12 Things Making Your Home Smell Old in Winter - That Japanese Families Fix Daily

Your house has a smell, and you're the one person who can't smell it. A scientist at the Monell Chemical Senses Center says the nose tunes out a smell after a sniff or two, and people who lived with a smell for about two weeks needed two to four times as much of it to notice it again. In winter, with the windows shut, the smell builds slowly. In Japan it even has a name, seikatsu-shu, the smell of everyday life. I'm Hiro. I grew up in Sapporo and have spent twenty-some winters in an ordinary Minnesota house. This video walks through twelve things that make a winter house smell old, in the order a guest's nose meets them: wet boots, the pile of shoes by the door, kitchen scraps, the recycling bin, the dishcloth, last night's dinner, the washer, laundry drying indoors, the bath towel, the bed, the bathroom fan you switch off, and the windows. For each one you get the Japanese habit, from city guidance and household makers such as Kao and Panasonic, a cheap fix for an American house, and one task for tonight. There is also a bonus: how to ask a friend for an honest sniff test. Most of the fixes cost nothing, and the rest run from a few dollars to about $37. It is plain on safety: use bleach only on its own and never mix it with another cleaner, and if you smell rotten eggs or sulfur, leave on foot and call the gas company and 911 once you're safe. Tonight: stuff your wet boots with paper and open two windows for a few minutes tomorrow morning. 0:00 Intro 1:08 Boots that never dry 2:20 The pile by the door 3:31 Kitchen scraps 5:04 The recycling bin 6:03 The dishcloth 7:28 Last night's dinner 8:56 The washer 10:07 Laundry drying inside 11:19 The bath towel 12:22 The bed 13:40 The fan you switch off 14:55 The windows 16:33 Bonus: a nose that isn't yours 16:58 What ties it together #Smell #Winter #Cleaning #Japanese #Home