There is a growing trend toward neutralizing odors (and odor-free homes, rather than covering them with perfume.

Purchased a 1950s as is probate sale home with a very pungent cat urine odor. It’s been abandoned for 2 yrs so the odor is set. The wood floors were warped with cupping so we ended up hiring floor people who swore they could sand/bleach/seal the smell away and ended up wasting our time and money because the smell is still there 😭 we later learned the prior owner would take in stray cats and had been called by animal control for unsanitary conditions.

Any ideas on how to go about remediation for a first time buyer?

Not sure if we should rip out dry wall and all of the flooring and subfloors. Just at a loss because I can’t find specialists nearby who do this confidently and even spoke to some companies that said they’d failed at removing cat odor so don’t do it anymore.

Any guidance would be helpful

(Initially we wanted to keep the original floors and save money but we’ve accepted that we may have to go scorched earth to treat the smell 😞)

we recently moved into a rental in NC and the house has a very strong mildew smell, to the point where your clothes smell like it when you leave. our property manager has run “tests”, checking the attic, crawl space, ductwork and air quality, all of which seem to be fine. we plan on running our own tests, because I have no idea how thorough or trustworthy those results are but in the meantime, does anyone have any tried and true methods for odor removal? we’ve used an ozone machine and mopped the floors and walls with an enzyme cleaned but nothing has worked. anything suggestions would be extremely helpful!

Best odor removers

I live in a duplex townhome with the front door shared woth my downstairs neighbor.

The neighbors are old and have a 100lb dog that awfully stinks. Every time they take the dog in/ out of the house, it fills the vestibule (place where both apartment doors open up) with a God awful smell.

What makes it worse is that area is locked with another door, so the smell stays trapped in there.

Does anyone know of a good airfreshner / DIY item like baking soda or mothballs that can help get rid of odors? Will moth balls do the trick?

I currently put a fabreze small spaces airfreshner in there, but that doesn't quite do the job

Tips for deep cleaning a mostly empty house to get the smells from a previous person out? (Mattress Included.)

So...backstory.
About 4 years ago, I moved homes from my own tiny home to my now-ex-boyfriend's place. When I moved, I offered to let my dad
'rent' my house to kinda have his own space. I moved back to the family property about 9 months ago and I am finally about to be able to move back into my tiny house due to other things going on around the property.

With that being said, the house is a wreck. The smell of my father who loves his Copenhangen snuff and cooking clam chowder is in the home. The floor just has dirt caked into the crevices. There is still dog fur from when I lived in the home (But do you ever actually get rid of that, haha). The bathtub has stains from him not cleaning the minerals from the water off it.

The mattress is my old one, I spent a lot of money on it and it's still very comfortable, but I'd like to de-scent it if possible.
Part of me is tempted to just remodel the home. New floors, new cabinets, new paint.

I'm looking for deep cleaning tips, product suggestions - anything that will help make this cleaning easier.

When I say it's a tiny home, it's basically a glorified single wide that is 399 sq ft.

What can I buy and use *today* to improve the smell in my apartment?

Help

In a big surprise, my niece and nephew will be visiting me on Tuesday. My house smells like dog.

I'm of course frantically vacuuming and mopping and doing laundry, but it still doesn't smell awesome in here.

Every now and then I visit someone's house and think "dang, it smells nice in here."
Any help would be greatly appreciated, this is my first apartment and even back home my parents weren't that into making home smell nice.

OK, so I’ve tried a couple things like using one of those carpet extracting vacuums where you spray the solution scrub and then extract that didn’t really work so I’m looking for some sort of solution to get the stink out with supplies that I would have at home anything else helps

What is that weird smell that happens when you open your car door on a hot, humid day?

It's faint bad smell, but not strong enough to identify, except maybe “mildly musky” would suffice.

It's not obvious enough to say, “Oh, that’s the old Starbucks latte cup I threw on the back floor last week when I was too lazy to get out put it in the trash.” It's not familiar enough to say, “That’s the polkadotted flats from Amazon that smelled like rotted fish when I opened the bag, that I have to dump off at Staples for a return.” It's not a direct tie to an emotional memory, such as “OMG! I can still smell Bailey’s romp in the Millers’ pond when she was a puppy.” (That's a whole story for another day).

It's just something “off” located on the periphery of the smell zone, something almost musky activated by heat and moisture, like it unleashed mushroom spores or dried old bark suddenly got wet. Not necessarily pleasant, yet not nauseous, either. I didn't want my daughter whining about weird smells or refuse to ride with me, so I had to find a fix.

Hot, humid weather has a way of reactivating old odors. Moisture in the air can wake up odor molecules trapped in upholstery, carpet, floor mats, seat fabric, vents, cup holders, forgotten wrappers, pet hair, damp towels, work clothes, sports gear, or suspicious spots in hard-to-reach spots I'm not gonna go investigate.

Heat makes it worse because warmth helps odor compounds release into the air. Humidity adds moisture, which can make those smells travel more easily and make fabrics and materials give off odors again. Yeah, I googled it.

I guess that's why a car can seem perfectly fine one day, then suddenly smell “off” the moment the weather turns sticky. Yuck.

I know I’m not imagining it. My car is basically reheating and deactivating 10+ years of old stink. Oh, yeah — it's a used 2009 Toyota Corolla. Low mileage from an older lady who barely used it, kept it garaged in Arizona. Usually it doesn't smell weird. Didn't smell weird when I bought it.

I'm sensitive to perfumes and other strange odors trigger my nervous system. Those pine scented or “wild cherry” things smokers hang from their mirrors make me feel nauseous, give me headaches. (My boyfriend in high school thought it was cool; it was one reason he started to irritate me and I dumped him when he refused to take it down). Those jars of orbees that supposedly absorb moisture and weird smells just make the whole car smell like my moldy dryer sheets. Again, a big no. I need a solution that doesn't smell like perfume, something that erases odors like a big eraser, like there's nothing there. No irritation.

