Old person Smell

When my son and his wife were buying a house they often commented that a house they had viewed smelled of old people.

And at what age do we start to smell?

Many young people don't smell like ice-cream either !!

Eau de teenage boys bedrooms !

It's not necessarily the people who smell, it's the clothes they wear IMO. The old people I know (really old that is, much older than me!) don't have the energy or even care very much about washing clothes.

In the past it was a mixture of infrequent bathing, clothes washing, window opening and fear of draughts. But I am surprised it still exists.

When I first retired (in my 50s) I worked for a charity where I went into many elderly people's homes, and I do not ever remember going into someone's house and smelling the fusty smell, I remember so well from childhood.

I think providing you are particular about personal hygiene and clothes changing and keeping the house aired there should be no odour. Mind you DD has strict instructions to inform me if I start looking like mutton dressed as lamb or wearing clothes with stains I hadn't noticed on them.

I have a dear friend who clearly keeps many of her outer clothes in a cupboard with mothballs - can’t say anything, but memo to self, get cedar balls or lavender sachets instead.

I’m with EllanVanin on this one. Some young people are hardly fragrant either.

I have just looked on the internet about this, It starts at the age of about 40 its a hormone its called Nonenol . Oh dear I hope I never smell.

Is it the person or the home, I wonder?

A lot of elderly people in the past lived with the same furniture, carpets, furnishings and even clothes that they had owned for donkeys years, even when thread-bare, on the "these will see me out" basis.

I think there is little doubt that these things absorb smells, and over the years develop quite a distinctive odour as a result of it, and the person (and their clothing) is almost bound to carry at least a whiff of it.

That said, I don't think there are many of the 'this will see me out' generation left, so if my theory is correct, perhaps the 'old people smell' will soon become a thing of the past.

Yes MawB I remember old people smelling of mothballs, but not now, do they still sell them?

It was very interesting to read about Nonenol vena11 thanks for highlighting it. Looks like we'll all have to track down the right soap as current common soaps are not constituted to beat Nonenol.
We're not smelly - just old(er)!!

Well, that's made a miserable day even worse. I'm 82, so
definitely old and therefore smelly!
I'm going out to buy air freshener, scented candles, new clothes, lots of toiletries, and expensive perfume.

Haha henetha!

My mum who died last year at the age of 86y used to say to me ‘you will let me know won’t you if I ever start to smell old ladyish?’ Bless. She never did. She was always gorgeous. x

One of my son's is visiting tomorrow, - I'm going to ask him to tell me, - truthfully, - if I smell...

At least three posts on here today on the same subject. I wonder why?

Don't just buy any old air fresheners and perfumes Henetha- apparently the Japanese have identified specific smells to combat our aged BO

Urnstongran my mum was 89 when she died and always said that to me and she never ever did smell and I do say it to my daughter , fingers crossed.

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about. Clothes, bedding and body well washed, but I’m off to beat my rugs over the washing line and send my curtains to the dry cleaners!

My in-laws were most particular and concerned about that very problem, they were in their nineties when they died. I only noticed that their flat started to have an unpleasant odour when one of them became incontinent, and there were bags of pads left in the bathroom for disposal. Also, there was the smell of talcum powder which used to be more of a thing I think then, and I do associate that with old people.
As someone else said, as people get older they perhaps don't see the dust and cleaning, or don't have the energy to do it as they used to do, and windows don't get opened either if they are more immobile. Older people of my generation didn't always have central heating either, and there was often a musty smell from closed up damp rooms.
We are working hard at keeping our house fresh and modern!

Thanks Jane10. I'll Google it and see what I can find out.

will our loved ones tell us.. oh gosh, now I am worrying

Oh dear, hopefully it's a thing of the past. Nowadays we shower daily and wash our clothes frequently. I wonder if the smell came from incontinence, before the invention of Tena? My gran lived with us when I was a child. She didn't smell but broke wind a lot and blamed the cat!

Nonenol - I'm glad that you didn't say that over 40 we smell of wee!
With the number of things that are supposed to make your home and clothes as well as yourself smell nice, in theory, none of us should smell, but if it's a hormone, what can we do beyond lots of laundry,plenty of showers/baths, open windows etc (forget the mothballs!) Anybody have any idea what we should be looking for in soaps or shower stuff that will help? Or maybe we should just go back to carbolic?