# Why do some people's houses smell? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 17, 2003, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963 "2003-03-17T09:13:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/21 "2003-03-18T22:03:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Indygrrl \* > \*\*One of my best girlfriends is the world’s worst housekeeper. I mean, her house is a cesspool. Dishes in the sink from weeks ago, the furniture smells like urine, floors haven’t been vacuumed, mopped or swept in months. It’s a travesty. > … > Frankly, I think some people just weren’t taught how to clean up properly. From what I hear, she has always been this way. Ah, well, we love her no matter how stinky her house is (although I won’t sleep there). \*\* I have a friend exactly like this, except her whole family was like that since I’ve known her. Their house has literally not been cleaned in 20 years, and it looks (and smells) beyond your imagination. It’s one of those houses that should be featured on **20/20** about people who have OCD for being messy. Some of the neighbors have tried to get the health department involved since there are still little kids in her family, but they won’t touch the situation since it’s private property. But I digress. I literally can’t describe the smell her parents’ house has – and now her own house had – except that it’s probably mold. She carries the smell on herself, too, it follows her like a cloud. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/22 "2003-03-18T22:12:39Z")
I’ve found that everyone’s house has a characteristic smell, just like Holden Caulfield. Must be a combo of pets, cleaning products, cooking habits, fragranced cosmetics (nothing could stink up a house like my dad putting on cologne), chemicals emitted by synthetics in the home, and other random stuff that you characteristically have in your house. There is a certain ‘smell,’ though, that some people just seem to have … I first noticed it in university rez, when the guy across the hall from me had this smell in his room that I found unbearable - I couldn’t spend any time in there, I had to find somewhere else to talk to him. He still smelled of it, though. Not quite BO, not quite something rotting, not like anything else I’ve smelled … I do have a particularly sensitive sense of smell, it must be said, because I’ve smelled it in other places and no one else seems to notice. This smell follows certain men, I’ve found: sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker. Must be pheremones: everybody smells like _something_, right? I once almost fell in love with someone on the bus because of his smell. ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2003, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/23 "2003-03-18T22:41:02Z")
You can buy carpet deodorizers that are pretty much just baking soda. They do pretty well. Some you sprinkle on and them vacuum up or you can just get a can that shoots foam on to the carpet that just soaks in and takes up the smell. Made my place smell much nicer. My cat produces a lot of “material” and the smell sort of builds up. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/24 "2003-03-19T01:41:59Z")
**cowgirl** : I know exactly what you mean about certain people, usually men, having an intoxicating smell that can almost make you fall in love with them. Ditto on the way certain guys smell that turns you way off. I once spurned a guy solely based on his smell, and it turned out to be a great decision. If kitty litterpans are clean and kitties are fastidious, what else would cause a bad kitty smell in the house? ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/25 "2003-03-19T02:55:56Z")
Well, I said **dogs** , not cats. At one point during my childhood, we had five indoor/outdoor cats, and I don’t remember that affecting the “tone” of the house. (Though the “outdoor” part may have had something to do with it.) ---
**Author:** ![Violet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/ebca7d/32.png) [@Violet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Violet)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2003, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963/26 "2003-03-19T05:37:03Z")
The combo of cigarette smoke and moth balls is most unappetizing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-some-peoples-houses-smell/161963.md?page=1)