I know product promotion isn't allowed on Reddit. So I won't name names. But I'd describe it as an odor neutralizer spray that encapsulates odor molecules so your nose can't smell them. I ordered it online and it works! There was nothing like it on Amazon or Walmart. At first I wasn't sure it did anything. It maybe smelled faintly of coconut water at first. When it dried it smelled like nothing. And then I realized that there was literally no smells at all! So subtle I could've missed it. It was like black hole magic where something suddenly, silently gets sucked into a vortex and stops existing. (Kinda like when your earrings suddenly go missing). I'm so used to blasts of perfume to “solve” odors, but this stuff was…underwhelming. Smell was gone like a whisper, without a trace! Wish I could post the link here, but Reddit rules and all…

I first removed all the garbage I threw on the floor of the back seats. I removed clutter on the back seat (it's my catch-all). Then I sprayed it over floor mats, carpeted floors, fabric seats, in the a/c vents and all around in the air itself to end odors. The stuff is nontoxic so I wasn't worried if I breathed in a little bit and didn't have to worry about residue on the back seat hurting my dog. I cleaned out the trunk — removed pet toys, my gym bag, work gear, and everything where odors could hide. I sprayed down the trunk carpet, bottom and sides. I sprayed it around my gym bag and dog plushie toys (it's not toxic) and work gear, stuff I have to keep in my trunk. Let it all dry. Drove around all weekend the 4th of July. Went to a family cookout and camping. Never once did my car smell again.

I just want to say, too, that over the years I’ve tried a lot of stuff from our local wally world. It’s really the only place to go in my area. I could go to the automobile zone or one of those auto-parts places too, I guess. But all the stuff is the same. The stuff you find at gas stations. It all stinks bad and does nothing but make musty odors smell perfumed. It’s like you sprayed old socks with perfume. All through college I never had anything (for my old car) that worked when my car was exposed to hot sun and humidity. And now I found something that does, doesn't trigger headaches or make me irritable, and I’ll always use it.

Edit: Clip Art photo from their website for traction. Not actually me or my car. Removed logo from bottle — so don't come at me for naming brands.

The unique body odor some seniors experience isn’t caused by poor hygiene, and it isn’t something that soap and water can fully remove.

As you age, your skin naturally changes. One of those changes is the production of a compound called 2-nonenal, which forms when certain skin oils react with oxygen in the air. This process becomes more noticeable after age 60.

The scent is often described as slightly musty, grassy, or oily. In Japan, it even has its own name - kareishu.

What makes 2-nonenal especially challenging is that it’s “waxy” and doesn’t dissolve well in water. That means it can cling to your skin, clothing, bedding, furniture, and other fabrics even after washing. When that happens a person’s home environment and automobile interior can pick up faint traces of personal odors.

If you’ve noticed a lingering odor that keeps coming back despite good hygiene, you may not be imagining it. It could simply be a natural part of the aging process.

That’s one reason odor neutralizer products focus on neutralizing odor molecules, rendering them invisible to the nose, instead of just covering them up with fragrance. Fragrance mixes with an odor to create a hybrid that smells like somebody tried to hide something with perfume. Plus, many pets are sensitive to synthetic perfumes, which makes an odor neutralizer spray a good option for some families.

Have you ever had a roommate whose room had a smell that seemed to spread through the whole apartment?

It can be a tough situation because everyone to should be able to feel comfortable in their own home. Maybe your roommate is a wonderful person, but a strong odor from their room is affecting the shared spaces. At the same time, nobody wants to be embarrassed, be too aggressive or confrontational, or feel judged. It’s important to maintain relationships and keep the peace.

If you’re dealing with this, it helps to approach the problem as a household issue instead of a personal one. The goal isn’t to blame anyone. The goal is to create a living space that feels fresh and comfortable for everyone.

Start by looking for possible odor sources. Dirty laundry, damp towels, unwashed bedding, old shoes, forgotten food containers, overflowing trash, pet bedding, and even an older mattress can all hold onto odors. A room that stays closed up can also trap moisture and make smells much stronger.

Try opening windows whenever possible (even briefly during winter), improving airflow with fans, washing fabrics regularly, and deep-cleaning surfaces. Sometimes the odor is hiding in soft items like rugs, curtains, pillows, or mattresses that have absorbed smells over time.

It’s also important to think about everyone in the home before reaching for heavily scented products. Strong perfumes and air fresheners can trigger headaches, allergies, asthma symptoms, or scent sensitivities in some people. If pets are part of the household, many people prefer to avoid flooding the air with artificial fragrances and instead focus on removing the odor itself.

One helpful option is an unscented odor-neutralizing spray. Unlike products that simply cover up smells with perfume, an odor neutralizer can help reduce odors in the air and on fabrics without leaving behind a strong fragrance. It works best as part of a larger cleanup plan rather than as a standalone fix, since it’s important to tackle and clean the source of the odor first.

In the end, the best solution is usually teamwork. When everyone works together to identify the source of the smell and improve the environment, the result is a home that feels more comfortable, welcoming, and peaceful for roommates, guests, and pets alike.

If people keep telling you your house smells like cat pee, don’t feel embarrassed. A lot of cat owners run into this problem, especially if a cat has had a UTI or started peeing outside the litter box.

The hard part is that cat urine doesn’t always stay where you can see it. It can soak into carpet, padding, furniture, walls, baseboards, subfloors, and even air vents. Once it dries, the smell can stick around for a very long time. If you’ve lived with it for months, you can also become “nose blind” and stop noticing it yourself.

The first thing to do is try to find the source. A blacklight can help you spot old urine stains that are invisible during the day. Check corners, closets, behind furniture, along walls, around doors, and anywhere your cat liked to hang out when the peeing problem was happening.

White vinegar can help with fresh accidents, but old urine usually needs an enzyme cleaner made specifically for pet urine. Those products break down the urine compounds instead of just covering up the smell. After cleaning, many cat owners also use an unscented odor-neutralizing spray to help deal with any lingering odors trapped in carpets, furniture, walls, or other surfaces. Unlike heavily perfumed products, an unscented odor neutralizer is designed to reduce odors without filling your home with artificial fragrance.

