My 19 year old son is waiting to go into the Air Force. In the meantime he has job a local restaurant cooking. He comes home smelling like grease. He takes the clothes off as soon as he gets home but the smell is on him. He is currently sleeping on the sofa and I am starting to smell it in the living room when he isn't even there. Any suggestions on ways to keep this to a minimum? I really want to get to the root of the odor and not just cover it up. He gets home late he could shower then, but I know he is tired and would have to take one the next morning anyway. He has oily skin and generally needs one after he wakes up regardless of whether he took one the night before.
EDIT:
He sleeps on the couch because I am going through a divorce and have recently moved into a 3 bedroom house. Since he was going to be there temporarily and I have 3 kids - he didn't get his own room or bed. This is just the way the sleeping arrangements have to be for now.
Thanks everyone!!! Lots of good suggestions. I guess first and foremost I will tell him showering when he gets home is no longer optional. Lots of other good suggestions that I'll have to try before the smell takes over everything else.
He will feel so good if he showers before bed, even if he is too tired. He will rest so much better, he will be glad he did. He is not too old to receive consequences if he doesn't shower. There are a lot of things in life we don't want to do but do it anyway, then are glad we did it.
Honestly, the only way to avoid this smell in your couch is for him to shower and change out of the clothes. I worked in restaurants for years and always showered when I got home, otherwise I could always smell the greasy smell.
My husband has a motorcycle and when he comes home from riding he sometimes smells like..exhaust.. gasoline..something. I make him strip down in the garage then go take a shower. I leave the clothes in the garage to 'air out' until I am ready to wash them. I would suggest this for your son as well....ditch the clothes in the garage, porch, outside, something. Shower immediately when he gets home. Even if he's dead tired and even if he's going to take one the next morning. Since he has oily skin the shower at night would probably help that out as well since he's been working around food in a restaurant all day.
This one is easy - require him to take a shower as soon as he gets home. He is a 19-yr old boy - he'll understand and probably find it humorous. When I was 19 I worked at Pizza Hut and brought that smell home too. No feelings necessary.
Have him leave his clothes outside or in the garage. Whenever I was in my 20s I worked at a restaraunt & when I came home I smelled like a giant burger! I would leave my clothes on the back porch to air out or put them straight into the washer. Maybe spraying febreze in the room & on the couch might work? Or during the day you could open the windows to air the room out & turn on the ceiling fan...
You could try getting him to use towellettes to wipe off before he comes home. My elderly, disabled grandmother used them to clean instead of taking a bath every day. They are sort of like baby wipes, but they have some sort of soap or antibacterial built in. They might take away the majority of the smell from his skin. He could then put on fresh clothes, be sure to sleep on sheets, not the sofa itself. He should cover the entire sofa, not just the sitting cushions, with sheets so no part of his body touches bare sofa. Febreeze took care of some pet odors that I thought wouldn't ever come out- maybe he can spritz the couch when he gets up in the morning? Good luck!
My son comes home double stinky, during the day he works at a car dealership as a greasy service tech and nights at an area greasy restaurant. He showers as soon as he comes home-no matter what. He uses the antibacterial soap and he uses body scrub and clarifying shampoo-none of the "smell" good stuff as that does not work-make sure he washes his back too. The clothing/sheets I use pine sol (yes you read that correctly) vinegar, baking soda, and laundry soap-I soak overnight or for two hours. They smell better, but not all the way clean.
peroxide in your wash cycle........i worked at a sonic when i was 15 to 17, the smell of grease is atrocious and sticks to everything., peroxide works to eliminate it, you may have to soak it.
That smell has an upside though, i dont eat fast food anymore.
My on worked at Sonic making Onion Rings all day. He kept a separate pair of shoes for work and they came off in the garage. When he came home he went straight to the bathroom and took a shower. Work clothes either go straight to the laundry room to be washed or in on a hanger covered by a trash bag knotted at the bottom so it can be hung in the garage.
Since he is sleeping on your couch... he NEEDS to shower as soon as he gets home. That grease smell will stay in your couch and you will NEVER get it out.
You are much kinder than my late mother-in-law. She made my husband scrub himself with soap and the garden hose every night when he got home from his fast-food jobs in high school! He couldn't get in the house until he did that. My husband still remembers how cold that water from the hose was. :)
Tell him before he lays down from now on he needs to shower no matter what time it is. Have a special hamper just for him because I know that smell!!! It will get on your other clothes! Wash separate with hot water and bleach! Make sure he has a sheet on the couch or maybe two. Wash them immediately every day! I been in the business for over 30 years. Good LUCK!!
Hair holds a TON of that smell in. I worked in fast food when I was 16 and had to shower at night (no matter how tired I was) and again in the morning. Also, I agree with one of the other posters... There needs to be sheets on that couch. I'd also like to say that I was diagnosed with Idiopathic Hypersomnia. There's not anyone that can feel more tired than someone with a sleep disorder like that after going to school all day, going to work right from school, and then coming home to shower and do homework. He can muster the energy to shower when he gets home. If he can't, then he doesn't need to go into the military... No matter what branch.
I use to work a smelly job for one season during high school. I was on the stadium clean up crew for Rich Stadium (seats 80,000 - they've renamed it something else now) and I'd come home smelling like stale beer and peanuts. The only thing for it was to have my bathrobe by the wash machine so I could strip down and wash the clothes right away then go right to the shower from the wash machine in my bathrobe and wash myself up. It was sweaty dirty work, but with running up and down all those stairs with trash bags slung on my back my legs never looked so good. Take it from me - you rest better when you are clean.
