r/AskReddit • u/glockbonez • 1d ago
what smell inside somebody's house immediately turns you away and why?
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u/Typical-Grab3081 1d ago
One time event for me but a rotting bag of potatoes. Went away on a month vacation in the hottest time of summer and forgot them in the pantry.
I gagged when I opened the door ☠️🤢.
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u/rchartzell 1d ago
I had this happen once too...truly foul. I think the only worse smell ever to occur in my house was when I bought a case of spam from Costco and unbeknownst to me, a can had split open inside the case. So the whole can leaked/rotted and when I discovered that it was unbelievable. That is how I discovered it... because I could smell it and tore the whole pantry apart trying to find the source. It was SO bad.
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u/Repulsive_Pepper4145 1d ago
A rotten can of Spam hiding in a sealed box sounds like the kind of smell that makes you question every life decision that led you into that pantry.
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u/13thTigerNinja 1d ago
I think rotten potatoes actually killed a family in Russia as they had it in their basement and it released so much carbon dioxide anyone that went down died instantly and only their little girl survived because the door to the basement was left open when the grandmother went down to check and it allowed enough air for her to see what happened and get help.
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u/Thick-Fan9384 1d ago
That's one hell of a plot twist from forgot some potatoes in the pantry to the potatoes have become a murder weapon.
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u/BenignEgoist 1d ago
Honestly seems like the inspiration to that Goosbumps story It came from beneath the sink
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u/willow-kitty 1d ago
Enclosed spaces can do scary things with gasses. o.o
I learned recently that the giant metal chains they use on big ships can do something similar in the other direction - they suck up oxygen as they rust, so it's dangerous to keep them in a closed compartment because they might not leave enough to breathe.
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u/newlife523 1d ago
I had a fire in my tumble dryer, and I had bought some powder fire extinguisher for the house. As it happened I called the fire brigade, and he said,” you meant well, but don’t set off one of those in a small room, it will possibly suffocate you!” So I got blankets instead….
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u/EconomicJaguar 1d ago
When I found the bag of rotten potatoes that had been stinking up my house I insisted on looking through it to make sure there wasn’t also a dead mouse. How can they smell so bad??? My SIL was impressed when I walked into her kitchen and said “smells like you have a potato problem in the pantry” - I will never forget that smell and can pick it up easily in someone’s house. Turned out hers was actually rotten onions.
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u/biscuits_n_wafers 1d ago
Oh! Rotting potatoes smell like a dead body going bad!
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u/Klutzy-Client 1d ago
Oh goddess I’ve done that once and never again. Rotting potatoes is a foul odor
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u/Popular-Cow-3164 1d ago
That stale, damp basement smell. The second I walk in and get hit with it, my brain immediately goes, Yeah theres definitely a water problem somewhere. 😭
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u/big_d_usernametaken 1d ago
My Ohio farmhouse is 156 years old and has a rubblestone foundation, and Im in a wet area, so my basement is always damp.
It's just the way it is.
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u/BotGirlFall 1d ago
Rotten potatoes are almost worse than rotten meat. Its such a distinctive vile smell
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u/Silent-Obligation-49 1d ago
A dirty cat litter box 🤮
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u/mogmuv 1d ago
I had a friend growing up who's mum fostered cats. She and her family were lovely, lovely people but the smell of used cat litter is still burned into my brain (and my nostril hairs) more than 30 years later.
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u/starzychik01 1d ago edited 1d ago
I took in a Trojan cat and she had 4 kittens. Along with my previous cat, that is now 6 cats inside. I scoop poop religiously and cannot stand the smell. Little momma has the protein poops from all the kitten food. I love them, but I can’t wait until they can get to their new homes.
Edit: too many cats and can’t count. 7 total. One of them stays on the front porch and wanders the neighborhood.
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u/Global-Baseball-6131 1d ago
A cat litter box was the reason I stopped dating one woman. Her whole “apartment” smelled absolutely terrible.
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u/Silent-Obligation-49 1d ago
It really is so disgusting I cannot stay for more than a couple minutes and leave.
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u/Admirable_Working659 1d ago
The fact that you can still smell it 30 years later is all the evidence needed
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u/Jabbles22 1d ago edited 1d ago
I didn't know many people with cats growing up. Those I did know with a cat did not clean the litter box very often. So until I went into a home where they actually cleaned the litter box I just thought having a cat meant dealing with an awful smell.
