ODD SMELL

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okay, so for the last few days there has been an odd odor waiting for me when i get home from work after my apartment has been all closed up for the day. now my trash is out. my dishes are done. my bathroom is clean. my floor is vacuumed. i don't have towels or sheets that need washing. i don't have anything mouldering in the fridge. and it all seems to be localized in my kitchen, specifically under the sink, wherefore i only keep maybe my trash bags, laundry detergent, and various cleaning supplies.

OMG WHAT IS THIS FUNK????

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:28 (twenty years ago)

Hahaha! For the last week, I have had THIS EXACT SAME PROBLEM.

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Dead rat in the drainpipe?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

crud in the elbow bend of the sink drain? put some baking soda down the drain before you leave tomorrow.

― teeny (teeny), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

As my wife more succintly put it, "why does our house smell like a huge dirty diaper?".

xp-yeah, I thought that.

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

i have thought about perhaps dead rodent.

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

a mouse or something died in the kitchen wall of my last place. oh man for months the stench was horrible!

― Miss Misery (thatgirl), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:36 (twenty years ago)

Dead flowers?

― Huk-L, Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:38 (twenty years ago)

We are buying candles.

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:39 (twenty years ago)

Leaky pipe behind the wall?

― nickn (nickn), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Garbage disposal?

― I shift gears when I see tears (deangulberry), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

My new hippie girlfriend would suggest cleansing the house with white sage.

― The Sensational Sulk (sexyDancer), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:42 (twenty years ago)

Buy or steal a lemon

Peel it

put peel into garbage disposal area.

Run disposal.

If stench remains, it's a dead rodent somewhere you can't access.

― donut e-goo (donut), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

oh yeah, run water while you run disposal. duh.

― donut e-goo (donut), Thursday, 16 June 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

Grease trapped in pipe elbow going rancid?

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:02 (twenty years ago)

Carol Channing?

― The Ghost of Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

would a lime work? i've got a lime.

while i was away i remembered the exterminator was in the building on monday. hmmm...

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:05 (twenty years ago)

save lime for gin

― laurence kansas (lawrence kansas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

yes, that was the plan for later.

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

You're probably going to need it.

― giboyeux (skowly), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

it's your upper lip

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:09 (twenty years ago)

the smell has been confirmed by others

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

my mom, dropping off some mail: "it smells like a slaughterhouse in here."

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

A mouse dying in the wall is the worst. There's nothing you can do about it, it stinks to varying degrees for weeks, but there's that one week-to-ten-day period where you could swear it's not a mouse at all, but Orson Welles.

― Paunchy Stratego (kenan), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:13 (twenty years ago)

jess you could be like me and not have a sense of smell! man with no feet dude, count yr blessings, etc.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

blount i never knew!

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:16 (twenty years ago)

i can smell slightly, enough so my sense of taste isn't really too fucked and if i can smell a stink it does verify that yeah, it's pretty bad. once you break yr nose once if you don't get it fixed it breaks pretty easy afterwards. my septum's all screwy.

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:21 (twenty years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1330000/images/_1332379_ryder.jpg

― the PSB signal (nordicskilla), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:23 (twenty years ago)

wait who is that??

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:24 (twenty years ago)

mitch ryder right?

― j blount (papa la bas), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:28 (twenty years ago)

i've had this problem lately, too, but in my car. but my car is new, and clean. i dont get it.

― Homosexual II (Homosexual II), Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:29 (twenty years ago)

i think i'm gonna get take out tonight. i wish my kitchen had a door!

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

UPDATE: LIME OF NO USE

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

except that i am drinking now.

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 20:50 (twenty years ago)

How recently have you moved into this apartment? Were the previous tenants evicted? They mighta put raw meat in the walls and patched 'em back up. You may think this sounds stupid but I know someone who did that, once.

― Allyzay knows a little German (allyzay), Thursday, 16 June 2005 21:59 (twenty years ago)

We did that to a guys coat once.

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:04 (twenty years ago)

They mighta put raw meat in the walls and patched 'em back up. You may think this sounds stupid but I know someone who did that, once.

i remember that story -- wasn't that someone, like, YOU?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:31 (twenty years ago)

i did that once!

i've been here for 6.5 months btw.

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:36 (twenty years ago)

could it be MOLD??

― strng hlkngtn, Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:37 (twenty years ago)

upper decking (aka FUN WITH POOP)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:52 (twenty years ago)

could be mold. i find that as soon as the heat and humidity starts to climb, anything that stays cold (like water pipes and toilet tanks) has pretty much got perpetual condensation happening which drips on the floor etc. noticed a mildewy smell in the bathroom the other day, a room that appeared to be very clean, and after hunting around a bit found an absolutely obscene amount of black and PINK goop hanging onto the back and underside of the watertank. beware and stuff etc.

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:54 (twenty years ago)

RODENT DELIQUESCENCE.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 16 June 2005 22:59 (twenty years ago)

it's totally the trap part of the drain pipe people, my god. that elbow part exists so water sits there and blocks the ungodly smells from the sewer but changes in the water table in general can affect this (like after a big rain or lack of a big rain) as well as blocks farther down the drain (ie crappy landlords). cover the drain with a yogurt lid or something

― mom, Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

If it is the sink trap: sometimes I cleanse mine with half a box of baking soda washed down with cheap white vinegar.

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Thursday, 16 June 2005 23:09 (twenty years ago)

i had stinky sink, my brother came round and fixed it with SULPHURIC ACID. He also melted my plug, and i had to buy/install a new (metal) one, but it fucking worked. so there.

