Who Wants the Funk?

There is a funk in the cabinet under our sink. We actually cleared out the cabinet of all our cleaning supplies and shopping bags and put a box of baking soda in there, but the stench remains. Biker Boy was so desperate that he actually went downstairs to our resident managers and asked them to take a look at it. The male resident manager determined that the funk is 1) decomposing food 2) sewer gas or 3) decomposing animal!

Oh, my GOD! I can't take it.

Let's take them one at time, shall we?

Decomposing food. Our garbage disposal backed up once when we first moved into our apartment. Since then we very sparingly use it. We ran an orange through it when we first noticed the funk, but it didn't help. The disposal is running smoothly and when you (or Biker Boy) put your hand down in there (!), there are no jams or anything. Probably not the disposal.

Sewer gas. This is the most likely culprit. The resident manager thinks that there may be a leaky pipe somewhere in the wall behind our sink that is leaky. I am not excited about them having to tear up a wall to our apartment, but as Biker Boy so snarkily put it, that's why we are renters and not owners. It's their problem, not ours.

Decomposing animal. The resident manager went on the roof (in the snow! on a cold day!) to check to make sure that there weren't any animals in the chimney/whatever holes are on top of a roof. Can I just say that I am glad I am not a resident manager if part of your duties include climbing on roofs in the dead of January? ANYWAY, the RM doesn't think this is too likely.

So we have to actually call the management company today and tell them all about our funk. At first I felt really guilty because I thought BB and I had done something to cause this, but it turns out that we hadn't. But you can't come over to visit us because our apartment stinks like sewer!


UPDATE: It's our fault, apparently. You need to run your dishwasher more often than the once or twice a month we do because if you don't the gaskets and this hose thing get, ummmm, unused (?) and dry up and stink. I guess. The maintenance man told us to stop washing our dishes by hand. Okay, but there are only two of us and six plates and six bowls and three butter knives. We feel so dumb when we use the dishwasher.

So we ran the dishwasher like five times. Once empty, once with dishes, once with Kool Aid lemonade, and we're going to buy some vinegar and run that through, too. But it still smells. Biker Boy is waiting for the maintenance man to call him back to discuss back-up plans if the running the dishwasher doesn't make the smell go away. Because the smell is starting to leak into the rest of the apartment.