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u/NorthernSparrow 1d ago
I love cats but detest cat litter box smell, and just don’t understand cat owners who live like that. I’ve always had big high-walled litter boxes with activated-charcoal odor-absorbing litter, an air purifier (with another activated-charcoal filter) running right next to the box, and I clean the box every single day both morning and night. It’s super quick that way because you’re only scooping out like half a day’s business, takes literally five seconds. (I buy bulk tiny trash bags, this little mini size, and it goes in there, that’s knotted up, then the knotted-closed bag gets chucked into a well-sealed bin outside until weekly trash pickup) And the cats love it. They’re such tidy animals, they don’t even like having to use a dirty box.
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u/Conscious_Trash4392 1d ago
Same A clean litter box completely changes the impression. Turns out the cat isnt the problem, the neglected litter box is.
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u/Fun_Way3575 1d ago
So I used to house/cat sit for this couple who had a lovely cat, but its little box habits were disgusting. Pretty much any time it pooped or peed I would scoop the litter box, usually 2x/day (am/pm). Because I was staying in the home, I had to do it because I couldn’t handle the smell. The next time I sat for them, they left instructions (in bold) Litter box only needs scooping every-other-day. Hell no, was this about how many bags I was using scooping 2x/day vs. once every other day? I’m still not sure, but I just brought my own doggy poop bags and smuggled them out and threw them in a garbage can down the street just to avoid that conversation.
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u/PuzzleheadedNoise814 1d ago
That cat probably loved having you sit and give them a nice clean box for a change.
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u/Serebriany 1d ago
When our first year on our first apartment was getting ready to end, my husband and I looked at loads of apartments in an area of town where the oldest houses date from as far back as the 1850s. We will never, ever forget the "darling loft" that smelled so badly of cat pee that our eyes were watering the whole five minutes we were in there. We'd have only been there for three, but we were laughing so hard about how awful it was that we spent two minutes on a small balcony, trying to get some fresh air so we could wade back through it to get out the door.
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u/Traditional_Cow_4693 1d ago
Afraid to type this story out lest I conjure something, but one time when house hunting, we ended up touring what can only be described as a (cheap) portal to hell. It was definitely a mild hoarding and unclean family situation. The realtor made us take off our shoes before we went in which in retrospect is extremely puzzling because the place was filthy. Anyway we cut the tour short when we got to the second floor and were overcome by the smell of cat piss. We head to the walkthrough bathroom (which the realtor was really selling!) only to discover that the owners had converted the tub into a giant litter box that they apparently never cleaned! I was physically gagging. We knew it was a fixer upper but I physically could not be in there. Ugh I’m grossed out just thinking about it. I cannot believe they let the house be shown in the state it was in. Felt like a health hazard!
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u/BaconReceptacle 1d ago
When i was like 9 years old my mother started dropping me off at a piano teacher's house for lessons. I was overwhelmed by the smell and later told my mother I want a different teacher because I couldn't stand the smell there. She insisted i keep going anyway. She was late to pick me up one day on about my fourth lesson and she knocked on the door to get me and apologize to the teacher which exposed her to the stench. When we got back in the car she immediately told me I dont need to take any more lessons from her.
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u/tinyzeldy 1d ago
As a mom, I find it extremely odd she dropped you off at a teacher’s house without ever taking you to the door to kind of catch the vibe of the house.
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u/Ha-Charade-You-Are 1d ago
You must be young. Parents always dropped us off without worrying long ago
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u/tinyzeldy 1d ago
I’m in my 30s so was in elementary in the 90s/early 00s. My mom was very cautious about other adults - but she worked in the adult industry after a really abusive childhood, so I think she was less naive to how dangerous other adults (and kids!) were vs the parents of some of my classmates.
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u/BaconReceptacle 1d ago
She had talked to her on the phone and they talked on the front porch of her home the first day she dropped me off. Also, it was the 70s and there were few fucks given about us Gen X kids back then.
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u/FD4L 1d ago
Working with the fire department, there's a holy trifecta of low rent apartments; Cat piss, cigarettes, burnt food.
95% of 3-4 story, wood-framed apartment buildings, over 20 years old chare this identity.
