To think people are getting scruffier?

[HomeIsHardToFind]

I am currently house hunting, I have been in a lot of properties recently and to be honest I have been shocked by the state of them!
They look fine in the estate agents photos but when you get there it's a different story.....plates and bowls piled up in the sink, crumbs all over work surfaces, disgusting ovens and urine stains/smells in the loo!
My 'favourite' was the house that had holes punched in the doors of every room (double checked the agents pics and they definitely didn't exist at the time they were taken!).
I get it, I can clean if we bought the house etc, but if you are selling your biggest asset and you want the most amount of money possible surely you make it look the best it can for viewings? I feel like I've stepped into an alternative universe at the moment!
I have also noticed that many more people out and about stink. Not just a bit of a pong or like they have a manual job and haven't showered for 24 hours but full on makes me dry heave absolutely stink!!
I put some fuel in the car this morning and the 'gentleman' that came into the garage as I was leaving smelled rancid, it must have been days and days since he had washed🤢 I could smell him outside in the fresh air!
Maybe I'm getting on (I don't think so, only early 40's!!) but I seem to remember people having more pride in themselves, their home and their families (don't get me started on some of the poor kids I've seen with such greasy hair it looks like it's been stuck to their head with chip oil☹️).
Sometimes I wonder if its COL biting but then I think about people I've known that grew up in the 60's and 70's that were dirt poor taking pride in how clean their mothers managed to keep them with nothing but soap and hot water, so I think the only difference is that the pride has gone?
Has anyone else noticed this or am I just unluckily surrounded by scruffy buggers?!

Have not noticed extra smelly people. Have noticed people going out in slippers or very scruffy but that been happening for quite a few years. Depends where you are obviously.

I just don’t think people have got scruffier or smellier or messier in their homes due to energy costs. Maybe some, but I’m not buying that.

i think it’s only a small percentage that is in this situation In the first place ie dirty homes or smelly themselves , and I think these people have always existed. As a pp said, we can all boil a kettle.

yes for some it is a struggle and they are in abject poverty,but in the main I think there is just a number of people who live dirty or just don’t clean themselves enough and they have always existed.

Because some of them will be caring for you when you're in your dotage (or their taxes will be covering the costs of your carers)

And other people's taxes paid for your education and healthcare.

Not now she's in her eighties! But she did work full time for 35 years till she was 70 and had children living at home for some of that. And always lived in Wales where it rains a lot. She just kept her eye firmly on the weather forecast and didn't do washing on rainy days. I always thought it made extra stress so got a tumble dryer as soon as I had my own place, tried to persuade her to get one but she just doesn't want to, cost not an issue at all. Before tumble dryers were invented people hung out as much as possible.

I'm on the NW coast and we dry washing outside all year. We watch the forecast like hawks, and put washing out overnight if it's dry / windy, where the days around it are forecast wet.

Exactly this. It's perfectly possible to get most washing dry outside, it just requires more vigilance and constant looking at the weather forecast and planning when you'll do it.

Honestly some of you are nuts. I did not ask anyone to Google anything, let alone demand it.

There are some bright people on MN (obviously not you!) who I knew would be able to answer my question - but instead I got a bunch of posters who were incapable of even understanding the question.

If you are all products of this wonderful British education system I keep reading about on here, then I will give thanks every day I was eductated elsewhere.

I will leave you to your ridiculously high energy costs, and not waste an ounce of sympathy on you for them.

If you were that bright, you'd have googled it yourself. #potcallingkettle

yuck - can’t believe we have a “stinks like curry” one in 2024. Thought that nonsense was in the past - where it belongs.

Well he does.

He’s a white man, in his fifties. It’s not a racist comment (which is I assume what your comment was about…which says a LOT about you). Not that his race matters. Stinking is stinking. I’d say the same of someone who smelt like fish. Or shit. Or vomit.

And he stinks.

I only find it surprising as our washing doesn't dry overnight and our airer is kept on the second floor (up two flights of stairs) and our windows are shut. So yeah, I do find it surprising. Not saying it doesn't happen, but it's surprising.

A couple of things which might be part of it.

Not putting the heating on as much as people used to, means that houses can often smell damp these days. I live in an old property and notice the damp smell when the heating hasn’t been on as much. I do try to keep it clean and use products to make it smell nice but they do cost. I’ve also noticed that if I hang my washing up in the house to dry without putting the radiator on then it dries with an awful smell. In fact hanging it on a radiator airer and not on the radiator itself sometimes means it smells odd. Looking forward to the nicer weather to hang out. I don’t have a drier.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that people are going away from anti-perspirant to more environmentally friendly deodorant. I tried some (Wild) and although it smells gorgeous in its container, after a while of using it I actually smelled awful. I’ve had to go back to my proper antiperspirant that contains aluminium chloride. But the cost of such things has gone up too.

