Ok I've been researching this all night and it's driving me crazy!

My sims constantly have a "Dirty Surroundings" moodlet inside the house. Here is what I know:

• I've never had a fire
• Haven't been hit by a meteorite ( I don't think...)
• I have a maid but it doesn't go away after he cleans up and leaves
• I got a mod that let's me "Clean House" but the moodlet is there the whole time
• I can't SEE anything rotting or dirty or smelly
• I have a dog and cat but I bathed them both
• I reset my sim and it went away, only to come back a few seconds later!
• There are no newspapers or plates of food in any sim's inventory. Though there is dried food, could that be it? What about flowers?

This has been going on since I started the game a few days ago and it is driving me CRA-RAZY! Any suggestions on what could be causing this?

I've had this problem too, it's really annoying.

Have you checked to make sure no food went bad in the fridge? Or do laundry, if you have Ambitions? Maids do neither of these things.

If you ctrl-click it away with Testingcheatsenabled turned on, does it come back? And can you narrow down where it is based on what room the moodlet first appears in?

Also you'd know if you had been hit by a meteor, because it'd level a third of your house and set the rest on fire.

Nothing in the fridge, did the laundry.

I did the trick Zokugai suggested. I Crtl+Clicked in ever room and it seems to be the whole downstairs! Once they go upstairs or outside, they're fine. What is the deal?!

And yeah... I guess I haven't been hit with a meteor lol

Hm. Maybe a newspaper somewhere the maid can't get to?

Hmmm maybe! Though I just picked up every piece of furniture and didn't see anything....

Oh my GOD I figured it out! The rug in front of my door needed to be replaced for some reason. Maybe my pets peed on it or something. Whew!

I didn't even know that was possible. How did you ever find it?

If a cat scratches on furniture or other objects, they will be destroyed in the end and need to be replaced; you will hear one of the ting-a-ling sounds when this happens.

This maybe is the same with dogs chewing on furniture or objects, I haven't actually seen a dog do this though.

Yeah but cats can't scratch and dogs can't chew rugs.

I wonder if maybe one of the pets peed inside and the puddle was hidden by the rug. And it just happened to finally dry up at a convenient time. Because the pets peeing shouldn't affect the rug itself (that is, the rug doesn't smell, but it could possibly overlap a puddle, which would smell).

Yup! Dogs and cats can in fact chew and scratch rugs! I just tested it by having my dog chew on it. He chewed it twice and then it made that sad sound and my sims got the dirty surroundings moodlet. My cat had to scratch on the new one 6 times for it to be ruined. I guess one of them was doing that and I missed it. Naughty pets!

Oh, and I found it by clicking on EVERYTHING in my house to see if it needed to be replaced!

My -40 Dirty Surroundings moodlet showed up after a stray cat came by and shreaded my newpaper on the front lawn. There is nothing there... nothing to clean up or replace... Help! :}

It's possible that newspapers and shredded newspapers are hidden under flowers. If you have flowerbeds everywhere near the porch try going into Buy Mode and drag the flowers around to see if the newspaper is there.

If you have testingcheatsenabledTRUE you can simply right-click the moodlet and it will go away.

I figured this one out. Your sim must have a snob trait...if a dog or cat chewed on something it may not look destroyed, but the snob will hate the object until you replace it. click on rugs, plants and furniture until you see "replace" popup and that will take care of it. jailormoon

I was having a problem like this and I added more trashcans all around; that seemed to help, as I remember...

ive had the same problem... none of my sims have the snob trait, and all my pets have the non-destructive trait, ive tried more garbage cans and a garbage compacter but nothing is working

just read your reply,
Ive tried this multiple times and it always comes back...
i have twallans master control mod, even using the clean and repair all
the moodlet will not go away, i know its just a moodlet but its seriously annoying....

This is not directly related to the pets causing it but sometimes this moodlet can be due to damaged build objects, too. I had this once in a bathroom where the moodlet would not go away, even after using MasterController's clean and repair all. It turned out to be the window that needed to be replaced. I then remembered that this house had formerly been hit by that meteor shower you sometimes get as a "welcome scenario" when moving in.

Also having this problem. I've seen the cats go crazy on the couch so I replaced that. One of my sims DOES have the snob trait, so it's going to make trying to find what the problem is difficult.

My cats have thrown up hairballs inside, but I don't have any rugs, just carpet. Could it effect the carpet as well?

This happened to me too, I solved it by fixing my broken garbage disposal.

ok so im having the same problem but the issue seems to be contained in my kitchen area, ive torn down the entire Wing of the house with the kitchen in it and rebuilt it yet still get a moodlet no matter what character when they enter that space.

I had this problem and couldn't figure out what object needs replacing so what solved this problem for me was to reset the lot via master controller. Destroyed objects (doors, furniture etc) return to its unbroken state

If you also get the "stinky" moodlet (the one with the orange screwed up face), you could have a pizza or something that got lost in a table. Sometimes when you set food down on a small table, it disappears but the object is still technically there. You can't even sell the table because it's "still in use." So you have to delete it some other way.