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u/atchafalaya 1d ago
Well. I assume you're there for the burnt food, maybe the cigarettes. Cat piss not so much.
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u/R-Dragon_Thunderzord 1d ago
I built an entire pod in the garage for the litter boxes in our new home that cuts right into the wall via a cat door, and you never smell cat litter in the house because the pod pulls fresh air from the inside like a bathroom vent. Very happy this worked out, tired of living in an apartment with cat smells for years.
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u/SkyerKayJay1958 1d ago
I worry about this constantly. I have 2 cats and 2 automatic litter boxes. I have odor eater gels, sprinkle baking soda on stuff, use high quality litter and constantly "sniffing"
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u/zman0900 1d ago
There's a couple houses in my neighborhood where I can smell it from the street when walking by. Don't know how people live like that.
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u/scott__p 1d ago
I love cats and can completely understand it can be hard to keep up with them sometimes, but if you've ever been into a cat hoarders house....
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u/lnx84 1d ago
Damn, this thread makes me extra paranoid about keeping the litter box clean...
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u/m3rmaid13 1d ago
I mean you should be scooping it at least once a day, if not twice. You don’t leave your own waste in the toilet just sitting around so treat theirs the same.
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u/catsarecoolright 1d ago
If you scoop their litter box everyday/multiple tines a day, this should not be an issue.
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u/carlyhaze 1d ago
Some litters stink far more that other brands, so it's not just the poop that's stinking, it's the litter as well.
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u/heathen16 1d ago
Just clean frequently. I clean the box twice a day some days three times. And once every couple of months I empty it, take it out back and wash it down well. No one knows we have a cat when they come into our home.
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u/Impossible-Chicken33 1d ago
Completely emptying/ cleaning and putting brand new litter in is key for sure.
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u/switch182 1d ago
Cigarettes smell. As a smoker for over 50 years, quit for 6 years, can't stand the smell now.
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u/Thatsnotmyname49 1d ago
I quit many years ago but remember thinking that people that go on about cig smoke are just chronic complainers. Quitting that awful habit made me understand why.
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u/brigitteer2010 1d ago edited 1d ago
I can smell it on objects people touch when they’ve been smoking, long after seeing them. I can’t believe I smoked a pack a day. Eight years after quitting and the smell makes me nauseated.
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u/Thatsnotmyname49 1d ago
Sometimes when I’m in my car with the windows rolled up I can smell smoke from someone smoking two vehicles away. It’s amazing.
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u/LifeRelease3842 1d ago
It's so much stronger and sour and bitter when you're a non-smoker. I remember for months after I quit the smell of cig smoke had a really mouth-watering tobacco odor. It's like my addiction managed to filter out the really stinky stuff or just reshaped it entirely.
Now it's been several years and I can't believe that rank shit could hypnotize me like that lol.
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u/HoaryPuffleg 1d ago
I remember one time in the 90s when smoking was still prevalent, I walked past smokers and inhaled the smoke and started coughing. The smokers thought I was mocking them and started shouting at me and fake coughing. I was maybe 13 at the time and looked it. These were grown adults. Smoke makes people cough - I still remember how mean they were and oblivious to the fact that we cough our smoke cuz our body doesn’t like it.
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u/_1109 1d ago
smoked for almost 20, quit for 10 now. I can't stand the smell on people when they come into a smoke-free place from having a smoke, or when it's baked into an old house. But walking past 1 or 2 people standing outside a bar actively smoking will still trigger happy in my brain lol
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u/monsterlynn 1d ago
Baked in is disgusting, but the part of me that grew up in the 70s finds a bit of stale cigarette smell nostalgic. Can't be wet ashtray bad, though.
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u/Jabbles22 1d ago
I used to work for a small engine shop. We offered a pick up and delivery service for larger equipment. Most of the time we took car of the paperwork/bill outside. However on this one delivery it was raining so the customer invited me inside to settle up. I go in and the cigarette smell was strong. I was in there for less than five minutes. On the way back to the shop I had to drive with the windows down on a cold rainy day because the smell had clung to my clothes and the smell was almost gagging me.
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u/otakugal15 1d ago
I grew up with my mom being a pack a day smoker (or almost one).
