When I was little, my school friends and I used to have scarves or gloves that looked the same, and when we got them confused, we’d sniff the item and know whose it was.
I’m still fascinated with what makes every household smell different, because we all know and recognize our friends’ houses smells. It has something to do with how much garlic the mom cooks with, what laundry soap she uses, what oils she diffuses, how much accumulation she allows in the laundry basket and trash cans.
One house’s smell isn’t really better than another’s. It’s just different.
Sometimes more than anything else, my sense of smell tells me what country I’m in.
It happens every time I leave Europe and walk from the jet way into the airport. I breathe in deep, feel the coolness of a generous air conditioning system, and smell the commercial, clean American fragrance. It smells light, sanitized, synthetic, luxurious.
The Dublin airport isn’t over cooled, and the air smells less clean than American airports, but pleasant. Past the smokers standing outside the door, I smell the brisk, damp, salty air, and breathe in as much as my lungs can hold.
In Poland, people tend to avoid any moving air. Stepping outside the airport, I smell the dry continental air. Some stores have little or no air conditioning, and the air smells heavy, briny, earthy. On the sidewalks, people frequently brush past me with an aura of rich, glorious fragrance that makes me want to follow them, sniffing like a puppy.
Rumor has it that Americans have the wasteful habit of taking a daily shower while Europeans take fewer showers and stronger cologne. The rumor might be true.
Our English school in Poland used to have a student who worked for a designer perfume company. She would sniff vials all day, testing endless combinations of compounds. To clear her palate, she’d frequently have to go on a walk and breathe other air for awhile so she could do her job.
I have a keen nose, but that job would exhaust me in fifteen minutes. But I kind of identify countries with my nose.
One country’s smell isn’t really better than another’s. It’s just different.
Tis a Gift to Receive 
That struck my funny bone that you could tell whose scarf it was by smelling it. LRM
I forgot how we too used to identify lookalikes by sniffing! Haven’t thought of that for years.
When I was a child, my grandmother used to send us birthday boxes across a thousand miles. They were filled with gifts, tiny treasures, homemade cookies. But the first thing we always did when we gathered the family in the living room and opened that glorious, long-awaited box was to stick our noses inside and breathe. “Smells like Grandma’s house!” ❤️
That makes me want to follow them sniffing like a puppy!!! 😂 I’m one of those weird people too who sniff as others walk by…smells are fascinating!!!