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

[NotAgainWilson]

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.🤮🤮🤮🤮

Try cat litter. I’ve worked in hospices and we put it under the bed if there’s an unpleasant smell to help remove it.

As someone else said can we please have a photo of the fluff ?

I wonder if it’s really as bad as you think. I would suggest asking a neighbour or friend Ito go into the room and see how they react - maybe you are over sensitised now.
I do feel quite sorry for the lodger, too. He will end up a total pariah if no one can tolerate the smell of him!

All good suggestions here but I haven’t seen activated charcoal mentioned yet. You can find in fish supplies. Pour into tights and hang in the room for awhile. But finding the source and using an enzymatic cleaner needs to be done first.

Maybe try a black light to find residual hotspots?

Sorry OP… this would have me going crazy.

Zoflora is good at getting rid of smells. I have a small child who has been through potty training/sickness bugs and I've used other things to clean up stains, but then had to use zoflora if there's still a urine smell or something.

I misread as "spray pet urine all over" 🤣
just as I'd been thinking "cat wee smells strong enough to cover up any other smell that could be in the room" but that's replacing one difficult to get rid of smell with another 😅
Unless cat wee is an improvement on the current smell 😂
sorry, can't suggest anything helpful, except perhaps bicarb / vinegar, though I like the suggestions of cut onions / cut lemons that I've seen suggested here too.
xx

I've heard of soaking feet in Listerine Mouthwash, so maybe a similar effect.
I've found that Febreezing my shoes makes them smell worse but sprinkling sodium bicarb works 😊👍
xx

My husband did a project using yeasts. It made him smell weird and gave him dandruff. Ironically I'm now yeast intolerant 😂.

It could easily be something lab related. Apart from scrubbing the blind and leaving the window open it's a tough one. Unless whatever he was working on has got into the plaster shudder and the mattress. One thing that does absorb odours is metal. I don't know if it works on smelly feet but maybe put something large and metallic in the room. I would also genuinely suggest cedarwood blocks/sachets/candles as cedar absorbs foot odour and is antibacterial.

Put the mattress and armchair and any other fabric items outside on a sunny day. That will help with the smell.

the combo of UV and fresh air should work wonders on the soft furnishings. Don’t forget the fabric lamp shades getting some air too.

the rest of the room you need to wipe down every surface with an appropriate cleaner. Leaving a tray of fresh charcoal in there with door and window shut can help absorb the last of the smells.

I know the EXACT smell. I'm not pregnant, I've just always had a super-sniffer! I dated a man years ago (luckily it didn't work out haha) who had THE WORST smelling feet. I mean...gag inducing. He spent the night only a few times before we broke up for other reasons, but I remember desperately trying to get his foot stench out of my new mattress. I had a mattress cover on as well as a bottom sheet. My duvet had to be cleaned 3 times before I stopped smelling it faintly. As for the mattress, I ended up doing the hydrogen peroxide method where you soak the foot area with hydrogen peroxide (the strength you buy at any drugstore) and then let it evaporate. It may take a few hours for each go. Then you spray/soak again, let dry again, and repeat until you smell nothing at all. For something like foot odor, it will smell faintly of vomit just before it completely disappears. So even if it gets worse before it gets better, keep going! It did ultimately work for me after just 3 rounds, but you may need 5 or 6 rounds it sounds like if he was there longer...

You can use the peroxide on most other surfaces too, but do a test spot on carpets/rugs/upholstery. For things like the curtains, it would likely only need a single spray down. The carpets where he may have had his feet, socks, and shoes sitting (upside down maybe, so stench could've been transferred to the rug/floor) will need 3 rounds probably. Is there a chair somewhere? Spray where his feet would've been. Did you ever notice a laundry pile? Spray that area because his socks would've been soaking in, even if it's a wood floor.