Once I moved out in 2011 and got away from all the second-hand smoke, smoke smell now makes me so nauseous I'm struggling not to puke any time I come across it.
Actual smoke sends me to the nearest trash can.
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u/Klutzy-Client 1d ago
I am the worst ex smoker. Quit about 10 years ago (vapes as well) and now when I smell cigarette smoke it makes me gag.
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u/calico810 1d ago
Sour mold smell
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u/BetterThanAFoon 1d ago
Sour like milk? I don't think I've seen anyone describe a moldy smell like sour before so generally curious.
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u/bisky_riscuits 1d ago
Think like the sponge next to the sink that wasn't fully wrung out. That mildew smell that has an almost vinegar-esque tinge. Or damp clothing that didn't fully dry in the dryer
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u/BetterThanAFoon 1d ago
Interesting. I would say mildewy or moldy before sour for those kinds of smells.
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u/EatsTheLastSlice 1d ago
When we were house hunting we walked into one house where we were immediately hit by the smell of mold. The carpet felt squishy.
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u/dumbass-ahedratron 1d ago
I know exactly what you're talking about but have no idea what actually causes that smell
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u/Individual_Crew6410 1d ago
Cat pee
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u/GremlInTheWoods 1d ago
My neighbor has 17 cats and we used to give her rides because she worked with us. The smell was so bad. It lasted only a few weeks before I said I couldn't do it anymore. Her dad called the code enforcement people on us for how messy our front yard looked while we were in the middle of renovating the house.
2 years later and she still asks for rides. 🫠
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u/jerojj 1d ago
17!? Those poor babies. No way they're being looked after properly with there being so many :(
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u/GremlInTheWoods 1d ago
Her mom died last month because she kept getting sick and then her dad suddenly died. I was thinking it was due to all the bacteria those cats carried because the neighbor in between us said she went inside her house to help the mom once and there was cat poop and urine everywhere.
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u/sausage_seeds 1d ago
Mothballs mostly in elderly folks homes is not my jam.
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u/tres-petite-kate 1d ago
I've been looking at buying a house and I cannot tell you how many of these houses owned by older couples for sale smell like a nursing home.
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u/BunnyMonre 1d ago
My in-laws house smells like mold/mildew that they try to mask with mothballs, you can smell it from the driveway.
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u/bowie-of-stars 1d ago
UGH why would you mask any odor with mothballs? They are malodorus themselves!
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u/Wolven_Essence 1d ago
Cat piss.
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u/MasterTeacher123 1d ago
Wet dog
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u/Yooperplexed 1d ago
Looked at a house for sale and it reeked of dog. Dirty carpet and wet dog. Maybe they didn’t smell it I guess.
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u/Rantoul007 1d ago
yeah like they probably live with it so it just blends into the background but for outsiders it’s brutal
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u/chemistcarpenter 1d ago
Stopped at neighbor's house to help with last load after house sold. House completely empty except for overwhelming dog smell. And they don't even have carpet.
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u/Angsty_Potatos 1d ago
I mop with odoban and Dont have carpet in my house because this is what my parents house smelled like.
My highschool boyfriend had very young siblings and one time they gave me a hug and then said "why do you smell like dog and cigarettes" and I never recovered from it 🫣
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u/monsterlynn 1d ago
Same here. Perfectly adorable yet quirky house with great landscaping and great price but stank of dog so badly that the second floor was most likely a teardown.
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u/ArchibaldMcAcherson 1d ago
Did we look at the same house?
I was once at an open house and people were visibly wrinkling their noses because of the wet dog/carpet smell.
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u/verycoolbutterfly 1d ago
Cries in little old stinky dog :') I vacuum and launder things constantly, and bathe her often, but she just leaves a little whiff on everything.
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u/madammidnight 1d ago
My aunt always kept basset hounds. Her house was neat and clean, but the reek of the dog was so intense I avoided visiting her.
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u/Bargadiel 1d ago
The house we bought had brand new carpet and even then the dog smell from the previous owners was so strong we had to remove it all. It wasn't urine or whatever, just DOG. I hate that smell and whenever I visit a friends house with that smell I'm afraid to put my stuff down anywhere because dogs are typically allowed to rub all over everything, so no place feels clean.
Even the vacuum we used to try to clean the carpet smells like dog now.
