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?!

I have never got up and had a shower in the morning. With the exemption to Saturdays. When I clean my upstairs first and then have a shower after, so technically still morning

sure it’s been said but I would put scruffiness in terms of unbrushed hair, perhaps obviously unironed clothes, generally looking unkempt etc down to worse mental health - for some? Of course some look the part and really suffer but I didn’t have the energy or will to take pride in my appearance (usually do!) when suffering with a bit of PND but I showered. I doubt this would account for many cases of scruffiness though and I appreciate this isn’t exactly what you’re referring to.

As for houses, if others’ jobs are anything like mine and DH’s, there’s hardly any time for scrubbing tiles outside like the old days. We’re very much on the hamster wheel that’s the rat race.

I really think we have to stop blaming poor mental health as an excuse for so, so many things.

What so, so many things do you think is it is used as an excuse for, out of interest? I don’t entirely disagree, btw, but knowing people who chose not to live anymore due to poor mental health colours my view on this (poor mental health as an ‘excuse’ for lack of self-care, I mean) somewhat.

@Kooples I knew someone was going to come along right away and challenge this. But as someone who has had a suicide in my immediate family I am aware of the preponderance of poor mental health by many but I still stand by my statement.

'Because mental health...' is pretty much the response/ answer to ANY question/discussion about academic performance, child behaviour, adult job performance and adult behaviour generally.

I agree that we hear it cited as a reason for a lot of things such as those you mention but I also think poor mental health is an increasing actual problem. I know things like ‘anxiety’ and OCD can be used a little liberally - thinking of a couple of teens in my family in particular. But, to go off on a bit of a tangent, I’m also sure we will only really learn the extent of the effects of the pandemic, phones and social media etc on mental health in particular in a couple of decades when young people are older.

@Kooples Fair point, I don't disagree.

I work at home most of the time. I'm middle aged. Post lockdown all my colleagues still work at home. Dress code on virtual mtgs has gone more and more casual.
I have to go to the office tomorrow and realised I f nothing smart to wear!

@Waferbiscuit when I flew recently everyone seemed clean but dressed casually. People dress for comfort, and that is okay.

There’s a general time and a place to be smartly dressed. My pet peeve is people turning up for interviews looking like they’ve come from a day at a boot fair, dressing far too casual for an interview.

So what’s an unreasonable amount of time?

In the 60s/70s many people only bathed once a week.

We are not in the 50/60's now though are we.
Even though they bathed once a week I am reliably informed by people around during that time period that they washed (face, pits, bits and feet) daily, twice a day if they worked in a manual job because they had pride in themselves.
Some people I have had the misfortune to encounter recently certainly are not washing anywhere close to once a day.
You don't stink of strong BO from skipping a day, you can almost see the grease seeping out of some people's pores, not everyone can claim its a mental health issue, some people are just foul.

Yes, I fully agree with you and I find this to be the case across the generations too.

When you can actually see and smell people haven't washed or bathed in a while. Having a shower every other day you really can't. But not washing at all for a week? You would probably be able to tell

Interesting, not planning to test the theory but I think a fortnight unless you are a teenager 😂 But definitely not risking it

This exactly.
I don’t always have a lot, however, myself and my children all have a shower / bath every day and have clean and nice smelling clothes. Never, ever, have we missed this even once or gone out smelling or unclean.

When my boys were younger, I was surviving on 7p reduced bread so that I could give the kids a decent meal every day and have toast for myself. I don’t smoke, drink, have my nails done or anything that ‘society’ says single Mums do. Every penny I have goes on my children. They need to learn to wash / get clean clothes on each day.

Unreasonable to expect anyone to stay fresh throughout their journey. I may have left the house showered and with clean hair but by the time I've lugged my bags on the bus, the train and through the airport it's likely that I'll have become a bit sweaty. No one is at their freshest on a plane. And given that it's not the most comfortable of places to spend a few hours, there's no way I'm wearing anything other than for comfort.

Also how do you know those men weren't wearing underwear? Did you check, or just ogle?

There's a difference between haven't washed for 24 hours and an ingrained sense of not washing. It's not solely about daily showering but also clean clothes, washed hair etc. If you're not a daily showerer you still need a strip wash daily and you need clean bed sheets that are changed routinely too. it's odd because at a time when there is arguably more choice in personal care products than ever before people seem to be using them less and less.

Agreed that cleanliness is important in all those ways but my point was that even if you do all those things, you are still likely to be somewhat sweaty and musty on a plane.

Are the properties you’re viewing rentals where the landlord is selling up? Whenever I see similar online, I assume that the pissed-off tenants aren’t putting themselves out to have everything clean and tidy, and TBH I can’t say I blame them. IMO LLs should wait until tenants have left before doing viewings, and I say that as a LL myself.

You are but it's a different smell to ingrained unwashed

You can't pass my village convenience store without some woman emerging from it in nightgown and slippers at any given time of the day! They always drive off in great big Chelsea tractors too

If my landlord decided to evict us i would make it my mission to inform any viewers of the extensive black mould problem we spend so much tackling

Not read the full thread but I’d rather never shower or wash again for the rest of my life than be one of those grim people who clearly gains some weird satisfaction from judging and describing those they think are less hygienic than they are. It’s so pathetic. Yes some people smell, get on with your life. You don’t know anything about other people’s lives and what they’re going through.

Some of my clothes definitely had a musty smell, I was careful with washing and drying so couldn't work out why until I put a hanging dehumidifier bag in my wardrobe. It filled within a few weeks, my wardrobe was overstuffed so air couldn't circulate and this was trapping moisture in my clothes.

I notice a pong on people, I assumed it was the move towards synthetic fibres. The general scruffiness seems to come from the trend towards athleisure wear which when pristine on gym bunny body styled for Instagram (male or female) has a look/style but on most of the population schlepping round the shops it is less than chic. The ubiquitous grey doesn't do anything for most people unless it/they are heavily styled.