I need advice about thoroughly cleaning a lazy college boy's bedroom.

make him do it hisself when he gets back. ew.

I say seal that room off and make him clean it up when he gets home. It’s his mess.

One word: flame thrower!

Throw anything not salvageable into a garbage bag. By your description, this will be most everything.

I can’t make him do it.
I forgot this in the details.
When he gets back, he’s leaving and going back to college across the country.
He doesn’t want to come back, which means this room will become mine.
So I have no choice.

He has to get his his stuff, no?

Everything of his is at college.
He’s got a TV and a few sweatshirts, but most of it is just stuff.

Just bring a flamethrower into the room. Purge it all by fire.

Large garbage bags. Don’t even look through it. Then clean, clean, clean. Leave the windows open for long periods of time.

Who are you? Cinderella?

Fuck that shit.

Clorox wipes might be the greatest cleaning invention ever. Use a lot of them.

@Blondesjon Very good point.

Get a box of those double strength Glad lawn bags.

Put everything in there. You shouldn’t be required to sort through all of it.

Tie the bags up but don’t throw them out in case he complains about your throwing out anything essential. Let him hunt through the bags for it.

Removal of rotting food should go a long way toward getting rid of the smell. Leave the windows open for a day to air it out thoroughly. Spraying with Lysol probably wouldn’t hurt.

Is money involved? I wouldn’t clean any of it without being paid.

Better yet, hire a pro and bill the stepmother.

Well, give him a choice. Tell him to either get his crap out of there that he wants or it all goes in the garbage. I tell my sister all the time that if I find her crap on the floor and she doesnt pick it up I will throw it away. I have also done this with her cds that were left in my car radio.

Besides that how can your stepmother not smell that room or even care what is in that room?

throw in a bunch of really strong smelling de-odorizers like glade or fabreeze and then shut the door. at least then the rest of the house wont stink. if he is going to be an uber disgusting pig why should you pick up after him? guys like that dont deserve someone cleaning up after them.

Ok; this clown is 22 years old and leaves his room like a Pig pen for others to clean up ?

That is Bull Sh** !!

Leave his room just the way that it is . IF he wants a cleaner room HE can do it hiself ..and tell the stepmother that you are not playing Cinderella for her son.

If I was going to clean it at all, it would only be cleaning it in order to make it my room.

If I cleaned it, I would first check with stepmom and make sure it’s alright, then start taking everything out of the room. Trashbags of trash go out, trashbags of things that belong to him go in the garage. His furniture goes in the garage (unless it’s becoming mine). Once the room was completely empty, I would sweep and mop (if not carpet) the floors, and clean the walls if necessary. Then I would move my own stuff in, and put a lock on the door.

Garbage bags, a respirator, and a shovel.

Close the door. LOL!!!!

@La_chica_gomela I see . Then ; IF it is going to be YOUR room , go ahead and clean it .

I’d wear a surgical mask of some kind ‘till all the food and garbage was removed .

Best of luck to you !

I know this is totally unhelpful and lots of other people have said this, but what the fuck is wrong with this dude that he would leave shit in his room to rot???? And what is wrong with his mom that she isn’t insisting he fix that immediately!?

Step One: Get rid of the lazy college boy.
Step Two: Clean room.
Step Three: Seal room until needed.
Step Four: Come to my house. I’ve got cake in the frizzer…

Wait a second….YOU’RE actually going in there?! Whoa…you are one brave soul.

@rangerr if its just “stuff” them toss it.

When my oldest son went into the Navy, he left his room a disaster area. It was disgusting. One day I couldn’t take it anymore I spent damn near a whole day cleaning it out. But regarding your situation, I wouldn’t touch his room. He’s old enough to clean it and you aren’t his mother. I would close the door, seal the edges with a towel (to keep the smell in there) or something and let him come back to it.

Pipe bomb?

@HighShaman: I think you think I’m the OP. I can’t make what you said make sense any other way. Psst: I’m not the OP.

@La_chica_gomela SORRY ; I did think that YOU were the asking party….

You gave a GOOD answer , though !

@HighShaman: Aw, thanks!!

Can you not get the cleaning ladies from the BBC? If not, just throw everything away and re-paint. Toxins and primer tend to get rid of smells, and your sense of it.

What do I do about the smell, though? Spray it down with something and let it air out?
I’m planning on repainting already.

@rangerr: Usually the smell is coming from the thing that stinks. Once you take out the trash and open the windows, it should be fine, unless the nasty stuff has been ground into the carpet too.

Box up everything you find and send it, as is, to his dorm room at college. It might make him less homesick, it will make everyone there aware of what a troglodyte he is and it will certainly make you feel better just ramming it up his ass.
.
My work here is done.

I know. I know. Get Hercules. He’ll run the nearest river right through that room.

Problem solved!

Hahahaha. I love you guys.

