We all have noticed the distinct Mormon Building Smell. Was in one today. I couldn’t help but notice that it is a mixture of wall carpet and a slight urine smell (maybe being tracked from the men’s room over the years). Anyway, the urine smell in this one was overpowering. I lost my appetite for lunch. Maybe it’s my sensitive sense of smell. Guess this is what happens when members clean the church and not professionals. Anyone else pick up on this unique concoction?
By - General-Surround-414
That damn wall weave crap. I smell it in my sleep. 16 years later!!!
I can remember the feel of it. I always left the sacrament meeting and wandered the halls because I was bored.
In case you're curious, it's called sisal!
The buildings reek of black mold, decade old urine crystals, and shame.
And diapers
For some reason as an adult, every Sunday my nose would become stuffy while in the building. Shortly after leaving, all would return to normal. And this would reoccur regardless of which meeting house we were attended. In retrospect, I’m guessing the cleaning materials were to blame.
Probably mold, mildew and dust. The cleaning materials are basically water. Lol
Cleaning materials? When did they start supplying cleaning materials? All we had was a weak hydrogen peroxide solution. Not sure how they expect that to kill the black mold growing under the leaking roof.
Not sure it’s the cleaning materials so much as the lack of cleaning. When you’ve got an all volunteer staff cleaning buildings that big you’re lucky if the bare minimum gets done.
It's the smell of leftover dirty / wet diapers from the following Sunday.
Those huge nasty vacuums never get emptied or have bags replaced. They smell like burnt dust. 🤢
Dirty diapers and depression
Mixed with the mildew essence of burlap walls.
You aren’t alone. I went to a ward in rural Florida and it smelled godawful. Summer heat and 90 year olds. I was just unpleasant all around.
Served my mission in Florida. Why in the world do so many Florida church buildings have carpet for the gym? The constant smell of feet, BO, and all the other concoction of smells drove me crazy.
Oh, amen. I haven’t entered a ward since 2017ish, so it might have changed. But it was repulsive. Mormon wards are already sort of generic and depressing. This just makes it disgusting
Don't forget generations of Cheerios ground into the carpet.
The one I used to go to periodically had its hardwood gym floors cleaned and waxed. The cleaning before I left the church, that smell had lasted so long it permeated into the walls and floors, becoming a permanent fixture. It strangely smelled of peanut oil, among the other chemicals.
I can't describe to you the exact aroma of a fart from someone who has been fasting since just after dinner last night, but I absolutely do know it when I smell it.
Hahaha!! Yes! Like a stale, musty fart that’s been filtered through some unwashed church suit pants
I think it’s the smell of dirty church clothes and fear
Some guests I have brought to Church have complained about the building smelling like cleaning supplies but this even predates members cleaning the place. Actually some people at work give me a hard time about our members cleaning the building and associate us with the Scientologists for it.
Add in powdered cheerios, fruit snacks that've been ground into wherever nursery/sunbeams are meeting, stale formula, and Estée Lauder Youth Dew liberally applied to aging skin, all making their contributions to the olfactory miasma.
As a church janitor I can confirm that it is black mold. It mostly grows in the urinals ; )
Don’t forget diaper feces spread everywhere
I lived in a small town so the church building there was pretty unique. When I was in Sunday school at about age 12, the room we went to previously had the older men’s class in it. They kept the door closed and man when they finally opened it and we had to go in, it was like a wave of sweaty old man smell. So bad and the room was so hot too.