Some households have a grimy smell? What causes it?

My house smelt funny for a bit didnt understand why as I clean every day. It was the oven. Cleaned it, went away. Now I use the air fryer where possible as I clean it after cooking and clean the oven once a month but its barely used now.

Film of grease and dirt on hard surfaces. Smell of it in soft furnishings. Damp. Stale sweat and dead skin in mattresses and pillows that haven't been washed or changed in years. God knows what in carpets. Sometimes dead rodents / insects under floorboards.

You can get nose blind. I used to live in a damp mouldy place (no central heating) and I remember moving, getting to the new place and opening the box with my clothes in and going, bloody hell, they stink. I think I spent two years being known as that woman who always smells of damp and I had no idea.

We have this same issue. I do think opening windows daily makes a big difference and when you’ve been away you haven’t been doing this. At least I hope that’s what it is!

Our house is very clean. We have windows regularly open, bedding changed, rarely fry food etc. and yet if we have been away for a day or two it smells so damp. I do worry that’s what it smells like to everyone else and we are just nose blind.

I genuinely think they become nose blind but have poor standards of personal hygiene anyway. The houses are not clean so they won't be opening windows after cooking etc

Cats, dogs and damp.

Biggest thing that gets me.

Even dogs that supposedly don't smell. Nope they do.

I worry about my house smelling. I properly clean at least once a week but have cats and I think pets add to household smell, as well as cooking (and I do cook proper meals). I have old carpets because I'm waiting to get new flooring. I'm not the most domestic and worry about it! I wish I was one of those 'love housework' types because I'd love an always tidy and clean home.

Yes, I work in a supermarket and many of the gross coats, caps and hats that older people wear are noticeably grimy, smelly and unwashed.

It’ll be a mixture of all sorts - just the ‘grease’ that comes from humans, a build up of hair, sweat and general muck getting into carpets and furniture.

A few years ago my very clean kitchen developed a 'deep fat fryer' smell - I realised it was the cooker hood

Although it was regularly cleaned it had been some time since I had changed the filter - as soon as I did this, problem solved!

My front room smells horrible despite every effort to clean, I finally realised it was the flooring, which is wood effect lino and has been down over a decade. I've mopped and bleached but it won't shift. We will be replacing it but need the room replastered first so need to put up with it a bit longer!

My house smells. I keep it clean but it's my elderly shih tzu. I wash his bedding weekly, clean the carpets often and he goes to the groomers regularly so his coat is short. He still stinks and likes nothing better than rubbing his eyes and rolling around all over the sofa/carpets. No matter what I do I think I'm stuck with a smelly home 😢...at least he's happy though!

I worked in a nursing home for many years. We had to open bedroom and sitting room windows after some visitors due to the smell of deep fat fryer that lingered in the air. I don’t think people realise how that smell clings to their clothes and hair. The same with cigarette smoke 🤢

Gas cooking and radiators creates a layer of grease on the walls nearby just from the gas. Our house had that when we bought it.

It could be that in addition to food smells.

Gas cooking and radiators creates a layer of grease on the walls nearby just from the gas. Our house had that when we bought it.

It could be that in addition to food smells.

I had a smell in my house for years that I couldn’t identify. It’s a 1930s house and I would be nose blind to it when living here but when i went on holiday and came back, I could smell it. It was a stale, funny metallic smell. We’re very clean personally and in the house. I air the house every day. Then this summer, we had all the radiators replaced as they were old and not very efficient (single panel). Anyway, coming back from holiday this time, no smell! I would never have thought they were to blame, but yes they were!

It’s the worst when the smell sticks to YOUR clothes so you have to wash everything after leaving, including raincoats which obviously shouldn’t really be washed. I think it’s caused by not ventilating the house (some people never open windows at all), not spraying enough antibacterial around and wiping messes up, frying food without windows open and leaving grease on the hob maybe. Basically being a bit slovenly and not cleaning enough.

Humans smell, food smells, bacteria smells, the mixed combination gives a certain smell.
Not rocket science.
You get use to different smells pretty quick. I always got a bit of a whiff in my parents, in the later years, it wasn’t a horrible smell? Their scent.

The only smell that I cannot tolerate is damp. It makes me ill. I have awful memories of showering in a friends house as a teenager, the shower curtains stank, they were moulded, the water splashing off them and on me. I didn’t think about it much other than the smell at the time now it gives me anxiety.

A house I frequent reeks of mould. It’s not the house that’s mouldy, it’s the amount of crap stuffed into corners and they’re very keen on clutter and not dusting, so if it’s damp outside, it seeps in and sits in their piles of stuff everywhere.
They have a policy of “waste not want not” so their sofa is from a dead relative, was left outside for 2 days for them to collect. In England, so it obviously rained. The lady of the house refuses to wash towels (she says they’re for drying clean stuff so they don’t need washing) so there’s an awful smell of damp everywhere.
Gross smells are just laziness and a lack of washing/cleaning as a whole.

I was also thinking along the same lines, I’ve been into houses before where it smelt like old cooking oil, like a deep fat fryer that had been used and not cleaned?

It made me feel a bit rough after being in there for a while.

My parents house smells like this (they are grimy haha) and I never noticed when I lived there but do now I visit. They don’t own a chip pan, but that’s the smell. Honestly? I don’t know, but knowing and growing up with them, I think it’s probably just not bothering to properly clean.

As PP’s have said too, I have pets, like to cook etc, and I’m really paranoid about smells. I clean (far more than my parents haha) and have windows open every day.

ETA: Oh and barely anything in my house isn’t wipeable, leather furniture, hard floors. My parents made me a touch obsessive because I was so nose blind when I lived there haha!

I open windows year-round and have my back door open for at least half an hour a day even in winter because my house is old and will generate smells if left unattended. I also have a dog. But people who come round (and some are my kids who wouldn't hesitate to tell me me) say that it doesn't smell awful.

But if I've fried anything (especially fish) I am paranoid about the smell and tend to have everything open for ages after. Fortunately, with the advent of the new deep fat fryers with lids, that 'old chip' smell seems less common now.

Gross!

Cooking, smoking, cheap candles, pets, not cleaning, no soap, windows shut

The smell is a combination of grease/Chip pans and damp it reminds me of the 60 s.

open windows and doors regularly and change bedding and towels once a week . Empty bins before you go to bed every night. Wash bins out at least once a week. Ensure all sinks showers an toilets are flushed regularly don’t let enter stand for too long.