To think many people in England don’t shower, apply deodorant, wash and dry their clothes properly

[Smellypeople]

Telling by the smell on public transport; also my kids tell me is the same in their schools and classrooms and teachers don’t open windows.

Have people lost the sense of smell?

I come from a developing country in the tropics and most people shower every day.

I don’t like to generalise but have to say this is the only country I know of (and I’ve lived in a few) where bathing your child once a week is ok. There are lots of threads on MN where the majority of people say they put their DC in the bath on a Sunday and the rest of the week it’s a quick wipe on the face and hands with a flannel. Considering the fact children sweat and poo considerably, and many do not wipe properly, I honestly find that quite unsanitary but it seems to be considered normal here.

See also washing dishes but not rinsing off the washing up liquid. DP (from another European country) cannot get his head around it.

We have the animals indoors all winter, turning them out into the fields when we see the signs of spring. That may account for what you smell on English people. We get washed when we swim in river water, usually in July. Our woollen clothes get hung on a tree branch and the worst of the mud and dung beaten out of them in early October. Then it's hunkering down for winter. What's a deodorant?.

It's going the other way imo, and people think smelling clean means smelling of fabric softener

I know exactly which country you come from, OP, and believe me, there everyone stinks like a sweaty toilet. So less of the judgment, please.

You are not wrong OP.

Though people from Eastern cultures would extend this observation to how people in western cultures don’t wash after going to the toilet. Just relying on toilet paper. Maybe most people don’t openly say it, but people from eastern cultures really find that to be a disgusting hygiene trait.

I'm with you @Eastie77Returns on not rinsing dishes. It's not just leaving detergent on the dishes but they have just come out of what is literally a soup that gets stronger with every item washed.

I find it problematic when I'm sitting next to a guy who stinks while I'm on the morning commute. Yes, there's loads of 'reasons' (mental health, poverty, health,etc.) but a good proportion just don't care and seem oblivious/ happy to smell. I had to move away from someone on Wednesday as it was so deeply unpleasant. Perhaps if their faces were at the armpit level of a smelly commuter, they might think twice.

Also dog owners smell of dog. They will do everything to convince themselves and others that they don’t. But they smell of dog.

Yes, the washing up thing used to baffle my Nigerian mum. We had to wash everything separately and rinse the soap off. She worked in kitchens and was disgusted by the washing up she saw 😂

🤣🤣

@ThursdayTomorrow

It’s absolutely the same washing in a shower or washing with a sponge at a sink. The parts end up washed in exactly the same way.

True. I don’t really have a dog in this fight and I don’t really care how people get clean.

But I really struggle to see the logic of how subjecting yourself to a grotty, unsatisfying and not particularly enjoyable experience scrubbing your extremities with rags while you stand up in the bathroom and having to endlessly wash all the rags (some of which have been in your arse) makes any sense when you can jump under a jet of water for two minutes which will do the job far more efficiently and be much more comfortable.

If you don’t have a shower or are extremely hard up it’s a different matter but the vast majority of the time it’s not that. It just seems incredibly irrational to me.

But it’s Mumsnet box office so the hits keep coming.

Maybe they shouldn't hawk and spit in the street then? Even better, everybody should SHUT UP about stereotypical 'filthy habits'. It's weird and not very nice.

I travel by crowded London public transport multiple times a week and it’s not an observation I would agree with at all. Most people don’t smell and the ones that do tend to stand out for that very reason.

But don't you know it's because it's bad for their skin and washing everyday isn't good apparently🤣. Also washing their 'bits' over the sink is good enough too. I fully agree with you.

Thank you. Glad some people agree. I have a good sense of smell, it is worse when is warm. Maybe I need to train my nose.

Depends. There are many reasons for people smelling - having been a teacher, kids are developing, their hormones are changing, producing more sweat, running around at lunch etc. and it’s a cold country so you wouldn’t necessarily open windows. If you’re on the Tube in London the average temperature is between 25-30 degrees so it gets stuffy and horrible down there and you will sweat. There’s mental health and poverty to consider as factors. Having said all of that, I don’t know a single person who doesn’t shower daily. No one in my family or at work smells at all so I wonder whether you’re finding the combination of all those factors and bodies squeezed into a tight space on public transport to be the problem, rather than the average person being generally stinky.

That is another. DH does this, he said the washing up liquid cleans it. I just feel all the dirt is mixing up, thankfully we use the dishwasher most of the time

To be fair I don’t think English people smell any worse than people in other countries. There are people everywhere with hygiene problems.

But I do think there’s a particularly English form of grim Puritanism at the heart of the flannel wash.

Washing can be a pain to get dry in the winter time and tumble driers are expensive and can shrink some clothes too.
Water bills have shot up a lot so many may not be bathing / washing as much.
There are probably many reasons that people don't always smell fresh.

Same! I've only seen it here. My cleaner also told me similar of the people she worked for. The washing up thing is gross as well. 🤢

I have lived in England all of my life (40 years) and can honestly say that at this moment in time I agree with OP. People have just got far scruffier and smellier.
I smell them at work, in the supermarket and even out for meals 🤢 You only have to read some of the 'how often do you shower' threads on here to see how noseblind some people are, compare those threads to the 'how often do you wash your clothes' threads and it isn't hard to work out why people are so pungent.
People are simply not laundering clothes enough and are not washing enough 🤷‍♀️
As for those only bathing their kids once a week (and putting the jumper they have already had on for three days back on!) it is neglect in my opinion, often dressed up as concern for the planet as this is a marvellous get out clause for lots of reasons, at the end of the day those children do not smell fresh at all and will feel grubby.

I think you're being extremely rude OP. How would you feel if that was said about people from your country? Some people the world over don't keep themselves as fresh and clean as would be ideal, and it only takes the odd one out of multiple very clean people to make an enclosed space smell. It is by no means a trait of people in England.

Of course it isn't. Unsurprising that the OP needed a special name change to post this rude stuff though.

Don't, @5128gap ! It's a well known fact that only English people have failings! Hygiene, cleanliness, food habits, parenting, housing, education and our tragic lack of musicality and everywhere sets us apart from the rest of Civilisation. Oh, and we only have one word for snow.

I work facing the public and can confirm that people smell utterly vile all day every day. Half of them wear visibly dirty tops with food down the front and filthy looking coats.
I really don't know what's happened to personal hygiene and pride in how you look. It's mostly older males that are the worst so I think maybe they've lost their wife and can't cope and don't think to wash things like coats
It's really quite sad