What is this smell?? Out of ideas

[Frorg]

You can smell it as you enter the house or come down the stairs. It gets slightly stronger as you walk through the sitting room to the kitchen. Is not stronger in any one area (ie near sink, bin, fridge), just generally in the air.

Is reminiscent of the time a housemate left a bag of potatoes in a cupboard at uni and they went mouldy. Or perhaps the time there was a dead squirrel in my parents loft. But not as strong as that.

I have tried drain unblocker. Sink has bleach put down approx once a week anyway and probably zoflora once a week also. I have cleaned fridge, oven, microwave. Bins have been disinfected. Cat bedding washed. Everything has been cleaned. I have checked all drawers and cupboards, on top of the kitchen cupboards, and have removed kickboards to check underneath the cupboards.

I've washed the sofa covers, the cushion covers and curtains. I've shampooed the carpets (so all furniture has been pulled out). The washing machine has been run on a couple of hot washes.

The kitchen window is permanently opened a crack, and opened wide when cooking. The bathroom window upstairs is also open a crack all the time so there is through air. When we're home the back door is open. All windows are opened wide for at least half an hour daily, usually more.

I'm at a loss as to what it can be, especially as I can't pinpoint the exact location of the smell, it's just in the air. It's been almost two weeks...

Do you have any cut flowers or pot plants that might be festering (even if they look healthy)?

We had a dodgy light fitting that would smell horrible when on, electrics ok?

Could be the washing machine even though you have done hot washes. It may need a maintenance wash where you put cleaning stuff or washing soda in it or maybe you've done this already, sometimes the smell doesn't go.

There are many threads on here about maintenance washes

I've sniffed the plants (two orchids), no smell coming from then.

I haven't had the lights on much recently but haven't noticed it being any worse when they have been on.

Yes sorry when I said hot washes I meant maintenance washes, have done four recently, one soda crystals, one vinegar and two with nothing. I've also cleaned out the filter.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Something at the back of your fridge/oven/washing machine? Have you pulled them out?

Have you pulled out the fridge to check behind / under?

Oh - just thought! I think it might be coming from my house... feel free to come round with your cleaning things

My guess is dead mouse under floor/in wall cavity. If so, unless you want to dismantle the house you just have to wait until it's all dried up/rotted away (boak, sorry!) and then the smell stops.

We had this in a room in our old flat, it took a few weeks.

I've pulled out fridge. Washing machine is wedged and oven is built in. It could be behind there I guess but weird how it doesn't smell any stronger around there.

Cheery am all cleaned out I'm afraid.

Urgh at dead mouse but you could be right.

Could the cat have brought in something (or half of something) and stashed it somewhere?

Sounds like a dead rodent in the wall cavity or under the floorboards I'm afraid. It's a dreadful odour that smells so 'thick' you feel like you could slice pieces out of air with a knife.

I would suggest its a coconut that has been bashed a bit when balls were thrown at it then has leaked foamy stuff and then rolled under the seat

Oh no hang on thats the dodgy smell that's been lingering in my car for the past two weeks.

could it just be clothes or bedding that aren't being washed frequently enough? My friend had this problem and it eventually made the whole house smell stale.

If any clothes are left damp they smell like that

I know this because DS bought his stuff back from his student house which hadn't dried properly and it made upstairs smell musty

Actually I've been having second thought on this and apart from dead rodent I can offer

Overlooked trainers or even leather insole shoes that've been worn without socks.

As you said, the lost potato, they smell absolutely rank.

And, a really pungent new entry, the Camembert that's been left to go overripe. OMG I had one and I nearly had to bin the fridge it was that bad

Did you make sure the condensation drip tray in the back of the fridge was clear? We had spilt cream festering in ours for ages before I realised where the pong was coming from.

Anything spilt in fridge that has got within structure of fridge? Eg we once had leaking milk, standing on shelf in door of fridge. Milk leaked and wormed it's way inside door. And gone off. We had to have a new fridge door! (luckily had taken out warranty).

Also, if it's frost free, have you checked outside fridge, at back, where water collects? We had something stuck in there once causing awful smell.

We had bats and they honked a bit ... They squeezle into crannies. They were between my son's ceiling and the flat roof. We got a "bat lady" in to advise us, she was really nice. Had to get a licence to evict them in the end, as they kept losing their way and ending up in the house (incl DS bed. Eeeek!)

Have a seat in the garden at dusk and see if you can see any flying around.

I had a favourite cotton jumper once that somehow got some mildew or something in it and no matter how many hot washes I put it through, the smell would not shift. It smelled like a swimming costume wrapped in a damp towel that had been left to fester for a week and a half. Twas awful and I had to bin it.

I know you said you've washed all the soft furnishings and cushion covers and things, but could they still smell?

I'm really grasping at non-rodent-under-the-floorboard straws here!!!

Last time I had that smell it was a dead shrew, very well hidden under some baskets. Our cat has a nasty habit of bringing in wildlife and then letting it go.

It was unbelievably foul. Have you checked under stuff?

Do you have a chimney? If so it might be worth getting it swept (good time of year to do it anyway) in case theres a dead bird up there.

We had a slow leak (years not months) that eventually brought down the hall ceiling. That smelt pretty bad, all the plasterboard was green mouldy but we couldn't see it.
A slow drip from a hidden pipe in the bathroom caused it so there was no way of actually spotting it.
I don't know how you'd go about checking if it's something like this though? Maybe take off a bath panel or something??

In my old house I kept smelling a real horrible 'off potato' kind of smell especially when I walked past the freezer. Anyway it turns out something had stopped working in the electrics and was omitting this foul smell.

In our previous house we had the smell of MUSHROOMS, after lots of investigation it was DRY ROT. We were renting at the time so this was the landlords problem. Thankfully we were nearing the end of our contract.

When we get a rank smell is usually our drains have backed up and need rodding again (ds + kitchen roll = blocked pipes )