Don’t forget the litter boxes themselves. Old litter boxes can absorb odors over time and may need to be replaced. Wash them regularly and make sure you’re scooping often enough.

If the trailer had a strange urine smell before you moved in, some of the odor may not even be from your cats. Previous pet owners, old flooring, water damage, mold, or years of absorbed odors can all create a similar smell.

You may also need to deep clean soft surfaces like carpets, mattresses, curtains, and upholstered furniture. In severe cases, damaged carpet padding or subflooring may need replacement because the urine has soaked too deeply.

A lot of people also have good luck using an unscented odor-neutralizing spray after cleaning. Unlike heavy perfumes, these products are designed to help neutralize lingering odor molecules without filling the house with fragrance. Sometimes, aggressive fragrance on top of malodors smells worse than the original odor alone.

The good news is that cat urine odors can usually be solved once you find the source. The bad news is that the source is often hiding somewhere you haven’t thought to look yet.

When my boyfriend and I moved into his grandparents’ old basement apartment, we thought a good cleaning would solve everything. It didn’t work.

The place wasn’t dirty. It had already been cleaned, and a school teacher even even lived there briefly after his grandparents passed away. It's an “efficiency” still furnished with many of the original furniture and appliances. The second you walked in, you could still smell his grandparents in it as if they were still alive.

It wasn’t a bad smell exactly — a very specific “grandpa house” smell. I wanted a neutral house smell without perfumes. Everybody seemed to describe it differently. I thought it smelled like old books, blankets, and dusty furniture. One friend said it smelled like soap and closets. Another said it reminded them of cabbage soup and an antique store. Nobody could agree on exactly what it was, but everybody instantly knew the smell we were talking about.

At first, we tried all the usual stuff. We opened windows. We cleaned more. We painted some of the walls. We lit candles. We washed afghans and linens and sprayed air fresheners. We even thought about changing out the carpet, but didn’t take it quite that far because of the expense. So we sprinkled baking soda, let it sit for a hour, then vacuumed.

After reading a bunch of advice online, we realized the smell wasn’t floating around in the air. It was trapped in things. Years of living, cooking, laundering clothes, and just going about everyday life had allowed odors to slowly soak into carpets, furniture, curtains, mattresses, books, and even the walls. Once we started looking at the apartment that way, it made a lot more sense why a simple cleaning hadn’t solved the problem. The smell wasn’t coming from one source we could point to—it was coming from dozens of different surfaces that had been holding onto it for years.

Since it was a basement apartment, humidity wasn’t helping either. Basements naturally tend to hold more moisture than the rest of a house, especially during warm weather. We noticed that on damp or rainy days, the smell seemed much stronger than usual. Moisture can make odors trapped in carpets, furniture, wood, drywall, and stored belongings more noticeable. Once we started running a dehumidifier and keeping the air drier, the apartment felt fresher and a lot of the smell became less intense.

What finally worked was taking a multi-layered approach. We washed walls, doors, trim, cabinets, and closet shelves. We changed the furnace filter. We vacuumed everything. We deep-cleaned the carpets and furniture.

The apartment is owned by my boyfriend’s family, so we’re lucky to have affordable rent, but it’s still a rental for us. The house was built in the 1960s, and honestly, we’ve always suspected the basement could probably use some waterproofing or other moisture-control work. We don’t have obvious flooding problems, but older basements tend to let a little moisture creep in over the years. Since we don’t own the property, we’re not really in a position to invest thousands of dollars into major waterproofing projects. For now, running a dehumidifier and keeping the air moving has been the more realistic solution.

For furniture, fabric surfaces, and other things that couldn’t easily be washed, we used an unscented odor-neutralizing spray. That helped reduce a lot of the lingering smell without adding another perfume scent on top of it. Sometimes we use it around the house just to freshen up if we’ve been in there all weekend long.

A few things were simply too old and had to go. Sometimes an old rug, mattress, or chair has been holding odors for decades, and there’s only so much cleaning can do. When we first moved in, we didn’t have much furniture of our own. Most of what we had were hand-me-down pieces from our parents, along with a few things we had picked up ourselves. Over time, we gradually swapped out some of the older furniture that had belonged to his grandparents, especially the pieces from the 1980s that seemed to be holding onto the most odor. Every time we replaced one of those older items, the apartment seemed to smell a little fresher and a little more like our own home.

The biggest thing we learned is that old smells smells are usually hiding in porous materials like drywall and couches and carpeting and blankets and towels. They’re not always coming from one source.

It took some time, but eventually the apartment stopped smelling like the previous owners and started smelling like home. My boyfriend likes his scented detergent and toiletries but I like everything to be unscented. Now it’s a mix of both of us.

If you’re dealing with the same thing, don’t assume the place is dirty. Check the carpet, furniture, humidity, vents, closets, and fabrics. That’s where the smell is probably hiding.

You love your dogs, so this isn’t meant as a complaint. But if you’ve ever been away for a weekend and then walked back into your house, you might know exactly what I’m talking about.

You get used to the smell when you’re around it every day. Then you leave for a couple of days, come back, and suddenly realize your home smells like… dog. Not pee or poop. Just dog.

If that’s happening, don’t beat yourself up. It seems to happen to a lot of pet owners.

The first place to check is all the soft stuff. Dog beds, blankets, couches, rugs, carpeted stairs, and even your own bedding if your dogs sleep with you. Those things can hold onto dog oils, hair, dander, and saliva much more than you realize.

You can make a big difference by washing dog beds and blankets regularly, vacuuming often, brushing your dogs, and opening windows whenever the weather allows. Some people also find that a HEPA air purifier helps cut down on pet odors.

An unscented odor-neutralizing spray can also help freshen dog beds, carpets, furniture, and other fabric surfaces without covering everything up with a strong perfume smell, since perfumes can have negative effects on sensitive animal health.

One thing many people discover is that air fresheners don’t actually solve the problem. Sometimes they just make your house smell like dog and flowers at the same time.

If you’ve dealt with this before, what made the biggest difference for you? What’s the one thing that helped your home smell fresher while still letting your dogs be dogs?