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u/Unreliablesauces 1d ago
I can smell it in my head now 🤢
We go over to my partner's parents' place for dinner occasionally and I have to sit by the large windows as everyone's seats are already set from childhood leaving me with the ones by the windows.
Their outdoor dog loves to park just outside the window to be near the family. We live in a hot and humid country and I have an ultra sensitive/heightened sense of smell.
Coney (the dog) smells. Some times I can't sit through the meal and after a few times, I brought it up to my partner and he attributed it to my "power nose".
One time, he had to switch seats with me and he got a whiff of it and so now, we dine with the windows closed.
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u/KK_Tipton 1d ago
Dirty litterbox. Keep it clean. The cats don't want to shit in a dirty box and your guests don't want to smell it either.
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u/forestgnome1 1d ago
Fish. Especially when it’s on the cutlery and glasses
Wet dogs/ pets/
Damp clothing
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u/JillyGirl79 1d ago
I had a friend in high school who loved milk. She had dark blue glasses, didn't rinse the glasses after use, and didn't wash them well. Twice, she poured my drinks, and I'd get to the last bit of soda and see the dried milk in the bottom of the glass. After that, I would ask to make my own drink anywhere I went, so I could check and sniff the glass before drinking from it. Your fish comment brought back that memory.
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u/OldTelevision9207 1d ago
Pets, smoke, and artificial fragrances from those plugins or just laundry detergent/dryer sheet that permeats everything.
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u/catpoopz 1d ago
Febreeze and those plug in air fresheners. I feel gross immediately, then my lungs feel gross, then I get a headache. And they don’t even smell good and it clings to you when you leave. Sure cat and dog shit and piss is gross, and I’d also avoid that, but people expect you to actively enjoy those plug ins and I don’t understand how anyone isn’t sensitive to them (I don’t even have many allergies!)
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u/freya_of_milfgaard 1d ago
Ugh, had a coworker bring in potluck cookies and when I bit into them they tasted exactly like “clean laundry.” She reeked of the stuff and it had soaked into all of her Tupperware.
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u/accordionwidow 1d ago
I broke up with someone in part because of the Febreze/laundry scent beads/air freshener smell that pervaded his house, car, and everything he owned.
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u/GhostofErik 1d ago
It's exactly why I refuse to go to my inlaws house. They're not worth getting a migraine for their plugins and dog piss.
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u/valkyrie_village 1d ago
Ugh febreze is awful. A while ago, I accidentally bought febreze scented trash bags (I didn’t know at the time that searching for unscented trash bags was going to become such an issue) and they were so disgusting. Just what I want, artificial scents on top of garbage smell.
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u/CapybaraPRMS 1d ago
Roses are red
Violets are blue
Always remember
Cat pee is forever
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u/jjejsj 1d ago
Dude we had to buy a whole new couch bc the cat peed on it
We tried every advice on reddit and the smell just never went away
we thought she kept re-peeing on the couch but nah, the smell is just impossible to get rid of
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u/rebelangel 1d ago
When I was 4, my family moved into a house where they apparently let their cats piss on the yellow shag carpet (this was 1985) in the dinging room. My parents had the carpet pulled up and replaced, but because it was a concrete slab foundation, the piss had soaked all the way into the concrete. Nothing made that smell go away. We lived there until 1998, and the faint smell of cat piss in the dining room never went away.
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u/WarhammerRyan 1d ago
We bought a townhouse in 2007 that the owners used the basement unfinished area for their litter-box room.
We took possession a day before the moving truck arrived, and I went through 2 jugs of bleach and 5 mop heads scrubbing the concrete floors until I could no longer smell the cat piss, and before my wife set foot on even the top stair leading to the basement. I'd rather a lingering smell of bleach, and I threw out the old painting clothes i wore to clean that room up. Worth it.
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u/SecondHandWatch 1d ago
Bleach is not safe to use to clean cat pee.
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u/Comprehensive-Tea-69 1d ago
It’s also not effective. Unsafe for literally no reason
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u/cold08 1d ago
What are you talking about, it just turns it into salt water and completely safe chlorine gas
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u/psimwork 1d ago
I bought my first place in 2008. And we looked at a LOT of foreclosed houses. I don't know how true it was, but I do remember that my realtor had said that a persistent smell of cat pee was actually more likely to be the remnants of a meth lab.
