What is that smell?!

It happened again... I smelled something in our house. And it wasn't good. I opened our hallway closet door to get the Swiffer, and an awful stench came out. The stench of something rotting. You know the one... normally it comes from your fridge, trash, or something lost in the car. Not this time. And from a place that food should never be. Ugh... I dreaded finding it, yet knew the dirty work had to be done.

So I followed my nose, sniffed around. The problem was that the stench had permeated the closet, so locating it wasn't going to happen late last night. I left the door open, hoping to air it out overnight.

In the morning, I smelled again. Dang it. Still there. I pull out the vacuum thinking "there's no way it's from there... is it? Did I vacuum up some food somehow and it's become hairy and funky now?" But it wasn't in the vacuum. The rest of that closet has clothes in it, and some tote bags from grocery shopping. But I always put that away when they are empty... AFTER the shopping. Never putting away until empty. Unless...

I pull out the bag of bags. If you use tote bags for groceries you know what I'm referring to. It's your big bag of bags that goes with you, with a wide array of styles, shapes, colors. At least mine are. Picked up from various free events, with a bonus giveaway. Not matching anything, yet so useful you just don't care.

I dared to look in the bag of bags,  and pulled out the first one. Smells fine, no weird lumps. Pull out the next. Nothing. Thank goodness.. Pull out a third. Still nothing. What gives? What is that smell?

Then I see it. A produce bag. Some form of produce item that once was fresh and beautiful has turned rotten... squishy, soft, and just plain full of grossness (Is that a word?). I pull it out like it's a dirty diaper (although I think I'd rather have one of those that one of these!). Yep... I knew I bought a yellow squash last week! Now I know I'm not going crazy on that one! Trying not to throw up, dry heaving through the house it quickly makes it's way past any interior trash and goes straight to the outside trash. Yuck. After getting my gut to settle a bit, I go back in. I can handle a lot of gross things... been on a farm, ranch, had kids,... all kinds of totally disgusting things can happen. But this... is the worst. I hate rotting food. Not much else can make me heave like that.

Note to self... next time I am missing something I swore I bought... check the bag bag... you know the one.