Light-hearted! Anyone noticed how posh people's homes smell really nice inside? Not perfume, just generally. What is it?

[localnotail]

This, basically! Something I've been wondering idly for a long time, since I was a kid. I remember going to my wealthy middle class friend's houses and wondering how they smell so nice - I cant explain it, general very nice, clean, warm smell, like maybe so many nice new thing? Like maybe you get inside an expensive furniture store, plus something else I cant quite explain. But its definitely there! I can always tell if someone "posh" or not (in my head) depending on how their house smells. I never mentioned this to anyone up until now as I think its a bit weird, sniffing around people's homes ))

I would add that I have been to posh homes - mainly big old houses - that totally stank of cat wee, mouldy dust and boiled veg, but its still different somehow, still mixed up with that nice affluent smell. The smell is also there even if the house is filled with old tat or ordinary IKEA furniture. Also, when I say "posh" - I mean middle class, kind of very comfortable wealthy lifestyle but not aristocracy, obv.

So would like to know if I'm a bit mental or is there anyone else who noticed that? What is it? Your thoughts ))

Any form of synthetically introduced scent smells cheap and nasty to me.

I can’t bear plug ins and think they are mostly to cover up bad smells. Diffusers and incense give me immediate headache. They all just create bad air quality IMO. And I don’t think they create the effect the OP is talking about.

Thanks for this - they had some really good deals on with free bits and bobs, so I've placed an order.

Perfect timing as I realise that the diffuser in my hall that spent 4 months smelling of nothing has actually run out!

Bluntly, that sounds absolutely hideous! Are you trying to cover up the smell of your pets with all that artificial scent? Don't people wince (or wheeze?) when they're hit with sprays of scent on walking into a room? Hasn't anyone ever said 'I can't come over, the smells are too much'?

It seems a very MN thing to have such a strong reaction to plug ins and other room/air fresheners.

Clearly there is a market for them otherwise the shops wouldn't sell them.

It seems a very MN thing to have such a strong reaction to plug ins and other room/air fresheners.

Clearly there is a market for them otherwise the shops wouldn't sell them.

Ah, the stench of wealth.

Hasn't anyone ever said 'I can't come over, the smells are too much'?

Would anyone actually say that?

I’ve got a friend who is very well off but she boils zoflora on her hob. It makes my eyes water.

Besides nice expensive diffusers etc - I often think it's 'real' fabrics and wood- leather, pine , wool , etc- rather than the fake stuff those of us on lesser money tend to have in the house

Definitely!

I know two people who have such sensitivity to smells (I think called hyperosmia), one as a result of an autoimmune condition that worsened in adulthood, that it's extremely restrictive. That woman quit her job, moved to a remote house in the country, ' as she couldn't function in her old job, which involved meeting lots of people in different indoor environments. I think she now runs a garden centre.

The other, who is a lawyer, has to impose a no-aftershave/deodorant/perfume rule on all co-workers, and only certain products can be used by cleaners etc, otherwise he gets a disabling migraine. If I'm going somewhere in a car with him, I have to remember not to wear perfume or to shower it off. I was once in his car when we picked up his brother -- they were dropping me, and going on to a match together. The brother had forgotten and was wearing aftershave. Even with the windows down, and the brother having scrubbed himself with tissues and bottled water, my friend was out on the verge throwing up inside ten minutes, and the trip was cancelled.

When he bought a new house, there was a slight issue with the plumbing and it couldn't be fixed for a couple of weeks, but although none of us could smell anything, it made him immediately sick and nauseous, so he ended up sleeping on the floor of his empty old house for a fortnight.

Neither of these people would be able to function at all in some of the houses being described on here.

I went to view a house once and the smell was hideous. 3 pugs and every room had those automatic spray things, a plug in in every socket, and the owner had nailed the windows shut. It was perfectly clean, but my God the smell of wet dog masked by chemicals 🤢. She thought the house smelled so fresh though!

I'm sorry but that is too much! Plug ins, incense, sprays and candles at the same time? Ew! That would give me a migraine 😖

There clearly is a big market for them , but that also does not mean many people aren’t sensitive to them, both can be true. There is something in them that gives me a headache . As said, I do have hyper smell, and I do scent my home with essential oils, but plug ins, the cheap air wick type, or the cheap spray stuff does give me a headache, and many people I know.

Here is a link to why , the nhs also does one similar, it is something to do with the chemical pollutants these air fresheners put in the air we breathe.

https://ehs.umass.edu/air-fresheners-and-indoor-air-quality#:~:text=These%20VOCs%20are%20often%20difficult,the%20type%20of%20air%20freshener.

Hasn't anyone ever said 'I can't come over, the smells are too much'?

I have politely asked for incense to be extinguished. Asked a restaurant to remove a pot of highly scented hyacinths from the middle of the table (how can anyone appreciate food with a clashing flower smell? Much of our sense of taste is smell).

Christmas shopping I have left Mujii and The White Company much quicker than I might have done because of the overwhelming fug of diffusers. And politely told them why.

You told the muji and white company store attendants I can't shop because of the smells? Why? I can't imagine anything they could have done about their stock

Couldn't you just have left?

I don't think of myself as hypersensitive to smells, but I've had to ask to have incense removed at two separate yoga classes, as the smell, in a warm room, was making me feel nauseated (though I quite like a faint trace of it in less hot and enclosed spaces. And even walking past a branch of Lush is unpleasant. I've never gone inside one.

How do they cope in a department store, the body shop, Lush, a florist, a hairdressers? The list is endless!

Lingering smell of "proper" perfume and shower products as well.
Hangs in the air for a good few hours.

That and the fresh smell of leather/wood/wool/air.

Did you really tell them?😄 unless you are daddy warbucks, they won’t have been wondering why you left or cared really.

Especially Lush.

The "scent" in that place makes your eyes water! It's like a physical assault.

I can’t go in lush. After about 30 seconds I start to sneeze, repeatedly and my head hurts.

Back to posh houses smelling lovely. I wonder if a lot of it is merely our perception of the house/person being posh and that makes us feel differently? If you go into a run down, mid terrace council house that has the same expensive reeds/candles/wood polish as a big house in a naice area will it smell the same? I have a tiny under-the-stairs wc and on the basin I have a limited edition Rituals liquid handsoap and what looks like a matching reed diffuser. Everyone always comments on it being like a luxury spa. Except I decant Home Bargains £1.49 soap into the rituals bottle and the diffuser is a £3 Asda one. I wonder if I kept the Asda label on the diffuser and just put the HB soap in there would people say the same?

@ConsistentlyElectrifiedElves (NC) I hope you like them!

Big houses high ceilings, not much for whiffs to attach to with flagstone floors, brown furniture etc.