If Your Beverage Smells Like Cinnamon, Toss It

When you order a drink that isn’t supposed to have cinnamon in it but still smells like it — don’t even try it! Chances are that someone has messed with your drink and tried adding some ingredients that shouldn’t really be there. Cinnamon has the superpower of covering up the smell and taste of other substances. So, the best you can do is never leave your drink alone and always sniff it before drinking.

In case you can clearly smell a dirty wet dog in your pet-free house, you might have some uninvited guests. Check your attic for rodents, raccoons, or squirrels. All those animals can use your rafters as their bathroom. If you find leftovers of their activities, don’t play cool and take it all out yourself — call pest control instead.

If your house suddenly starts smelling like rotten eggs, I have some bad news for you. It might be a natural gas leak, so you should get your family out of the house. The gas itself doesn’t smell like anything, but they add a sulfur-like scent to it to detect leaks easier. Leave the door and windows open to let the gas escape. Call the local gas company to inform them about the problem. They should give you instructions on what to do next.

If you only feel this smell when hot water is running, there’re probably some sulfur bacteria in the water itself. They feed on decomposing organic matter and produce hydrogen sulfide gas in the plumbing system. Call a plumber and ask them to shut the water line and drain the tank to refill it with clean water.

You wake up to the smell of seafood. Mmmmmm, fish stew. But wait! You don’t remember buying or cooking any seafood lately. A fishy smell could be a sign some electrical fixture in your house is overheating and melting its insulating rubber or plastic. It’s most likely the dishwasher, your washing machine, or an air conditioner.

If you just ignore the problem and enjoy that smell for longer, it can cause you some serious trouble, such as a fire. Sniff near all the appliances in the house to identify the source of the smell. When you find the source, call a repair expert or get a replacement if that dishwasher is 40 years old. If you believe an outlet or switch is the source, shut off your circuit breaker and invite an electrician to take care of it.

If you’re smelling burnt toast, although nobody is making it as you live alone, it could be an electrical wiring issue. Check your wall outlets and all extension cords to see if they’re overheated. Open the electric panel box. If it turns out to be the source of the smell, call an electrician for help.

If the tap water in your house suddenly tastes like metal, you should most likely blame it on your good old piping. Looks like it has been slowly dripping into the water, adding some zinc, iron, and copper to it. It’s normal if you’ve been using the system for years, but in really old houses, it could also add dangerous lead to the mix. It could also mean your water is acidic, and it could erode the plumbing.

The best you can do is use a water softener or neutralizing filter to balance the water you’re going to drink back to a normal pH level. Pencil shavings are a pretty exotic smell for tap water, but it happens when the vital liquid is going through plastic pipes. The reason is the anti-oxidants found in those pipes, so the only way to get rid of the smell is to get new plumbing.

In case there’s a musty odor coming from a fireplace you never use, the first thing you have to do is check if the chimney dampers are closed. If they’re perfectly sealed, try vacuuming and scrubbing the firebox. That’s the area at the base of the chimney where the fire is. If none of that helps, you’ll need to call a chimney sweeper to take care of your chimney. There might be water inside of it, so a professional should help you seal it for good.

Does the water in your house smell like a swimming pool? Yikes! It’s most likely full of chlorine. It’s a disinfectant people have used in cities for over a century, so if you get water from your municipality, that’s pretty normal.

Chlorine is the worst nightmare for bacteria and parasites but is safe for humans, mammals, and birds, when in reasonable amounts. If you have amphibians or aquatic pets at home, though, you gotta make sure they don’t drink it. If you want to get rid of that smell, try getting a carbon filtration system for your home.

Does your house smell like the gym locker? First, check if you have any sweaty socks or t-shirts hiding somewhere — they like to hide under the bed or behind the couch. If that doesn’t work, there might be some bacteria growing in your heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system.

Seasons like spring and fall, when temperatures change, and there’s more condensation than usual, are the perfect time for those bacteria to thrive. You can either try to solve the problem with specialized cleaning products or call a professional for help.

The opposite of the gym locker is that nice all “new” smell in the house. It’s okay when you’ve just finished painting the walls, got some new furniture, carpeting, or floors. But if the smell is super strong or stays after a while, it means some organic compounds are in the air. They aren’t exactly healthy to breathe in.

Open all windows and run fans to make the air move around for at least an hour. Keep repeating it with breaks during the entire day. Next time you want to renovate the house, make sure to remove new pressed-wood furniture or carpeting from their packaging and leave them overnight in the garage. All the dangerous substances should air out by the time you bring your purchase inside. If the “new” smell doesn’t go away after a month — ask for a replacement.

Unless you like drinking lake water, you won’t be happy if the liquid coming from your tap suddenly smells fishy. Just like with lake water, it means there are some bacteria in the system, and organic matter like decaying leaves or plants could be to blame. There isn’t much you can do with your internal plumbing system, but you can try contacting your water provider and informing them of the problem. It’s their task to monitor the levels of organic compounds in the water.

When you turn on the heat after the warm season and feel the burning smell around the house, don’t worry. The dust that was accumulating in the system over the summer just has to burn away. The smell should disappear after a couple of hours of heating working again. You might want to replace the filter in the heating system at least once in a couple of years, though.

Your front-load washer might smell like sewage and mold because it’s in constant contact with water. Every time you open and close the washer, moisture from its hard work stays in the seal. That’s the perfect environment for smelly bacteria. If you want to stop their breeding, leave the washer door and the detergent drawer open for a couple of hours after every load. If you see mold in there, try mixing white vinegar and baking soda 1:1 to wipe the mold off.

The terrible metallic smell in your house that feels like ammonia is actually it. If you clean with ammonia or use a coolant based on it, it could be leaking from somewhere. Check out the household appliances that use the coolant. If you don’t have any, the smell of ammonia could come from mold that’s hiding somewhere in your house or a rodent that ended its life inside your walls. In any case, don’t ignore this smell as it won’t just go away.