I’m going to visit my grandfather this weekend. His house smells like a skunk rolled around in some rotten cabbages, died, and got eaten and pooped out by a water buffalo. Thankfully I dont have to sleep there, but I do have to visit for a few hours, a couple days in a row. Last time, I wore a mask with mint toothpaste rubbed inside, which didn’t help at all.
Google is failing me; the only results I can find are how to get rid of a smell, and that’s just not possible here without a great deal of fire. So can anyone recommend how to live with a uniquely terrible smell for a few days?
Pick up a jar of vick’s vapo rub. Put some under your nose and in the mask if you wear one again.
Yeah this worked in silence of the lambs.
This works fairly well and is inconspicuous. Go to the bathroom and reapply as needed.
I have zero tips for you, but I love this post. Why does his house smell so bad? Has anyone mentioned it to him? So many questions.
Idk. We’re not close, we’ve lived at least 8 hours apart most of my life. He has 7 kids and some of them live close and check on him regularly. They know about the smell but I’m not sure whether they’ve talked to him. He’s 95, in good health, and lives alone in a retirement community.
Smell the poor man’s bed sheets
There are specialist face masks with active charcoal filters that filter out smells.
Sensitivity to smells will dissipate over a short time. Your senses will pay more attention to novel stimuli, so your nose will eventually get “bored” of it and stop even noticing it when you are acclimated enough.
This is, unfortunately, probably your best answer. In the hospital Vicks vapor rub around the nostrils works for short periods, for long periods you just endure knowing that in less than an hour your body will ignore the smell. If you want to know more, Google “nose blindness” or “olfactory fatigue”
That never happened for me last time. After visiting for hours, I had to decline the guest bed and sleep in the car.
Laughs in neurodivergent hyperosmia
Tell him his house smells like ass
Is it just his place or the entire retirement community place? It might be something property management is doing or not doing
In my experience with proper stinks, you wait and you’ll get used to it.
I once entered into a underground sewage treatement plant and the smell was almost physical. However after sometime your nose starts to become dissensitised to it.
Ditto when we had to work with SO2 gas (which smells like rotten eggs) in our Chemistry classes: pretty sickening to begin with, then eventually you get used to it (which was funny because we could hear the students from other, unrelated classes in the rooms nearby, complaining loudly about it whilst we didn’t really care about it anymore ;)).
Help your grandfather fix the smell problem.
Haven’t done it myself but people who deal with corpses supposedly take Vicks vapor rub and rub it under their nose
You could try keeping your mask inside a container with a few spoons of coffee grounds. (Use a paper towel to avoid dirtying the mask.)
If it’s any consolation, the smell will probably become less unbearable in the following days, as you get used to it.
Also, depending on how close you are to your grandpa, you could find some tactful way to mention it. People don’t often realise how much their houses stink.
What a great description 😆
Honestly, I don’t think there’s much you can do but I have a relative who is a nurse and they mentioned they double up on face masks and basically overdose on strongly smelling stuff. Mint drops, gum, toothpaste between the masks, essential oils, etc. I know you’re not looking for ways to deal with the smell but opening some windows will help as well.
Thanks for being honest with us.
This could be difficult to apply for such an extended period of time, but I generally have good results by just breathing exclusively through my mouth. Pretend you’re underwater and breathing through a snorkel.
This technique has gotten me through many a fart and temporary sewage/fertilizer exposure.
Fart. You will smell it but it won’t be offensive.
Breathe through your mouth, not your nose.
Snort a bunch of drugs 1 or 2 days before you go lol. When I party on saturday I only start to smell things on wednesday
