12 Dorm Room Smells and What They Mean

During my freshman year in college, I learned a lot of things about living on your own. One of them being that your room can start to stink for seemingly “no reason”. In actuality, it’s easy to overlook the source of a bad smell. It’s not always your fault, but sometimes it is and you just don’t realize it. I’ll help you distinguish the difference. 

The 12 most common odors you might smell in your dorm room are mustines, feet, fish, vomit, sweat or body odor, dogs and cats, old food, garbage, mold and mildew, stale air, dirty laundry and bathroom odors. You can get rid of most of these stenches by properly cleaning your room. 

There are some stenches, however, that you need to call maintenance to help you get rid of.

1. Musty 

Specifically, a musty stench is something that has a dampness or moistness to it. Along with that, it can smell earthy, and not in a good way. Instead of lovely plants it smells like wet dirt. The smell can be sour and pungent. It also tends to be the kind of stench that sticks around, just lingering in the air. 

What’s the source?: this smell could be coming from a couple different places. One of them being the air itself. If your room is very humid it can easily lead to mold and mildew growth, which leads to that musty stench in your dorm. Open your window to let air flow through the place for at least 15 minutes a day and you’ll be good.

Even if your room doesn’t have a humidity issue, mold can still grow due to other problems. One being damp clothes, rags and other fabrics. Remember to let these things completely dry before putting them away. If you want a guide on how to get rid of multiple other stenches in your dorm room, check out my 12 solutions!

2. Feet 

The stench of feet can be described a couple of different ways. It’s similar to a musty smell when it comes to smelling earthy. It can also have a sweaty kind of odor that comes across as sour to the nose. Lasty, feet can smell cheesy (I’m barfing just saying that). 

What’s the source?: one of the reasons for this footy smell in your dorm could be because your shoes are carrying an odor. If you live in a wet or damp environment with a lot of rain, causing your sneakers to get wet often, then you need to remember to dry them out quickly before bacteria can make a home there.

This is also true if your feet tend to get sweaty throughout the day on a regular basis. The same exact rules apply to your socks too. This feet smell can also become more pungent and emphasized when you don’t ventilate your room. Open your windows for 15 minutes a day to let the fresh air flow through the dorm. 

3. Fish 

This odor can be very acidic, sour and tangy. It can also smell very earthy and musky. The stench is notorious for sticking around too. 

What’s the source?: there are a number of sources that this smell could be coming from. The most obvious suspect is spoiled, leftover fish that you might have eaten for dinner and forgotten about. Check your fridge to see if you need to throw some away. Even if you didn’t eat any fish, spoiled food can smell like fish in general, so toss anything that’s going bad.

The next place you should check is your dirty dishes. If you haven’t washed your cookware or dinnerware after using it, it’s time to get on that. After that, check your trash can to see if it’s time to take it out. For future reference, don’t throw any food in the can located in your dorm, take it to the public one in the dorm hall. If none of these things are the source, it’s time to clean the whole room. After doing that, check for the fish odor. If it’s still there, call maintenance and tell them what’s going on because this might be a plumbing issue. 

4. Vomit

This is a very pungent odor that’s instantly recognizable. As soon as you walk in the room, you’ll probably be hit with a very acidic, sour, earthy, rotten and putrid smell. It’s the kind of odor that sticks around so you’ll want to find the source fast. 

What’s the source?: the only reason why your dorm smells like throw up is because there’s vomit in the room somewhere. Someone might have puked in the dorm, which would be the most obvious reason as to why the stench is in the air. If no one blew chunks, but the room still stinks of it, then there are some other possible culprits. The first being that there is puke on some clothes in the room that needs to be thrown in the washing machine. The second being that you haven’t opened your window to let the vomit scented air drift out of the room and get replaced by fresh outdoor air.

5. Sweat (Body Odor)

In a general sense, this kind of odor is sour, musky and salty. There can be other traces of stenches within these three main smells because diet affects sweat. 

What’s the source?: the most likely reason your room smells like this is because you have some sweat soaked laundry that hasn’t been washed yet. Either that, or you’re soaked in sweat and haven’t showered yet. By the way, when I say laundry, I’m not just talking about clothes. Some of us perspire in our sleep and our bedding isn’t immune to the smell of body odor. Make sure to wash all of your fabrics. After that, open your windows to ventilate your room. If your fabrics aren’t the culprit, sniff your furniture to see if they smell bad. If so, get some fabric odor spray and spritz them.

6. Dogs or Cats

The smell of a furry pet can be described as musty and musky. It can differ depending on if it’s a dog or a cat, but there won’t be a significant difference in the odors. 