Poverty

@NoWordForFluffy do you hang up your washing in the dark then? Or do you have an outside light? Just trying to imagine how it works as some of the year it’s dark by the time I finish at 5, so I’d be out in a cold dark garden trying to get it hung up.

We have a security light out there.

Some people have no basic personal hygiene. I'm the type of person that has to shower twice a day and do the laundry once to twice a day and tidy up every single day. We do have a cleaner to do the big jobs. I couldn't live in chaos and bad smells make me want to vom.
I find it absolutely disgusting when people don't wash...

I think having the windows open makes it dry quicker. If the windows are shut then the air gets more and more saturated with water, not only does that mean the water in the clothes evaporates more slowly but your house gets damper. Having the window open means that the damp air goes out and is replaced by fresh air which can absorb more water. That's my theory anyway and it seems to work because the clothes dry overnight. I also hang each item over 2 rails so there's a good space in between, if you hang them over one there are 4 layers of fabric very close to each other which is bound to dry more slowly.

Yes, this.

For the predominant part of my childhood (80s/90s), my mum was a SAHM. She used a whole separate day to clean each part of the house 🤣 So, one day was dedicated to the kitchen, one was the bathroom, one was hoovering and dusting downstairs, one upstairs, etc.

I work 30 hours a week, and have one day 'off' in the week. In my 'free' 5.5 hours (in between the school runs), I often am so blindsided by how much there is to do, that I don't do as much as I could.

Oh, behave. You know exactly what that poster meant. I love a curry, but it doesn’t mean I want to go around stinking of it or subjecting others to what is a strong smell 🙄.

The homes thing I wonder whether it's partly to do with the change of work life balance in the generations.

I always try and keep my home tidy and clean BUT me and DH also work full time often leaving before 8am and not getting home until 6pm. My house is never going to be as pristine as say my Gran's who's never worked and spends most of her day cleaning. There will inevitably be things I have less time to do that take a back burner to all of the other day to day things that need cramming into the few hours we're awake and at home for. Things like you could pull out my Grans fridge and it will be mopped and shining under there. Pull out mine and it'll probably have some dust bunnies and a few escaped peas from the freezer.

It was fairly common in her day for the wife to stay home and look after the house and children, I imagine a lot less common now and with both parents out and working all week inevitably there will be more homes less well kept than ones with someone constantly there cleaning it up!

I often fantasise about how much tidier my house could be if I was actually in it more!

I don't know about people's homes but people out and about are definitely scruffy, I went out Saturday night and oh my god the state of some people! I remember when you couldn't get into a bar/nightclub without wearing smart clothing (no hoodies hats ect) but honestly there was some people that looked straight up like they had been wearing the same clothes for 3 days.

I’m in the UK and was also surprised at the amount of posters on that thread who don’t shower or bathe daily, I had no idea. I can’t understand why anyone who can afford it wouldn’t want to be clean. Water is very expensive here though!
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t bathe / shower daily and I also haven’t noticed a rise in people with body odour, and I live in area with a lot of not well off people.

I also don’t know anyone able bodied who strip washes, ( not since the 70’s anyway ) what a bloody faff, it’s quicker to shower.
I don’t think your post was ludicrous btw.

I think people are struggling, financially and mentally. My house is a mess due to mental struggles. It overwhelms me nearly every day. When looking at properties I noticed people had so much stuff. So I try to throw stuff out all the time to stay on top of the mess.
Also to add to your post, when doing the school run I was surprised at the numbers of people who wear the exact same clothes the whole week. I understand if you like black jeans you probably have multiple pairs but I do think people are struggling to be wearing the same outfit head to toe the entire week.
Lastly, I am more conscious of my energy bill. I put on the washing machine less and shower less. Used to be a twice or once a day person. I cannot afford to have the heating on as much either. All electric here.

@Babyroobs i don’t think it’s a matter of what people choose, the amount of Universal Credit single people get now is not enough to pay the bills let alone food and luxury products such as decent washing detergent, heating to dry clothes or shower gel, shampoo let alone the electricity to run the shower.
The amount people are on aren’t even taking into consideration how many are suffering from mental health these days preventing them up keeping other’s standards.
There is also so much hidden homeless, @HomeIsHardToFind the gentleman in the shop could very well have been sleeping in his car and physically has nowhere to wash or do his washing.
I work in the community, people are unintentionally living from food banks and parcels.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it as I've not read every response but I think WFH has had an effect on this too- not everyone works tidily or has the room to do so and more people around the house- it's easy to get more mess and less emphasis on dressing for work or makeup or regular hair cuts and colours etc -