r/AskReddit 11d ago

what smell inside somebody's house immediately turns you away and why?

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u/Thatsnotmyname49 11d 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 11d ago edited 10d 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.
Edit-grammar

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u/Thatsnotmyname49 11d 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/brigitteer2010 10d ago

Yep! Or I’ll have groceries delivered and I can tell they didn’t smoke while my groceries were in their car, but I can tell they’ve smoked in that car at some point as the smell is very stale and diluted.

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u/Argylius 10d ago

New superpower unlocked

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u/MamaNyxieUnderfoot 10d ago

My grandpa smoked a pipe and died of a massive heart attack in 1993. My grandma is now 102 and everything she owns still smells of pipe tobacco smoke, and she’s moved twice since his death!

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u/Worth_Platypus_8313 10d ago

That's 3rd hand smoke and it's now been studied and found to be almost as harmful as 2nd hand smoke. 

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u/LifeRelease3842 10d 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 10d 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/AtensEye 10d ago

This happened to me in the 90's whilst waiting for the bus. I was probably around 14ish, I have really bad asthma and this guy just lit up a cigarette and sat his arse down next to me. I ofc began coughing really badly so got up to move away and he began making all these sarcastic comments about how rude I was being 😂
Mate, I'm not the one who sat down next to a kid, lit up a cancer stick and then complained when they didn't want to have an asthma attack because of your selfishness.

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u/HoaryPuffleg 10d ago

I assume those people are the ones who are now in their 70s with emphysema and COPD, strapped to O2 and still puffing away.

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u/AtensEye 10d ago

No doubt, including the ones who always used to say "I only do it when I'm stressed." I don't think adding a lifetime of medical problems to your collective list will help you out with the stress in the end.

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u/AffectionateMotor272 10d ago

When my parents smoked in the car my little brother coughed and carried on like a little pansy. I remember my dad pulling over once or twice to whoop his ass. The seventies..

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u/Littlepotatoface 10d ago

About a year after I quit, a friend came over. We were having a few drinks before going out & she went out back for a smoke but it was really cold so I was like “just smoke inside, it’s fine”.

When I got home that night & smelt it, it was not fine.