# What is that smell in old people's homes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 24, 2005, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527 "2005-11-24T02:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![deevee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@deevee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deevee)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/21 "2005-11-24T20:05:06Z")
This thread stinks! ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/22 "2005-11-24T20:13:08Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > The question could’ve been asked more politely, but I think you’re taking this a little too personally. It could have been asked **way** more politely (“are they rotting?”). \*\*Ezstrete \*\*is justified in taking offense. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/23 "2005-11-24T20:16:06Z")
I’m fairly sure that the smell is urine. You find this same smell in nursing homes. I suspect that you’re smelled the person’s used Depends. ---
**Author:** ![robcaro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/24 "2005-11-24T23:11:24Z")
I am 76 and my home doesn’t smell bad. I shower every morning and use deodorant. Keeping clean is the secret to bad odors. I don’t pee in my pants either. I think a lot of old people are just not clean and they don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/25 "2005-11-25T01:23:30Z")
As far as my grandparents’ assisted living place goes, I think whatever smells may exist in one’s room (medications, urine, black bananas, Burma Shave) are profoundly increased by turning the heat all the way up. Older people get cold a lot - heat intensifies odors you might have anyway and has its own “heat” smell. ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/26 "2005-11-25T20:05:19Z")
We fart lots. Good ones too. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/27 "2005-11-25T20:17:18Z")
Stale air and Renuzit. Oh, and pee. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2005, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/28 "2005-11-25T20:28:04Z")
Is it old person smell, or old house smell? By this, I don’t mean that a building which is old is necessarily going to smell that way, but that a building which has hosted the same household for decades just might. My dad is 76, and he lives in a modern flat - there is no smell. I’m in my thirties and live in an old house - again, no smell. When I _have_ experienced “old person smell” is when I’ve visited somebody who has been living in the same home since, say, the 1950s. I think it’s just that a lot of items such as books or furniture don’t get moved around much and have a chance to get maybe a little damp and dusty (even where the person is a clean freak). I’ve also noticed it comes with cluttered homes where the owner is a hoarder. My former next-door neighbours had strong “old person smell” in their cluttered home (books in piles up to the ceiling, etc), my 83 year-old aunt lives in a very neat place, and there’s no smell. The spare bedroom, however, is the exception. It is generally unused, which might be why. ---
**Author:** ![Fuel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/df705f/32.png) [@Fuel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuel)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/29 "2005-11-26T00:22:16Z")
I visit the homes of sick elderly all the time in my paramedic training on the rescue trucks. There is a distinct odor that varies _slightly_ from house to house; I have thought about this a little bit in between calls and there is NO DOUBT that it is a mixture of things: smells like a mixture of urine, bad breath, dust, a build-up of regular body odor and some type of microscopic bug(s) that travels from the local hospitals to the community homes. Geez, and I am trying to eat spaghetti right now… ---
**Author:** ![Klaatu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Klaatu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klaatu)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/30 "2005-11-26T04:41:11Z")
As a remodeler who has worked in a lot of elderly people’s homes, I agree with **PinkShoes** on the stuffiness, all closed up thing. It definitely exacerbates whatever smells are in the house. My impressions are generally of a musty, sort of old books mixed with a medicinal thing kind of smell. I have also noticed that even when it’s 80 degrees outside, lots of old folks keep their heat unbearably high (to us workers anyway), which might add to the overall smell. Of course, no offense to the old folks, as most of them have forgotten more than I have ever known, and it’s really cool to talk to them about the “good ole days”. ---
**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/31 "2005-11-26T04:44:55Z")
Moth balls. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/32 "2005-11-26T04:57:57Z")
> [@](#): > > **Surbey** : One might also argue that the smell, that you smell, is the early stench of death. I believe that death is a gradual process and that it gives off an oder. Young and old have body cells that are dying off all the time. We don’t have the same bodies that we did a decade ago, so that’s not it. Death has a very distinctive odor and that is _not_ what is noticeable, if anything, in the homes of older people. My own opinion is that often, there is sometimes an odor associated with the older objects that they own. Where there is sickness – whether it is an old person or a young person – there _can_ sometimes be a detectable odor. I also notice other odors in houses or rooms that are occupied by other generations. As with other cultures, it may be a matter of what you are used to. > [@](#): > > **Surbey** : …and the smell of urine os so overwhelming that I can barely drive past it without gagging. If you are almost gagging in your car from a urine smell, the chances are that it is not coming from within the house that you are driving past. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/33 "2005-11-26T06:09:12Z")
