Smelly people

[thebottleismine]

I work in a shop and it's surprising how many extremely smelly people walk about. Now I dont mean people that have called in after the gym/run etc I'm talking really, really bad pissy unwashed clothes that absolutely reeeeeek of some kind of putrid smell, perhaps unwashed for an extremely long time. Now, Whilst I know everyone has different circumstances etc but I was really shocked to learn that one of the long term (smelly) shoppers actually has a very glamorous daughter and it stunned me to the core that she would let her dad out knowing he smelt so completely terrible.
Surly most people know that if you don't wash both yourself and your clothes you will eventually smell? Why someone would allow a friend or family to go out like this is extremely cruel in my opinion.

I find smells really triggering and there used to be a teacher I worked with who had a garlicky tooth cavity smell.

No word of a lie, I could smell him when he had entered the building and even after he had left a room the smell was still there.

Only one other person in the organisation could smell him too.

I dothink some people are super smellers and get triggered by smells. He used to actually make me feel angry its strange

I presume I'm one of the smelly ones.

Colleague yesterday apologised for his smelly post-football kit being in our office, I didn't notice until he mentioned it. Was that psychosomatic or did my bad sense of smell work for a change, not sure.

The smells I struggle with are diesel fumes & disinfectant. These are awful & everywhere. Constantly. I have no idea how other people don't find them intolerable. Coffee is fairly awful, too. Try to avoid that.

What an awful thing to say. How do you suggest people dry their clothes in winter, maybe no outside space, and no tumble drier? Hanging clothes on the radiator is completely normal. Nothing minging about it.

My fil used to go out stinking, shan't say what but was disgusting. He gave zero shits about it. He knew there was a problem but just wouldn't accept help from anyone.

When I met my DH all his clothes smelled distinctly musty and mouldy.

He was mid 40’s and no one had ever told him. Not even his family.

He would wash all his clothes and towels in one load at the weekend and then pile them on top of each other from the machine, straight onto a tiny section of bannister to dry.
The items were 4 or 5 deep. He would then ‘rotate them’ as he explained to me, every few days, so by the end of the week everything was more or less dry.
he’d repeat the process the next weekend.

He wouldn’t accept all his things smelled as he was so used to it and I was the first ever person to tell him.

In all other ways he was a well functioning adult. I took over the washing when I moved in, but we share other tasks equally.

I come across very few smelly people. I hate the smell of strong perfume though. I think some people must just have much more sensitive noses than others.

I was really shocked to learn that one of the long term (smelly) shoppers actually has a very glamorous daughter and it stunned me to the core that she would let her dad out knowing he smelt so completely terrible

How do you propose she stops him?

The strength of the odour has little correlation to hygiene.

This just isn't true. Hygiene and odour are highly correlated.

There have been several threads on here about smelly husbands who refuse to wash, even when their wives beg them too. Very weird. Very elderly people can end up being a bit smelly, washing and dressing is a huge chore if mobility is affected. Having said that, I have seen very glamorous, very well dressed women in pubs and clubs who stink of posh perfume using the loo and then not washing their hands. It takes all sorts.

@Comedycook I was of the persuasion that telling someone they smelt unpleasant would have prompted them to do something about it. It appears from this post some people in this position are happy or just don't care etc. Personally I don't know how id cope if it were a family member that wouldn't maintain their own hygiene because with respect, it really is grim.

I find all the cutting down on washing and tumble drying plus cut down showering to save electricity completely understandable but people will stink more. I really don’t think the sniff test works it smells clean to you but not others I find.

it takes effort and money to be clean that’s why some older people and the mentally ill struggle.

i really struggle with smells so glad I WFH most of the time and wear a mask on the tube/train not just for covid!

Sometimes elderly people lose their sense of smell and so don't realise it and if they have a bit of leakage below then that won't help.

Some people actually don't wash. At all. My stepfather, to my certain knowledge, did not take a single shower/bath between 2001 and 2005 (when I last saw him). He washed very infrequently when I was a child - and he stank - but in late middle age he literally gave up washing altogether. He fucking reeked, you could smell him in the next room.