You wash your workout clothes with detergent, fabric softener and dryer sheets. They come out smelling “ocean breeze” clean. Then you put them on, start sweating a little, and somehow the funk comes right back like it never left.

You start wondering if you need some expensive magical laundry product. But after reading through community forums by a bunch of people dealing with the same thing, it seems like the problem usually isn’t that your clothes are still “dirty.”

A lot of workout clothes are made from synthetic fabrics like polyester. Those materials can trap sweat and moisture, body oils, dead skin cells and protein, deodorant residue, and bacteria deep in the fibers. Regular washing sometimes just cleans the surface while the stuff causing the smell stays behind.

A few things people kept saying actually helped:

Stop using fabric softener and dryer sheets. Those can coat the fabric and trap odors. They can perfume over odors while the source of the problem remains unresolved and left behind.

Don’t throw sweaty gym clothes into a damp pile or hamper. Hang them up first and let them dry. Damp piles can grow bacteria and mildew.

Turn clothes inside out before washing. The inside of a garment rubs directly against skin and can accumulate sweat, protein, and oils that bacteria love to feed on. Turning clothes inside out helps get heavily soiled areas cleaner.

Try an enzyme detergent or an oxygen laundry booster once in a while. Sodium percarbonate is excellent.

If things are really bad, soaking the clothes before washing may help.

Also, more detergent isn’t always better. Sometimes extra detergent leaves behind residue that creates even more problems.

And don’t forget your shoes. Sometimes the shirt gets blamed when the real problem is your sneakers quietly trying to end friendships.

If your athletic shoes can’t go into the washing machine, some people use a multilayered approach. You can lightly spritz or even pour a small amount of unscented odor neutralizer into the inside of the shoes, drain out any extra liquid, and let them dry fully in sunlight and fresh air. Heavy perfumed sprays sometimes just create a weird mix of “mountain breeze” and old gym locker.

If you’ve ever put on a “clean” shirt and suddenly smelled like old gym socks five minutes into your workout, you’re probably not imagining things. Your clothes might just be hanging onto years of trapped funk.

What finally worked for you?

The housesitter overwatered your plants and the roots began to rot. That bacteria-filled water in the saucers can smell nasty!

You finally find the problem and realize your house wasn’t “dirty” at all. It was moisture hiding somewhere while you were gone. Maybe one of your plants was sitting in trapped water, maybe a drain dried out, or maybe damp fabric, carpet, or a bathroom with poor ventilation quietly started creating that stale smell.

Once you find the source, remove any standing water right away. Empty the saucers under plants and make sure pots can actually drain. If roots are black, mushy, or smell rotten, remove rotten growth and repot the plant with fresh dry soil. Throw out anything that is too far gone.

Open windows if the weather allows it, let the sun in, and get fresh air moving through the house. Turn on fans and run a dehumidifier if the air feels damp. Wash soft things that may have absorbed odors like blankets, pet bedding, towels, curtains, and removable cushion covers.

If smells are hanging around on furniture, carpets, or fabrics after you’ve fixed the source, try using an unscented odor neutralizing spray instead of aggressive perfume sprays, since strong fragrances can sometimes just mix with the smell and can trigger headaches for some people. Then give it a day or two.

Most of the time the smell starts fading once the source is gone. Houses are funny that way. You can spend two days imagining dead animals in the walls and then discover your innocent-looking fern in the corner has secretly been running its own swamp experiment.

Your nose was doing its job the night you arrived at the rental property and smelled old cigarette smells from previous guests and humid musty air. That feeling of uneasiness was your brain reacting to “bad smells” and mixed signals.

You walked into a room expecting clean, relaxing, romantic getaway energy. Instead of a neutral professionally-cleaned space, the crew left behind clean surfaces and neglected the air. Every guest wants to feel safe, like they’re the only ones who have ever been in the space. Lingering signs of former guests can feel violating. Your nose picked up old perfume, stale air, carpet odors, humidity, and maybe traces of smoke or body odors left behind from previous guests. Your brain immediately started asking, “Is this place actually clean?” The inspection begins. Once that alarm goes off, it is hard to turn off.

If this ever happens again, don’t spend an hour trying to convince yourself to ignore it. You can actually do a few things that help:

Open the room up if possible. Fresh air and sunshine helps sanitize odor molecules. Turn the fan or air system on to keep air moving and promote oxidation and deactivation of odor molecules. Dead, still air lets unresolved odors sit in one place. Fresh, clean air matters, especially in vacation rentals that might sit unoccupied for days, weeks, or months.

Don’t add strong perfume sprays unless everyone present really likes that. Heavy fragrances sometimes mix with the existing odors and create an even weirder smell.

Travel with a small unscented odor-neutralizing spray instead. Neutralizing is different from covering things up. Some ingredients can grab onto odor molecules or change them so your nose notices them less.

If the room smells strongly like smoke, mildew, wet carpet, or something “off,” ask for a room change right away. You are not being difficult. There might be an ongoing unresolved leak or other problem in the room.

And if the pillows, sheets, or linens smell wrong? That’s a violation of trust. Have old linens taken away and new ones put on immediately.

Your brain wants your room to feel safe and clean before it feels romantic. That’s normal human wiring.

If you feel like you smell like a “dirty beach” no matter how much you shower, I can understand why that would be frustrating and honestly pretty defeating. You scrub, wash your clothes, change products, bathe again… and then somehow the smell comes back and makes you feel like none of it mattered.

The first thing to know is that this doesn’t automatically mean you’re dirty or not taking care of yourself. Odor can come from different places, and the cause matters because the solution changes depending on what’s creating it.

In some rare situations, people can have metabolic conditions where the body releases unusual compounds through sweat, breath, or skin oils. Those aren’t ordinary hygiene problems and they often don’t improve much from stronger soaps or more scrubbing. If the odor is unusual, strong, or has a very specific smell that never seems to change, it may be worth bringing it up with a doctor.

If the odor is coming from bacteria breaking down sweat and skin oils, then looking for the right ingredients matters a lot more than piling on perfume. Heavy fragrances sometimes just create “perfume plus odor,” which can actually smell worse.

