my flat smells of fish & has done for three days

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i oven baked a nice piece of smoked cod for my dinner on saturday it's monday now and my flat still STINKS of horrible fishy smell. as well as using aerosol air fresheners the windows have been open for large portions of the day over the weekend. the aerosols (which i hate anyway) just make it smell worse so it's like fish + chemicals that supposedly smell of flowers.

obviously after a while of being in the flat i forget about it but then i catch a whiff of it, or i go out and come back in and it smells as bad as ever.

my partner just came in an hour or so ago and confirmed that the flat whiffs something awful.

solutions?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:04 (eighteen years ago) link

also i emptied the bins about 30 minutes after i ate the fish so it wasn't sitting around for ages.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:07 (eighteen years ago) link

Well for one, quit cooking cod! Apparently, there's some "magic" (I use the term liberally) to cod that causes this, having to do with some oil or something that comes out in cooking. Not much you can do, but taking a very powerful cleaner of some sort (preferably something with a good cutting element, like citrus oil) and scrub down every area that was above the oven, as well as the oven itself. That should reduce the smell considerably.

― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:19 (eighteen years ago) link

my car smells of fish. I have no idea why. my gf thought maybe I was just driving through fishy smelling areas and got the scent, but I often get it when in the car. it's really weird.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:48 (eighteen years ago) link

You may need to move to a new plaice.

― registered ratty (registered ratty), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:51 (eighteen years ago) link

haha, it may end up like the smelly car episode of seinfeld.

magic cod! damn. will try and clean the oven again. there's nothing above it other than worktop then ceiling. i caught the smell when i was in my bedroom this morning and located it on the the shirt i had been wearing when i cooked and ate the fish. the shirt stank!

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 3 July 2006 21:57 (eighteen years ago) link

It's a sign you're getting old and eccentric, surely, that your shirt begins to smell of cod. Next up, you need a job in a municipal library.

― registered ratty (registered ratty), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:00 (eighteen years ago) link

soon dirty bits of cotton wool permanently in ears

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:00 (eighteen years ago) link

Have you got that Febreeze stuff available? It's an odor-neutralizer you can spray directly on fabrics. Odors can really cling to draperies, carpet and upholstered furniture. Leave a pan of baking soda sitting out where the odor seems strongest. You could sprinkle it around and vacuum it up, but I think it could potentially make a horrible mess. Wet used coffee grounds are also supposed to be good for clearing odors, but I haven't tried this. They might ramp up the eccentric quotient considerably; use with caution.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:05 (eighteen years ago) link

You may need to move to a new plaice.

Col, you are a traet.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:23 (eighteen years ago) link

You don't have a jilted ex who might have sewn prawns in your curtain rail do you? I hear they do that.

― chap who would dare to be a nerd, not a geek (chap), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:26 (eighteen years ago) link

jaq i've tried the ~~air freshener~~ odour neutalizer known in the UK as Oust! it's acrid + disgusting. i'm not too bothered about the shirt - i'm sure it will be ok when it's washed and the most affected room (kitchen and living room combined) doesnt have many soft furnishings in it (leather rather than fabric sofa e.g.) so i don't think i need the febreeze.... YET.

prawns in the curtain rail! i forgot that one. i'm sure it's the first place alba would have looked.

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:28 (eighteen years ago) link

I hate those artificial scented sprays too - over here Oust! is some super-concentrated squirter thing. Nasty. Febreeze has a scent, but seems milder than most at least.

You can try wiping down the hard surfaces in the kitchen with vinegar - cuts through grease (which holds odors) and the pungency evaporates fairly quickly and may take some of the fishiness away. Or, you may end up smelling more like a take-away.

Do you have a malicious cat? Check behind the cushions for fishbits too.

― Jaq (Jaq), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:38 (eighteen years ago) link

or a jilted ex who put either (a) fishheads; or (b) used tampons in the wall of your flat.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:40 (eighteen years ago) link

You may need to move to a new plaice.

Surely that's just skating around the main issue?

― JTS (JTS), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:43 (eighteen years ago) link

I was cooking cod the other week and my shirt seemed fine. However, this was at my mum's, so I have no idea if it stunk out her flat.

― Stew (stew s), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:47 (eighteen years ago) link

i thought it might be the smokedness that heightens the smell?

― jed_ (jed), Monday, 3 July 2006 22:52 (eighteen years ago) link

There's no point floundering around, just snapper out of it

― badg (badg), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 06:08 (eighteen years ago) link

haha

― you can email me if you wish to challenge the truth (nickalicious), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 06:14 (eighteen years ago) link

http://www.ecclecstacy.com/especial/Nag%20champa.jpg
Failing that, um, dead hookers?

― you can email me if you wish to challenge the truth (nickalicious), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 06:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Although I guess any dead houman will work?

― you can email me if you wish to challenge the truth (nickalicious), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 06:15 (eighteen years ago) link

Are you sure it's the fish and not that smell you get when the bit the lightbulb goes into (I don't know what it's called) goes wrong? They can really stink.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:25 (eighteen years ago) link

Oh yes. Strong possibility. Also clean your kitchen surfaces down with lots of nice lemony bleach, obviously diluted - even more effective than vinegar.

― suzy (suzy), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:30 (eighteen years ago) link

I have always found Neutradol to be the most effective smell remover. Also, have you tried the old light-a-match trick?

― Mädchen (Madchen), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:33 (eighteen years ago) link

And what's that thing with an onion? I think you just cut a really big onion in half anf leave it in the middle of the room. It works for paint anyway.

Neutradol seconded - that worked in my car when I had a lingering fish'n'chips odour.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:37 (eighteen years ago) link

Grandma's tip: put a pan with vinegar on, boil gently for some time and open a window for some proper ventilation.

― willem -- (willem), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 07:40 (eighteen years ago) link

Fresh-ground coffee supposedly absorbs smells as well.

― Orange (Orange), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 08:57 (eighteen years ago) link

You poor sole.

― C J (C J), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 12:54 (eighteen years ago) link

All these remedies sound like they cost a few squid.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:09 (eighteen years ago) link

Holy... smokes.

― Tracey Hand (tracerhand), Tuesday, 4 July 2006 13:12 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

my apartment building's flushing water supply has been turned off for the past four days. sometimes when I open my (already comically small) bathroom door an odor of septic and effluvia wafts out. the building management doesn't know when they'll be done with repairs.

― noted schloar (dyao), Saturday, 6 March 2010 10:46 (fourteen years ago) link

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