Does Anyone Else Hate This?

[belize44]

It has gotten to the point that we can't open our living room window, because of the smell of scented laundry products wafting in. The other day, I was taking a rare walk and nearly choked from the smells of fabric softener that was venting out of houses here and there. I also smell it on people in the store or passing on the street. It is amazing that so many people feel the need to highly scent their clothing and bedding to such a degree that it is downright nauseating! I jokingly told DH that if I were made President, I would outlaw scented laundry products.

And then there is this:http://ourlittleplace.com/multiple-chemical-sensitivity/neighborhood-health-notice

I wanted to print it out and plaster the neighborhood with copies!

 

[MeSci]

It has gotten to the point that we can't open our living room window, because of the smell of scented laundry products wafting in. The other day, I was taking a rare walk and nearly choked from the smells of fabric softener that was venting out of houses here and there. I also smell it on people in the store or passing on the street. It is amazing that so many people feel the need to highly scent their clothing and bedding to such a degree that it is downright nauseating! I jokingly told DH that if I were made President, I would outlaw scented laundry products.

And then there is this:http://ourlittleplace.com/multiple-chemical-sensitivity/neighborhood-health-notice

I wanted to print it out and plaster the neighborhood with copies!

Oh yes. I haven't been able to open any windows on my house for years. It means that I have had to suffer from the heat all summer. It also means that on any vaguely-dry day I have to suffer from the laundry smells from most of my neighbours in most of my garden, or wear a mask and/or nose-clip. How relaxing!

If I go beyond my garden, onto the old railway cutting, it is often polluted by washing from the new housing estate.

If I pass someone on one of the rare occasions that I go shopping (about once a week) I am 'lucky' that I have the chance to spit out the foul-smelling fluid that is produced after I pass someone (usually a young person) who smells.

But then I used to smell too...

 

[Valentijn]

It's better in the Netherlands, maybe the rest of Europe too. Instead of venting the moist air outside, it condenses in the dryer and drains off. More energy efficient too, though the average dryer cycle takes about 2 hours.

 

[L'engle]

I hate the smell of fabric softener. It is so sickening.

 

[erin]

I hate them too @L'engle.

Apart from the fabric freshner smell the other products are the car freshners that irritate the hell out of me. I travel very poorly anyway. I don't want to use public transport due to bad immune system so I flush my cash on a taxi and guess what happens? Taxi has one of them "air frehshner" hanging in the mirror that stinks like nothing in this earth that I want to vomit ! When I tell the driver take it off, he gets crossed and the whole journey gets even worse. When I have these journeys they are to the hospital anyway and I feel even worse before I arrive to the damned hospital!

Now they have this plugged in smelly stuff too. I hate family reunions and last time when I was in my sister in laws house she had one of them. I immediately took it of the plug and throw it in the outside bin without telling anyone. I don't even care what they think of me anymore if they were to find out anyway. I have no energy to explain why I don't and can't do these fake smells to these silly people; they drain me with their snidey comments and stupid fake smells.

Sorry about the runt, I feel quite rotten recently.

 

[belize44]

It's like having your senses assaulted and having no way to fight back. BTW, @erin: LOL! I love it that you tossed that plug in. I wonder why people aren't content with just smelling CLEAN? In the article I posted a link too, they said that people who rely on these artificial scents actually get desensitized to the point that they can't smell them anymore, so they use more! I think that is happening with our upstairs neighbors; the smell is so potent that it pools around the front door, and has even somehow begun to back up into our dryer! Imagine the horror of opening your own dryer, only to be greeted with the horrible stench from somewhere else! Arrrgh!

 

[hellytheelephant]

I really noticed it the other day- this sickly, artificial stink coming from the washing on the line(not our wash- we use Ecover or wash balls). It doesn't smell fresh- it smells chemical. urgh!

 

[Living Dead]

I wonder why people aren't content with just smelling CLEAN?

New washers can't clean. They use too little water to be "environmentally friendly". So laundry washed without perfume smells dirty.

I always use extra rinse, then an extra rinse and centrifuge with extra rinse.

It is bizarre, because surely extra detergent and perfume is "environmentally friendly".

 

[Living Dead]

rely on these artificial scents actually get desensitized to the point that they can't smell them anymore, so they use more!

