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?!

Ours was the fridge drip tray when this happened to us and the same with my in laws! It was disgusting and drove me crazy for over a week before we found it. It was slimey and furry all at the same time and smelt like a dead animal

We had a stray cat come in out house the other day and sprayed. The smell was exactly like you're describing, wet dog/ animalistic smell which I really couldn't place, until I realised what it was . It was really pungent too. Is there any chance a cat could have sprayed anywhere?

An injured mouse brought inside by your cat has hidden from it in your husband’s slipper and subsequently died.

Have you checked inside your microwave. Mine is very rarely used and I spent ages last week trying to figure out where the horrible smell was coming from. Opened the microwave one day to store a cake away from the cats and there it was. A TEN DAY OLD KEBAB 🤢🤢🤢🤢. My daughter had one for her dinner and put the leftovers in the microwave and forgot about it. If I didn't need to store the cake God knows how much longer it would have been in there (it's basically only ever used to store food away from the cats).

Thanks for that! Just ordered the Ona Pro :)

electric sockets, usually give a fishy smell before something bad happens, check them and any plugs left in them x

Plant. I over watered my cactus I had for 30 years. I think it is now dead 😭 but the rotting roots smelled like death on return from a 2 week holiday

Any chance someone has put something in the bin before you’ve put a new bag in?

Another vote for the fridge drip tray. I spent a week trying to hunt down the putrid smell in my kitchen, eventually realised that a jar of 'lazy garlic' had tipped over at the back of the fridge and was depositing in the drip tray and heating up.

I have the answer!
You won't enjoy this though....

Grab a 2pence piece.
On your kitchen sink plug you will be able to unscrew a fairly large screw where the water runs down.
It's super gross?
And super smelly

Dead rat in the cavity wall... Never smelt anything as bad. It takes around 2 weeks to decompose and then it'll stop smelling.

We had this and I eventually tracked it down to a thermos of hot chocolate that had bees left and had gone off. Like really, really off. It took weeks to get the smell away. Have you left anything like that - an old coffee travel mug, a lunchbox, anything that could have gone rotten?

Been left, there were no bees

I've read most replies, but may have missed so sorry if already suggested.

Could it be the bin? We didn't notice the bin bag split before we went away earlier in the year, so emptied and put fresh bag in. Got home and it stunk, couldn't tell what it was or locate the smell, cleaned everything and didn't realise till dh emptied the bin and the stench was 10 times worse removing the bin bag.

If you have a self emptying robo mop/vac the dirty water tank can really wreak after a couple weeks if not emptied.

I had this and it was a cracked egg that had gone rotten 🤢

I had the most horrendous off type fish smell in my kitchen and we managed to narrow it down, it was the on off box for the downstairs shower room (electric), all the wires had melted, an electrical fault.