlers...!

An old flask of hot chocolate or similar? That's what ours was!

Fascinating - I have a nose like a bloodhound, our friends use me for sniffing out rogue smells. I have previously pinpointed the location of a mouse carcass, identified a middle sink tray with mould hidden under it, a minging fridge drip tray and a bag of liquified carrots that that had fallen behind a saucepan in the back of a cupboard.

I'm so proud. Where are you, want me to come find it for you

Something fallen between the bin liner and the bin? That can be - rather strong.