My Room Smells Disgusting. Help?

August 26, 2008 1:22 PM

What is the absolute best/strongest/still-smells-good air freshener that money can buy?

So my roommate at college moved in, and due to a myriad of factors including his apparent dislike of personal hygiene products and love of oats, our room now smells disgusting. At this time me and the other two guys in the room aren't willing to approach the problem directly because we don't think this guy will care or listen to us. So we need some kind of amazing air freshener.

Things we are doing now: I leave the window open in the bedroom that I share with him pretty much continuously, and it does seem to help a bit but it won't solve the problem. We also use Glade and Febreze as often as possible, but they wear off pretty quickly.

So, MeFi: What kind of air freshener can I get that will make my room smell better? I'm looking for some kind of "fire and forget" system that I don't have to remember to spray every hour or whatever. I'm fine with turning it off at night and on in the morning.

Almost forgot: We can't have real candles, but we can use candle warmers. This is in a dorm.

Thanks for the help that is sure to come!

posted by DMan to home & garden (18 comments total)

I have one of those Glade things where you unscrew it and leave it in a corner and it de-stinks a room forever. When I moved into my apt, there was a musty smell that just sat there, but this helped. Baking soda (or powder? I always forget which) helps to absorb odors too.
posted by lunasol at 1:36 PM on August 26, 2008

The classic college student room deodorizer for, umm, other kinds of smells is Ozium. Not sure whether it works on BO, but it's worth a shot.
posted by decathecting at 1:40 PM on August 26, 2008

"Dude, you know you'd get a lot more trim if you showered like once a week or something..."
posted by togdon at 1:41 PM on August 26, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

2nding Ozium. Comes in several excellent scents. My favorite is vanilla. It's actually a bacterial air sanitizer, rather than a scented spray like the Glade and Febreeze you mentioned.
posted by baphomet at 1:44 PM on August 26, 2008

Not a candle - it's better and you can pick your scents. Scentsy.
posted by Sassyfras at 1:45 PM on August 26, 2008

Not 'set it and forget it' but...

Lysol is good stuff. Does it smell good? idunno, sorta. But it does kill odors. Once a week open all the windows and dump half a can of lysol into the air. In my opinion, all those plug in things just cover up the stench so that you get Orange Blossom flavored B.O.
posted by ian1977 at 1:47 PM on August 26, 2008

Ozium is the shizzle, but it's the kind of thing you have to remember to spray. My roommates and I used Ozium in conjuction with one of these things which kept our room smelling not like...other things.
posted by sperose at 1:48 PM on August 26, 2008

This Renuzit cone in Super Odor Killer flavor.
posted by sageleaf at 2:07 PM on August 26, 2008

Possibly consider a small quiet fan or (doubt if you have room) a large box fan on a low setting might help get fresher air inside more consistently.
posted by iamabot at 2:33 PM on August 26, 2008

Air Scense is the only air freshener that I'll use anymore. The scent can be strong immediately after spraying, but goes away quickly and works better than any conventional air freshener that I've ever used. The lavender is a bit too strong, in my opinion, but the rest are great.
posted by cheerwine at 2:40 PM on August 26, 2008

nthing Ozium. Spray it a lot. Maybe also buy an air purifier.
posted by charlesv at 2:46 PM on August 26, 2008

Oust. I spray it around my cats' litterboxes.
posted by desjardins at 2:47 PM on August 26, 2008

Nothing better than Ozium. College staple.
posted by piedmont at 3:13 PM on August 26, 2008

My choices are either nok-out, which I use for all manner of odor elimination, big and small and sometimes with a fogger which is especially effective.

Another choice is SCOE 10X whose manufacturer lists perspiration as one of the odors against which it is effective.

Both of these are commercial and quite high quality and a little goes a very long way. As an added bonus neither have much of a scent of their own. They don't mask, they eliminate.
posted by bz at 3:30 PM on August 26, 2008

When I worked in an old peoples homes we always used Neutradol to get rid of the lingering incontinent old person smell. It looks like it might be UK only, with Ozium being a US equivalent. Both work to get rid of the smell rather than trying to cover it up.
posted by tallus at 3:31 PM on August 26, 2008

X-O Odor Remover is amazing. I found it through my vet. Believe me, if it can squelch the stench of three French Bulldogs in various states of digestive distress, it can handle your roommate. Their website kind of sucks, but you can order it directly from here. The first little bottle (the one for ~ $7) will last you quite a while and is worth every penny. It just smells, well, clean. Nothing chemical, nothing fruity, nothing fake or gross. Put it this way, I usually buy 6 bottles of it at once and stash them throughout the house.

Barring that, the only other thing I've ever had luck with are these. I actually found them at Stew Leonard's (which, if you don't know what that is, is kind of like a fucked up cross between a grocery store and Disney World). You can either leave them in the container, or invert it onto the lid, leaving more of it exposed like a weird scented version of a jello mold. The thing totally sucks all airborne nastiness away.
posted by dancinglamb at 3:42 PM on August 26, 2008

I'm voting for Ozium also. (It was writing on the side of an ozium can that gave me my mefi nick - I couldn't think of anything clever. I just remembered that). Ozium is nice because it isn't too perfumey after it dissipates in a minute or two.

I wish you could get an Ozium can that fits in those automated/timed dispensers like they have in some commercial restrooms. Maybe you could look into one of those devices. They have a single 'D' battery, and use the short, squat-shaped cans that have no nozzle. We have one in the restroom at work, though sadly it seems to be rarely working.
posted by glycolized at 5:03 PM on August 26, 2008

Update: We ended up getting a Glade air freshener that works like those automatic ones in restrooms; it actually worked well and still does.

Weird salmon-eating(yeah, that was the problem) roommate moved out for no apparent reason, so now our room smells great.

Thanks MeFi!
posted by DMan at 8:07 AM on September 2, 2008