<p>My D moved into her dorm suite 9 days ago. Everything was fresh and clean. When I visited yesterday to drop off some stuff, I was immediately hit by a smell similar to dirty socks or a locker room as soon as I entered the suite.</p>
<p>She shares this suite with 3 other girls. When you walk in from the hall, there is a common area and an adjoining bathroom that all 4 share. There are 2 bedrooms on each side of the common area.</p>
<p>I couldn't figure out where the foul odor was coming from. I did notice dirty plates sitting in the common area and a trash can overflowing with paper plates and food. She said they were from one of her suite mates. Before my daughter had moved in, I reminded her that food trash needs to be removed from the room immediately.</p>
<p>I know that kids can be slobs in college (even girls). Should I say anything to my daughter about the odor? My husband thinks they might not even notice it. If it smells this bad after just one week, I can't imagine how bad it will be later in the year!!</p>
<p>I know that the key to controlling odors is to eliminate the source of the odor. Is there anything that you could recommend to help get rid of this smell?</p>
<p>Since you don’t have to live/sleep there why do you care? It’s not your problem. When it gets to the point it bothers them they will throw the trash out.</p>
<p>limabeans – We live 30 minutes from campus and she needed quite a few items for her dorm. Most of the kids on her dorm hall go home every weekend. She has decided not to come home each weekend and she doesn’t have a car. Therefore, I delivered the stuff that she needed.</p>
<p>Febreze has many products. Which one do you recommend? The room spray, the reed diffuser, the sport extreme odor eliminator, Air Effects, Noticeables, Set & Refresh, or fabric refresher? I would think that the room spray and fabric refresher would just be temporary and wear off quickly.</p>
<p>I can tell you what I would do, and I don’t have daughters. I would definitely not say a word. I would let them decide when the odor is horrible, when they are embarrassed to have company, when they don’t want to live with dirty plates, trash, etc.</p>
<p>Even if your daughter does not want to live like this, she has to work these issues out with the other people she lives with. I don’t think that parents should step in at all. My guess is that if the odor started to become a problem in the hallway or other rooms, the RA might have a floor meeting. </p>
<p>Remember this is just the beginning of the year. I am sure you want your daughter to be happy. I would let her work out the problems. </p>
<p>I would not even say anything to my own kid about it. </p>
<p>They might be so disgusted by mold growing on dishes that are not paper, that they won’t want to clean them and will end up tossing them and then living without dishes, or needing to spend their own money on new ones (or paper dishes). If they end up with ants, they will need to live with them or figure out that they need to get rid of them. I think that they will learn the natural consequences of dirty dishes within weeks.</p>
<p>LOL, my kids had room inspection at the end of the semester (ie: to make sure that fridges were emptied and unplugged), or at the end of the year!</p>
<p>Well, I certainly hope they don’t wait until the end of the semester to clean the room!</p>
<p>Judging from the responses so far, I have definitely overstepped my boundaries by even considering mentioning this to my daughter. If she asks my advice, I will give it. Otherwise, I will zip it.</p>
<p>Just thought I would share this. My nephew was such a slob at MIT that no one wanted to be his roommate. His roommate freshman year refused to stay in the room with him. He had a single the remaining 3 years he lived in the dorm. His sister said that his dorm room was so disgusting that you could hardly even walk around because there was so much trash and stuff. I’m picturing a scene from the AETV show “Hoarders.”</p>
<p>If your daughter had selected a school that ended up being 4+ hours away, you would not know about this situation at all, so she’d be on her own to deal with it unless she called for your advice. Sometimes, in my opinion, it is just better to not know about the more minor problems. I would place this in more minor column, but that’s just me.</p>
<p>I had never heard of room inspections until last year, when my oldest had transferred and this was a new college (LAC). They were looking for things like certain electric appliances and extension cords.</p>
<p>OP, since you may be delivering stuff or nearby more frequently than most other parents (here on CC at least), you might want to establish a routine that allows your daughter some distance. For instance, only drop her off/pick her up or drop off stuff, but don’t go in.</p>
<p>I have brought in a solid air freshener to my office and discretely placed it on a bookshelf near a particularly pungent co-worker. I purchased an odor neutralizer instead of a scented kind. It helps a lot.</p>
<p>I agree with the entire line of Febreeze products. My DS uses a spray for his car, and hangs something in his actual locker. It is early in the year, things will work itself out in no time. At some point, the roommates will have it out and boundaries/rules will be established. If not, the smell will get in her clothes and she will do something about it when people wrinkle their nose when she walks by.</p>
<p>Apparently my sons roommates srayed Febreeze diretly on him for best results.</p>
<p>My daughter had a roomate that cooked very stinky foods and the place always smelled horrible.</p>
<p>When we moved my son in there were floors of guys and floors of girls. The guys floor smelled like stinky boy smell the minute you opened the doors from the stairs. ewwwwwww</p>
<p>Anyway. Dont worry about it. She will figure it out.</p>
<p>…fall under the category of none of your business if you don’t live there. </p>
<p>Their dorms, their call, their business. In accordance to the rules (whatever they are) that the admin of the dorms determines.</p>
<p>Not the mom of the student…now if she CALLS and asks for advice about something related to cleaning, odor removal, etc. then you are free to offer suggestions and observations.</p>
<p>otherwise … I’d keep observations of same to myself. Just like I did when he was at my house. I shut the door to his room (generally) and let him deal with his own areas. And set my own standards for the common areas shared by all the family</p>
<p>My HS D has been keeping in touch with her freshman friends. One complains of odors seeping in from the guys’ wing, and another of the locker room smell from the guys’ floor, I guess via the air ducts. Not sure what those girls can do when the source is so far away, but maybe the guys will eventually figure it out.</p>