What’s the source?: The smell of a pet in a dorm room comes from your pet. Either that, or your clothes after interacting with a furry animal. In that case, all you have to do is wash your clothes. If you have a dog or cat living in your dorm room, then there are a few different ways that they can put an odor in the air. One of them being their wet fur. If you just washed your pet and they haven’t dried yet, then it’ll be a little funky in the room for a bit.

Another source of a “pet” smell could be the natural oils that dogs and cats produce from their skin. There’s no permanent solution to this, except giving them a bath periodically to manage how strong the odor is. If you have toys for them, then they’re covered in their saliva. This produces a stench over time so they need to be washed periodically too.

7. Old Food

To be fair, this is a very general stench that can vary pretty differently depending on what the source is. However, it’ll likely smell rotten, sour or fermented, stale, spoiled, sweet yet foul and musty. 

What’s the source?: The most common source of this smell is in the name itself, old food. There are several reasons as to why your leftover breakfast, lunch and dinner are going bad in the first place.

The first being that you put it in the fridge, or somewhere else in the dorm, and forgot about it. Even if you remembered that it was in your fridge, you might not have stored it correctly, causing it to spoil faster. If you’re not sure how to make certain foods last longer, check out this guide by Real Simple to learn how. Once they’re expired though, throw them away outside of your room so that your trash can doesn’t stink too.

Sometimes, leftovers aren’t the culprit, at least, not intentional ones. If you spilled food in your room and forgot to clean it up, or did it improperly, then the odor might be lingering in the air. Additionally, if you haven’t washed your dishes yet, they might be the culprit too.

8. Garbage

This can have a lot of different odors to it. The most common ones, however, are the smells of something rotting, the stench of something sour or acidic and a chemical or metallic smell.

What’s the source?: There are a couple reasons as to why your dorm smells this way. One of them being that there’s old food or food waste that’s lying around the room somewhere. Even if it’s coming from your fridge, you might be able to smell it through the door.

Also, by ‘food waste’ I mean wrappers with residue, crumbs and disposable containers with some leftover food in it. The next reason for the odor could be that it’s time to empty out your trash can. If you don’t do this at least biweekly, then whatever you put in there could start to give off a stench. Also, if the can itself is dirty, then you’ll want to disinfect it and that may take care of the smell. 

9. Mold and Mildew

The smell of these two fungi are usually associated with a musty, sour and rotting stench. 

What’s the source?: There are a couple reasons for why your dorm smells this way. One of them could be that you have wet clothes, towels or other fabrics in your room. A damp surface is where fungi like this thrive. That’s why it’s important to let them dry completely before putting them away. Stuffing damp clothes into a dark space with no ventilation is a textbook recipe for moldy shirts.

Another reason for mold growth in your dorm could be because there’s some growing on the walls. This may sound ridiculous, but my dorm hall had this problem in every room. My R.A had to send out a mass email telling us to leave our windows open more often as the weather got hotter. If we didn’t do that, mold would grow on the carpet under our bed and on the wall beneath our bed. It was so gross.

10. Stale Air

This is a very general term, but it’s usually described as a lack of fresh air accompanied by a musty smell. 

What’s the source?: The most common reason for stale air is the lack of movement throughout it. One way that you might be keeping the air stagnant in your room is by not opening your windows everyday. Letting some fresh breeze make its way throughout your dorm for at least 15 minutes a day should help make it smell a lot less stale.

If you want to make it smell even more fresh, leave your door open for a little bit too. If you don’t do this often, it can be easy to go nose blind to all of the smells that buildup in your room overtime. Eventually though, the buildup will catch up to your nose in the form of ‘stale air’. Another reason for why your dorm has this stench is because you’re not cleaning it properly. Tidying up correctly can help make the room’s scent fresher. 

11. Dirty Laundry

This typically smells like a mixture of must, sweat/body odor and mildew.

 What’s the source?: The obvious answer is your clothes, bedding, towels and other fabrics being the source. However, let’s talk about why they stink so much. You should be washing your dirty shirts, pants, dresses, etc. at least twice a week. If you wait any longer than that, they start to radiate a bad scent.

This is especially important for sweaty garments, and not just the ones that you exercise in. I went to school in California so the hotter months had me sweating just by walking from class to class. If you can relate, then set a reminder in your phone to wash your clothes on time. After you do that, make sure that they’re dried completely before storing them in the room. As I mentioned before, storing them wet can promote mold growth.

12. Bathroom Odors

I think we all know what this smells like, unfortunately. 

What’s the source?: The most obvious source is the stuff that people leave behind after they use the bathroom. This can usually be fixed by first, flushing the toilet, and next, turning on any fan that’s present in the bathroom. If you don’t have a fan, leave the door open and open your window and door to help fresh air replace the foul odors. Another source of bathroom stench could be a trash can that’s in there that hasn’t been emptied in a while. Lastly, your bathroom could stink if it hasn’t been cleaned properly.