This latest posts wraps up the "* Out" Trilogy Posts of the past week. Enjoy!
Answer.com defines Stink Out as having only one meaning: cause to smell bad; fill with a bad smell. Synonyms: stink up, smell up.
On Friday nights, after the boys have their baths, we pull out the the sofa-bed and watch an age-appropriate movie while munching on pizza and popcorn and letting the O have his weekly ration of soda. His current favorite sippy cup is a tall, pink Disney Princess cup, with Diet Sprite and heavy ice, but I digress.
"Couch-into-a-bed-night" is a hit. It signals to the O and Happy Elf that pre-school and childcare (generously provided by the W's parents) is over for the week and they can look forward to a couple of "home days." Once the kids are bedded, the W and I will watch a movie or catch up on tv. It's a nice way to end the work week and start the weekend.
This past Friday was no different. After baths we pulled out the sofa-bed, bounced on the thick-as-two-Wheat-Thins mattress, and settled down with pillows and blankets for the featured movie "Stuart Little." Usually the boys don't make it halfway through the movie before they are nodding off.
That night was no different and by 8 pm we were settled in enjoying some NKT (no kids time) ... and watching "Superbad" whilst chowing on some Papa John's Hawaiian pizza. Early in the movie the W, at 2+ months prego, detected an "odor". With an almost 4 and a 1.5 year olds who run around in the house without their britches on after baths or trips to the potty, we were suspicious of some errant, unauthorized No. 1 on the carpet. We couldn't locate the source and tried to keep watching the movie, but the smell proved too overpowering and with our failure to locate the source we retired for the night.
What was interesting about this smell was that it didn't really have a specific odor. It wasn't acrid like pee, nor was it strongly sour like milk, nor pungently powerful like poop. It wasn't necessarily a body odor smell--our noses were forever changed one hot, July night at the Virginia Theater by the worst case of foot odor we've ever encountered. A sockless, sandal wearing woman continually slipping her feet out of her footware and letting them go "commando" on the balcony rail of the theater, sending wave after wave of nauseating stench pounding through our noses that we endured until intermission (we relocated to the other side of the theater). We've forgotten what play we saw that night, but we will never forget that smell. Again, I digress.
Back to "Couch-into a bed" story.
The next morning, armed with my Bissell Little Green carpet machine, I conducted a wall-to-wall odor search and destroy mission. My senses must have been sharper that morning because I quickly focused in on the source of the smell.
Eeeww. Underneath the bed inside the couch part where the bed stores was a tipped over sippy cup that had been full of milk, but now held some sort of cottage cheesed concoction. It's hard to say if it was there for a week or many weeks. The milk had dripped out of the opening of the sippy cup and had saturated the carpet with this smelly mess. Inside the cup portions of the milk had turned gelatinous, but the center remained liquid. Pulling back the mattress to get a better look the smell was overwhelming. I took the sippy cup to the sink and upon opening the lid another wave of putrescence hit me hard. I turned my head and dumped the contents down the drain, running the facet for several minutes to get the foul smell down the pipes.
Back to the spill with my Little Green I sprayed the area heavily with the Bissell carpet cleaner. The cleaner mixed with the stagnate milk made for an odd odor--half nasty half antiseptic. The Little Green sucked up this foul mixture into its container. This was like the Seinfeld episode with the valet attendant with the BBO (beyond body order). The smell wouldn't get out of Jerry's car and I was facing a similar fate. Several Little Green cleanings, a heavy spray of Febreze, and windows open in the family room for a few hours finally started to lift the smell away. Oh there was still traces of it around for a few days, but I think I've finally exorcised this spoiled milk demon smell.
Now when we have "Couch-Into-A-Bed" Night I keep track of those sippy cups like a prison guard during a lock down. Never again on my watch!
8 comments:
I'm so glad you cleaned it and not W. A smell like that would surely make a pregnant woman gag!
Didn't you find Stuart Little to be a little graphic for little kids? We rented it and I forgot about all the "I'll kill you" threats in the park near the end. Yikes!
I think only cat urine rivals the smell of rotten milk! I am surprised at your ability to get that smell out. I love your stories!
My 4 yo left a cup of milk in the car during the summer. Of course, it fell behind a seat and was promptly forgotten until it had "ripened" into really nasty cheese. This story reminded me of that incident. So glad you were able to remove the stench.
Oh my---I think I might have just thrown away the house....
:(
Yeugh. Rotten milk smell is the pits!
Glad that you got it out. I'm with Gamera, I might have tossed the whole house! :-)
Okay...I just laughed so hard I almost had to clean up my couch again from a potty accident. I just had the same thing happen to me, not exactly, but close. I had been smelling a stench for the last two nights every time I sat on the end of my couch and pulled out the recliner to catch a girlie movie while my husband was out of town and the kids were down for the night. I am not sure how I missed the sippy the first time I ran my hand along the back of the cushions, but today when I did it, I found the cup! It was the worst smell I have ever encountered. It was a cross between my husbands gym clothes after being is his gym bag for 3 days, my dads work boots, and a dead skunk on the side of the road. I have scrubbed by hand, used the hoover steam cleaner, and drenched it with rose and lilac baking soda to let it sit over night and vaccum up in the am...I can still smell it as I sit her typing and am wondering if it is in the bottom felt that is tacked on the bottom of the couch...I may have to get a new couch if this smell doesn't come out!!!!!!!
Yikes! Good thing you found the source of the smell. Milk left for days or weeks can truly stink. Maybe not as strong as pet pee, but strong enough to disrupt your daily activities.
In our case, spills from various beverages had its toll on our carpet. That's why my wife decided to contact a professional in carpet cleaning. In Seattle and other places, there are a lot of credible companies that can solve the problem for those individuals who do not have the time and expertise to fix it themselves.
Thanks for the great tip! I'll surely use that one of these days.
One suggestion is to better to clean the carpet with professional carpet cleaning carpet cleaning without any damages and with low & reasonable cost.
Post a Comment