<p>At my school they did random pop inspections (in addition to the end of the year one). You were told the week and that was it.</p>
<p>I’m with stevensmama - and would, and have happily said that the rooms smell and are a pigsty. Their life, their mess and I do not have to live with it. Cheers!</p>
<p>A one time statement on the odor would let her know it is noticeable to others. Give her tips on what to do about it. Then- her place, her problem. </p>
<p>At son’s public U they are required to empty and turn off the supplied refrigerator at semester’s end- before the long winter break- this is to save energy and prevent spoilage with its consequences as they likely will shut off power for some time (heat is separate).</p>
<p>I’m so glad Axe is no longer trendy because I don’t know which I hate more, Axe smell or stinky boy smell. Anyway if this were a son I’d have probably walked into the dorm room and said like I have a million times before “OMG this place stinks to high heaven and not in a good way!” a daughter’s room is surprising so I’d probably be more tactful.</p>
<p>If I noticed the room stunk I’d tell my D I think her room stinks. What she would do about it would be up to her including whatever agreements she needs to reach with the roomies. Females can easily be just as big of pigs in this area as guys. It’s really amazing how some of them will leave not just paper trash around, but also food remnants, etc. which is probably where most of the smell is coming from. </p>
<p>Washing clothes while in college is usually no fun either so the old stinky clothes are probably stacking up as well.</p>
<p>I personally hate all the perfumed odor masker products. They don’t actually fix any of the problems, i.e. the leftover food and dirty old socks, and they stink all by themselves. I know a lot of women like these but I can’t stand them.</p>
<p>At the end of the day there’s really nothing you can do about it - it’s up to the people who live there to figure it out.</p>
<p>Coincidentally, I just got a call from my D. She and her 3 suite mates had to sign a roommate agreement today. I think the college requires this. Part of the agreement is that their bathroom will be cleaned every week. It is recommended that they split the cleaning duties among the 4 of them. Two of her suite mates said that they “don’t do bathrooms.” So that means my D and her other suite mate will be stuck cleaning the bathrooms every week.</p>
<p>Even though I was tempted to tell her that I felt this wasn’t fair, I kept my mouth shut. She will have to work this out with the other girls. Let’s face it. No one really wants to clean the bathroom, but the right thing to do is to split the job among the 4 of them.</p>
<p>Aha- there is an advantage to a bathroom down the hall instead of in a suite! Sounds like a task she and roommates may need to discuss with the RA… Something you can mention (in case she isn’t used to standing up for her rights) but she needs to handle. Again, her place, her problem.</p>
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<p>That’s when you want to figure out a way to padlock the bathroom door and only the 2 willing to clean it get keys. You don’t clean it - you don’t use it.</p>
<p>oh cartera45, I like the way you think.</p>
<p>If they don’t do bathrooms? Do they go to bathrooms? If they are not willing to clean, then maybe they should pay someone to clean it. OP’s daughter is not their maid. </p>
<p>My kid’s do bathrooms. D1 shared an apartment with 2 other girls last year. One girl didn’t do bathrooms, but liked to clean the kitchen. D1 is particular about cleanness of the bathroom, so she took care of the bathroom, and the third girl was responsible for the floor.</p>
<p>“I don’t do bathrooms” would be mutiny for me. At least it’s a GIRL bathroom…(spoken by a mom who spent decades living with 4 boys). I like cartera’s suggestion.</p>
<p>My D’s campus has been inundated with over 9 inches of torrential rain over the past 3 days. She said she is getting completely drenched walking to and from class even though she is wearing a raincoat. The rain even soaked through her backpack and she had to dry out the contents with a hair dryer. I can now imagine the wet clothes, shoes, and coats making their suite even more smelly!</p>
<p>I do NOT think you are overstepping any boundaries by letting your daughter know the room smells. My Mom is the only person who can be totally honest with me and I appreciate it. Over stepping bounds would be taking out the trash & cleaning the suite.</p>
<p>My kids are terrible at taking out trash at home. I think if it is smelly, right to outside garbage. 2 of my kids think if the bag isn’t full then I am just destroying the environment with excess bags. Our soultion – Trash bags with Febreeze. Costs a bit more, but well worth it for my sanity. </p>
