maybe it’s what she eats? i had a friend who ate these weird little tomato yam things and it smelled horrible. but after she stopped eating them the smell went away
RE: Outdoor smells. I’ve noticed some people smell kind of metallic after they’ve been outside. I actually had a guy in my dorm in college that had some kind of glandular problem. The men’s floor was one floor beneath mine and his room was at a dead end of the hall. This guy stunk and it was the topic of discussion. He was a loner and I’m not sure if he ever washed but he did not smell like a homeless person.
I second the idea of talking to the RA. If your roommate won’t wash her sheets maybe you could volunteer to wash them for her. You should not have to do that but it’s an idea. Also you can get solid room fresheners for about $1 each. I usually have one hidden in my teen son’s room. Vanilla is fairly neutral. It sounds like you need about four. Amazon’s charging too much but this is what they look like:
https://www.amazon.com/Glade-Solid-Freshener-Vanilla-6-Ounce/dp/B004165IDS/ref=sr_1_2_a_it?ie=UTF8&qid=1485239769&sr=8-2&keywords=vanilla+solid+air+freshener
There are different types of bad odors we all probably are familiar with:
- Fart/poop smell
- Sweaty foot/socks/shoes smell
- Rancid sweat/BO stench --> Not just a normal sweaty smell, but the kind that absolutely reeks.
- Milder sweaty smell -- like you wear deodorant, but you just played a game of basketball. Mild but there.
Is it one of these?
I think you’re contradicting yourself here-was she in the room when your mom and best friend were helping you move and they said it smells?
I’m not saying there isn’t a smell-I’m trying to figure out what the source of it may be. My younger daughter has a pair of sneakers that often smell like something died in them, and they will stink up her room like crazy. She’s not an athlete-just has feet that will stink up shoes if she doesn’t wear socks.
I’ve ruined enough of her sneakers running them through the wash with hot water and bleach that she’s finally come around to the idea that she needs to wear socks. My point is-find the source of the smell-it may be fixable.
The one that absolutely reeks. Febreeze does not help this.
Yes she was in the room, laying in her bed when we were moving things in. As soon as we exited the room, they commented on the smell because they didn’t want to be rude and neither do I.
All she eats are ramen noodles and they never smell
I think you’ve gotten a lot of good suggestions here. Now you have to decide whether you want to follow the advice you’ve been given or take no action and continue to stew.
I talked to the RA & she allowed me to get an air plug since its that serious and she understands how awkward it would be to bring it up.
The RA shouldn’t be just letting you get an air plug. The RA should be having this tough conversation with the roommate. My RA was as tactful as possible, and did not put it on me (the roommate). The RA said, “Hey, I’ve noticed that you may have a body odor problem. Just wanted to make a few suggestions – use deodorant, wash your bathrobe regularly, etc.”. My roommate was from another culture, and a very nice young woman. Your RA is getting free room and board for performing RA functions, and this is one of the things they should do. Go back to your RA and ask if they can say something, but not implicate you because you have to live with your roommate.
“Your RA is getting free room and board for performing RA functions”
Well, not all do actually. But I agree that the RA should be more proactive.
One of my favorite go-to’s for killing smells (not just covering them up) is Lysol’s fresh linen scent.
Here are some things I would do (I’m not saying you should do them; I’m saying this is what I would do in your situation).
- When she's out of the room I'd strip her bed and bomb the mattress with the lysol. Then I'd run the sheets AND THE PILLOW through the hottest wash there is. Then I'd re-assemble the bed exactly like it was.
- I'd hit her shoes with the Lysol on the inside.
- Any coats or hoodies of hers that stink-hit them with the lysol. Especially the armpits. Lysol is pretty good for destroying BO smell.
- If she notices, then it's a good time to open a dialogue with her again about your needs regarding odor levels.
- If she doesn't notice, it's entirely possible she's anosmic and you are going to have to be the one who controls the odor levels in the room as best as you can.
I’m one for finding the nicest way possible to address the situation head on rather than passive-aggressively spraying someone else’s belongings with chemicals. 
yeah, DONT spray down her stuff without her permission. you dont know what type of allergies or reaction she might have (rash, allergies, ect.)
not to mention it’s completely obvious to anyone if you spray their linens and clothes and everything with a new scent
not to mention spraying her pillow might cause her to break out and if i were your roommate and you caused me to break out i would be sooo angry
talk about it like an adult, dont play some passive aggressive game it might blow things up horribly especially if she ends up getting some sort of negative reaction to that. even people with asthma might be sensitive to that stuff. dont spray her stuff with chemicals. imagine if somebody decided to go through all of your belongings and spray them down with some unknown chemical. yeah, not very mature or nice.
i mean if you want to be a bit loud but subtle, try physically showing your disgust at the smell by waving your hand in front of your nose or even wearing one of those mouth covers that people wear when they’re sick. if she asks, just be upfront and say the room smells for some reason. or ask her! “hey dont you think the room smells?” that might make her take the hint a little bit (though not guaranteed, you seem to be too insecure about your image as a ‘nice’ person to stand up about stuff like that)
anyways at least this method as catty as it is, is less harmful then spraying down her stuff without her permission (huge no no)
though preferably you should talk directly about the problem or ask your RA to talk about it with her instead of just giving you permission to use an air freshener.
Sometimes front loading washers can get a funky, sharp, moldy smell which can permeate washed clothing too, and can linger in the clothes, even after many washes later on in a different machine.
We have occasionally experienced this with our front loader, and so we now run a cleaning cycle every few weeks. In order to get the funky smell out of the clothes washed in the funky smelling washer, I finally had to resort to using a small amount of bleach in the wash cycle to get completely rid of it from the clothes. I tried oxyclean first, and it helped, but did not get rid of it completely.
Perhaps it is your roommate’s clothes and linens which smell, not actually your roommate.
Well, the mattress would be covered by the ticking and the sheets, so she wouldn’t ever come into direct contact with the lysol-bombed mattress. And I recommended washing the pillow, not spraying it.
If you go back and read what I wrote, I’m not advocating having anything that touches your bare skin be lysoled.
I don’t think it’s passive aggressive to seek out sources of odor and eliminate them, if your roommate can’t or won’t do it on their own. It’s fixing a problem that needs to be fixed. You can say something along the lines of “something in this room really smells, so we’re going to tackle it one mattress and shoe at a time” and then do ALL of the stuff in the room.
Who knows, maybe you stink to her, and she’ll be happy about this.
We disagree on this, @MotherOfDragons. Being unwilling to broach the subject but dealing with it furtively seems passive aggressive.
Besides, advocating messing around with the roommate’s personal items without permission could be a violation of college rules and get the OP in trouble.
Rereading the post, I could imagine contact with bare skin, but that is beside the point anyway. It’s not the OP’s property.
"2. I’d hit her shoes with the Lysol on the inside.
- Any coats or hoodies of hers that stink-hit them with the lysol. Especially the armpits. Lysol is pretty good for destroying BO smell."
You’re naked under your hoodies?
I probably should have said (and thought I did, but it’s entirely possible I just thought it) that I would have said something to the roommate, because I always talk to people about embarrassing stuff like broccoli in the teeth and failure of feminine products, because I’d want to know if it were me.
Resorting to whole-room sterilization would only come from failure to get the roommate on the same page…
The RA said she “encourages” us to work it out and will set up a meeting to update the roommate agreements and that that is a way to bring up the hygiene smell.
I don’t have anything to add to this thread: I just need to step forward from lurking to say that this is an absolutely hilarious thread (not to the OP, of course).