About a month ago, I rounded up all of the shoes on our property, made matches, sorted out the ill-fitting or ill-looking for donations, and doused the ill-smelling remains with an organic odor eliminator and lined them up in the sun to bake. Henceforth our shoes have not been so smelly. But there has been a lingering odor in my house that I could neither identify nor eliminate. It smells like old insoles and wet cardboard simmering on the stove. No amount of candle burning, dusting, vacuuming, or spritzing has gotten rid of it. The curtains have been washed. I have replaced dog beds and scrubbed wood floors. I have vacuumed the underside of my rugs. I have dismantled furniture and cleaned pieces from the inside out. Still smelly.
Only, I am the only one who smells it so no one else has the same sense of urgency I do to solve this mystery. In fact, I think some of them are wondering a little bit about maybe some sort of olfactory tumor that is also pushing against the sane-reasoning-center of my brain.
Abandoning my quest temporarily, I thought I would clean out the storage unit under the south facing picture window.
This space is intended to function as storage for book bags and hats and mittens. It has evolved into a mass catch-all as well. But we each have our own unit that doubles as a window seat and, for the most part, everyone is responsible for his or her contents. I say "for the most part" because, as with all tidying and cleaning around here, nothing happens without some prompting.
Turns out I have been neglecting my prompting duties as of late. So that smell? It actually WAS moldy wet cardboard and several liners intentionally removed from old boots and squirreled away. I am not naming names but, GROSS GIRL, that needs to STOP!! The subtle note I was missing in the odor? 11 dirty socks.
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