<p>And the cleaning of bathrooms – eventually you’ll daughter will refuse to clean the bathroom every week. Many girls have a need to please and it is understandable to not want to make waves in a new situation.</p>
<p>I was also going to post that the chemical air refreshers can aggravate asthma and other with chemical sensitivities. My D had some respiratory illnesses, throat infections aggravated by the dust. The room was fairly clean, but the dust from the a/c, heating system compounded by a many year old wall to wall carpet was impossible to combat, so we shipped her an air purifier. All the kids on her wing commented on how much fresher their room smelled! It was even rated to combat mold.</p>
<p>When my future SIL and I shared an apartment, she liked doing bathrooms and I liked cleaning the kitchen. That division of duties worked well for us, esp. since we cooked every night.</p>
<p>“I don’t do bathrooms” does not fly in the OP’s D’s situation. OP’s D and her suitemate need to assert themselves NOW.</p>
<p>Both of my kids are guilty of hair winding up everywhere in the room and of being general slobs. I apologize to former and future roommates: they were raised better. </p>
<p>I worked at the dining hall in college and did not realize that I brought home that lovely aroma of cooking grease, dishwater and the entree du jour. Was embarrassed and heartbroken when I found out that was why roommates had moved out. (And I was good about personal hygiene and laundry.) When I was in college, not many students at my school had on-campus jobs, and this felt like yet another way in which I was “different” from the well-off sorority girls who dominated the social and dorm scene.</p>
<p>I’m just saying that if one of the suitemates has a job that “comes home” with her, be kind.</p>
<p>Not doing bathrooms is not going to fly. They do realize it is more than just the toilet? There should be a mirror in there. That is pretty light work when you get right down to it.</p>
<p>I didn’t read all the thread…but if girls are going home for the weekend and coming back to the dorm room and they STILL can’t smell anything when they enter the room…it’s a non-issue. </p>
<p>Even if it were a more serious smell, no one here is in danger…so let it go. Surely at some point they will notice, and/or a friend will come in and say, ‘wow, what is that smell?’</p>
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<p>But you are so right not to say a word. She’ll figure it out. This is life. You get difficult/selfish/whatever roommates, team members on a graded project, neighbors, coworkers, bosses…you figure out how to handle conflict. It only comes with experience. It’s really unfortunately but it also doesn’t mean she has to do it either. It will sort out, and she’ll learn something from it/grow as a person as a result.</p>
<p>Since it has been raining so much on campus over the past 2 weeks, my D wants to buy a pair of rain boots. I know that they can get very smelly, especially if you don’t wear a pair of socks with them. D says that all three of her suite mates have been wearing rain boots. I would bet you that is the source of the smelly sock/locker room odor. When she buys her rain boots, I am going to strongly suggest that she buy “sneaker balls” to deodorize them. I know she would be very upset if her boots or feet were stinky.</p>
<p>Now, I don’t want to overstep my boundaries, but should I suggest that she tell her suite mates about sneaker balls also? If the boots are, in fact, the source of the odor, it seems that using sneaker balls would be a simple solution to the problem.</p>
<p>Five guys in a 2 bath apt one year for son. One guy never did the baths- he always did the dishwasher. Probably suited his sensibilites to be sure the dirty dishes didn’t lay around and he got out of the other. Knew there was a regional grocery store sale on bananas so I wasn’t surprised to see a large bunch on the counter when we helped our son move into his apt a few days after some of the others. The same bananas were still there- and blackened- a week later when we stopped by with some stuff. Before that saw son’s freshman dorm room with stuff everywhere but the bookcase and towel bar a week after move in. Typically we always met our son outside at the car except for moving in or out. Son learned a lesson when he left the trash by the door when solo- he forgot about it in leaving for a home vacation- he returned and said we didn’t want to come up, he opened windows and took out his trash immediately.</p>
<p>Sounds like reality is going to hit the girls who “don’t do bathrooms”. Time to grow up… Future doctors, lawyers and other highly paid/respected professionals have done their time working food service or cleaning bathrooms in college. Never thought about food odors- maybe because I graduated from the scrape line to cashier. btw- doing dishes by hand removes eau de formaldehyde from anatomy lab (medical school in pre AIDS era).</p>