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 had a smelly cousin. I used to feel sad for her thinking maybe she can’t smell herself? She was clean I’m sure of it. As now she’s older has kids, she works in a professional job. She is very glamorous but has really bad BO still!!

I worked in a shop years ago and we got very close to banning someone completely because of the stench he left behind.
It used to make whoever was on the till gag.

I find it quite shocking no matter how poor you are shower gel is extremely cheap I buy the 89p one myself

I find it quite shocking that so many people still seem to have no awareness whatsoever that there are many people who simply cannot afford the water and the gas/electricity to heat the water for a shower for each person in the household. The 89p shower gel is the least of their problems.
But go ahead and yell at me, I often get yelled at on these MN showering threads for bringing up the subject of cost when people start being judgemental about people not showering daily or washing towels daily or whatever.

Ever heard of fuel poverty? People unable to cook properly because the electricity is too expensive. That's why food banks ask for things which are easy and quick to heat up so that people don't have to be running ovens for a long time or using several rings on the hob.

Yes, and it’s not just the cost of the fuel - though there was a woman in the radio the other day who pays on a prepayment meter and she thought there was a fault because it was using up money as quickly as she added more - no, it was just the price has rocketed- it’s that people are now frequently on water meters, charged by how much they use.

most threads about doing laundry and changing clothes on MN is like a race to the bottom. posters saying they don’t wash clothes till they are dirty , wear the same underwear two days in a row , bed linen changed once a week, children go to school in uniform they wore the day before , but they all claim to smell perfectly fine, no idea if it’s just a wind-up or if a great percentage of people who just don’t care.

Apart from wearing underwear 2 days in a row, I don't think any of those things are unreasonably dirty or will lead to smelling awful. My DC have clean shirts every day but DD(15) often wears a skirt for a week. It does not smell. I wore a hoodie 3 or 4 times before I washed it last week, it didn't smell. (I checked) I wash bedding weekly (or sometimes fortnightly)
I don't think I am particularly near the bottom in "the race to the bottom!" I shower every day, everyone has clean undies, socks, and shirts or tops every day, no one goes out in dirty or smelly clothes. I'm pretty sure we not causing an offence when we go out!!

Billy Connolly fan? 😂

Not wanting to wash is also a feature of dementia.

My elderly parents were like this, but it wasn't because they didn't wash themselves or had clean clothes.
The house they lived in had a terrible smell to it and it got stronger over the years. I was convinced there was something nasty going on under the floorboards!
They moved somewhere different and lo and behold, no more smelly parents!

Whenever I visited them, my kids would say to me when I got home 'you've been to grandparents, haven't you?' The smell was so intense on me, I would have to get changed.

It was pretty grim.

I'm a super smeller and I don't judge. I'm a social worker and I understand that there are lots of health and social care issues which cause people to smell and also that poor hygiene is not the only cause of someone smelling. I'm genetic super smelling has also helped me understand that things like body odour are also largely genetic.

To the person who had severe body ofour- have you found a solution (if you want to?) If you haven't, and you do, there's a bacterial spray you can buy from the US which counters your naturally occurring bacteria which eat the sweat and cause the smell.

To answer the OPs last question, would you like to tell someone they smell? Or do they have a poor sense of smell as I do?

Clothes that have dried on the radiator don't smell, do they?
There is a damp smell when you first put the clothes on to dry if you don't open the window, but it should be gone by the time the clothes are dry.
Is the poster saying people don't wait for their clothes to dry well enough?

"bed linen changed once a week"

You think that's a race to the bottom? Lol.

Having a “ Good” sense of smell is a double edged sword.
Some people were odiferous long before the fuel increases.

Maybe the “ Super smellers” ought to buy a Georgian Vinaigrette to carry about just in case they meet a wall of odour.

"Also, how do you know that anyone you can smell has not showered the night before or in the morning as opposed to not having showered for a week?"

Yes, she doesn't know at all.

I wouldn't think a 6 inch man would be too difficult to get into clothes, that's smaller than an action man

Things like coats and jackets which aren't washed frequently can stink and because they're often only worn outside the wearers don't seem to realise.

Clothes dried indoors with insufficient air circulation get a wet dog smell about them because they don't dry quickly enough. I've found that leaving things in the washing machine for a day or two does not make them smell, not if you use washing powder and don't use low temperature quick washes all the time.

"Things like coats and jackets which aren't washed frequently can stink and because they're often only worn outside the wearers don't seem to realise."

Ah yes, coats are usually dry clean only so can't be done regularly.

If you're noticing this with a significant number of people, then maybe that's just what humans smell like? Up until very recently it was completely standard only to wash clothes (and bodies!) max once a week. And toothpaste didn't exist..... 😱

I'm not sure what the "correct" or optimum answer for washing bedding is?
I thought weekly was acceptable?
(Mine is more like fortnightly and I'm aware this falls way short!)
Ignoring the hygeine aspect, drying multiple loads of bedding is a mission, especially in winter!

I try really hard not to judge others and understand that people are raised differently and have different priorities but it is really hard sometimes to have to be the one to smell them. I work with someone with depression who has badly neglected all forms of personal hygiene and the smell is honestly horrific. It gets so bad it makes most people in the office feel ill, managers have tried to have a gentle word with her and offered additional support but she just says she cant smell anything bad. It's really hard to sit near her every day and have to smell her all day, she often takes her shoes off at work which she wears without socks and the smell is unbearable. I have to shower as soon as I get home sometimes coz it feels likes her smells clings to me.

If somebody washes daily, uses an antiperspirant and wears clean clothes they presumably don't have hygiene related bo. If they smell it must surely have a clinical reason.

I think the exception is if a dress or blouse is synthetic and absorbs bo, even if it is washed, as soon as it warms up the bo smell remains.

I was prone to being sweaty when younger and therefore had scrupulous hygiene and only wore natural fibres. One of the joys of getting older is sweating less and having more choice of fabric.

I change the bottom sheet weekly and the duvet covers, pillow cases fortnightly. Towels are washed weekly.

low temperature quick washes all the time

We are supposed to use these to help the environment/save money etc. but I find that they just do not get my clothes clean enough. Wash clothes, dry (outside), put back on, within a few hours the clothes themselves are starting to smell again.
I think a lot of smells are coming from people's clothes and it can quite often be that they haven't been washed hot enough.
A 30 degree wash is useless for me, don't have these problems with a 40 degree wash.

I'm an NHS podiatrist and although I am totally hardened to necrosis, wet gangrene and the like I occasionally get a pair of feet that make me fall off my chair in a coma (in my head). I just stick them straight into a bowl of water before doing anything. The worst was a blind guy with dogs at home who would come in with dog poo squished between his toes.

@Shehasadiamondinthesky I don't know how you do it.

Often non bio washing detergent doesn't get BO smell out properly. I use 30 degree wash for almost everything and never have issues but do use biological powder and it always comes out fine.