Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

For the last two days there has been this smell in the entryway of my apartment building. At my building you open this door and you have a foyer type area with the mailboxes, stairs to the laundry room and other apartments, as well as the doors to the eight apartments (four upstairs and four ground level, stairs lead down to two partially below ground apartments - building is on a hill).

I opened this door on Wednesday and nearly gagged at the smell. The best way to describe it is raw peanut butter cookie dough that is rotting and infused with wood smoke. Sweet, smoky and vile all at the same time. I assumed it was one of the neighbors cooking something (it's a variety of ethnicities in my building) or that the one neighbors had put their trash in the hallway before moving it out onto their patio.

Then it ocurred to me that it was probably the laundry room. Someone had overloaded the washing machines a few weeks back and the odor wasn't pleasant. I had no idea that laundry detergent and softener could smell so rank. When I opened my apt door, went inside and took a deep breath to clear my lungs and encountered the same peanut butter dough smokey smell I wanted to cry. Thankfully it wasn't as Strong and it pretty much confirmed that the smell was emanating from the laundry room - or something in a storage room downstairs - as my apt is directly above the laundry area.

Yesterday the odor was still in the hallway but only very, very faintly in my apartment. I did hear someone using the dryers last night so I hope that means the problem is solved. Not just for the smell factor, but because I need to do laundry.