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 ))

Open curtains, open windows, doors opening often as people are busy, high ceilings, good ambient heating and a cleaner. No added scents/candles and no scented laundry products, just clean and fresh.

Upper class homes normally smell of wet dogs and definitely don’t smell clean.

I learned this from my French mother, who thinks that the English have filthy habits when it comes to living in stale air (it's one of her favourite topics of conversation.)

She sounds like a scintillating conversationalist.

I'd imagine it's the increased presence of a regular professional cleaner for a start, followed by good quality (aka not glade plug in calibre) diffusers/candles/room sprays/fresh flowers.

I did actually recently comment to someone we know that their house smelled lovely and she said it was because the cleaner had been doing the wood furniture (lots of real wood in the house) with the wood polish and always tips essential oils down the sink once she's done with them - not advocating for this as I suspect it probably isn't environmentally friendly but have no idea.

I did also notice while I was there how much you can smell real foliage in things like wreaths/garlands/the tree. I've pretty much always had artificial and these were all real, with cinnamon sticks and dried orange etc- gave a lovely natural scent off. The other half do know how to live.

When I was in primary school two girls in my friendship circle always smelled of something distinctive. I remember going to both of their houses, which were very clean and tidy, but I realized the smell was the deep fat fryer (we didn't own one or fry anything) which they seemed to use daily. It's a smell I now associate with pasties and deep fried sausages and I've never owned one as I can't forget that greasy smell.
Years later I volunteered with the school and would go into homes with the teachers when new pupils started. I recognized the pastie smell in many homes, although it was often masked by a wax melt thing, but I could still smell the grease in my hair. 'Nice' smelling homes were due to fresh flowers and probably quite expensive candles/reeds. They aren't overpowering or chemically, but smell of wealth. Oh and no smoking in the house or wet dogs.

I LOVE the smell of damp... it reminds me of summer.

My mam was an anti-smoke campaigner (for health reasons) but loved the smell of smoke ironically because it 'smelled like home'.

We are not rich though... just poor mining folk from the rural north, everyone had cool or wood fires and damp.

It’ll be having a regular cleaner, using expensive products around the house.

Totally disagree with the plug in air freshener suggestion though. They smell synthetic & nasty to me.

Some Fancy reed diffusers can be nice & posh candles plus good cooking smells & people wearing expensive perfumes?

Like others have said: I thinks its natural eco cleaning brands + beeswax and vinegar (not diffusers or scented candles) and having lots of solid wooden furniture-some of it hundreds of years old, natural fabrics (eg leather sofas and sheepskin rugs) and absolutely tons of books. Also no cigarettes or greasy food being cooked - my mothers house is like this.

hahahaa hilarious!

I'm not aspiring to be posh, not even really envious of wealth - I just like the smell!

No. But then none of these threads fawning over rich people (how they're so much better looking/more intelligent etc) really resonate with me.

Forgot to add having a solidly built pre-war house helps I would imagine! My turn of the 80's semi was built in a very hap-hazard, do spare every expense kind of way 😬

My house usually smells of coffee, baked bread and maybe wood polish. I also use lavender when I'm ironing. Now it's Christmas, it smells of pine, rosemary and other greenery I have brought inside from the garden. I am allergic to manmade scents so air fresheners, defusers, fancy candles and anything else designed to smell good is a definite no-no.

I've noticed that certain cultures use certain products in homes to make them smell nice. I remember going into the home of a Somali family. They were very poor, but their home smelled very wealthy. It was a type of oud incense that she burned on a piece of tin foil on the cooker, and she sold handed me a box to take home. It was £3 and did for ages and smells devine. When I visited Harrods I realized that a lot of the visitors from the Gulf also smelled like that, now half of the expensive perfumes are oud based.

If it’s a spa smell, it’s likely nice candles or diffusers. Also larger, more spacious homes aren’t going to hold smells like smaller houses!

People often remark how nice our house smells. We have candles dotted around the place and I can’t smell them unless we’ve been away for a few days as nose blind after a while but visitors can.

We have a tumble dryer so that makes the house smell nice when it’s been on which again we don’t notice much anymore. Also no musty, indoor clothes drying smells or damp.

I regularly wash curtains, rugs and stair carpet (love my spot washer!) - downstairs is all hard floor.

We don’t eat fried food or particularly smelly food. DC’s best friend’s parents seem to cook a lot of fried foods. A couple of times the smell has almost floored me when they’ve opened the door! it clings to everything.

The word "posh" can be substituted "wealthy, "well off", any synonym. I refer to homes of people who have wealth - that's all. The fact that their homes smell so nice always intrigued me, but not their wealth of their assumed "poshness" - I worked with a lot of very wealthy people to know better than to want to be one of them ))

My grandmother was the furthest thing from posh and lived in a terraced miners house, but it always smelled fabulous. She was fastidiously clean, all her furniture was old and wooden and she polished it regularly. No one smoked in the house and she didn’t have pets. All cooking was done on the range, but she never fried anything. Washing was dried in front of the open fire so there was always a faint smell of clean washing and warm cotton. As others have said, she was a big fan of airing the house too.

She never used any artificial scents, but the combination of baking, scrupulous cleanliness, an open fire, fresh air and furniture polish was a lovely combination.

I don't know but I was so disappointed when I forked out for Purdy and Figg cleaning products thinking this was the key to it (other than fresh-airing daily) on the basis that they'd make my home smell lovely.

They do smell nice, but it hardly lasts five minutes!

On the same topic does anyone have any recommendations for washing powder or liquid where the lovely clean bedding smell actually sticks around? I wash my bedding weekly but it never stays smelling nice for more than a day or two.

you obviously completely misunderstood the OP

Also, why click on the thread if it doesn't "resonate with you?" just to register your moral superiority?

My house smells cleanest when I whack up the heating and open the windows and doors. But for obvious reasons I do not tend to do this.

I was coming on to say this @Oaktree55 . Weird ideas about posh houses on this thread. In my pretty extensive experience, they normally smell of wet Labrador at least in the kitchen overlaid with whatever is in the Aga.

I don't think scented candles or heating or ironing your sofa are particularly posh things to do. I think living in a big cold house with dogs, open windows and open fires is.

Absence of fried food.

Just had a shower there, I use a Lavender shower gel from Lidl and add extra lavender, clary sage and rosemary essential oils. Ds once took it to the gym with him and said after showering that he got ribbed for being "minted" because of the very expensive shower products he was using 😬

@AuntieJoyce I love that smell too!

People often comment that our house smells nice. I think it's a combination of being able to afford decent cleaning products and the luxury of time (I wfh.) I'm quite sensitive to smells so if the washing smells remotely damp, I'll wash it again. I don't use any over scented, cleaning products such as Zoflora- recently I've been using M&S. I wash the sheets once a week and hang them over the banisters which seems to leave a nice clean smell in the hallway. I have one diffuser in the downstairs toilet but that's it. My husband is also a bit obsessive with things like double bagging packaging if we've had fish and taking the bins out.

Reed diffusers and expensive scented candles usually