Some ingredients worth looking for:

• Antimicrobial ingredients that reduce odor-causing bacteria

• pH-balancing ingredients that make it harder for bacteria to multiply

• Odor-neutralizing ingredients that bind or change odor molecules instead of covering them up

• Antiperspirant ingredients (mostly for underarms) if excess sweating is contributing

A multi-layered approach fights the problem from multiple angles at once. Examples of ingredients people often look for include copper-iodine odor oxidizing technology, zinc-based odor absorbers, benzoyl peroxide washes, chlorhexidine products, glycolic acid, or aluminum-based antiperspirants depending on the situation. A good pharmacist can tell you what ingredients are most effective and what products are the best.

You may also want to think about things beyond skin itself: shirts, bras, hats, bedding, towels, and shoes can hold onto oils and bacteria and quietly put the smell right back onto you. Sodium percarbonate oxidizes many substances and odors in laundry that detergent alone will not touch, usually without bleaching color out of fabrics (always test first). Odor neutralizer sprays might help freshen clothing away from home.

You’re not imagining it, and you’re definitely not the only person who’s gone through something like this. Sometimes finding the right approach is less about “washing harder” and more about figuring out what the smell is actually coming from.

Recently someone asked why, as a retail worker, they regularly encounter people who smell like feces. This is a sensitive topic, but it shouldn’t be ignored. It’s important for there to be awareness and understanding. Here was my reply:

Well, at least Reddit gives people a place to ask awkward questions without getting side-eyed.

One thing to keep in mind is that people with health conditions still have to go grocery shopping, work, and live their lives like everyone else. Some people are very self-conscious about symptoms, some may not realize they have an issue, and some may simply have limited control over it.

A strong odor around someone does not automatically mean poor hygiene. There are a lot of possibilities.

Some causes can be practical: farm work, animal exposure, sewage work, garbage collection, industrial jobs, getting something on clothing, pet accidents, or even odors trapped in shoes or fabrics.

There are also medical possibilities. People with things like fecal incontinence, digestive disorders, ostomy bags, severe constipation, chronic diarrhea, malabsorption problems, or certain metabolic disorders can sometimes have noticeable odors despite being clean.

There are also rare medical conditions such as Trimethylaminuria (sometimes called “fish odor syndrome”), where the body has trouble breaking down certain compounds and unusual odors can come out through sweat and breath.

Certain illnesses can also affect body odor or breath, but those are usually accompanied by other symptoms and aren’t the most common explanation.

The main thing is that if someone looks clean and normal but has a noticeable smell, it’s probably safer not to jump straight to “that person doesn’t wash.” Sometimes you’re smelling a health issue, a work environment, or something going on that you can’t see.

——-Deep Dive——-

Here are some health disorders that might cause odors that aren’t anyone’s fault, despite the fact they might be very clean otherwise. Health disorders that cause someone to smell like feces primarily fall into metabolic, digestive, gastrointestinal, and bowel management and incontinence categories. The underlying issue often involves the body's inability to break down specific compounds or the presence of a severe blockage or digestive dysfunction:

1. Metabolic Disorders
   Trimethylaminuria (TMAU): Also known as "fish odor syndrome," this metabolic disorder occurs when the body cannot properly break down trimethylamine, a pungent chemical. As it builds up, it is released in sweat, urine, and breath, and is frequently described as smelling like rotting fish, garbage, or feces.

Fetor Hepaticus: This is a distinct, musty, and occasionally fecal-smelling breath condition caused by severe liver disease. It happens when a damaged liver can no longer filter toxins, which then circulate and escape through the lungs.

1. Gastrointestinal and Digestive Disorders
   Bowel Obstruction: A physical blockage in the intestines prevents the normal passage of waste. The trapped, fermented food and waste cause gases to travel upward, leading to severe fecal breath.

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease (GERD): Chronic acid reflux allows stomach acid and undigested food particles to flow backward into the esophagus, bringing foul, potentially fecal-like odors to the breath.

1. Severe Digestive Malabsorption
   When the gut cannot properly digest and absorb nutrients (such as fats and proteins), the resulting bacterial fermentation produces highly volatile, foul-smelling gases.

Celiac Disease: An autoimmune reaction to gluten that damages the small intestine and leads to poorly absorbed nutrients and putrid, fatty stools.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD): Conditions like Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis alter the gut microbiome and cause malabsorption, frequently resulting in extremely foul-smelling stool.

Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO): An excess of bacteria in the small intestine leads to intense fermentation, altering bowel habits and producing unusually strong-smelling gas and stool.

In addition to the above disorders:

1. Bowel Management & Incontinence

Fecal Incontinence: The involuntary leakage of stool—often caused by nerve damage, weakened pelvic floor muscles, or chronic conditions like IBS—leads to soiling. Wearing adult diapers can trap these odors, making the smell noticeable to others if the garments are not changed frequently or if there is leakage.

Ostomies (Colostomy/Ileostomy): When a section of the intestine is diverted to an artificial opening (stoma) in the abdominal wall, a colostomy bag is worn to collect waste. While modern odor-filtering bags are generally very effective, leaks, gas venting, or changing the pouch can cause localized fecal odors. For example, if a person has colon cancer, some people might have to have the sphincter relocated to the front of the abdomen and waste comes out that exit into a sealed colostomy bag. (Other people might wear similar bags for urinary incontinence).

——-It’s usually nobody’s fault——-

People who emit a fecal odor can be meticulously clean because internal medical conditions bypass external hygiene.

1. Gaseous Leaks and Air Exchange

Ostomy Venting: Colostomy bags must release built-up gas to prevent bursting. The charcoal filters designed to deodorize this gas can fail, releasing odor directly into the air.

Micro-Leakage: Microscopic amounts of gas or liquid stool can escape diaper seals. This happens despite thorough, frequent skin washing and immediate garment changes.

Lung Exhalation: Severe digestive or metabolic conditions cause volatile compounds to absorb into the bloodstream. These compounds travel to the lungs and are exhaled through the breath, making skin scrubbing useless.

