Bad Smell

[Craig Jessop]

So when I woke up this morning and went out into the hall, I immediately noticed that it smelled disgustingly sweet. It smells like buttered popcorn dumdums.

Anyway, my roommate smells it too but says he has no idea what's causing it. I went to bed around 1:30 and woke up about 8 and was the first one up. It's all throughout the hall and living room, but I've got it under control in my bedroom with the window open. Obviously this isn't an ideal situation.

I've taken out the trash, done the dishes, run the dishwasher, and taken care of all the usual suspects and smelled no change. It's really, really disgusting, people. Do any of you have experience with this heavy, sweet, buttery, popcorny smell? Or any hypothoses as to what could be causing it? Any potential solutions?

Keep in mind I have no idea what the source is.

[ahem.]

One time my apartment inexplicably smelled like BBQ for several weeks. Turned out there was a wooden spoon jammed up against the heating element in the bottom of our dishwasher.

So... maybe it's something weird like that? The fact that it's a sweet-ish smell (and not a moldy/rotting scent) makes me think it's not your trash or dishes or that kind of thing. Maybe someone in your building made massive amounts of candied yams and it's just really aromatic.

See if it sticks around for more than a day or two, and if it does, you'll just have to do some super sleuthing to figure out the source?

[Craig Jessop]

It's coming from my roommate's room, but I don't want to go in there and sniff around because that would be awkward. I think I'll wait for him to go to work tonight (but I'm beginning to suspect he had an accident last night).

[thebigcheese]

There could be some rotting food hidden in a strange place. Once upon a time, my apartment had an AWFUL fruit fly problem. Hundreds of the little guys. We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned, but it wasn't getting any better. A few weeks later, someone finally discovered a bunch of rotting bananas on top of the fridge. None of us were especially tall, so we just couldn't see them!

(Why would you put bananas on top of the fridge, anyway?)

[NerdGirl]

My hypothesis is that something spilled in a hidden spot in your roommate's room. Maybe one of those glass plug-in air fresheners full of liquid stuff got smashed in the bottom of his closet or something.

[ahem.]

...one of those air fresheners leaked all over my scriptures when I was moving apartments several years ago. They were in a basket of last minute stuff I was grabbing, and I didn't even think about it.

So now the cover is kind of discolored, and they smell like mango and apricot.