Room smells stale

DD bought a house that smelt terribly of smoke. Before we went down the replastering the room, we washed all the walls with diluted bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. It worked. Worth a try.

Thank you, everyone, for your brilliant suggestions!
I have scrubbed but not with sugar soap. I have some in the cupboard so that is my next on my list.
The windows are open as often as the weather in Northumberland allows!
I will clean all the inside of the furniture but I may buy new .
Husband is a bit of a problem..he doesn't " smell " the problem!
I took the advice of someone on here and boiled lemons.
I've left the results in a bowl in the middle of the room and it does seem to smell better.
I think I will go and sit in there and spray my perfume then it will smell of me xx

I would go with the bicarb on the carpets, brush it in gently, spray lightly with white vinegar, leave for a day or so to dry then vac. Might have to repeat.

Bowls of white vinegar placed around the room will absorb and break down smells. In my experience it works better than bicarb. If you wash walls and woodwork be careful what you use as most things will affect the paint, so you might have to repaint anyway. To be honest on the curtains I would try Febreze - not something I would normally use but I would take the curtains down and hang them on the line to spray them. Then leave them off the windows until you are happy that the room doesn't smell.

Boil a handful of cloves in a pan of water, walk around the room with the steaming pan. Repeat for a couple of hours. Might have to do it for a few days but should do the trick.

Try burning white sage. You can buy it from Amazon.

I can confirm that walls and ceilings can and do retain odours. The flat I bought last year had been owned by a chain smoker and everything - to put it mildly - stank. Re-plastering and decoration plus removal of all carpets got rid of most of the smell though it lingered in some places. So - I'm afraid that you might find that everything in that room has been permeated by that indefinable smell, including the plaster on the walls. I assume that the occupants weren't smokers.

Lots of good ideas there. I would start with washing the curtains, baking soda on the carpet and mattress and a change of mattress if all else fails.
I once had an elderly Auntie to stay who didn’t believe in deodorant and wore pure wool dresses. It took ages to clear the room of odour but did eventually go.
In my opinion anything smelly like Shake,n,Vac just masks the smell but doesn’t remove it. I’ve noticed this with elderly people who don’t bathe but use strong perfume thinking it masks everything.
FRESH AIR IS THE ANSWER. Luckily it’s almost spring

Hi Mirrem
Just a thought regarding your room smelling. You say you decorated before having the family to stay. There was a lot of talk about an emulsion paint causing awful smells a while ago. It was Valspar paint I seem to remember. Or one sold by B and Q. Was discussed at length on You and Yours programme on Radio 4. The smell seemed to develop after time and it’s thought it was caused by the paint containing organic matter which rotted once on the walls! Lots of people were affected and I’m not sure how it was remedied.

Yes , yes, yes to bicarbonate of soda. It’s cheap and absorbs smells really well. Sprinkle liberally on the mattress and carpet, maybe brush in gently with a soft brush, and leave for a couple of days before vacuuming off. Wash curtains and wash down the paintwork with a solution of bicarb in warm water rinse well with plain water after a couple of hours.
I’d also spray the mattress and anything else that you think smells with dettol all in one disinfectant spray.
Like this www.express-cleaning-supplies.co.uk/products/Virus+Control/Disinfectants/Dettol+All+in+One+Disinfectant+Spray+x+400+ml/104850779 available in most supermarkets. It can be sprayed in air and on soft fabrics.

just to add that if you have a cat then please avoid shake n vac as it can be poisonous to them.

What a lovely kind person you are. Hope you find a good solution ❤️

• Change the mattresses. Look under the beds.
• Spray a disinfectant all around and over everything. By drying towels etc in there you might have mold spores that need eradicating.
• A disinfectant spray may be the ONLY way to rid the odor. You must let it air dry to be effective. Do not spray and wipe.
• Keep windows open too.

Wet nappies in a carrier bag - carrier bags have holes in them to avoid suffocation. Could perhaps something have leaked from the bag and be causing a problem.

Neutradol…..carpet freshener …..worked a treat on my smelly carpet AND went the whole way and after cleaning the matress thoroughly ( took a few days ) I sprinkled Neutradol all over that and left for hours then hoovered matress. No more smell.

Astitchintime

If a family have lived in that one room constantly for a whole year it will be full of 'human dander', and I am certainly not being disrespectful of the family that you hosted.

I would take down the curtains and wash those, remove the carpet and dump it, dump the mattress, dispose of all soft furnishings/bed linen/lampshades etc, check the floor boards for signs of new staining, wash the walls and paintwork, check the insides of drawers, cupboards etc., you know your home and how this room looked previously so anything 'untoward' should be obvious to you. It is possible that they had a spillage which they cleaned up themselves and innocently sprayed some perfume around to 'freshen the area' - but stale perfume, regardless of the quality, does smell awful.

Only after doing all the above would I consider redecorating, replacing the carpet and buying a new mattress.

I was just about to say exactly this.

We had a similar situation at an elderly relative's house. They also had cats.

We cleaned the carpet several times and it was just impossible to get rid of the smell. The only solution was to get rid of the carpet and the underlay.

It was floorboards under the carpet. I was convinced that the smell had seeped into them. We mopped them several times with Jeyes fluid and bleach. This is a bit of a strong smell though. For the last few mops I used lots of Zoflora in the water.

I bought Purdy and Fig products as a trial only. Lovely fresh smell once everything is clean. It is meant for cleaning but I have used it for freshening only.

I have found that the only thing that got rid of the smell of cat pee in a carpet is to sprinkle with bicarbonate of soda, leave as long as possible then vacuum it up. I tried this after using carpet cleaner, febreze etc, none of which worked. My cleaner suggested this method. If there is still a smell I would say it's not the carpet, the same method can be used on mattresses too.

Buy a bag of cat litter leave in the room should neutralise any smell.

If a family have lived in that one room constantly for a whole year it will be full of 'human dander', and I am certainly not being disrespectful of the family that you hosted.

I would take down the curtains and wash those, remove the carpet and dump it, dump the mattress, dispose of all soft furnishings/bed linen/lampshades etc, check the floor boards for signs of new staining, wash the walls and paintwork, check the insides of drawers, cupboards etc., you know your home and how this room looked previously so anything 'untoward' should be obvious to you. It is possible that they had a spillage which they cleaned up themselves and innocently sprayed some perfume around to 'freshen the area' - but stale perfume, regardless of the quality, does smell awful.

Only after doing all the above would I consider redecorating, replacing the carpet and buying a new mattress.

Can some plants help with lingering smells? I think plants like Mother in laws tongue, Aloe Vera, and rubber plants are supposed to be good.

I would also try bicarbonate of soda. It was the only thing that eliminated the smell of vomit when one of our sons was sick on his bedroom carpet.

I wad told that cat litter can absorb smells. I tried it on shoes and it worked. If you see any stains you can try that.

I scrub all walls and floors with strong vinegar water regularly. I sprinkle huge quantities of soda on rugs, leave as long as I like, then hoover well.

The nose doesn’t lie and you can’t unsmell it. You may have to get the whole room and furnishings professionally cleaned.

have you moved bed around to see if 'anything' left under it. and check for stains on mattress.

I would wash or get dry cleaned, all soft furnishings, curtains,,bed covers, cushions, wash and replace pad.

Get the carpet professionally cleaned.