Every house has a unique smell
August 10, 2006 | Home and Garden

Ever notice how a house can have a particular smell? You walk in to a friend’s home and you’re hit by a waft of who-knows-what? Guess what, your house smells too.

Scientists recently confirmed that everyone’s home has a unique smell. Kind of like a fingerprint, only with odor. Craig Warren is a PhD who’s logged over thirty years in the “smell business”. He says that all homes have an “occupancy odor”. What causes your special smell? Some of the culprits are what you cook, pets, smoking and how you clean. A recent study found that there are a lot of places in your home for these odors to hide. Your couch, pillows, and drapes have a way of capturing smells that aren’t easy to remove. And a house with wood floors will have a different smell than a carpeted home. But besides being smelly, these “occupancy odors” also have an effect on your emotional health.

Smells can remind you of your past, make you relaxed, even depressed. In fact, in a recent study done by a fragrance company in New York, when people were asked to describe smells, they had trouble finding the right words. But they had no trouble telling them how the smell made them feel. Dr. Warren says trying to cover up the odor doesn’t work. Because your sense of smell still registers it and the emotional connection is too strong. The only thing that’ll get rid of your signature smell is a heavy duty cleaning.

Then, once you’ve neutralized the old smells, try introducing new ones that you like. Peppermint for example is known to energize and citrus can help you focus. So if you find going home makes you depressed or tired it might be that your house smells.

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