I am an idiot

[JerryP]

We have a whole house rated ozone machine. This is what the fire recovery businesses use to get smoke smells out of clothes and furniture. This works well on mold odors too.

Regards,
Jerry

[LargeMarge]

For dog encounters with skunks, some people recommend tomato juice.

Ask Goodwill or Saint Vincent de Paul.
They take fridges; de-odorizing is part of re-furbishing.

[gtmcgeesr]

Originally Posted by Miamicamper

So I live down here in Miami and I have my 2018 travel trailer at a local campground for a few months plugged in and everything and occasionally I take my two kids to the campground for little weekend getaways and so forth. So the hurricane was supposed to be headed this way and so I went and got the trailer ready by bringing in the slide and unplugging everything, however, I totally forgot to empty the fridge and freezer . So I am sure you guys can see where this story is going, but I came back to the camper today and it is sooooo nasty. The smell was the worst smell I have ever smelled in my life. And to top it off there was a dead frog right in the middle of the kitchen floor. So thinking at first the smell was just the dead frog, I got rid of it but then I remembered about the fridge and freezer. Luckily there were no maggots, but there were a few gnat type flying things. So I plugged in the trailer to let the AC cool it off, but I couldn't open the windows because it was raining so I am going t go back on Thursday in something like a Hazmat suit. I was able to Lysol the fridge and freezer before I left but when I go back I plan on bleaching it or something. Can I use bleach on the floors? Anyway, I am definitely going to wash the sheets and everything in there and hopefully no other frogs got in there. I am not real sure how that frog got in there. So my question is, any tips for me? lol. This is gonna be horrible and I hope you guys keep me in your thoughts and prayers on Thursday. I'll need it

Had a CEO fly out of Panama City, Florida back in 1980 who forgot to carry a cooler back with him to Texas, he gave me a call about 3 or 4 days later stating he had left a cooler with shrimp in the trunk. He asked me to go to the airport and put one large can of coffee beans and pour it in the back seat floor boards. Take two other cans and pour them out into the trunk. Needless to say, this was in the summer. I asked him if he wanted me to take care of the situation, he said no, he would be back here in a week hopefully.

Needless to say he did return in a little over a week and came back to our yard, when I saw him I asked if the car was really rank with dead shrimp order. He stated there was no odor whatsoever, he disposed of the cooler in a dumpster.

So if three cans of coffee beans can cover up the smell of dead, Florida car roasted shrimp, it probably could mask just about anything.

Gary & Patricia
2016 Silverado 2500 HD
2004 Montana Mountaineer

[rrobby]

Pure Lemon extract on your rubber gaskets in refer and freezer. Conquers that rank food smell.

[J Rockford]

Originally Posted by Searching_Ut

For when you're first getting started, I've actually found febreze sprayed around helps knock the odor down enough to make it easier to get started with the disinfecting and deep cleaning. Back decades ago in my high school days when I worked as an appliance delivery boy, We generally had good results cleaning up really disgusting repo fridges with ammonia. Stinks the area up bad while you're using it, and is noticeable for a day or two afterward, but long term results are excellent. Never had very good luck with bleach, and learned first hand why not to use it if you're using ammonia.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
When facing a problem such as this, you just want to get rid of the bad odor & its easy to get impatient because you just want that odor to just GO AWAY ! You may try anything and if it is slow and seems to be taking forever, human nature steps in and you try something else, & if thats too slow, you try something else. The bottom line is this, USE EXTREME CAUTION at this point. If your using bleach do NOT use AMMONIA or if using AMMONIA do NOT use bleach !
If you mix the two, you now have to deal with an even BIGGER problem & that problem is called " MUSTARD GAS " YES, the real thing here that is deadly.
Back in the mid 1990s my 3 man team & I were sent in to get an individual out of the hands of an everchanging foreign Government that was beginning to show hostilities toward the U.S. They were getting ready to hold on to an individual that was high ranking chechen rebel & valuable to the U.S. we got in no problem however timing went south on us & in a small warehouse where we found him, the hostile Govt. People had the same idea and showed up 30 minutes after we did, they were not yet aware that we were already there and after getting some hard drives out of the computers as well as everything our asset needed to take with him we were ready to leave however, the way we came in was now blocked and busy with those who were also sent to get him so thats how close it was. We had 2 midsize rooms between us & them with a smaller exit still available to us however there were people outside that last exit so it was just a matter of time before we were all in their hands, we were looking now for a rooftop escape then, that little exit door flew open and a handful of guys came in however they were chechen rebels and our guys own men & woman who were there to also get him to safety.Now we still had to stall for more time as there was still more information that couldnt be left behind, the solution came in the way of the contents of this small warehouse & that was chemicals, lots & lots of chemicals BLEACH & AMMONIA, in the first room they would come through we filled big buckets with the bleach and in different buckets the ammonia , set them in a way that would mix them fast when they breached the doors to that first room, and they all rushed into that room in large numbers then trying to get back out fast jamming the doorway they came in. In the last room after that room if any of them still wanted to continue pursuing us, the bleach & ammonia was already mixed and filling that room with a heavy cloud of whats now MUSTSTARD GAS, we were well out of there by that time so not sure if any of the pursuers attempted to keep coming but if the did, they would find that exit door locked & blocked so by that time they had bigger problems then to keep coming ,
Sorry for going off topic here but wanted to explain just how two harmless chemicals that left alone are safe, but if mixed become very deadly, very quickly, very effectively
again sorry for the long story but being retired now, i miss the excitement, but still have the memories of my career,
So be careful with chemicals when your trying to get rid of something in a desperate hurry.

