Non-scents
Posted: Mon 21 October, 2013 Filed under: Domestic, Thoughts, Weirdness 12 Comments »Over the last few months, I’ve noticed a growing dislike (and reaction to) a variety of the current range of room-scenting thingies.I don’t know why there seems to have been such a resurgence of them over the last year or two – or maybe I’m just noticing them more – but it’s really bloody annoying.
In some ways I’ve always been sensitive to these aerosolised scents – lemon scent as an aerosol always used to make my nose bleed, although that’s eased off somewhat. I assume they’ve changed the chemical composition, or something.
But now there’s these automated squirts of aerosol scents from machines by Airwick and Glade, and they always seem to spray directly at me. Why they’re aimed like that, I don’t know – but it always seems to happen. And when it does, cue a nose-bleed, more often than not. Again, I don’t know why it happens, but it does.
The last couple of workplaces have had them in place, particularly in the bathrooms, so there’s no way I can even safely turn the poxy things off.
Even better, in a fit of dire irony, I don’t actually have a great sense of smell. It’s a hereditary thing – my paternal grandmother has no sense of smell (or professed not to, I’ve no idea of the truth of it) and my dad’s sense of smell is pretty dire, so it runs on that side of the family. So it’s pretty ironic that aerosol scents affect me so badly when most of the time I can’t even smell the bastards. (Although on the occasions when I can smell them, I’m more prone to thinking it’s a benefit to not be able to most of the time) As such, it must be some reaction to the chemicals in the scents, rather than the scents themselves.
Either way, it’s a pain in the arse. (Well, a pain in the nose, to be accurate)
I loathe air fresheners, and I also tend to look for laundry detergent and fabric conditioner with the least possible amount of scent. I think it started while I was pregnant, when you tend to have a heightened sense of smell, and has become a conditioned disgust at artificial scents. I notice when the Small Boy has been at a friend’s house he smells all alien and wrong.
Glad it’s not just me, anyway.
me too and I know Blue Witch will agree with you as well. I loathe the wretched things. If the were in a place I visited regularly, I’d remove them and throw them away – I have done this until the hint was taken and they weren’t replaced. If I was just visiting for a day, I’d start wheezing and ask for them to be removed because of my allergy. I don’t have an allergy, but I’m perfectly capable of wheezing.
If I were. Sorry.
Z is correct.
I hate hate hate the things. If your house smells so bad that you nee them, then for goodness sake clean it/get it cleaned and open the windows!
If you go to a GP with chronic heaaches, the first question most will ask is, “Do you use artificial room fresheners?”
There is a public hall I go to regularly which has the squirty liquid type in the loos – I have to hold my breath, and put a tissue over my nose and be really quick. Makes for an interesting experience…
I have to say that I don’t think it’s even about a house smelling bad. In my opinion, it’s more about the advertising implication, effectively saying that your house should smell all ‘fresh’/’flowery’, because it’s ‘welcoming’ and a sign of a good house, or some such piss. And so people (some would say ‘sheeple’, but I’m not feeling that vindictive right now) buy them in order to buy into that “My house is a nice house” bollocks.
And I do get it (to a degree) with having them in the loos – considering some of the grim stenches I’ve walked into before (and occasionally caused) – but still, I’d rather that then the artificial chemical taint that seems to be the preferred option.
Our holiday cottage in the summer was filled with those horrible automatic ones.
a) these squirt every few minutes, 24 hours a day. This is not good for a light sleeper.
b) these squirt. It’s in your face. Vile.
I’ve discovered in the past few days that some new cars now come with them built in to the a/c system. Not that model of car, then.
““My house is a nice house” bollocks.”
Holy god. I’d never thought of it like that. To me, if you need airfreshener it’s because things smell, so quite the reverse is achieved!
I can’t believe people are so gullible. Well, I can, because Mr BW feeds me stuff from the trade marketing journals, and I know the psychology behind it all, but, still…
My house is a nice house because it’s filled with things we have lovingly made ourselves, not because I spend ten quid a month on artificial pong.
Agreed, BW – mine’s much the same, or at least with things I like/love and have bought as a result, rather than because of some spurious advertiser’s whim.
*However*, people like us aren’t the target market. (As has been observed many times before)
Look at the ads – they’re not even subtle about it, for chiff’s sake. They start off (scent-free) in greys and dull tones. Add a scenty-thing and boom, colour flows outwards from it, happy clappy family run in, and it’s the ‘ideal family home’. All because of a pong.
Ads – what are they?
Don’t watch commercial TV, don’t go to the cinema, don’t look at billboards, don’t read magazines, have ad blockers on my PCs, am registered with the MPS and TPS.
I wonder how many hours a year I save? And how much money?
I tend not to watch commercials (DVR, so fast-forward through most) but I still prefer to be aware of them.
As for the rest, ditto – Ad Blockers (although it’s really weird when I get a new machine/workplace, and see the ads until I remember to install the ad-blocker), MPS and TPS. I do pay attention to billboards and read magazines though – but that just allows me to know what’s going on, what ads are current, and then figure out how/why they work, and who they’re targeted at, which I still find interesting.
Also, a lot of the work I do is for media agencies and ad agencies, so I do have a bit of an interest in knowing who’s done what etc. – always a useful tool in interviews, to be able to say “Yeah, I know you’re the agency behind [x, y and z]”
But, as we’ve said before, I’m horribly cynical, and can’t honestly think of the last thing I bought because it had been advertised, rather than actually looking for [specific item]. It’s a long time ago though!