Awful smell from living room

[Annnir]

Please help I’ve tried so far: washing carpet with carpet cleaner, washing the cushions, cleaning the sofas but there is still a horrible musty smell coming from there. Little one spilt milk on the carpet which I noticed 2 days after he did it so cleaned carpet with carpet cleaner then. Problem is I don’t know where the smell is coming from.

The milk smell has gone but now it’s a little musty / pee like smell (sorry don’t know how else to explain it)

This isn’t an aibu question. You need to sniff everything and find out where the smell is coming from to be able to solve it. Sounds like your little one might have peed somewhere though

A dead mouse under the floorboards probably.
We had similar in one of our bedrooms, about this time of year, lasted about three months, had the skirting board up, has someone out to look, moved DS from that room as I was worried it was a health hazard, etc etc , eventually it just went away, I assume it was a dead mouse or bird.

Do you have any pets? Could little one have pissed somewhere? Are you sure it’s wee? Not a dead rodent under flooring?

Could be a dead mouse inside your sofa.

You got a chimney stack? A downstairs toilet? Pets?

Food shoved down the side of the sofa.

No it’s no dead rodents. The smell only started when he spilt milk. The sofas as material not the leather ones do all the cushions come out. I’ve taken all the cushions off and hoovered and wiped down.

There are enzyme-based de-odourising treatments you can get that are specifically designed to treat any lingering odours.

I would say it is the spilt milk. Especially with the hot weather. My dad once spilt milk in his car. No matter how many times he had it professionally cleaned the smell didn’t go.

Milk is a nightmare to get rid of the smell. Could you have the carpet professionally cleaned?

Might you have forgotten about something in the oven? We left broccoli in there once. Genuinely thought something had died in the chimney

Sometimes washing your carpets can leave across smell. My daughter's carpet at our old house stank to high heaven when it was shapooed

We had this when I was growing up - my brother spilt milk on the carpet. Long story short, it somehow got into the floorboards (under the carpet and underlay) and over a period of week or so (whilst we were away, it was summer) it stank the place out and my parents ended up having the whole floorboard replaced to get rid of the smell as nothing else would get rid of it.

It has probably soaked through to the underlay and has not fully dried out.
It would not surprise me if there are moulds growing under there!
Can you lift the carpet to look?

The milk has probably soaked through the carpet to the underlay or floorboards. It'll dry up and go eventually. Don't use anything wet. Try that carpet powder stuff if it's somewhere you can move furniture over put the powder down, rub it in and put the sofa over the kids don't play in it. You want to draw all the moisture out.

Dead rodent or bird is a very pungent strong smell, death is. I hope that's different to the musty smell you've got.
Have a look for spills and any damp area's around the edges of the room that hits an external wall as well as look for any damp around fireplaces. If just from the sofa and smells like pee, then it's damp somewhere. Damp can smell like cat pee.

Wet carpet underlay , try running a dehumidifier in the room with the door closed for a few days

My friend had this after cleaning her carpets. The underlay had become wet and she had to get a company in with a professional machine to suck the water out of them (she’d done her whole house). The company said it was common. Perhaps there was more milk than you thought and it’s gone through to the underlay or it became soaked when you cleaned it

We had this after using a RugDoctor. Drove me crazy for ages as the whole house stank.

If you put your nose to the carpet, is that what smells? In our case it was, and after Googling the issue, I found that it was likely due to the carpet cleaner having overly soaked the carpet, causing it to fester. The stench slowly faded over a week or two.

Is it an old house with a void under the floor, if so a dead rodent is almost a cert

Or under the floor boards. I have had experience of this.

Get this! I know it’s meant for pets but the odour-removing ability of this spray is unmatched! https://amzn.eu/d/05jRmCG7

Not everyone has floorboards

I would almost guarantee it’s a dead small rodent or droppings from a rodent.

Spilling milk that was rapidly cleaned up is not going to have this smell, not one you describe as ‘awful’

I’ve had this experience. It’s pervasive & absolutely has that ‘spilt milk’ smell. Sorry to freak you out, it’s typically smaller (baby) rodents coming out at night & wee’ing.

Call pest control. Quickly solvable.