A couple of months ago, my MIL lost power, and all the meat that was in her upright freezer spoiled, and stayed in there for a week. She got a new one for Christmas this year, so she gave us the old one. Until today, it had been sitting on our garage porch with the door open, in an attempt to air it out. Today, I took inside the garage, tilted it on its back, and scrubbed it with a solution of TSP, Oxiclean, and a couple of dissolved dishwasher tablets. My plan is to swish the detergent water around in it once a day for a week, then rinse it out, and maybe the repeat the process once.

Does anyone else here have any ideas, because I'm basically just winging it here. If I can get it smelling good, it'll more than double our freezer storing space.......

Mix water and a 4% solution of chlorine bleach...or appx 2oz. of bleach to 1qt. of water...

My SIL supposedly did this, to no avail, but I've no confidence in her cleaning skills......

Go 10%!   

I'm wondering if the plastic will ever release all the smell?

But bleach would be my choice to.

An open box of Baking Soda??

charcoal?  supposedly it is an absorbent of odors

charcoal?  supposedly it is an absorbent of odors

Shame on you. This is a pellet forum.

charcoal?  supposedly it is an absorbent of odors

Shame on you. This is a pellet forum.

Well, maybe some people still have the bags of charcoal leftover in their garage when they went to the dark side with pellets.

Strong bleach rinse first and then a box of baking soda in a pan of water and rinse and scrub with it.

Whenever my brother went on a 'dead body' call, everyone would slather copious amounts of vapo-rub under/around their noses and puff on cigars. 

I don't see how one could get rid of it short of complete immersion for a long period of time. I can think of a few other options.
Remove the surface of the plastic to a depth that may be suitable (wag), or rough it up and paint it with a urethane based product.
Perhaps glue in new panels and caulk the seams?

Whatever you do, make sure the freezer sits upright for a few days before you plug it in.

I had this same problem and here is what worked... I had a container of activated charcoal for putting in aquarium filters.  I spread this out a an inch or 2 deep on a sheet pan and with in a few days the smell was gone.  Its the same idea as baking soda,but the charcoal has more surface area and spreading it out increases surface contact with the nasty air.

Shady car dealers use cat litter to get swampy smells out of flooded vehicles, it also works for stale smoke. You never know, it’s cheep, just dump a bag in and close the door. You could also try remedies for skunk sprayed.

You could also try remedies for skunk sprayed.

I came back to this thread to post a good recipe to use for ridding a dog of skunk spray odor.  It's about 5 years old and has spread through every dog forum and veterinarian office so there probably isn't one better.

Here are the ratios.  Mix as much as you need, maybe a half gallon.

1 quart of 3-percent hydrogen peroxide (drug store item)
¼ cup baking soda
1 teaspoon liquid dishwashing soap (for a dog, don't use the strong grease cutters)

Also for a dog, don't leave it on them very long.  Wash more than once rather than letting it dwell.

I need to use this on my dogs about once a year.  Yeah, Nebraska upland game hunting.

As I think about this—it's a formula for washing the contaminants off.

I don't see how you can wash the insulation that's holding the odor.  I suspect that the odor-absorbing suggestions have more merit.

To the dog owners among us—keep the components handy.  You don't want to go shopping for them when they're needed.