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?!

For goodness sake what a ludicrous post. Embarassed for you,

Exactly. I really think a lot of it is to do with this.

Knew I'd have to namechange. Is it ludicrous though? You are the one's complaining about the smell. I'm not there so no idea if it's true. Seriously , never heard of a stripwash until joining mumsnet.

I think fashion these days is very scruffy. Puffer coats, trainers, joggers, leggings, sweatshirts...if you'd left the house in stained grey joggers and Crocs before the pandemic people would have thought you were in crisis, now it's high fashion. Yes, the Instagram models look good in it, other people tend not to for the most part.

No one said all English are like this, I assume you think you’re being funny ir goady, so I won’t respond to you further.

Excuse me, I'm cleaning that bloody (white plastic) step regularly!! 😂
But I get what you mean. Lack of motivation is a killer.

We (and most people I knew) didn't have a shower in the house until I was about nine or ten, @marmaladulation; how do you suppose we washed then if not with soap, water and a flannel at the basin?

Have a anyway

Some people are unable to shower due to disabilities, and some people are in bed 24/7, or the shower is broken, or they don't want to get fully undressed in a cold bathroom. It's effectively the same as a bed bath and you can be perfectly clean with it
Or simply you've got no hot water for some reason for a few days and have only a kettle of water to use

I have met people that haven't showered in a decade and they don't smell at all because they're washed properly
You use very hot water, soap and a flannel, soap up all over then rinse using the flannel

I think people have got smellier since Covid.

People working from home don't have to worry about showering. You're not going to be on the tube with someone's face in your armpit and then work in close proximity to people you're trying to impress. Also, we're around people less. We have all worked with people who smelt of BO occasionally (by all, i mean those of us who are old enough to remember offices) and it was awful so we tried not to be that person. But we never get close to people now so we've forgotten how smelly people are.

My second theory is that a lot of people have permanently lost their sense of smell since Covid and then a small percentage of the population have had the opposite and can smell everything acutely. They're the ones we need to feel sorry for.

Name changed for this confession.

I’m in a corner terrace between 3 roads so I get everyone’s leaves and blown about recycling and mini glass liquor bottles.

Not only do I not sweep up the leaves and rubbish, I throw out the rubbish back on the road as a passive aggressive revenge to my neighbours who don’t secure their recycling.

I also put the glass bottles and beer cans that the locals dump into my garden onto the pavement.

Of course it all blows back in eventually

Shame used to be a key component of our society.

For some people, it is completely lacking.

Yes, and if your house is very cold than getting in and out of the shower is very unpleasant.

I for one don't use "loads of washing soap", and I use Eco detergent. Surely it isn't beyond the Brits to come up with something which will work in cold water 🤔

I don’t shower every day. I used to get such itchy legs and red face after bathing that bathing became a chore. I used to wash my face in cooled boiled filtered water to minimise the redness. A shower meant a red hot face. Funnily though it was fine on holidays in hot countries or even not so hot countries.

Now my skin is less itchy but I never developed that urge to shower daily except in summer. Even now I wash my hair over the tub.

We do have a bidet so always wash several times a day.

I am going to get vilified for this, but I’m often told I look much younger than I am and I think it’s partly due to washing my hair only twice a week (as well as no cigarettes and alcohol).

Another person living overseas. I didn't live in a house with a shower until I was 18, before that we used a thing called a bath.

One thing I don't understand are why your energy charges seem so high? I have my oven on most days, sometimes twice, boil the jug numerous times a day, and do regular washing, not to mention have longish showers - all of which people are always suggesting use a lot of energy. In summer when I'm not using heating I have quite small electricity bills. (I know it's winter there atm, but even in winter I still do all those things).

I was a single mum working as a supply teacher years ago. My house was rented and very tiny. I used to stand my children in a baby bath in the main ( empty bath ) and give them a strip wash every night. I boiled a kettle for each child's wash and added cold water from the bath tap until it was warm but not hot. I stood over it to wash myself after they'd gone to bed. I washed my hair ( short)using the same baby bath. I kept the house clean and tidy because I didn't want to judged by others and I struggle to cope if there is mess. That was all pretty successful. The house only had one storage heater at the bottom of the stairs. It kept it reasonably warm but it was hopeless at drying jumpers, towels and bedding in the winter. My 2 sons had school uniform that was mainly man-made fibres and they were very young so the clothes weren't large and dried mostly okay. I had to wash my winter jumpers when we visited my parents so I could spread things out on their radiators.I was always aware ,if I had to wash a jumper at my house, that the cuffs,neck and ribbing at the bottom would sometimes take too long to dry. I was mortified in a staff meeting when the person next to me starting sniffing in that 'somethings off' kind of way. We didn't have a convenient launderette and, what with taking all the work I could, sorting children and home out, food shopping etc I just didn't have the energy, or the money, to pay for a service wash or to use the dryer.It was depressing and exhausting and bloody awful. Now I am remarried. I have a big house ,lots of lovely radiators and a utility room that I love far more than someone who had always had that sort of thing would ever be able to understand. It's hard work having very little. You can't replace things that are well past their best. My son was sick in his shoes at school They were Clarks because I wanted them to have shoes that fitted. Everything else was charity shop. They didn't ever have slippers because thats just an unnecessary extra expense. He had to wear the shoes for the rest of the school year because I couldn't afford to buy another new pair. I'm sure the people who snell know they smell. I'm sure they absolutely hate it.

I’m an immigrant to the UK from a developing country but I do find your faux naïveté quite annoying.

Why so interested in a country you have such disdain for?

@SocksAndTheCity I was a bit perturbed about that too- we rent lovely family homes at a good level and my home looks way way better than many of my friends owned' houses. Less of the cliche please that we are all some kind of transient scum because we rent.

There are many threads on here with people defensively justifying not washing regularly. They must be nose blind.

Many people definitely do look scruffier and smell ‘off’. I think it’s partly COL, but mainly post COVID standards.

Many people WFH more and have become lax with their clothes and hygiene. This has spilled over into their ‘outdoor’ lives. You can see it it at work. Most people used to take pride in their appearance in the office. Now some look like they just rolled out of bed and put back on the clothes on the floor from the day before.

Many people’s drinking got out of control during lockdown also, which is why they’ve become lazy with their appearance and stink even if they try and cover it up.

And that, I believe, is the crux of it. Some people just don’t care anymore as there is always a reason (excuse) why, and if they aren’t making the excuses, then someone else is on their behalf.

I haven’t noticed this at all where I live in the south west.

That is so depressing.

Good for you, @IloveAslan . Unfortunately I didn't grow up in a financial situation where we could afford to heat water for baths every day - putting the immersion on was something of an occasion.

Energy bills here in the UK are currently double to triple what they were a few years ago, and they weren't cheap then. Most people's income, incredibly, hasn't doubled or tripled to match it (or the increases in food prices, rent, travel and so on).

I travel around Europe a lot and have noticed more people smelling than pre-Covid - it's definitiely not just the UK.

I've often thought it would be a good thing for public bathhouses to make a come back, where you could have a wash, maybe a sauna and massage for a low cost.