> [@clairobscur](#): > > According to the Belgian singer Jacques Brel in “Les vieux”, it smells thyme, cleanness, lavender and yesteryear’s words. Which is a Belgian euphemism for “pee.” ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/34 "2005-11-26T09:36:28Z")
In my grandfather’s house it was mothballs, dust and old furniture. Mostly mothballs. He went crazy with them, put them everywhere. I don’t think the Salvation Army would have ever been able to get the smell of mothballs out of the blankets he donated to them. However, in addition to the mothballs, he had a lot of old stuff in his house - furniture, books, the aforementioned blankets, towels… musty linens in musty cupboards in a musty house = a distinct smell. Until the mothballs rendered everyone who entered the house incapable of smelling anything ever again. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/35 "2005-11-26T09:40:19Z")
Decayed dreams. ---
**Author:** ![Clock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19adc/32.png) [@Clock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clock)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/36 "2005-11-26T13:47:47Z")
> [@Jake](#): > > We fart lots. Good ones too. 😉 Yeah and sometimes we make mistakes :eek: ---
**Author:** ![MistahManMistahMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@MistahManMistahMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MistahManMistahMan)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/37 "2005-11-26T15:21:02Z")
> [@Clock](#): > > Yeah and sometimes we make mistakes :eek: leave a salami sandwich in the sun for a day and take a wiff. now put a guy in the sun for 70 years. Similar smell??? People just age slower than salami. Or it could be hormone build ups giving them a gamy smell. They castrate cattle so the meat doesn’t taste gamy. I bet guys with vasectomies don’t smell as bad when they get old as intact guys. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/38 "2005-11-26T17:16:55Z")
Here are some other points which take the subject seriously. First of all, everybody’s house smells, unless it is very new or its residents routinely steam-clean everything in it. Even my house has a smell. I’m just used to it. My grandfather is 86. My grandmother died in January at 87. Their house has little, if any “old person” smell that I can discern. Of course, she continued to clean — and so has he — so that probably helped. One might as well ask the question “what is black person smell?” or “what is Japanese person smell?” Setting medicines and perfumes and accidents aside for a moment, a huge factor in the smell of a house is diet. Someone who has a markedly different intake of food _will_ smell different. I notice this primarily when I visit the house of a friend whose staple foods are meat ‘n’ potatoes. Some older folks are more conscious of their diets and eat more fiber and less red meat. There would have to be a pretty strong commonality of diet for any one old person to smell much like another, though. (This could explain why nursing homes smell as they do; when _everybody_ eats the same food, the effect is cumulative.) There’s also the smell of cooking. Depending on how much the resident cooks for himself that will contribute to the scent. I don’t buy that urine is the main component, compelling though the scent is, because that would mean a house with an infant would have “old person smell.” One would expect day cares to smell this way… but they don’t. I also don’t buy the argument about “perfumed soaps.” I probably have the same soaps at my house; no “old person” smell. Mothballs are a possibility, given that many older people don’t buy and replace their wardrobes with the regularity of younger generations; the closet full of fabric retains a scent of its own. Medicine smells are a possibility, though I have to imagine they vary somewhat from person to person. Some self-applied medications (denture cement, joint cream) may be applied too liberally if the resident has an impaired sense of smell, but that could be true of many younger people also. I dunno, I got nothin’. It seems as if there are too many variables which vary too widely from person to person. If we presume that the organic stuff which causes smell does age, or sour (for lack of a better word), then maybe it’s just a function of time. ---
**Author:** ![VegaBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ee7513/32.png) [@VegaBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegaBean)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/39 "2005-11-26T21:29:33Z")
Their sense of smell is worse, so they don’t notice a dozen smells that younger people clean up right away. Mildew on towels in the hamper. Odors from the underside of the toilet lid. Food scraps clinging to wastebaskets. Furnace filters clogged with dust… ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2005, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527/40 "2005-11-26T21:45:59Z")
My gramma’s house has sort of a faint, old-fashioned perfumy-type smell. The scents she uses (powders, colognes, etc) are usually of the horribly nauseating cloying floral variety. Now my other gramma, her entire house smells like cigarettes. She’s been smoking all of her life, and she smokes the cheaper ones, and my god, I can only imagine what’ll happen when her house is eventually sold. I wonder how they’ll EVER get that smell out of there. It’s everywhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-that-smell-in-old-peoples-homes/332527.md?page=3)