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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Help me unravel this mystery before I burn the contents of this room down

315 replies

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 11:39

As the title says, I am feeling like purifying this room through fire after a week of cleaning. washing and replacing stuff has proved unsuccessful to remove the stench a short term lodger left behind.

The room was spring cleaned before his arrival. He was around for 3 weeks. He had massively smelly feet (I said that as the mother of a sporty smelly child that I could barely stand at times, but this is in a different league, more than ten times worse and resistant), after a week around I asked him if he could do something about the smell stench, he apologised (he was lovely and polite otherwise) and said he would get odour eaters to sort it.

It didn’t make a difference so, as I had told him when I rent the room that I would be going in to open the window to ventilate the room every morning, I got the super strength version of Odor Eaters and sprayed all his shoes every morning and left the window open the whole day. This helped the smell not to extend to other rooms as before.

The last of his 3 weeks, he had a cold so stayed at home, therefore I was unable to spray shoes if open the window. He left the room tidy but the stench is still there. It smells as if you have crossed bad smelly feet with buttery toffee and is of such strength you feel like vomiting.

The room was also left covered in some white fluff, very similar to the fluff you may find under the bed if you don’t clean for years, but it was EVERYWHERE, all around the floor, walls, furniture, picture frame and a lot of it has gone into the radiator. I cannot imagine such amount of fluff being produced in three weeks, much less so by a single person no matter how dirty they could be.

I have removed more than bucket load of fluff, vacuum cleaned and washed the walls, floors, furniture and the inside out of the radiator, used a whole can of Odor Eaters, Oust and a full bottle of Ecover as well as leaving the window open every day, one week later the stench is now a smell but is still unbearable.

I have bought a new duvet and pillows. But I am convinced that this situation can be due to either an endocrinology related issue or bacteria, and therefore not safe. Shall I burn all the bed linen? the whole room? I am at the end of my tether, have spent a week cleaning and again every day over the last week and the smell is still there.🤮🤮🤮🤮

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Nonewclothes2024 · 21/03/2024 11:42

How awful , have you cleaned the carpet if there is one ?
Boil washed all the linen ?
Washed curtains ?

geoger · 21/03/2024 11:48

Sounds as tho smell has embedded itself in the room. Sprinkle bicarbonate of soda on the matress and carpets etc , leave over night and then hoover up. If the smell is still there I’d chuck the mattress out too. Try wiping down all surfaces with hot soapy water and zoflora

DrFoxtrot · 21/03/2024 11:48

Definitely wash the curtains, and use biological washing powder/ products when you are cleaning things. Also is there a fabric headboard on the bed?

Deliadidit · 21/03/2024 11:54

That’s so strange… you haven’t become ultra sensitive to the smell maybe? Not minimising at all!

Failing that I know that really bad foot smell that permeates everything - could it be in the mattress? As for the white fluff, does it look like anything you recognise? Maybe from a bandage/dressing? Did they perhaps have a skin infection??? Clutching at straws here 😄

PuppetQueen · 21/03/2024 11:58

I can't think of any health problem that would cause smelly feet and put you/subsequent occupants in danger, so I think you are quite safe! The sweat has probably soaked into the carpet a bit, so see if you can hire a carpet cleaner (the kind which pumps hot water into the fibres then sucks it back out), or you could get a professional to do it.

You could also use one of the more strongly scented detergents/fabric conditioner to wash the bedding/curtains/soft furnishings - the residual fragrance might at least mask the smell.

Perhaps try buring a scented candle in there, or get a diffuser plug-in air freshener? Or for a more natural solution, have a pot of hyacinths or other strongly scented flowers to hide the smell.

The fluff is a bit of a mystery though! It sounds like some laundry-related mishap - perhaps some tissues accidentally went through the wash and left fluff on all his clothes, and he was shaking them vigourously to dislodge the fluff, which transferred to the floor and walls. I'd be tempted to ask him: "Hi Lodger, it was lovely to have you staying last month. I noticed some white fluff in the room after you'd gone, I hope you didn't have any trouble with my washing machine? Best of luck in your new digs, love from NotAgainWilson" and see what he says!

