Our first guest of the season was set to arrive in a few days. My husband I made the hour long trip up to our lake cabin to get it ready. We spent some time with friends up there and had to remove our things and prepare it for our guests. As I opened the front door, the smell immediately hit me. I could see the clock on the stove blinking and immediately realized the power had gone out. The hamburger pucks in the freezer (including my organic grassfed ones) had thawed and rotted. We took the rotten meat outside and opened all the windows. Since it was a fridge/freezer combo, the fan shared the odor in both sections. The box of baking soda in the empty fridge looked overwhelmed. I had no idea how to get rid of the smell of rotten meat. I sprayed everything down with Thieves Household Cleaner, then realized it was in the fridge's ventilation system too.
It was a brand new fridge, about six months old. I briefly considered getting rid of it. We can't have a guest experience this! You know, the kind of guest that gives your property an online rating between one and five stars!
I left the fridge doors and all the windows open overnight and came back the next day. This time I came prepared with all my tactical gear. It was war. My poor neighbors. You could smell it in the yard. I hoped the crime scene cleanup people wouldn't get called. The smell had faded, a bit, but was still there, and I was starting to panic.
I started with a waterless, atomizing diffuser and Young Living’s Purification® essential oil blend. (Since this time, there is a newer diffuser with a wider base that is less likely to tip over and get oil in the motor.) I planned to run it overnight, so I didn't want condensation building up from a water based diffuser. I also wanted the essential oil diffused in a much more concentrated amount. I started the diffuser and set it to run for a couple minutes every 15 minutes with a medium flow of oil. I initially put it in the freezer. (At that point, the freezer wasn't cold.) I did turn on the power so the fan would run between the fridge and freezer and the oils could deal with the smell in the places I couldn't wipe down. I didn't want to damage the diffuser in the freezer, so I switched it to the fridge after an hour. Twenty four hours later I opened the front door of the cabin and took a deep breath. Relief! It was gone. I could faintly smell the essential oil and that was it. I wiped the fridge down one more time and set everything up for my guests. And yes, they gave a five star rating!