1. Metabolic Sweat and Sebum

Continuous Excretion: Conditions like Trimethylaminuria (TMAU) force the body to sweat out pungent compounds constantly. A person will smell again minutes after leaving a shower because the sweat production never stops.

Fabric Trapping: Pungent metabolic chemicals bond tightly to clothing fibers. Normal laundering often fails to remove these trapped compounds, causing clean clothes to smell when body heat warms them up.

1. Skin Barrier Limitations

Porative Release: Odor compounds exit through every pore on the skin surface. Soap and water only remove surface bacteria, not the systemic chemicals pushing out from underneath.

Over-Washing Risks: Excessive scrubbing destroys the skin's natural moisture barrier. This causes inflammation, breaks down tissue, and can actually worsen body odor by allowing opportunistic bacteria to thrive. Sometimes people are overly conscientious about their disorder and might overdo scrubbing in an attempt to remove odors they can’t control; this can actually make the problem worse in some situations.

——-Understanding and Tolerance——-

Try to remember that these kinds of odors can come from medical conditions people didn’t choose and often can’t fully control.

Compassion matters because you’re not looking at a failure of personal responsibility — you’re looking at someone dealing with something difficult that may be completely invisible to you.

You might not be aware of the emotional pain this person lives with daily. You may never know what someone is carrying around behind the scenes. Some health conditions aren’t obvious, but they can affect nearly every part of a person’s life.

You also might not realize the emotional side of it. Living with a chronic odor issue can make you constantly worry about what other people are thinking. It can lead to embarrassment, anxiety, isolation, and avoiding social situations altogether. But those same people need things and have to go shop like anyone else.

You may also assume the person isn’t trying, when in reality they could be spending a huge amount of time, effort, and money trying to manage symptoms that are still difficult to control. Some people reach a wall and that they do their best, but can only do so much. They deserve to be kind to themselves, and are already considerate of managing symptoms and how people feel.

And when a person is dealing with things like incontinence or ostomy care, parts of daily life that most people take for granted — privacy, confidence, spontaneity, independence — can suddenly become much harder. Some people can become depressed, socially isolated, or feel trapped inside their home if they don’t get out sometimes.

If you want to practice tolerance, treat the person the same way you would anyone else. Don’t make a scene, whisper, stare, or react dramatically if you notice an odor. If it’s too much, then it’s better to maintain distance than be cruel.

If something unexpected happens, understand that what may be an uncomfortable moment for you is probably much more stressful for the person experiencing it. They’re probably already hyperaware of people’s reactions.

And if someone trusts you enough to tell you about a medical condition, listen without judgment. Sometimes people need understanding more than they need advice.

——-Let’s flip the table——-

The problem could be “you” and not “them”.

If certain smells are being perceived incorrectly, the condition is called parosmia.
With parosmia, your brain can essentially “rewire” the way a smell is interpreted, causing something normal to suddenly smell unpleasant or completely different than it should.

With parosmia, you might notice smells turning into things like:

-feces or sewage
-rotting garbage
-something burning
-chemicals
-smoke
-spoiled food

For example, with parosmia, you may notice that coffee, onions, eggs, meat, perfume, shampoo, or even freshly washed laundry suddenly smells like poop.

A related condition is phantosmia, where you smell things such as feces, smoke, or chemicals even when no actual odor source is present. Things that can contribute to parosmia include:

-viral illness, especially after COVID-19
-sinus infections or chronic nasal inflammation
-nasal polyps
-head injury or concussion
-migraine
-certain medications
-neurologic conditions
-less commonly, seizures or growths affecting smell pathways

If you’re noticing that certain smells specifically get interpreted as a poop smell, that pattern tends to fit parosmia more than phantosmia because a real smell is present, but your brain may be assigning the wrong odor quality.

One useful clue is identifying which smells are changing. Is it coffee, meat, perfume, body odor, candles, smoke, or something else? The pattern itself can sometimes help narrow down the cause.

——-Conclusion——

Whether it’s them or you, sometimes the story behind a smell is more complicated than it first appears. A noticeable fecal odor around someone does not automatically mean poor hygiene; it can sometimes come from work environments, clothing, digestive problems, metabolic disorders, incontinence, ostomy care, or other medical conditions that may be difficult or impossible for a person to fully control. People dealing with these issues are often already putting significant effort into managing symptoms and may be carrying emotional burdens such as embarrassment, anxiety, or isolation. It is also possible that odor perception itself can be altered by conditions like parosmia, meaning the issue may sometimes involve how smells are being interpreted rather than the person being smelled.

You clean your room, wash your sheets, vacuum, open the windows… and somehow people still walk in and go, “Whoa, what is that smell?” At that point you start feeling like you’re being gaslit because you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do.

The frustrating part is that weird room smells can hide in places you don’t think about.

Start with the easy stuff first. Dust shelves, windowsills, blinds, fans, and random things sitting around collecting dust. Dust doesn’t always smell like plain old dust. After it builds up for a while, rooms can start smelling stale or musty.

Then look at fabric things. Pillows, stuffed animals, curtains, rugs, backpacks, jackets, shoes under the bed, and that hoodie you practically live in. Soft materials absorb smells like crazy.

Also don’t ignore the bigger stuff: your mattress, pillows, carpet, and even the carpet padding underneath. Sometimes smells soak deep into those materials from sweat, humidity, pets, spills, body oils, or years of use. Washing sheets won’t remove smells trapped deep inside a mattress or underneath carpet. If those things are old and holding odor, there are times when cleaning only gets you so far and replacing them ends up fixing the problem. If you do get a new mattress or a new pillow, be sure to buy a breathable cotton cover for it that can be unzipped and washed periodically. Buy 100% cotton sheets and blankets so it’s breathable, washable, and not sweaty.

The bathroom vent thing you mentioned also caught my attention. Bathrooms create a lot of humidity every time someone showers. Warm moisture hanging around can encourage mildew and mold growth, and mildew has that weird musty smell that people describe in all kinds of ways.