[vadertime]

I've done that twice with home fridges over the past 20 years. The most recent when we lost power for 2 weeks in my retirement home after Irma. It happened once on my motorhome many years ago. I put it in storage and forgot to empty the fridge completely. Thank goodness, there were only a few items in the fridge and I happened to check on the RV a couple of months after I put it into storage. Aside from the mold and smell in the fridge, which I cleaned out with soapy water and some bleach, no harm done. I aired out the RV by opening all the windows. You will need air the RV out, but eventually it will be okay. After Irma, when my RV was sitting by itself in RV park for 2 weeks, I found lizards, wasps and other insects that had found their way into the RV. RV's have holes and crevices, which small animals and insects can find a way into the RV. You don't want your RV to be air-tight, otherwise you would die. Good luck.

[MBrant]

Vinegar is good and cheap. Diluted bleach will sterilize anaerobic bacteria.

Febreze (odor-free) kills the smell, and it doesn't take much, either. Keep a can in the bathroom - in case Peg shows up!

[southernguy]

Originally Posted by Miamicamper

So I live down here in Miami and I have my 2018 travel trailer at a local campground for a few months plugged in and everything and occasionally I take my two kids to the campground for little weekend getaways and so forth. So the hurricane was supposed to be headed this way and so I went and got the trailer ready by bringing in the slide and unplugging everything, however, I totally forgot to empty the fridge and freezer . So I am sure you guys can see where this story is going, but I came back to the camper today and it is sooooo nasty. The smell was the worst smell I have ever smelled in my life. And to top it off there was a dead frog right in the middle of the kitchen floor. So thinking at first the smell was just the dead frog, I got rid of it but then I remembered about the fridge and freezer. Luckily there were no maggots, but there were a few gnat type flying things. So I plugged in the trailer to let the AC cool it off, but I couldn't open the windows because it was raining so I am going t go back on Thursday in something like a Hazmat suit. I was able to Lysol the fridge and freezer before I left but when I go back I plan on bleaching it or something. Can I use bleach on the floors? Anyway, I am definitely going to wash the sheets and everything in there and hopefully no other frogs got in there. I am not real sure how that frog got in there. So my question is, any tips for me? lol. This is gonna be horrible and I hope you guys keep me in your thoughts and prayers on Thursday. I'll need it

I have had to get rid of meats that were stored in walk in Freezer for the summer month when school was out for vacation and the Freezers failed and the smell was gasmask bad, we just went to the hardware store got some sulfer candles lit them then closed the door and next day the smel was gone.

[twogypsies]

I'm waitiing for the OP to return with an update!!!

[varoadbiker]

If I am going to leave mine for a week or so I fill both propane tanks so I have a back up if the power goes off.

[NeilV]

An uncovered bowl with some household ammonia in it can do wonders for killing that rotten meat smell without having to wipe everything down with bleach. That and a brown paper bag of untreated charcoal left in the fridge may get you out of this type of mishap.


A co-worker just before leaving on a vacation took her dad grocery shopping just before driving to the Tampa Airport in July and leaving her new car just off the showroom in long term parking for her 2 week vacation. When she got back she quickly figured out that they missed a 12 pound roast in the trunk. The bowl of ammonia was the only thing that effectively got the rotten meat smell out of her new car.


Be aware that putting the bowl of ammonia directly in the refrigerator can damage the cooling coils especially if its a residential unit.

[Kurtsara]

In 2010 We had our main breaker trip a day after we left for a two week notice trip, came home to about a 4 foot circle of blood around the fridge, used charcoal a couple times in it, our son still uses that fridge.

[AlonsoR]

Set off a few foggers