This sounds awful, I don’t know what to suggest I’m sorry but I do want to say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading what you wrote. You write so well, it made me laugh a little, it shouldn’t have done but it did. I hope the smell ( was once stench) goes soon xx

Also, want to add, depending on the type of plastic mattress cover(s) you had, some of them can still let smells through. Were they bedbug proof? If they were bedbug proof then they shouldn't have let any odors through, but if they're just the standard type, they tend to be a bit porous and could have bacteria seep through slowly over time. This type of bacteria is only "harmful" if someone were to put their feet on a spot where bacteria was still thriving. It could be spread. That being said, odors can still linger after bacteria has been killed, so it may be "clean" enough in the room but still just needs the stinky, gaseous chemicals removed.

I've only skim read but have you tried onions cut in half?

@NotAgainWilson you don't need a whole new bed frame if you get a new mattress, you can get European size mattresses in the UK, I bought one for my DD from wayfair. Hopefully you don't have to replace it.

Burn it! Could you in good conscience let someone else sleep in it????

Hmmn.

If he was that smelly, you would have smelled him when he arrived to take the room. But apparently when he rented the room, his odour did not offend you.

So what is really going on?

A) You should consider there is a problem with the room. Is it localised to the room? Maybe there is a leak/ damp/ mould? Or does the bathroom he used also stink?

b) You should consider something malicious has happened. Either he's stuffed something obnoxious to rot under the floor boards, behind the radiator, like dead fish, or a dead body?

c) You're mentally obsessed with how smelly he was and now have over-sensitive fake nostril smell due to stress?

Serriously. No one's body odour outlasts a good spring clean.

You probably have a more serious problem going on.

Could you have a water leak? There could be pipes under the floorboards. There is clearly moisture in there for it to be growing white mould and it will keep coming back as long as the moisture is still there

My cats often bring in mice. Occasionally one escapes and then dies under the fridge in the utility room. They definitely do decompose and smell really bad, like a mouldy tangerine but with a meaty undertone. We always know.....and when we find them they are often still looking quite 'fresh' (i.e. not decomposing and full of maggots or anything gross) but still really stink!

Could it be that you are more sensitive to smell due to meno? I’m perimeno and my symptoms are all over the shop x

He's not done one of those 'spurned lover' type revenges and left his smelly socks under the floorboards or sewn into the mattress has he lol? 'Spurned lodger' bitch said my feet were smelly..I'll show her! 😁

Seriously though, have you tried asking someone else to sniff the room? Sometimes my bloke says I smell things that nobody else can. My dog pissed on the carpet a lot when she was younger and although I've washed it a million times I still smell it when I go into our house..nobody else does..just me!

The smell problem is worrying, but the white fluff thing is alarming! The OP said there was enough to fill the hoover! Then overnight, more appeared. Surely no mould could grow that fast? Could it be that something (animal) is shredding insulation material/paper/tissues? What is the fluff consistency - is it hairy, smooth, powdery?

You need a mop and bucket of soapy water to clean the floors. Bathroom wipes will not cut it! I always mop my Victorian floorboards, never heard of it damaging the varnish!!

I had a flatmate with this issue, it was horrendous. It must have been a medical problem as he was clean. After he moved out we had to redecorate his room as the smell had got into everything, but I didn’t know then about bicarbonate/ vinegar etc.

Lots of great suggestions here. So:

• My dog died in November (bear with me) - I am still finding hairs. If he was shedding smelly skin, then it will take several vacs to remove.
• Have you washed your vac filters and pipes? If not the smell may be re-introduced every time you use it.
• Have you any exposed floorboards? If so it may well have gone down under.
• Can you lift and air the carpet? You may find that it is not in the carpet but in the underlay - possibly a cheaper replacement than the carpet.
• I would not necessarily wash curtains, but hanging them on the line in wind for a few days and wash the rails out - you say febreeze did not work, but if you do this before hanging out, it might help.
• Hoover the walls and light fittings - sounds silly I know, but even paintwork can gather fine dust, and when you wash it, it will spread and dry back out, resettling
• open windows when you hoover

I've tried that before, I find it jumajes nasty smells e even worse.