Find that smell.
A few years ago, I was living in a flat on my own. Sometime in early December, my I did my Christmas Shopping. I have no idea why I did this when I lived alone, but it’s something I’ve always done so I did it then too: I came home and I hid the presents. I left it in the bags, hid them beside the wardrobe and thought nothing else it. A couple of days later my heating packed up and I spent 5 nights staying at a friends to be warm while the landlordsorted it. A pain, but no real problem. Then, the day after I moved back in, with heating back in full effect, I started to notice this slightly odd smell. So I checked the fridge for out of date food, thinking I may have left some in there while I’d been away. I made sure I hadn’t left the rubbish unattended too long for the five days I’ve been gone and I checked the soles of all my shoes in case I’d stepped in something bad.

I found nothing. I guessed the smell may be outdoors and ignored it, but I came home from work the next day, and the smell was slightly worse. I cleared out my cupboards, I looked under the bed, I searched through my washing, started to wonder if they had done something wrong to the heating. Still, nothing. Next day, the smell was worse, I febreezed the curtains, the bed, the carpet. Scrubbed the kitchen, cleaned the bedroom, opened all the windows, but there was still no improvement. I started to get quite concerned, I figured a rat had died in the walls or something and didn’t know what to do. I ran out of Febreze, I left the windows open round the clock despite the open invitation to passers by to come and take my telly, in the hope it would just clear. There was still no improvement. I started tearing the place apart, moving furniture, scrubbing, hoovering, polishing. Then I moved the bag that had the Christmas presents im...and Retched. Dry Heaved, Choked, Gagged, and any other words that may be in the Thesaurus that mean the same thing as the stench hit me.Under the two bags of presents was a third bag. That had some groceries in it. That had been there nearly two weeks, right next to the heating vent, being blasted with hot air. Including, soaked deep into the carpet by now, a leaking carton of rancid milk.

It took another week for the smell to clear.
( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Fri 14 Oct 2011, 14:34, 1 reply)

On the plus side
Your present-hiding skills are top-notch
(TheJacksonSixth, Sat 15 Oct 2011, 14:40, closed)