TIFU by calling an electrician

So I got up at around 5 today & when I went downstairs I smelt the WORST burning plastic smell, it genuinely smelt like something was on fire. I checked if my boyfriend left a stove on or somehow scorched something in the dishwasher, pretty much going through each possible reason for the insane smell. For context, my boyfriend got up at 2 and left around 3 am to sell at a flea-market an hour away that he needed to be there to set up by 4am. I texted him immediately asking if he had any ideas what it could be, he wasn’t responding, I figured he was slammed with his booth and that he would’ve given me a heads-up that something was stinky downstairs so I just kept going through the list of what it could possibly be. His sister stayed over, I went through where she was sleeping to see if there was anything that could possibly be the smell to absolutely no avail. This is when I started freaking out. I googled the smell, I have OCD so I really try to stay off google so it doesn’t fuel my “it’s always the worst case scenario” thoughts, but it actually smelt like something was on fire. I checked basically every result that came up except the big ol “electrical fire” result. Naturally with my fucked up brain, my ass got fixated on it. I worked in a manufacturing lab previously in R&D, I’ve created heat-curing chemical formulations for a fucking living, it smelt like a time a lab tech forgot a sample in the oven & it caught on fire, so I felt like it wasn’t a stretch at all because it was so similar.

I started feeling and checking outlets, everything was cool to the touch except one in the kitchen where the smell was the strongest. It wasn’t hot, but it was warm. I unplugged everything, turned off the electricity, kept touching to see if it helped but it still felt warm. This pretty much justified my hypothesis enough I started making emergency calls to my electrician friend at 6am on a freaking sunday. The poor guy dropped everything, drove over an hour to get to my place, rushes in to figure out what’s happening. He checked the warm outlet, opened it, nothing’s wrong — cool. Moved to outlets around it, nothing, then all the outlets, nothings wrong, agreed the smell was bad but was scratching the shit out of his head trying to figure out what the fuck it could be. We were about to go into the wall to see if it was a wire by the warm outlet where the smell was the strongest.

While he was heading to his car to get some tools, my boyfriend finally called me saying not to worry, the smell came from some boxes of clothing racks for the market that he brought inside this morning that came from Walmart that he left in the corner of the kitchen that was stinking the most by the warm outlet. He said he meant to bring them outside because they smelt so bad but blanked because he was running late. I had to go outside to my poor friend who was still in pjs that rushed over to save our house before he even had breakfast and explain to him what the smell actually was. I apologized profusely. I feel like the dumb broad that cried wolf.

PSA to anyone smelling something crazy in your house — add to the list “Walmart packaging” before you go to “fire.” Friend mostly thought it was funny and I paid him for the drive and the time, made him breakfast to go & definitely now would rather just let my house burn instead of experiencing the embarrassment I did this morning. He did agree it did smell like electrical issues he’s dealt with, which is some consolation but jesus christ. Who the fuck knew fucking BOXES could reek like that. Counting my blessings it wasn’t a stranger, and that it also wasn’t 911. At least I know now our wiring is up to snuff too, I guess.

TL:DR – Fuck Walmart.