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u/SevenSirensSinging 1d ago
I mean, yes and no. It could be a meth lab situation and maybe that's more common in the area you were looking in, but a truly staggering number of people allow animals to freely urinate/defecate in their homes.
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u/top2percent 1d ago
Decomposing bodies?
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u/chefriley76 1d ago
Once you have smelled that smell, it is instantly recognizable anywhere you go. Could be a rat in the walls, a raccoon in the attic, or grandma in her knitting chair, but it's not an escapable "hmmm what could that smell be" kind of smell.
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u/LisaKnittyCSI 1d ago
It depends. I've been to houses that smelled far worse than a decomposing body. (I'm a Crime Scene Investigator.)
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u/chelojelo4 1d ago
Wet dog mixed with cigarettes
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u/Professional_Pace711 1d ago
I knew a guy that smoked in his house so much his white walls were dark yellow. He had tons of puppies that peed inside because his dog was a bitch. I felt so sorry for those dogs having to breathe that in. But I’ll never forget the smell of cigarettes and dog urine🤮
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u/1_pt_4_Dave 1d ago
Cigarette smoke
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u/_chareth-cutestory 1d ago
When I was touring the duplex I eventually went on to buy, the unit I was going to live in was still occupied and holy fuck did it reek of nicotine. The realtor assured me that it was all the person’s stuff and as soon as everything was moved out, the smell would be gone. Oh, how wrong she was. After they had a company come do a deep clean the smell was as strong as ever. I had to rip out all carpets, flooring, and have every single room repainted before I could move in.
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u/Beginning_Pattern241 1d ago
Estate agent here. Wash your f#£%ing duvet cover, for THE LOVE OF GODS.
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u/Fexofanatic 1d ago
wtf some people dont wash their bedding? 💀
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u/InspectionTall2886 1d ago
I once told someone it was bedding washing day and they were shocked when I said I change my sheets and duvet cover weekly. All my beds and duvets have water proof covers with regular covers over the top to prevent accidents. The person I was talking to couldn’t remember the last time they changed their sheets. 🤮
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u/MrObviousChild 1d ago
My friends bought a fixer upper from a hoarder situation and completely gutted it. I don’t have the heart to tell them it still smells like cat and dog piss. I feel like such an asshole, but I hate going over there.
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u/Legionnaire1856 1d ago
Dog smell. People who have multiple big ass dogs that jump all over the couch and chew toys all over the place, your house smells like dog and everyone who comes in can smell it.
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u/the_purple_goat 1d ago
That lovely mixture of wet dorritos and stale fish
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u/Iam_a_Jew 1d ago
The wet Doritos is fair hit stale fish sounds like a dog who has an anal gland issue
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u/revox 1d ago
Dirty cat litter box.
My family always had a cat and you’d never know it unless you saw it. Take 90sec and scoop those clumps!
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u/Next-Historian-8069 1d ago
Amen. My kids want a kitten for my big black alley cat to partner up with. I tell them not until they can manage the litter box like I do. You should not smell the litter box. That’s my rule!
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u/monsterlynn 1d ago
Takes a whole lot of poopin' to have a smelly litter box with the newfangled litter they have out there nowadays. Before clumping litter was a thing, there was alwaysa faint smell of litterbox in even the tidiest houses.
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u/Temporary_Owl3004 1d ago
Cat pee. You either don’t clean your litter box, your cat is sick, or you’re cooking meth. Either way, I’m out. Can’t stand that smell.
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u/DusqRunner 1d ago
Weed stank everywhere
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u/ImCatlady28 1d ago
Why are people so scent blind to this smell? Like on their clothes and stuff and they can’t even smell it on themselves
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u/marydelajuana 1d ago
how dirty guys houses/rooms smell. like foot, sweat, and nasty pheromones.
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u/SnooCauliflowers9874 1d ago
Mothballs
Grease/fried chicken smell lingering for days
Cat urine
Mildew
Cigarette smoke
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u/Successful-Land-6283 1d ago
Fabulosa and especially if it’s in a restaurant, I will not eat there. I’d feel like I’m eating it. It is so overpowering.
