Some days just stink

This morning I awoke to a stinky house. Yuck. There was something in the kitchen or mudroom that was rank, and I couldn’t find it.

I started with the obvious–the dishtowels. I figured one of them must be midewy, and tossed them into the wash.

Maybe it’s the trash. We emptied that to no avail.

I then explored the possibilities that someone had left a wet sock or other article of clothing in with the shoes and that had started the funky smell. I found lots of abandoned socks and things, but none of them seemed to be the originator of the smell. Off to the laundry room they went, too.

Hmmm, a bag of potatoes? Those have ommitted some yucky smells in the past. Out into the garage they went.

I enlisted the kids to use their smellers and help me find the yucky smell. My nine year old daughter, who was laying on the couch, said, “I don’t smell anything!”
“Get up and help me anyway,” I grouched at her, “If I don’t get rid of this smell, my head is going to explode, and you will NOT like cleaning that up, I tell you.”

My four year old was certain that a half full squirt gun was the epicenter of the smell. I took a whiff and couldn’t really smell anything there, but threw it in the trash just to be sure.

I called my sister to discuss some vericose vein issues that are plaguing me (they also plague her) and I mentioned to her that I was trying to root out the stink, and she said, “If I were there, I’m sure I could uncover your stink in a second. I have my bionic pregnancy nose, you know.” Yes, I know. But she does not live close. And I can’t think of anyone in my neighborhood or friends of mine who were pregnant, either. Besides, that’s not really the kind of thing you call up a pregnant friend and say, “hey, I’ve got a really rank smell in my kitchen. Can you help me figure out what it is?” That’s not a really nice thing to ask of them, is it?

Eventually, after cleaning and throwing out and washing, the stench seemed to be gone. Almost. I still don’t know the cause of the smell, or if it’s going to be back tomorrow, but I don’t feel like I need to move out of my home because of the noxious smell. Not yet, at least.

Later I realized that, I could plug in a nice smelly thing! I have a husband, who, although he’s no help in rooting out the undesirable smell, if I happen to use a flowery lotion or stick in a plug in air freshener, he’ll notice that right away. And he’ll be sure to comment about how his nose is stuffing up after about 3 seconds, and he’ll bellyache and complain about it for quite some time. I’ve had to give away several lovely smelling lotions and soaps because they were ‘offensive’ to his sensitive nose. But he had left me this week. I’m a single mom while he goes galivanting around the world, so I deserve a nice smelling house, doggone-it.

I found an unused plug in from Bath and Body works, and plugged it in in the family room. Hooray! I’ll have something nice and pretty to smell after this whole day of nasal offenses. After about 1/2 an hour, it was too strong. That nice citrus/flower smell was just too overpowering. I need an on/off toggle for my air freshener. Oh, well. I unplugged it and now it’s sitting on the counter. I’ll plug it back in tomorrow. When HOPEFULLY I won’t be covering up the rank smell again, just adding a fresh nice smell to the air. Because some days just stink.