Why Does My Pantry Smell Musty?

The pantry is supposed to smell like coffee and cereal. When it smells like a cellar instead, it feels wrong in a way that's hard to ignore, because that's where the food is.

The good news is that a pantry is small. In an hour you can usually figure out what's going on.

Yes, all of it. Put everything on the counter or the table. You can't find the source with a shelf full of cans in the way, and you'll want to check the food anyway.

Go through it with your nose and your eyes.

- **Potatoes and onions** are the most common cause of a bad pantry smell. One soft potato in the back of a bin can smell like the whole room. Toss anything soft, sprouting badly, or leaking. - **Flour, rice, oats, and grains** can pick up a damp smell or get pantry bugs. If a bag smells musty or has clumps, throw it out. - **Open bags of chips, crackers, and cereal** go stale and smell off. - **Pet food** in an open bag can smell strong. - **Spills.** A little honey, syrup, or oil on a shelf holds dust and gets sour.

Don't taste anything to check it. If food looks or smells off, toss it.

With the shelves empty, look closely with a flashlight.

- **Shelves and corners.** Wipe them all. Look for spots, sticky patches, or crumbs. - **The floor.** Look at the back corners and under the bottom shelf. - **The back wall.** Put your hand flat on it. If it feels much colder than an inside wall, the pantry is on an outside wall. Cold walls in a closed space can get damp. Look for spots low on the wall. - **Shared walls.** Is the pantry next to the dishwasher, the fridge, a bathroom, or the laundry? A slow leak from any of those can show up here first. Look for swelling at the baseboard or stains on the drywall. - **The ceiling.** Is there a bathroom above it? Brown rings mean water.

Wipe the shelves with warm water and a little dish soap. Dry them fully with a towel and leave the door open for a few hours. A small surface spot on painted wall can be wiped and dried. Skip bleach on wood shelves, and don't mix cleaners.

If the drywall is soft, stained through, or the spot is bigger than a few square feet, stop and call a licensed pro.

- Store potatoes and onions in a basket that lets air through, not a sealed bin, and check them every week. Keep them apart from each other. - Move flour, rice, and grains into containers with tight lids. - Leave a little space between shelf items and the back wall, especially if it's an outside wall. - Keep the pantry door cracked sometimes so air moves. - Wipe spills when they happen.

If you cleaned it, the food is fresh, and a week later the musty smell is back, the space itself is the source. Smell the back corner up close. Check under the kitchen sink and behind the fridge. Look at the dishwasher's side panel and the floor in front of it. A slow leak can take weeks to show, but a pantry nose often catches it before your eyes do.

This is a house check. Symptoms go to a doctor, and leaks inside walls go to a licensed plumber or pro.

When Your House Doesn't Feel Right is a picture book that shows how to find a hidden damp spot one photo at a time, from under the sink to the outside wall. It's $2.99 at https://clearnestair.com/book.