To survive the smell while cleaning, you can put some Vicks Vapor Rub on your upper lip, right beneath your nose. It cuts out ~98% of terrible smells, and let’s just hope there aren’t things in that room with odors powerful enough to get past such a eucalyptastic barrier!

I’d wear still second (third?) the suggestion to wear a surgical mask thougg; this sounds like a potential health hazard!

To eliminate the smell afterward (after you’ve removed whatever is rotting, aired the place out, and sanitized the hell out of every surface,) litter the room with dryer sheets. Tuck them into suspicious corners, inside of drawers, scatter them across the carpet. No joke- they’re miraculous odor absorbers. I’ve seen rooms (and books) poisoned with years of cigarette smoke returned to fresh-smelling environments this way. It may take several rounds, but after all the major cleaning, it really helps.

@Corporate_Avenger, that idea does give a new meaning to “homesick,” doesn’t it?

I found out from working with a pigs head in a haunted house that Vaseline in your nose blocks the smell.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the floor is stained and sticky from soda.
It’s carpet. And it’s gross.

How do I get that out?

If this is going to be your new room and you’re going to paint it, the color of the carpet just does not go with the paint you’ve chosen for your walls.

@rangerr :/ I feel like the only solution there is carpet replacement, especially because most of it has soaked through to beneath the fibers, but maybe someone has a miracle suggestion? Good luck!

@Jeruba That’s what I was thinking. They just replaced the carpet last winter, though. So I’m not sure if that will work.

….I found a glass of milk BEHIND the dresser. It’s like..half orange.
I’m wearing gloves, my paint booth jumpsuit from the shop and the paint respirator.
I still feel dirty.

@rangerr, after you’ve cleared out the unspeakably revolting garbage (which I hope they will have had a chance to admire before it’s gone), ask them to inspect the carpet with you. If they can’t see the need themselves, I’m not sure you want to live with these people.

@rangerr, the gross stuff in the carpet will probably require professional carpet cleaning, as in a service that does carpet drycleaning, rather than wet carpet cleaning.

Get all of the food out, and open the windows for about 15 minutes. The cold air will get the stench out.

@rangerr – If he is a a boy with no hygiene…I hate to break it to you, but that is probably not “soda” on the floor, if you know what I mean. Same goes for the walls, the curtains, and at 22 years of age probably even the ceiling. They go for gold distance at that age. YAHOOOOOOOOO!

This thread just gets worse and worse.

@nikipedia Seriously. This is hoarder-level gross, but without the understanding factor. I’m so sorry you have to deal with it @rangerr!

@nikipedia, yes, and my feeling of gratitude that I am not rangerr just goes up and up.

@Corporate_Avenger Nahhhh, there was soda cans knocked over on the floor.

I don’t understand.. haha. At least hoarders aren’t like… moldy.

Some of them are.

ew

@rangerr not so. There’s a whole subsection of hoarders who are on the trash/filth side of things. My aunt was one of the unlucky ones. She passed away last September at the age of 51, due largely in part to filth in which she was living.

I would borrow some scuba gear (skip the flippers), tie a rope around your waist and anchor it to something outside the room (so you can find your way out in case you get engulfed) and forge on it. Dump everything into garbage bags and toss them out the window. Scrub with clorox, let the windows open, repaint and you’ll be golden!

@Blondesjon – you outdid yourself, great one!!!

I’ve got a box of contracting sized trash bags. Two are full.

So.. if new carpet or professional cleaning isn’t an option, what’s good for getting stains out of the carpet?

This has a pretty good stain-type breakdown of suggestions.

At a glance,
– soda seems best removed by Club Soda, also mentioned here
– Scrubbing does not help; blotting is advised.
– vinegar helps for general clean-up.

If all else fails . . . . . . gasoline and a match! ;-) Just kidding!!!

@rangerr: Resolve is a good option for spot cleaning. If you’re pretty much looking at doing the whole carpet, you can rent cleaning systems from many grocery stores and home depot type stores that are supposed to approximate professional cleaning, but in my experience they weren’t as good.

@Buttonstc said. Hefty bag, gloves, shovel. Place in garage for “safekeeping.”

call Hoarders?

If you decide to clean it and not just tape crime scene tape across the door, get ruthless. Throw everything into a plastic garbage bag, clothes, his favorite shoes, those sheets that are stuck to the mattress, the empty pizza boxes etc. Gather it all up, stuff it into a garbage bag and set it outside for him to deal with when he gets home. If he wants the stuff he should be the one to sort the crap.

Bucket of hot water with ammonia some rubber gloves and a mop. Wash everything down, walls, floors, furniture, everything. That smell will cling to any surface so you might have to wash curtains or blinds too.

You can sprinkle the mattress with baking soda and vacuum it up after it sits for about an hour. Same goes for the carpet, if it’s carpeted.

Good luck and God bless.

Meh. That reminds me. My goal today is to clean up that “guest room” upstairs that’s had too many teenage “guests” in it over the last year. Meh.