My in laws are smelly. DFIL because he doesn't shower daily but also both mil and fil because their clothes smell. They always have slight damp mildewy smell. DH has raised it with them a couple of times and they get very upset and offended and nothing changes. They're physically able, intelligent, affluent people. There's no explanation for the smell other than laziness.

@Greensleeves oh dear me, how on Earth did your mum stick that lol

I can't imagine, for all the time it takes to shower, and soap can be bought for well under a £1 why people would let themselves go

I think this is a common problem and after a winter there’s then damp in the house and then the damp clothing takes on another smell and the battle is pretty much lost.
wet things need drying within 24 hours others they go musty.

I was wondering this myself the other day op. I was sitting in the middle seat on a long flight and the woman next to me, who was probably mid twenties, regular looking woman, (but obvs who knows what issues she may or may not have) absolutely reeked of BO. People were noticing it all around us. I've never been more pleased to have had to wear a face mask.

The woman's clothes were clean.she had a speccy iPad so funds seem unlikely to have been the issue. I just dont understand how you wouldn't realise you smelled so bad and do something about it.

(Disclaimer-it was not a pleasant 8 hr flight as a result and I'm still a little mad about it!)

Some people don’t realise they smell.

MiL thinks perfume covers the smell of her fags and an old colleague thought sucking mints helped.

I used to think it was really rude but now realise they didn’t know.

I think I have quite a good sense of smell but I (thankfully ) don't seem to come across the enormous number of offensively smelly people that the average MN seems to meet on a daily basis!

My late dad's clothes used to smell because he didn't wash them frequently. He'd grown up where shirts were washed once a week and anything else like jumpers, jackets etc were washed very infrequently. He thought it was quite wasteful and un- eco to put the washing machine on for a few clothes, especially because he lived alone. I can't describe the smell of the clothes but he didn't smell of wee or BO.

It costs money to heat water and have a bath or shower. It costs money to buy and run a washing machine and/or a dryer. With the cost of living crisis, it is going to get worse.

I had 2 exes who both smelt.
The first one was a bit like Pugfostermum's DH - he also dried his clothes in a similar manner but in his room (he was a lodger, so didn't have anywhere else to dry things, I mean he could have hung them outside to dry in summer but couldn't be arsed I think). He had towels which STUNK to high heaven. And he and his clothes smelt musty constantly - even though he did shower every day and use deodorant.
Wanted to bring them with me when he moved in with me but I said no - he then said I would have to replace them as he thought there was nothing wrong with them. I should have known then what a waste of space he was.

Second ex had BO. Re-wore T-shirts and things all the time. He just couldn't smell it. Growing up his mother made him wear the same clothes for a week at a time to save on the costs of water and electricity for washing (and I assume he wasn't used to showering regularly either). He said that at school a couple of teachers had taken him aside and spoken to him about it but there was nothing he could do about it as he wasn't allowed to wear fresh clothes and wasn't allowed to shower more than twice a week.
He moved in with me by stealth and turned out to be a bit of a cocklodger, and wanted to continue re-wearing clothes, not showering everyday and not wearing deodorant either for some reason i just couldn't fathom. He was a grown up at this point and did not have his mother forbidding him from wearing clean stuff.
It took me a while to get him on-board with only wearing pants, socks and T-shirts once; and having a daily shower and also having an extra shower and putting on fresh clothes if he was going out socializing with people in the evenings. Don't why I bothered. He was also a waste of space.

I think a lot of people have got a lot of issues going on that we don't know about which contribute to poor personal hygiene and it's not that easy to get them to change - especially not people who might be 70 or so and have never really been in the routine of washing properly.

It’s not always poor hygiene. My poor dd has really bad BO and has done from a very young age. She showers every morning using medicated soap, uses a max strength anti perspirant and wears clean clothes every day but within a few hours she smells awful. I’m not sure she herself is aware of how strong she smells though because when I suggest she has a wash throughout the day she gets really offended and upset

Stunned to the core were you?!

Deary me!!

@GirlInACountrySong yip! I was. Just saying

Doesn't take much then does it!