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wwTNd? personal hygiene
okay, this is a TOUGH one.
our roommate is a VERY clean guy. showers once or twice every day. that said, his room/bedding smells... well, not great.
he's been sleeping in our guest room since last may and as of this weekend, will be moving down to the basement into the room and bathroom we built for him. lars is concerned that THAT room is going to end up smelling as well.
i told lars that i think it's just his bedding (he many not wash it enough?) and his natural smell which, if that's the case, i do NOT think it's appropriate to say anything. (he may not do laundry frequently enough either and he has been living out of boxes/suitcases since he moved in with us last summer so his clothes have been in PILES all over the carpet).
i said lets see what happens after he moves out of the guest room. if we strip our guest bed, febreeze it and the carpets and just let it air out a couple days, i'm sure it will smell fine. if that's the case, no worries.
but what if the smell doesn't go away? neither of us really want to have a brand new room end up with an odor that has permeated the carpets, etc.
so, for now the plan is to say nothing but if the upstairs room continues to smell after he's moved out of it, what do we say?
i feel like a total a$$hat for even bringing this up as a topic on here...
Re: wwTNd? personal hygiene
How often does he wash his sheets? Does he have enough storage for his CLEAN clothes? Enough laundry baskets for his DIRTY clothes? Does he know that he should be doing his own laundry/wash his own sheets?
I feel like some guys don't really notice smells and need a small push in the right direction (like to either stay away from Axe body spray or to wear deodorant).
are you absolutely sure that it is him?? The reason I ask is that my sister's room reeked to high heaven once when she was a highschooler and my parents were all over her about cleaning up, washing her clothes, etc. Turns out that it was actually from an ice dam on the roof with water leaking in to her closet floor. Who really walks on the closet floor? She didn't even know it was wet. It stank something fierce. Just a thought.
If you're positive its him maybe declare a linen washing day? EVERYONE in the house strips the beds and you do it once a week? Kinda lame but it'd ensure that it gets done.
When I was in high school we had a German bluegrass band living in our basement for about 6 weeks (that sounds really weird, I know...) These guys had nice "going out" clothes and then "at home" clothes that they changed into when they get home. They didn't wash their "at home" clothes all that often so they could be....a bit odorous. Our basement smelled when they lived there but after they were gone the cleaning lady did a deep cleaning and it was okay after that. So, I don't think your room is "ruined" forever.
I have no idea what to do in regards to talking to him about it. Maybe offer to throw his sheets in when you wash yours as a friendly thing?
Is he washing/drying his clothes and bedding sufficiently? When Chris moved in with me all of his clothes stank/stinked/stunk! I thought it was him and his 'natural odor" and didn't want to say anything - - but I quickly realized that it wasn't him - it was the awful way laundry is done in the UK. Nothing gets sufficiently dry and with a generally damp climate, everything ends up smelling musty and nasty.
Now when we visit, I notice the smell developing on my clothes and it is gross! Everything gets washed when we return - even if it wasn't worn - just to get that smell out.
Of course, I doubt your roommate's clothes have been to England and back, but I bet if he's been taking them out of the dryer before they are fully dry (to try to conserve time/energy for you), a similar smell could develop on them.
i have not idea how often he washes his sheets. i honestly think it's only when he is OoT and he knows we'll have company.
to my knowledge, he doesn't own a laundry basket. he finally took one of ours and i cleaned out some space in the closet in the guest room for him a few weeks ago.
he does do his own laundry and to be honest, i stay out of his room and he knows that so i'm sure he's not thinking that we would be doing it. unfortunately, because the floor has been COVERED since he moved in, i know the cleaning lady hasn't vacuumed or anything in there. just before the holidays, i commented on how messy his room was and he cleaned it up good, including vacuuming.
and yes, i'm sure it's him. he set his bed up downstairs and it's his comforter/pillows. he washed his bedding (at my suggestion) but did only the sheets. not the mattress pad or the comforters or anything. you can smell it in the BRAND NEW ROOM when you open the door.
Dirty laundry in a closed up room can be horrible. It's like the stench molecules combine exponentially so that - by itself a shirt might not be that stinky, but combine that with a week's worth of dirty socks and it's f?cking horrible. I'd like to thank my two brothers for allowing me to discover this phenomenon.
Get him a couple of hampers with lids. Better still if they are the kind lined with cloth and you can throw some kind of baking soda sachets under there or something.
I bet that's the issue.
Also, buy him some tide and leave it in his room.
Judging
I agree with Kiz, I don't think your room will be ruined forever from this odor, whatever it may be.
If he was staying in the guest room and using your bed, I think you would have to say something to him. Is he going to have his own bed in the new room? If so, I think you could say something, but since he is renting, I think it is his area to clean or not clean.
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i'm assuming you're kidding, aren't you? because i don't think it's my responsibility to buy a 34 year old guy a laundry hamper. dude should buy his own hampers and soap.
bri, the bed that will be downstairs is his own bed but yes, for the past 8 months, he's been sleeping in our guest bed. and don't even get me started on the fact that one of the 2 times i saw into his room, there were 3 pint glasses sitting right ON the cherrywood nightstand. not on coasters, ON the nightstand. if there are water rings on there after he moves out, i'm going to go ballistic.
he's a GREAT roommate and a really nice guy. i just sometimes think that between his mom and his ex-wife, he hasn't had to "do" much so he doesn't think past the immediate. you know what i mean?
Now way is it your responsibility, but I would do anything it took to prevent stench from invading my house. The hampers and tide were more like a passive aggressive way of saying "do your freaking laundry, you pig."
But I am kind of extra sensitive to other people being in my space. So yeah.
Judging
lars actually suggested going in there and just febreezing everything.
ETA: i hope you didn't think i was being snarky back. i just wanted to clarify that you were kidding. we need emotifonts. : )
I think it is just his natural scent, which is magnified exponentially by the fact that he doesn't wash his bed linens and clothes enough. And he probably keeps his door closed a lot too?
I think you will be fine after he moves out. If the carpet needs something to be fresher, sprinkle baking soda on, leave it there for a day, and then vacuum it up.
My apartment mate in college had a boyfriend who would wear the same clothes for a few days and she's rarely wash her sheets. Her room would stnk so bad that we'd break into it when she was gone and open her window in the middle of the winter to air it out. I know that smell and it's awful.
Can you ask that part of his rent be used for the cleaning person to clean his room? More than anything it would get him to clean it up a bit before she comes. And maybe with regular cleaning the odor would be less?
she's supposed to clean his room but you can't even see the floor in there so i'm sure she just opens the door, looks in and closes it again.
i think that once his room is done, i AM going to tell him that he needs to have his floor cleaned up the night before she comes so she can vacuum in there. that's a good idea.