This seems to be the same with sounds. Some people prefer so high sounds that it damages their hearing. Damaged hearing makes everything sound lower, so they turn up the sound again, so that it sounds as high as it did when it damaged their hearing. To everyone else it sounds like a bomb zone.

 

[erin]

Appreciation to real senses disappearing somehow. We're living in hyper-real times.

 

[tinacarroll27]

Oh yes!!I have this and have to keep the windows closed but it still seems to get in some how! I use a perfume free washing up powder now as the smell was making me feel really ill. I also use tea tree oil if I want a bit of perfume as I seem to be able to tolerate it a lot better and it replaces cleaning products as well.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Well, in my case, as M.E. progressed it also progressively wrecked my sense of smell, so I can smell VERY little now (maybe 10 to 20% of sense of smell left depending on how bad the M.E. is)
so on up side I can't smell such things, or most of my mutt's farts (thank goodness! )

 

[IreneF]

I love perfumes but I hate scented laundry products. Especially Tide. Gives me hay fever. I'm glad there are a variety of unscented products now.

I can't smell my neighbors' laundry.

 

[Ysabelle-S]

I don't like some perfume smells, but ironing (which I avoid anyway) is probably the worst because the damp air catches in my throat. I already have inflammation at the back of my throat and a persistent cough, so the steam catches my breath and sets off coughing fits. For the same reason, I hate muggy days.

 

[belize44]

In the old days, before commercialized cleaning products people hung their things outside in sunlight and they smelled quite pleasant afterward. One thing I do to make things smell nice is use cedar flakes (the kind used for hamster cages) and I mix it with minuscule amounts of essential oils like orange, clove, cinnamon and such. I put this mixture in little cheesecloth bags and place them in the drawers and closets. Things usually smell pretty nice when I do this, and it isn't overwhelming and cloying either.

As a society, we have been brainwashed into believing that everything has to be scented. Even the candles that I used to buy for the holidays stink now and I have to order online to get regular, generic candles.

 

[Monarda]

I had to stop using dryer sheets and scented laundry detergent several years ago. There is a wild plant that grows here in the mint family. Locally it’s called “mountain mint” (Pycnanthemum incanum).

I read that some people dried the blooms and used them in dryers to scent their clothes. Last year I harvested a few blooms in late summer and dried them naturally. I stapled a bloom inside a piece of cheese cloth and tossed it in with my clothes. I immediately regretted not harvesting more and looked forward to this past August to harvesting enough to last a year. Darn, it was a bad year for Mtn mint! The few plants I found had insect damage. I guess I have to wait another year. The plant has several medicinal uses as well.

Sorry, I had to rest for an hour or so before finishing this post. Mtn mint has a very wholesome scent and taste. The flavor is rather strong compared to cultivated mints but still wholesome. I really liked the scent on my clothes.

Traditionally Mtn mint was used in Cherokee medicine steeped in water, a tea. It was used to treat colds, fever and stomach upsets. It was sometimes used in a poultice for headaches, mostly sinus types. It’s been used similarly in Appalachian folk medicine for generations.

 

[belize44]

I wish I could find that mountain mint so I could try it in the dryer!

 

[Monarda]

It grows in PA! Hard to miss in late summer, the upper leaves appear white. I can spot it at highway speed on road sides.

 

[Little Bluestem]

My mother is elderly and sometimes something is needed to remove unpleasant odors from her home. What annoys me is how many 'air freshener' products just add more odor to the air to mask the odor rather than removing it. I even bought a produced called "Odor Absorber" that was really "Stink Adder". She is more sensitive to odor than I am, so putting stinky stuff in her home is a definite "no, no".

if I were made President, I would outlaw scented laundry products.

Belize44 for President!

I flush my cash on a taxi and guess what happens? Taxi has one of them "air frehshner" hanging in the mirror that stinks like nothing in this earth

Have you tried asking for a taxi without air freshener? In one city where I lived I could get a taxi with a woman driver. Even if they told you "no", they would be aware of the need. Maybe some day the answer would be "yes".

 

[IreneF]

Trader Joe's sells (or used to sell? haven't been there in a long time) lavender sachets you could throw into dryer. As I recall, they lost their scent fairly quickly.

I'm thinking about making vetivert sachets.