While we were in Brisbane it occurred to me how much feeling at home in a space is based on it smelling right. And that the smell is made up of layers of elements – fabrics, soap, shampoo, cleaning products. After the big floods it seemed that despite on the surface everything being back to normal the smell of river water, damp and rot  still clung. It was also evident when we got our house in New Zealand back from being tenanted. It smelt wrong – not like our place any more. While bathrooms  often start smelling “right” quite quickly, probably because we bring shampoo or soap it took a while for me to figure out the cleaning product phenomenon. I wonder if it is why people tended to clean before they move in to a new place even if it has been cleaned – it doesn’t smell “clean” the way we mean.

I think one of my gems of wisdom if you are relocating between countries is to check out your preferred cleaning products – you know those things you tend to just drop in the supermarket trolley without paying a lot of attention. One of mine is Mr Muscle kitchen cleaner with orange oil – which fortunately is just as available on Malaysian shelves as in New Zealand and Australia. I know that will go a surprising distance in helping feel as if we are settled in.  The previous residents had left behind a selection of cleaners for us – amazing how much you can figure out from labels with no English just from the branding pictures!  Bathroom cleaners vary a bit and I’m a intrigued whether one of the sprays is one of my old cleaner’s favourites. I don’t think Nick quite realises that part of his issue with the smell in the wet kitchen is the combined smells of cleaning products. Plus on investigating them I have discovered that lemon or rose scented does not mean the same here as it does at home!

The one area I am stuck with is laundry powder as I typically use low allergy, fragrance free. The smell of fragranced laundry powder is one of my key triggers for “yuk what is that smell”. So far I haven’t had much luck finding a replacement. I investigated our closest supermarket yesterday without success and will try another couple over the weekend (hopefully we will be organising a car on Saturday). And it occurs to me that the smell in supermarkets is another place it combines to make you feel like you are in another environment. Although the supermarket is a whole story of its own!