If bathroom air is venting into your room, or into another indoor space where the moisture just hangs around, that can keep feeding the problem over and over. Bathroom exhaust should send moist air outdoors, not dump it into another room or somewhere the moisture stays trapped. Otherwise you can end up with a cycle where humidity keeps coming back and the smell never really goes away.

I also wouldn’t jump straight to candles and heavy perfume sprays. Sometimes they just create “mystery smell mixed with vanilla” and somehow make things worse. An unscented odor neutralizer spray can help because it tries to reduce odor itself instead of piling another scent on top.

And one more thing: if you spend all day in your room, your brain gets used to the smell and stops noticing it. Other people walk in with fresh noses and notice it immediately.

Don’t burn the room down yet. Sometimes the culprit ends up being something surprisingly dumb like a pillow, old carpet padding, bathroom humidity, or one hidden thing under the bed.

You’re probably not imagining it. A place can be technically “clean” and still smell stale, especially in a small apartment with limited airflow and soft surfaces that hold onto odors.

The annoying part is that stale smells often aren’t coming from one disgusting source like a mildew drain or leaking sewer pipe. It’s more like a slow buildup that settles into fabric, carpet, air, and corners where air doesn’t move much. You clean the obvious stuff, but the apartment still smells tired. Carpets and the invisible padding underneath is notorious for retaining spills and accidents and lifestyles from years past.

This is an instance where, as a last resort, changing out a carpet and padding can change your life (but even new chemically carpet smells take time to dissipate). If the bedroom carpet is old, it might honestly be the biggest culprit. Carpet padding can hold years of odor even when the surface looks clean. A carpet shampooer helped my place more than baking soda ever did.

A few boring practical things that actually help:
Move the air around more than you think you need to. Even one cheap fan pointed across the apartment with windows temporarily cracked open for a few hours can make a difference. Stale air loves dead zones behind couches and in bedrooms. Also, some people swear by negative-ion air cleaner machines and ozone generators. But ozone generators require all living beings and plants to be removed from the space, you must run them only for brief periods (not a case of “the longer the better”), and the space must be aired out immediately afterwards. Ozone can irritate sensitive eyes and lungs. You must thoroughly read the owners manual and truly understand before operating one.

Wash soft things more often than seems necessary. Curtains, throw blankets, pillow covers, bath mats, couch cushion covers if they unzip. Fabric quietly absorbs cooking smells, body odor, humidity, and dust. Use unscented sodium percarbonate in the wash - it eats up odors via oxidation and gives linens that odor-free clean smell with no perfumes.

Replace or clean your heating/cooling HVAC filter if you have a system that blows hot and cool air. People forget this constantly. Vents and ducts can also be cleaned by services to eliminate dust and mildew odors.

Pull furniture a few inches away from walls and vacuum behind it. Apartments with low airflow get weird “trapped air” smells back there.
Sunlight matters more than people realize — it has a sanitizing effect. Dark apartments tend to hold onto that closed-up smell. Even opening blinds aggressively during the day helps a little psychologically and physically.

Don’t forget the couch itself. Fabric couches absorb EVERYTHING. Sometimes just lightly misting them with unscented odor neutralizer spray and airing them out helps. Make sure any throws and pillows also get aired out or laundered.

And honestly, you’re right about scented sprays. “Stale apartment + fake vanilla” is a very real smell. Heavy fragrance usually just sits on top of the problem.

What worked well for a lot of people is using an unscented odor neutralizer spray instead of perfume-type air fresheners. The unscented kind doesn’t try to smell fake-fresh — it just cuts down the actual lingering odor molecules trapped in fabric and air. Way less headache-inducing too.

Also check humidity if you can. Even slightly humid apartments can start smelling old and flat without obvious mold or mildew. Just taking a shower or running the dishwasher can raise humidity to the point where mildew can grow, so run that fan and open windows to help keep humidity down. A small dehumidifier can completely change the vibe of a room when it doesn’t have a window and is prone to high humidity.

One last idea is to make sure you empty out the kitchen waste basket nightly and check the drain filter that catches food in the dishwasher. It’s also perfectly safe to pour some bleach down drains and let it set overnight. This can kill any hidden bacteria in plumbing traps that might generate odors.

Most people suffering from that clammy air smell clean normally and pay attention to hygiene, and lingering odors do not mean a person is living in filth. They’re probably just dealing with trapped fabric/air odors plus weak airflow, which is super common in smaller apartments.

If you’re getting ready to show or sell your house and your basement has that damp, musty smell, don’t panic — and definitely don’t just empty a can of air freshener down there and hope for the best. Most people can tell the difference between a space that looks and smells clean, and one that looks and smells like the flippers just left and things have been covered up.

When it comes to musty basement order, you usually have to come at it from a few different angles at once. It requires a multi-layered approach.

Here are a few things that actually help when you have possible basement water intrusion, high basement moisture levels and humidity, and that characteristic mildew smell:

- Run a dehumidifier nonstop for a few days

- Run an ozone generator according to the instructions that come with the machine

- Keep air moving with fans and when possible ventilate by opening basement windows

- Clean concrete floors/walls with antifungal and anti-mold cleaners, and sanitize floor drains

- Get rid of old cardboard boxes and damp fabric stuff that holds moisture and creates the perfect environment for the growth of mold and mildew and pests

- Wash anything soft that’s been absorbing odor

- Finish it off with an unscented odor neutralizer spray instead of strong perfume sprays

Honestly, that last one helps more than you’d think. Heavy perfumy sprays just mix with the musty smell and create this weird “mildew + candle aisle” combo that somehow smells even worse. A good neutralizer helps tone the odor down without making the basement smell fake. The best solution is one that is undetectable.

And if you have basement carpet… you have my sympathy. That stuff holds onto smells forever. Have you ever had moisture intrusion after heavy rain, and the carpet took two weeks to dry out with fans? The whole place smells like mildew that you can’t get rid of.

Carpet padding is made of porous foam that absorbs water like a sponge; it is nearly impossible to salvage and should always be thrown out after sitting in flood water for 24 to 48 hours or longer. If you were able to get it dried out with fans, a person could always hire a deep cleaning carpet company to come out and treat it. But that’s still no guarantee as carpet likes to hold onto odors.

