We have a linen closet that for a time in my childhood was emptied out and made to serve as the “Nintendo room”, containing an NES hooked up to an old Commodore 64 monitor. I still associate that fabric/crafty smell with 8-bit gaming.
I also love the smell of sun soaked dog fur.
Sagebrush after a summer rain
Greasy pepperoni pizza with a hint of cardboard, live rosemary, the first few times smelling rain and dirt after winter, cold winter air, green tea, so many things
Garlic, or cedar. I love food though, but cedar just hits differently.
Came to also say cedar. It smells like home to me.
Fresh mint. Oh my goodness does it smell amazing.
My backyard is a monument to the hubris of gardeners past, which is to say that it’s overrun with mint. I do enjoy the smell though. Especially freshly mowed 😌
Petrichor.
Rosemary + brand-new-book-smell
The smell of rain in a forest.
Campfire
I couldn’t narrow it down to one. So far I have:
Freshly cut grass, freshly baked bread, a real christmas tree, pipe/cigar smoke, aviation fuel, sunscreen, candyfloss, fresh linen, the sea air, Indian food, corrainder, fresh coffee and the smell of a BBQ.
Skin after the swimming pool (gentle chlorine smell), flourine, curry, my wife’s hair, freshly baked bread, roast chicken, clothes that have been dried outside.
The smell of firing up a brand new toaster. It’s a very particular smell and an extremely rare one. I think I’ve only smelled it 3 times in my entire life. That’s less than once a decade.
Tomato plants. Pet fur. Orange blossom. Generic institution bathroom cleaner. Seaweed. My partner’s clean breath
Taking a hit out of my cats fur after a long stressful day is the best relaxation technique I’ve found
CK1. Had some when I was a teenager, forgot about it for 20 years, now whenever I smell it I am instantly transported (sadly not literally) back to a more simple time before I completely fucked my life up.
Water. Whether it’s ocean water, creek water, water on trees in the woods, spring rain, summer rain, fall rain (they all have different scents), or the smell of rain from miles away mixed with ozone from summer storms, even lightly chlorinated pool water can smell good in the right circumstances.
That and my cats fur. He always either smells like clean laundry, even if he’s been nowhere near any laundry, or if it’s a windy day and he’s been sitting at the window he smells like fresh air.
fuel rich exhaust from an old truck with cigarette smoke.
if I’m lucky I’ll smell it once every few years and it sends me back to the handful of good memories I had with my father.
otherwise it’s fresh cut pine lumber from a construction site with early morning dew and dirt.
Ah yes, those god awful smells that your brain tells you are nice because of nostalgia. So funny how the brain works. 🥰
Although I used to like the smell of car exhaust when I was a kid, without nostalgia. That’s a bit weird.
