Please help Me - I am losing my mind with this smell

[Haileystones]

So I have a hyper sense of smell which is bloody annoying I know but the smell in my house is absolutely abominable and I have no idea what it is. The smell is chemically, sort of hospitally. We don’t use bleach, the house is clean - I’m buggered if I know what’s causing it but the house reeks of it. When I’ve been away for a few days and come home the smell is completely overwhelming. When we are away I can smell it on the clothes we’ve brought from home. The house didn’t used to smell like this so it’s something we’re doing but I just don’t know what.

The only thing I could think of which would be so pervasive was possibly that we’ve installed a water softener when we moved in but I have smelled the salt stuff we put in and it doesn’t really smell of anything and the room it’s in isn’t any worse than any other room.

My dh has a very poor sense of smell and has no idea what I’m on about but it’s making me SO miserable.

Can anyone help? I just don’t know who to even ask, if there were professionals I’d get them in!!

Our black bin liners have a weird chemically lemony smell. You're not using those, are you?

Try turning off the water softener for a month and see if it's still there?

The water softener salts could be reacting with something in your pipes and making the water smell funny, which would explain the clothes too.

I feel for you, I'm the same but with sounds, drives me mad sometimes.

I would ask a friend to come around and check if they can smell it, how strong it is and where it is coming from. After I had Covid a lot of things smelt much stronger and some things smelled completely different. I kept on smelling a patchouli air freshener type smell in my house but nobody else did!

Have you had anything like a new carpet installed? Or decoration of any kind? Replastering?

How long have you smelt it for and how long ago was the water softener installed?

Have you had covid recently?

It's made my sense of smell both entirely absent and weird AF at different times since I had it in the last month!

I haven’t had covid, no. The smell has been here for several years. Not sure if it has been here as long as the water softener or not! It’s a good idea to disconnect it for a while and see if that helps. Can’t help worrying that it’s permeated all the carpets etc so not sure if I will be able to tell!

I’ve got ADHD and so think the ridiculously good sense of smell is part of general hypersensitivity but to have an issue with the smell in your own home is a dreadful. It really gets me down

Ps no new carpet (love that smell!)/paint etc

We had a horrible smell in our kitchen - turned out freezers have water trays that need emptying. Could it be that?

My mother had this…it was HRT! It made her own body and her reaction to smells change (a bit like Covid does on some)…just thought I’d mention it!

It sounds like it isn’t Covid but that was going to be my suggestion. I have this weird bleachy, sweet smell that follows me around and everything strong smelling smells like it. Even poo! It is the weirdest thing.

Any chance it’s a metallic taste/smell if you know what I mean? How smells have tastes and vice versa.
Your water softening system could definitely cause this, check the PH of your water and see what it is.
Good luck.

Have you mentioned this to your GP?

If no-one else can smell it, then there is such a thing as a phantom sense of smell - phantosmia, and it can be indicative of other conditions, so it might be worth telling your doctor.

Oh god OP I have so much sympathy here. ADHD here too which helped explain why I can smell like a bloodhound. DH used to distress me with Flash floor cleaner and stale dishcloths. Post diagnosis he finally understood that I wasn't being a drama queen, I just have a way better sense of smell than him! Check cleaning fluid hasn't leaked especially the Flash liquid types.

Limonene, it's in lots of things, Fairy original washing up liquid for one, the one with the "Improved Scent", horrendous.

If it's been several years it's not a spill. It could be something electrical warming something up that then gives off fumes. Is it worse in some areas than others??

Have a sniff around boiler, lights, anything that can get warm.

Ah op, I have heightened sense of smell too so I get it. Daft question but do you live in a detached house or are you joined? Just thinking about the possibility it could be coming from another property. You're not near an industrial building or anything? Hopefully you'll get to the bottom of it soon.

Have you ever smelt the same smell in someone else's house? What about your neighbour's houses?

If you go away on holiday or stay at someone else's house can you still smell it while you are there?

Thanks so much for the replies.
it’s a detached house don’ think it can be that.

@staters what PH would cause the smell?

Do you use anything like Febreeze?

The fabric refresher is used on my carpet made my house smell odd & after I finally figured it out I stopped using it. Odor gone.

Oops - *I used

Oh god. So much yes to this.

i absolutely detest the smell of limonene. Makes me feel nauseous. And it’s in fucking. Everything.

If it’s high then it could cause the metallic taste. Not sure about you but the smell of metal also leave that metallic taste in my mouth, so maybe it’s your water softener.

I saw this…

Water softener systems utilize salt primarily to treat water, and can give water a taste that resembles metal. In addition to checking the hardness, you may want to check the pH. The ideal pH range for tap water is between 6.5 to 8.5, however water at the higher end of this range will have a more metallic taste.

So above 8.5 your water would taste metallic but maybe you could smell it too?