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:01

No carpet in the room, thankfully! But Victorian pine boards so I have to be careful not to damage the varnish on them. I have washed them with bathroom wipes, diluted vinegar and ecover.

No curtains, just a fabric roller blind that I installed just before he arrived The duvet was also new. The mattress is European size so I cannot chuck it without having to replace the bed frame as well.

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Iamnotawinp · 21/03/2024 12:02

I have a dead mouse in my loft space, the smell was coming into the bathroom.

Ive just bought an Airwick ball with a odour eater gel in it. I don’t usually buy air freshers like this - but I’m surprised how well it has worked.

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:03

DrFoxtrot · 21/03/2024 11:48

Definitely wash the curtains, and use biological washing powder/ products when you are cleaning things. Also is there a fabric headboard on the bed?

I am getting so desperate I tried the super dupper pet stain and odour remover from Pets at Home on the armchair and mattress but it didn’t work

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NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:06

I tried the burning a candle, but it made it worse, it only made it smell like burnt sugarfeet stench.

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NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:08

Iamnotawinp · 21/03/2024 12:02

I have a dead mouse in my loft space, the smell was coming into the bathroom.

Ive just bought an Airwick ball with a odour eater gel in it. I don’t usually buy air freshers like this - but I’m surprised how well it has worked.

I got a neutradol ball when he was still here and put it under the bed while he was still here. Has not made a difference.

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TeaAndStrumpets · 21/03/2024 12:08

Sounds like he was a zombie op. Good job he left.

Throckmorton · 21/03/2024 12:08

Febreeze? The adverts would suggest it might work. Worth a try certainly!

BewitchedBotheredandBewildered · 21/03/2024 12:11

Are you sure he hasn't left any shoes under the bed, or in a cupboard?

Mama2many73 · 21/03/2024 12:14

Iamnotawinp · 21/03/2024 12:02

I have a dead mouse in my loft space, the smell was coming into the bathroom.

Ive just bought an Airwick ball with a odour eater gel in it. I don’t usually buy air freshers like this - but I’m surprised how well it has worked.

According to a pest exterminator 'that ain't a mouse!' Mice are so small they don't decompose and smell so it's either a rat or many mice! Didn't make me feel much better!😔

Saymyname28 · 21/03/2024 12:16

Have you tried white vinegar on the mattress?

FadedRed · 21/03/2024 12:21

Could you be pregnant? It can make you very sensitive to odour.

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:22

Throckmorton · 21/03/2024 12:08

Febreeze? The adverts would suggest it might work. Worth a try certainly!

That was my first port of call. Nope, didn’t work 🙁

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NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:25

FadedRed · 21/03/2024 12:21

Could you be pregnant? It can make you very sensitive to odour.

That would be lovely! But I don’t think I (or anyone around me) would survive a day of two with the hormonal chaos of being pregnant and menopausal at the same time.

The lodger would be dead by now…

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Throckmorton · 21/03/2024 12:25

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:22

That was my first port of call. Nope, didn’t work 🙁

Bugger! So much for their adverts!! How about the stuff you put on pet wee that's enzymatic? I mean, you'd have to put it everywhere, but it beats fire (maybe)!

whatageareyou · 21/03/2024 12:25

I would get new bedding and you need a carpet cleaner - not just hoover

colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:25

My guess is the mattress.

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:26

BewitchedBotheredandBewildered · 21/03/2024 12:11

Are you sure he hasn't left any shoes under the bed, or in a cupboard?

Sure he hasn’t. At this time I am at skin cell deposit removal stage.

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colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:27

TeaAndStrumpets · 21/03/2024 12:08

Sounds like he was a zombie op. Good job he left.

This wins the thread.

NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:28

The mattress was covered with 2 protectors, one of them plastic backed. So if it comes from the mattress it naught be from the underside.

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NotAgainWilson · 21/03/2024 12:29

colourfulcrochet · 21/03/2024 12:27

This wins the thread.

All these years ignoring plans for a zombie apocalypses have left me totally unprepared.

I won’t laugh anymore…

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