AIBU to think I’ve checked everywhere?!

[Ctu24agent]

So we returned from holiday on Saturday and I thought I smelt an offish smell in the kitchen, but put it down to no windows open for ten days. Fast forward to today where the smell has gotten uncontrollable.

Before I left I cleaned out the fridge and bread bin. Did a good clean of the whole house, kitchen especially. I’ve cleaned out cupboards since my return, the oven, scrubbed the floors and under the sink…even the washing machine had a deep clean cycle. I’m at an utter loss to know where it’s coming from. My kitchen isn’t huge, so I can’t think of anywhere I’ve missed!
help a girl out before she goes mad… AIBU to think Im going nuts? There is nowhere else to clean! So where is this god awful smell coming from?!

Drains or onion.

Or if it's ammonia type smell that can be a sign of an electrical fault before a fire.

Im intrigued though, never heard of a fridge drip tray. Ours is built in so would be be able to get it out easily anyway.

Thanks all… great suggestions, but alas.. no culprit as yet.

All potatoes were used before going away and I washed out our potato box which sits in our cupboard. (I’ve learned about old potatoes the hard way 🤢)

The DH removed all the kick boards on Sunday, but couldn’t find anything.
The dishwasher is disconnected, cleaned and not been used for a while (waiting on a part…yay brexit!) and the kitchen is all fitted with no external appliances.. so no teeny gaps for mice.

I also have a cat, he’s a crap mouser.. but isn’t that a deterrent for them coming in?!
Am thinking it may be the fridge drip tray…. HUGE mission as it’s all in built. god sake!
Any more suggestions before we take the doors off to get to the oven, washing machine and fridge?!

It doesn’t smell fishy though… more dead animal/wet dog.

Yep.. we’ve cooked since we got back and if cleaned it out Incase it was that too!

Ours is inbuilt too… wish us luck! 🙈

I speak from unfortunate experience, when I say that a dead mouse, even tiny, can smell absolutely bloody dreadful! Almost like a burning smell.

So options:

• burning smell - dead mouse somewhere - they get through the tiniest holes so you will literally have to follow your nose and look behind, under, over and in everything.
• fish smell - electrical issues as a PP mentioned
• shitty smell - stale drains - get some Mr Muscle drain cleaner

If it's confined to the kitchen, ensure you've pulled out all the appliances, removed the kick boards and checked the top of the cupboards.

We once found a dead mouse tucked under the spare loo roll in the bathroom, where the cat had finally chased it until it hid and died. <-- not envy

Dead mouse, spilt milk, drain?

I bet its a mouse or rat stuck either in the cavity wall, or stuck near outlet pipes for washing machine/dishwasher/toilet & sinks etc. If you can't find the source I can recommend Ona Pro from Amazon to neutralise the smell. The good news is in summer the body will decay much faster and you won't have to put up with the smell as long as you would in winter time.

Is it all cabbage-y? That would be a dead mouse which seems most likely given you've eliminated most everything else

Mice can get into the absolute, seems impossible to imagine them fitting, gaps. They can also be under floors and in wall cavities, they can get everywhere!

If it is a dead mouse it will stop smelling after a few more days.

If it's a mouse or rat it will dessicate quite quickly and the smell will fade until the next one dies.

If you have a cat I reckon mouse. Chased in by not fully dispatched.

I lived with the smell of decomposing corpse for weeks and it was a gas leak from the pipe that supplied my hob. Check any gas appliances first

Dead mouse or rat.

Mine was a strange appendix-like pouch on the side of the main sink drain, which was full of gunge. It’s a sink-and-a-half sink so is something to do with the way it drains, but I had no idea it was there until The Smell. I’d tried the u-bend but that was clear.

What do you feed the cat?

I buy my dog boxes of 40 pouches, I had one pouch 'blow' on me, it stunk to high heaven, I'd cleared the fridge and cupboards before I thought to check the dogs food.

My dishwasher and kitchen are only 5 years old and it has always stank awful
if not run regularly. It’s worse in the heat. I have a spray bottle of water and zoflora and spray a bit in to neutralise it if not got a full load .

A dead creature could be anywhere. Inside wall. Under floor. It's almost impossible to locate. They eventually rot away but in the meantime it's awful

I had this a few years back. Did the same as you, asked on here. Someone asked if I'd checked my children. Long story short - turns out that stickers stuck up noses by 3 year olds can smell like absolute death. Had to go to hospital to get it removed, narrowly avoided surgery.

It might be stagnant water in a plant pot. I had that, where I'd watered plants but had watered some too much and the remainder water was in the pot for ages and it reeked. Check house plants!!

This happened to me - I eventually realised that a microwave steamer that I thought was empty actually contained very very mature steamed broccoli!

Mice can squeeze into any gap they can fit their tiny head into, as small as 1cm. If you have a cat, I have to agree it's the most likely culprit unfortunately. 😬

But you've just got to follow your nose and see if you can narrow down the source.

Washing machine? Or damp rotting sports kit?

Dead mouse, ExP had one in the wall? Ceiling? Somewhere completely inaccessible in his house once and all we could do was keep all the windows wide open and wait. It was the worst thing I’ve ever smelt by a very long way. Is it at least in one room you can shut the door on?

Drip tray on bottom of our fridge stunk like a corpse . We thought we had a dead mouse