What Specific Smells Remind You of Home?

Scent is one of the most powerful memory triggers we have. It’s so powerful that sometimes I can more easily remember what my childhood home smelled like than what it actually looked like. For me, the slightly musty/dusty smell of freshly vacuumed shag carpet and the aging timbers of my family’s small fixer-upper bring back a stronger sense of home than any picture or video. What smells remind you of that specific place you call home? We want to hear about them.

Maybe it’s the smell of a roaring fireplace or the scent of a special family recipe cooking on the stove. Is it a loved one’s favorite perfume or a fruit tree in the backyard (just inventing these scents is making me write like I’m in a Thomas Kinkade painting…)? Maybe it’s just new paint or a specific cleaning product. Whatever that combination of smells is that transports you back to that specific place in your memory, we want to hear about it.

Use the form below to tell us about the smells that remind you of home, in as descriptive detail as you can. What experiences do you associate with the scents that make them so evocative for you? We can’t wait to hear about what you smell!

If you have a story of your own special smell of home to share, head over to our community forums and tell us about it!