Cooking smells - please tell me I'm right and my husband is wrong?!

[ItsThisOneThing]

I hate cooking smells in the house. HATE. Especially things like bacon, sausage or burgers. My instinct is to fling the windows open wide, open the back door and put on the extractor fans. I obviously close the doors into the kitchen too, to reduce the smell going to the rest of the house.

My husband says if you open the windows and door it causes the smell to drift under the doors to the rest of the house, so he only closes the doors to the rest of the house and puts on the extractor fans. Keeps the windows and doors shut.

This morning we had a constant cycle of me opening the window and him closing it again. These are the big issues in our relationship ;)

Who is right here?? Please tell me it's me, I hate being wrong 😆

It depends on your kitchen configuration. If you open a door and window that are opposite each other then there will be a cross breeze and it will take the smells out. If they are on the same wall then there won't and it's more likely to be going in to the house.

Doors closed and windows open in this house and if anything lingers after we have eaten we light an incense stick.
All the property shows with people gushing about open plan living, the homes look lovely but all I can think is “what about the smells?”

I’m with you OP. I hate cooking smells. I feel like it gets into coats and carpets. I cook a lot of spicy food too, so I’m a nightmare.

If I can still smell it, after I’ve cooked and eaten, I spray everything with Zoflora water.

I hadn’t considered the air flow theory. Makes sense. I’d consider a rolled up towel to act as a draft excluder, but my kids are constantly in and out of the kitchen (hanging on to apron strings- literally) so I’m fighting a losing battle.

I think if you can't open windows on 2 sides of the kitchen to get an airflow, or a window and door, then you'd be better to have the extractor fan on.

I have no evidence to back this up, I just think it.

My instinct is to fling the windows open wide, open the back door and put on the extractor fans

My husband says if you open the windows and door it causes the smell to drift under the doors to the rest of the house,

You're crazy, and he's wrong.

So you're both being U.

@AhoyAhoy Yeah agreed about the doors, my kids are in and out constantly so I usually give up even trying to keep them closed.

My door and window are on the same wall so sounds like my air flow is stuffed 😭

What I'm hearing is that I should eat out every night, it's the only answer 😁

The only thing I find successfully gets rid of food smells is burning incense

I'd much rather have the smell of food than the smell of incense...vile stuff.

I quite like food smells...the only unpleasant ones imo are fish and cabbage.

@BruegelTheEIder Thanks, that's very helpful 😆

I open the kitchen windows and close the kitchen door. My kitchen is fortunately down a corridor which also helps reduce cooking smells from getting into other rooms.

What on earth are people cooking that smells so awful.

Give me cooking smells, which soon dissipate, over the ghastly stink of incense or air freshener any day.

Where I live you can smell air freshener in the air outside people's houses - I think the smell comes through the air vents above the windows - and it pollutes the whole of the immediate environment.

I feel Megan's pain 😂

I'm with @pigsDOfly - I'd much rather smell cooking than artificial stinks.

Can't believe that's true about St George's Chapel and Megan Markle.

I'm most definitely not a church goer but I love that smell of old churches.

I have no option but the window. No extractor far and no outside door. :(

Soul - a strong garlic smell is awful and some spices can be too. There's the odd house in my street where I can smell their food from the pavement. I think that's too strong.

"I love that smell of old churches."

I don't mind it, but when you realise it's the smell of old dampness...

Prices do a candle called open window - gets rid of everything. I use it when I’ve cooked hm curry or smoked fish. But I’m shocked you are offended by the smell of food cooking - seriously?!

Sounds like cooking smells are t he least of your problems.

Arguing about opening windows is nuts.

@speakout There's always one! We weren't arguing, we very rarely argue. And this was lighthearted.

@MrsPear Sounds amazing! I know, I have a disease 😂

I’m with you, I don’t like meat cooking smells as I don’t eat meat. I love fresh air anyway so always open the window and air the room, as well as using the extractor fan. I hate smelling cooking smells on other peoples clothes. I know I’m not entirely rational at times..

I’m with DH

(plus love the smell of bacon)

Ha! I don’t like cooking smells through the house much either. Kitchen faces west which is also the prevailing wind direction so if I open the back door it just blows the smell further through the house! I usually have front and back door open together so it sort of blows straight through without going anywhere else.

We cook a lot of fish and it smells horrible the next day. Open windows and scented candles get rid of most of it. But it tends to come back a bit an hour or so after the windows have been shut again.

A smell is tiny particles of whatever the smelly item is floating in the air. So yes I'm afraid if you smell another person's shit, it means you have atoms of it actually in your nose. Let's not go there.

But that means if you open the window and have a blast of "new" air, whether that is circulating in the house or the kitchen, the smell will decrease because you have diluted the smell.

The smell microbes per metre cubed of air become less.

@fiorentina Yep, hate the smell lingering on clothes and hair 😱 I have to go for a shower after and wash my hair again.

I'm sounding less and less stable as this thread goes on 🤣