― g-kit (g-kit), Friday, 17 June 2005 08:34 (twenty years ago)

mandee, my old car smelled for a while and i discovered that someone had left a small chunk of swiss cheese under the passenger seat after a wedding. amazing that such a small thing could make it stink SO BAD. look for cheese, i say.

― colette (a2lette), Friday, 17 June 2005 09:33 (twenty years ago)

If it smells worse under the sink than in it, then it's probably not the drain - it's something dead or rotting underneath. Pour some bleach into various holes.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:47 (twenty years ago)

bleach, pah. ACID!

― g-kit (g-kit), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:52 (twenty years ago)

... Because the smell of sulphur smells better than a rotting carcass.

At least bleach smells like a swimming pool. You can pretend you live upstairs from the world diving championship.

― geyser muffler and a quarter (Dave225), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:57 (twenty years ago)

You're obv pregnant.

― nathalie's post modern sleaze fest (stevie nixed), Friday, 17 June 2005 10:58 (twenty years ago)

Find the culprit yet?

― Rock Hardy (Rock Hardy), Monday, 20 June 2005 19:52 (twenty years ago)

used tampon?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

it's your upper lip

I brushed my teeth!

― gabbneb (gabbneb), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

an enemy* nailed a haddock to the underside of yr keyboard

*poss.the pig-swine

― mark s (mark s), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:08 (twenty years ago)

Jess posts from under the sink?

― rainy (rainy), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

A mouse dying in the wall is the worst.

When I was a kid, a dog killed a skunk in our driveway. Everything I owned smelled like skunk stench for months.

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

Probably a mouse, hidden in a secret place. There was this horrible smell at my mom's house and we couldn't find the offending rodent anywhere, until the weather got colder and mom decided the put on some woolly socks that were in the back of the sock drawer. Tucked inside the socks was a liquifying mouse, courtesy of the cat. How cat got it in the sock in the drawer we'll never know.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Monday, 20 June 2005 20:11 (twenty years ago)

three years pass...

PUBLIC SCHEDULE FOR
MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2009

Please note the addition of the 11:00 AM event.

*11:00 AM Reveals Sources of Mysterious but Harmless Maple Syrup Odors

Blue Room
City Hall

MANHATTAN
*Q & A to follow. The event will be fed live on switch port CTY3.

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:18 (seventeen years ago)

IHOP on fire, or a tree.

― ╓abies, Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:23 (seventeen years ago)

this has been a recurring smell for years

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:27 (seventeen years ago)

Sources.

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:28 (seventeen years ago)

wow

― double bird strike (gabbneb), Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:32 (seventeen years ago)

when do we go to war with new jersey?

― double bird strike (gabbneb), Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:33 (seventeen years ago)

*11:30 AM Reveals Locations of Mysterious but Delicious Pancakes & Sausages

*12:00 PM Brunch

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 15:37 (seventeen years ago)

conference is "scheduled for this hour"

― double bird strike (gabbneb), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:07 (seventeen years ago)

ha, 30 rock joked abt this right? it never occured to me that it was actually a thing.

― rent, Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:15 (seventeen years ago)

you don't think Tina Fey makes up stuff?

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:16 (seventeen years ago)

Gabbneb wins:

NEW YORK - New York City officials have sniffed out the source of a mysterious "maple syrup" smell: a New Jersey facility that processes flavors and fragrances.

The sweet odor has wafted through the city off and on since 2005. After the latest occurrence last month, officials launched a new investigation. It included mapping the time and place of all the odor complaints to the city's 311 hot line.

Experts compared those with wind and atmospheric conditions. Then they checked those against air sampling tests during the periods that New Yorkers reported smelling the odor.

New Jersey officials also helped with the case. Finally, the odor was traced to a Bergen County facility which processes fenugreek (FEN'-yoo-greek) seeds.

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:24 (seventeen years ago)

Pretty cool that NYC has a hot line just for odd odors.

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:25 (seventeen years ago)

we have to sniff out Al Qaeda; Bernie Madoff was odorless

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:26 (seventeen years ago)

it's a hotline for everything

― double bird strike (gabbneb), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:27 (seventeen years ago)

Sorry, forgot the </joke> tag.

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:27 (seventeen years ago)

I guess it's fitting that it's not only maple syrup "smell" smell, but also that it's from NJ.

― muomus (libcrypt), Thursday, 5 February 2009 16:31 (seventeen years ago)

fourteen years pass...

for years, this weird stale, nauseating smell indoors, often exacerbated when it rains and is humid, but it's not mildew or anything like that.

across many houses/domiciles.

what this be?

― Cthulhu Diamond Phillips (Neanderthal), Friday, 5 May 2023 20:03 (three years ago)

If it's across multiple locations, it's probably that a mouse has died on your upper lip.

― m0stly clean (Slowsquatch), Friday, 5 May 2023 20:26 (three years ago)

I had a recent situation where the kitchen sink drain below me clogged with grease or fats... the guy upstairs didn't know of course, and I came home and my kitchen sink had overflowed with this smelly, greasy ass water... the maintenance guy was able to unclog it with this drill/snake thing, but now my kitchen smelled like the dumpster area behind a Wendy's on a hot day

I cleaned the floor with vinegar and different cleaning products, it seems to have dissipated.. but I'm always apologetic to any visitors, I think everyone can smell it even if it probably just smells like a kitchen

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 5 May 2023 20:35 (three years ago)

@Neanderthal - could that just be Florida you're smelling?

― Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 5 May 2023 20:36 (three years ago)

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