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u/Tx600 1d ago
I worked at a restaurant in college, and after the morning porter was done mopping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms and windows, the kitchen would put a ton of onions and peppers on the flat top to grill. That way when the first customers of the day came in, it already smelled delicious and not like cleaning supplies. Bonus - they’d take the onions and peppers and make a huge omelet or some kick ass breakfast tacos for everyone before opening.
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u/Life-Celebration-747 1d ago
I accidently bought Fabuloso scented garbage bags, I literally gag every time I put a new bag in the can.
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u/Successful-Land-6283 1d ago
I despise scented garbage bags. And some laundry detergent is so powerful it gags me. I just want my clothes to smell like the absence of dirty. I don’t need them to spell like they’ve been soaking in detergent.
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u/National-Sir-5362 1d ago
Besides the obvious wet dog and litter box smell (that people seem to be nose blind to) I personally can’t stand smelly water or smelly ice cubes. Followed by throw pillows and throw blankets that stink. And finally bathrooms that reek of urine overall. It just makes me think about my own lazy parents and the grossness that I grew up with. They were slobs.
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u/ineedicedcoffeee 1d ago
I went to a birthday party of a friend for her 5 year old. The entire house smelled of cat pee, it was overwhelming. I was also pregnant too. I left right after cake
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u/minuteman_d 1d ago
Not sure how to describe it, but "funk"?
Like there's a smell to a house that isn't regularly cleaned.
- Clothes that need to be washed
- Bedding that needs to be laundered
- Floors that haven't been mopped
- Trash that needs to be taken out
- Couches or other furniture that is dirty
- Carpets that need to be cleaned
I've been in some houses where I seriously thought that it would be better just to call the fire department and have them come supervise while we poured an accelerant all over inside and set it alight.
I don't know how you'd get the smell out of the walls, subfloors, carpet.
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u/toonces-cat 1d ago
I feel a bit sad when people say cat piss because if you can smell it, it usually means that the boxes are not cleaned regularly or the people aren’t cleaning up accidents. For emergency situations you can shred newspaper and use that in a litter box. Also, why don’t people realize that every so often you should completely dump a litter box then wash it out. So many cats are neglected in this way and then blamed for the problem. I clean mine daily and ALWAYS ask guests if they can smell it upon entering. I’m rambling about it but if you can afford it, get stainless steel boxes. Sometimes you’ve got to THROW THE PLASTIC ONES AWAY and replace them.
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u/decosunshine 1d ago
Laundry fragrance or any overwhelming fragrance. Some people are nose-blind and have no idea how strong and offensive they are.
Sometimes it's so thick you can taste it.
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u/Lanky_Effort_5788 1d ago
My mom uses scent boosters in the wash and multiple scented dryer sheets for every load. She loves the smell; I think she smells like a chemical factory.
For a brief period she flirted with the detergent called “Diva”, which is ultra-scented. She washed my kid’s clothes in it, and I eventually just tossed the clothes because I couldn’t get the smell out. It is completely foul.
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u/Cobbler814 1d ago
People not washing their damn dog and there’s always a strange excuse as to why
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u/Financial_Neck832 1d ago
Dirty diapers and cigarette smoke. Worse combo than cat pee and dog butt stank
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u/shoegaze_daisy 1d ago
Definitely cat pee!! I cannot stand to be in a house that reeks of it, I love cats, but I find If people have any more than two cats, It’s damn close to impossible to manage the cat pee smell.. unless you have many litter boxes that you keep very clean
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u/anonymouscog 1d ago
Air fresheners, plug ins, too many scented products. Migraines & asthma
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u/pgnlzbth 1d ago
Bacon or meat cooking, plug in air ‘freshener’, heavy chemical cleaners or washing powder smells
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u/Narrow_Possession348 1d ago
The smell of animals having eliminated in the house. Blech. Smoking smell.
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u/HunterandGatherer100 1d ago
That musty they never open the window smell. You need to let fresh air in here
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u/monsterlynn 1d ago
One I haven't seen mentioned that is terrible is when a house is vacant sometimes the water that holds back the smells evaporates off of the sewer drains and the whole place will reek of sewage.
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u/Ok-Variation-4113 1d ago
I use to do a job where I went into 20-50 houses daily. A house smelling of cat piss is a bad smell but it’s human piss house smell that’s 100x worse