What we try to cover up, leave behind, throw or scrub away is maybe what plays the bigger role in making familiar, a sense of belonging and thus defining home. 

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“How do the living inhabit a place? 
How do they establish it, recognize it? … Dirt admits a spatiality in the simple observation that other 
people’s houses do not smell quite right, because they do not smell like home.” 
2019, Frichot, Dirty Theory, p.14

 

 

As an immaterial wall or rideau, welcoming you every time you step 
through the front door. Deep breath, relax the jaw. 
You are home! 

We can add smells of our choice, either to enlarge, or as an attempt to cover up, something already there.  But the ones that appear and blend together through everyday life will always be present and impact our sense of what smells like home. Your go-to dish, water spilled on wood, morning coffee, trash forgotten (again), the dusty rug, the buildups from your tooth paste.