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Smells: The good, the bad and the ugly

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Whenever I walk into my mother’s house I smell my childhood. Though my youth has long gone, and my parents have not only moved into a different house, but also to an entirely different province, their house still smells like safety.


The opposite is also true.


The other day I bought a shampoo I haven’t used in years. I saw it in the shop, and remembered that I used to like the brand. I was showering blithely when I was suddenly overcome by a deep, melancholic sadness. I was very confused until I remembered that was the shampoo my ex-husband and I used to buy.


The strong links between the olfactory sense and memory and emotion has long been established. This is because the olfactory bulb (where smell is processed) forms part of the limbic system of the brain. And the limbic system (sometimes called the “emotional brain”) is associated with feelings and memory.


Because we experience most new scents in childhood, strong smells often take us back to when we were kids. The smell of freshly cut grass always makes me think of Saturday afternoons in the Highveld and I can’t smell crunchies without being transported slap-bang into a December holiday.


But new associations are made constantly. And smells, like first impressions create a lasting impact.

Let that sink in a bit.


People not only remember bad smells, but they associate it with the place where they smelled it. Now I don’t know about you, but that gives me more than enough motivation to want to make sure my house smells neutral, if not nice.


And while scents and our associations with them can be very subjective – I have a friend who can’t stand the smell of roses because she associates it with her mother’s illness – there are certain smells that are objectively bad.


Things that can make you sick tend to stink. Everything from human and animal waste to decaying garbage and rotting food smells bad as a warning to us. It’s nature’s way of saying: stay away and don’t touch, or heaven forbid, eat.


Other odors like sweat, cigarettes and wet dog smell bad to most people, but not necessarily to the sweaty person’s loved one, the smoker or the dog owner.


When it comes to odours, I think it’s always wise to err on the side of the caution. So fresh and clean should always trump heavy and musty.

And yet, something that can smell really nice to start off with – say a lovely seafood paella – can start to smell much less appealing just a few hours later. And that lovely shiraz that had such a lovely nose is going to smell nauseating where someone spilled it on your couch. Which is why a product like Ambi Pur (our local version of Febreze) that eliminates bad odours comes in so handy.


What is your worst smell?


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