PLEASE HELP! WE ARE THE SMELLY FAMILY! WHAT CAN I DO??

[debka]

My mum just said that my house, me, DH and DDs have a distinctive and not-entirely-pleasant smell. DD1 is 3 and my mum is worried that she will be The Smelly Girl in school :(

I am horrified at this. I had no idea.

DDs are small and I am a SAHM. I probably don't clean enough- probably a good going over once every 3 weeks a fortnight. Clothes all washed frequently. Girls bathed daily, I shower every other day.

DH, however, is another matter. He has a wash and cleans his teeth every day, but only showers about once a month, if that. Underwear changed daily, t-shirt probably twice a week. I don't notice him smelling, but apparently he does :( I will talk to him about it but I doubt he will do anything. If I get the house and linen etc in tip top sparkly condition will he infect it all with smelliness? :(

Please, any ideas, advice, encouragement very welcome.

Debka, you have my full admiration. Having heard this must have been awful & it would have been very easy and curl up & ignore it. Instead you have openly admitted it - and got everyone else cleaning.
Must go...windows to open!

Well done debka for tackling your DH and opening those windows!

Dampness/mould and humidity really does cause a musty smell on clothes etc.

When we first moved in to our present house about 20 years ago there was an alcove vanity unit with a sink in our bedroom. We never really used it as it seemed pointless IYSWIM? After a while we noticed a musty smell in the bedroom and a greenish mould growing on the walls round the unit. We knew there wasn't a damp problem as such but I was convinced it was connected to the sink in the vanity unit.
We hauled the unit out, re-decorated and the problem has never returned. I think old water was lying around in the pipes and growing fungus!

Oh and I'm a window opener too!

Can't abide the thought of sweaty/humid air in bedrooms etc.

In fact I hate having the bedroom too warm.

I never really close mine, they are all locked 'open' to allow airflow. I can't sleep in a hot bedroom, if a child gets cold they can have another duvet. Much more healthy.

Hello! Sorry, I don't know if this has already been mentioned, because I know I got it from MN (as with everything in life...!) but a great top tip for a lovely smelling house is to put a small bit of cotton wool (or tissue, as I did because we don't have any cotton wool ) with some essential oil on it behind a radiator.

It's fab - I put a few drops of patchouli on a tissue and bunged it behind our hall radiator (where I can fish it out!) and everywhere just smells all lovely and fresh.

Am going to buy some geranium oil to do it next time but the patchouli tissue has been there for about a week and is still working - it's not at all overpowering but just makes the house smell fresh.

We also keep our bedroom windows open all the time - just open and sometimes I close ours when it's really chilly because dp is a fresh air freak, but after 20 years together I'm used to it and it feels really odd to go to a house where everything's hermetically sealed now - much more stale.

But please don't tell me I need to change bedding once a week - that's taking it a step too far...

Mmmmmmmm

I've posted this before on MN but its a brill product.

If you have mouldy bits in the bathroom (I've also used it on my plastic type sinks) this works very well. It is a bleach, and I dont like using bleach very much but use this sparingly.. Sometimes mould in bathrooms is due to the fact we shower more... so if several people are showering once/twice a day the shower area never dries out

I used it on my utility sink and closed the door so the cats wouldn't go in, the tumble dryer was on and when we opened the door it was just like the swimming baths from years ago.... lovely

What is it old

aha - just seen your link - the sun was shining and it didn't show up blue

I have heard good things about that stuff!

Oldraver I linked that earlier, after having got the tip-off from someone else on MN - maybe it was you! Brilliant stuff.

Could be . I was really impressed by how it got mould off sealant..

Ooh mouldy sealant is my bugbear and the only area of the house that lets me down . I'm going to get some of that oldraver.

oldraver I bought a bottle of that Mould spray yesterday, on my Debka-inspired cleaning-product-shopping excursion! Our bathroom really suffers with mouldy sealant so I'd be thrilled to be able to get rid of it - will be trying it this afternoon :)

Your wish is my command

Just back from GP (with upper respiratory problems... wonder why that might be...) so am going to tackle it now! First just need to scrub off DH's attempt at a solution - he too thought the black mouldy sealant was unappealing, so stuck white address labels over the top, all around the bath . Now we have black mouldy labels as well as black mouldy bloody mould!!

Back shortly... :)

Go Spider!

I can't see the link - what is this mould cleaner stuff of which you speak?

Demented it's HG Mould Remover - my 30 minutes is almost up, will be back shortly with first results!

This had better bloody work...

There is a Dettox mould and mildew remover in a green bottle that works brilliantly and is in the supermarket, much cheaper than hG

Oh god, that sticky label solution is the sort of thing my DH would do!

Oh wow so that HG stuff actually works on sealant too? Definitely getting that then! I'd avoided it as it is expensive but other sprays only worked on hard surfaces, leaving the sealant as manky as before.

Does it REALLY work? I mean REALLY? Because I am holding you lot responsible as I am getting some tomorrow!