To find this smell offensive?

[GreenMonkies]

We live in a maisonette which shares a communal garden with about 5 other households, mainly elderly folks. We are an "Ecover" household, we don't use "mainstream" cleaning products or air-fresheners.

I am sitting in the garden whilst the DD's play on thier bikes etc, and two of my neighbours have hung washing out, and the stench of Lenor/Comfort/whatever is all but making me gag, I am seriously thinking of going inside the smell is so strong. Bleurgh!!!!!

I tried to do the eco thing and wasted bought a load of Soap Nuts.

They were shi. So I went back to using the chemically based scented lovliness that is Persil.

The thought was there, what more do you want...!?

Wickedwitch - I loved the Sainsbury's Christmas one too. I bought LOADS - have just run out. Now love the Lenor Infusions - black or red but only buy when on offer. I do all that opening the bottles and smelling them marlarky. Do the same in Boots with shampoos/conditioners/shower gels. Doesn't everyone? Surely that's why those Herbal Essence shampoos are so popular. They smell so gorgeous!!

Your not pregnant are you? Thats how I knew, upstairs neighbours used to hang washing on their balcony and I could smell the fabric conditioner from half way down the road, even in my front room with the windows closed.

Someone left a coat in my house once and I actually had to leave it out on the porch because it reeked of something akin to a tart's boudoir. I imagine, not having had access to a tart's boudoir. It was some kind of washing product, not perfume.

I made the mistake of switching from Tesco's non-bio to Tesco's Bio recently, naively thinking it would smell the same. [shudder]

Some of you have been unnecessarily rude to the OP. She wasn't advocating taking the Laundry People out and stoning them in public.

What I find interesting is that it takes at least 2 washes to shift the scent. How on earth does it linger so long?

Why don't you take the kids to the park? By the time you get back their washing will be in.

My neighbour below me has been on the cabbage soup diet for the past 4 months. Every 3 nights she makes another batch and my flat stinks to high heaven. Count your blessings.

Better than the smell of sweat and skiddies though, eh ?

BlackLetterDay, no, by ALL the gods, I am NOT pregnant! But, my sense of smell was massively over-sensitive when I was, and I suspect has not quite "dulled" back down again completely.

CrackFox, we did go to the park, just got back, and I bow to your suffering with the cabbage soup neighbour, is it just when she makes it that you can smell her, or do you get a waft of the, ahem, methane by-product too?

No, just cabbage. TBH, I'm not sure she is on the cabbage soup diet but she looks like she has lost well over 3 stone and it has coincided with the cabbagey smell. It is the only logical explanation I can think of.

Cor. What an ugly kicking.

Why are some people so offended by the OP using environmentally friendly products? You do know that it is BETTER to use Ecover than perfumed chemically stuff? If you don't buy it for whatever reason that's your choice, but why pour scorn on someone who does?

Oh I love taking the tops off in Boots too, after checking no assistants are watching, and having a good old sniff at all the products. Gorgeous!
Can't use many scented products myself because of dd's ezcema.
Oh feel the need to go and have a sniff in my bathroom now at all the perfumes etc.....

Also LOVE going into Lush and sniffing up the aromas.
Oh lovely

And I reserve the right to be offended when someone tells my I am smug for only using eco-friendly products. There is a very good reason not directly connected to environmental concerns why we do, and why we cannot use bleach or any kind of mainstream product in our sinks and loos. There are plenty of people in the same boat as us. And frankly, with a callout charge of £80 for Mr Suckcess, buying Ecover and its ilk pays for itself...

I usually use Ecover, but I occasionally like to switch mine so that I can notice the smell (I find if you use any one product for long enough you can't smell it anymore). I am especially loving the Bold Lavender stuff now as the weather means I can hang stuff outside. Fresh sheets off the line, washed in lavender scented liquid = bliss.

I use ironing water for DH's workshirts, I like the lilyflower one. It does make them a bit easier to iron I find, don't know why and it makes me happy - so why not.

i use soap nuts for all DS's clothes, non-bio for the girls' clothes and theirs and DS's towels and bedding, bio for my and DH's stuff.

i use liquified soap nuts for cleaning most things, or Dr Bronner's peppermint castille soap, and don't use commercial cleansers except for toilets, in which case i use those toilet duck paper loo brushes and cageless deodoriser.

for ironing water i use evian with a few drops of lavender oil added.

but c'mon, it's a bright sunny day, you're outside and all you can do is moan about the scnet of other peoples' (mainly elderly) washing?

geez, at least they weren't smoking fags or running quad bikes about.

we live in a rural area where people regularly burn garden waste. often the clothes carry this scent.

hey ho. it's part of living here.

i use bio and non-bio from Lidl. i think it's called Formil.

Luna, if I spend more than 5 minutes in Lysh I get a headache!

I have really enjoyed this thread, my OP was not 100% serious, and whilst some people took it that way I have not been offended by any of the scorn etc that resulted.

I now understand the fun of Trolling. Perhaps I'll figure out how to name change and get creative!!

At least your elderly neighbours don't smell of cat wee like my grandma did.

Even with clean clothes on...

I can't even go into Lush at all.

It's like a hangover+a sore head under one roof.

It reeks.

It sets off my mum's asthma.

expat, do you really separate everyones washing like that??

wow lady, I am really impressed. I separate by colour, but I couls never do by child/adult. I find separating as much as I do a chore and a half!

I understand how the OP feels, I get migraines from the smell of some washing powders and cleaners. And if it is strong I can feel it hurt my throat.

To everyone who uses these things...does it not worry you that to people who do not use bio powder etc, that because the smell does not effect you negativley, that you have perhaps become sensitised to it, a bit like when a smoker cannot smell smoke on their own clothes???

I'm not keen on fabric conditioner mainly because dh and dd have ecxzema (sorry cannot spell that word for the life of me) and it aggravates it, but really, outside in the garden with someone elses washing? YAB a tad U I'm afraid. Come on, they're hanging out their washing, isn't that environmentally friendly in itself?

course yabu

but I still can't believe that people actually buy those air freshners...

'Does your poo smell?...we have a solution...fill your house with chemicals...we're not exactly sure of the long term effects on your children's health but at least no one will ever guess that you actually poo in your toilet '

...oh just open your window people please

Even though I hate the smell, I'd rather have overpowering laundry products that the foul yappy little rat like dogs next door. They really piss me off. I can't set foot in my garden without their shrill yapyapyap.

Makes my mind turn to dreams of bundling them up in a sack and releasing them far, far away.

"...than the foul yappy little rat like dogs..."