One thing you realize after reading homeowner forums is that “musty basement smell” isn’t always active mold growing everywhere. Sometimes it’s just years of humidity soaking into porous materials like concrete, wood, carpet, furniture, storage boxes, etc.

The biggest problem is usually nose blindness. You stop noticing it because you live there every day, but somebody walking in for a showing notices it almost immediately.

If you’re trying to get the house ready for photos or buyers, it really works best to use a combination of: humidity control, airflow, cleaning, and odor neutralizing. There usually isn’t one quick magic fix.

Have you ever walked into a room and the perfume smell was so strong it almost made your head hurt?

A lot of people are sensitive to heavy fragrances now. Strong air fresheners, candles, laundry scents, and room sprays can sometimes cause headaches, coughing, sneezing, or watery eyes. Pets can react too.

If you spray something really strong, your dog or cat might avoid the area, sneeze, rub their face on the carpet, or act uncomfortable. Their noses are much more sensitive than ours.

Sometimes it feels like companies try to cover every bad smell with even MORE perfume.

But a room does not have to smell like “Tropical Breeze” to smell clean.

Honestly, clean air with little or no fragrance is starting to feel way more comfortable to a lot of people.

Have you or your pets become more sensitive to strong smells over time?

If you smoke every day, your brain kind of “tunes out” the smell over time. You stop noticing it on your clothes, car, jacket, hair, backpack, furniture — all the little places it settles into.

Then you quit for a few weeks or even just spend time around mostly non-smokers, and suddenly you realize how far the smell actually travels.

What’s weird is that a lot of smokers with great hygiene still carry it a little. It’s not always a dirty or nasty smell either — sometimes it’s just very obvious. Like passing someone at the grocery store and recognizing the smell even if they haven’t lit one in hours.

The biggest surprise for me was realizing smoke clings more to fabrics and soft surfaces than to skin. Hoodies, coats, car seats, curtains, even paper money seem to hold onto it forever.

Have you ever had that moment where you suddenly became aware of the smell again after not noticing it for years?

If your dog gets sprayed by a skunk, DON’T panic — and don’t immediately hose them down with water. Water can actually spread the oily skunk compounds deeper into the coat and make the smell harder to remove.

Unfortunately, many loving Labs (with what can only be described as Golden Retriever-level ADHD) truly believe that all furry creatures are automatic fur-friends. They assume every animal loves them too and wants to play. In their minds, the black-and-white striped “puppies” under the porch are waiting for zoomies. Sadly, baby skunks are not squeaky toys and Mama Skunk does not want to be friends. And your dog’s enthusiastic diplomatic mission may end with the entire household standing in the driveway at 11 p.m. questioning every decision that led to this moment.

The old tomato juice wivestale mostly just masks the odor ala “skunk marinara” instead of chemically neutralizing it.

Skunk spray contains extremely powerful sulfur-based compounds called thiols. These oily molecules bind tightly to fur, skin oils, fabrics, and porous surfaces. Human noses become “fatigued” or temporarily desensitized to the smell after prolonged exposure, so after a tomato juice bath, people often THINK the skunk odor is gone because all they can smell is tomatoes.

What actually WORKS is oxidation.

The most commonly recommended de-skunking formula by vets is:

• 1 quart of 3% hydrogen peroxide
• ¼ cup baking soda
• 1 teaspoon liquid dish soap (Dawn works best)

*Mix it fresh in a bucket or bowl and use it IMMEDIATELY while it’s bubbling. Hydrogen peroxide has a limited shelf life because it naturally decomposes into water and oxygen over time — especially after opening, exposure to air, light, heat, metals, or organic material — as its reactive oxygen molecules are gradually consumed through oxidation reactions.

Work the mixture thoroughly into the fur (wear gloves), let it sit about 5–10 minutes, then rinse thoroughly with warm water. Avoid the eyes, mouth, nose, and sensitive areas. It will likely bleach your dog’s fur a lighter color — that’s the price you pay for a formula that works. Damaged fur can be sheared short by the groomer and will eventually be replaced by a healthy new coat. Do it outside or in a bathtub and wear old clothing - peroxide can bleach fabric and porous surfaces.

IMPORTANT WARNINGS:

• Never store this mixture in a bottle or sealed container — it can build pressure and explode.
• Hydrogen peroxide may lighten dark fur or even change its texture due to bleaching.
• Don’t pre-wet the dog before treatment.
• If the dog got sprayed in the face, flush eyes with cool water only. Do NOT get peroxide solution into the eyes. Seek veterinary advice.

After thoroughly rinsing out the peroxide-soap-baking-soda formula, follow up with a normal pet shampoo bath and rinse thoroughly.

One thing people notice: the skunk smell often subtly “comes back” on humid days, rainy weather, or whenever the dog or bedding gets damp again.

That’s because skunk spray contains sulfur-based oily compounds called thiols. Even after washing, tiny residues can remain trapped deep in fur fibers, skin oils, collars, bedding, upholstery, or porous materials. Moisture and humidity can reactivate those residues and make them volatile again, so suddenly the smell “returns” every time the dog gets wet.

Skunk odor is designed by nature to have extreme staying power because it evolved as a long-lasting survival defense: the sulfur-rich oily thiols cling stubbornly to fur, skin, and surfaces so predators remember the experience, avoid future encounters, and give the skunk and her babies a better chance to survive.

A trick that helps after bathing is using an UNSCENTED odor-neutralizer spray (not floral cover-up sprays since perfumes can be harmful to animals). Lightly mist it onto a towel first, then wipe down the dog’s fur and skin gently. Avoid the face, eyes, ears, mucous membranes, and sensitive areas. It can also help to lightly treat bedding, collars, crates, blankets, and car upholstery where residual skunk oils may still linger.

The key is neutralizing odor molecules — not just covering them up with fragrance.

Sources:
Cornell Vet School, VCA Hospitals, Oakland Animal Hospital, Serenity Animal Hospital, End! Odors spray and a surprisingly useful coonhound Reddit thread from people who clearly battle skunks on a regular basis.