Have you ever noticed that every building owned by the Church smells the same? The "mormon smell" is found in every ward building, stake center, temple, visitors center, conference center, the Tabernacle, the MTC, BYU, Deseret Book, the DI, and even City Creek. I've noticed the homes of ultra-TBMs even start to smell this way. What is it?

Is it the white-painted cinderblock? Is it the scent of baby spit-up and crushed Cheerios ground into the cheap carpet? Is it the chemicals that untrained TBMs use to clean the building each week? Is it the smell of old men who forgot to wash their white shirts on Saturday? Is it the pile of dirty diapers filling the trash cans? Where the hell does the mormon smell come from?

I have asked this very same question before, only to be disappointed. Many cannot explain it. Other act like they don't even know what you are talking about. Maybe we should run some tests and figure it out. ;)

Skunk ape?

Decaying plastic.

Its the chemicals they use in the tithing carbon paper.

it's what your farts would smell like if you didn't do anything fun like have pre marital sex, drink coffee or booze etc

It's the Mormon approved cleaning chemicals. They use them in every building they have. The ultra TBM's are the ones that are doing the cleaning. They "borrow" a gallon of the cleaning chemicals from the church. After all, they are cleaning for free, and that's the least the church can give them.

Eventually you can smell all of them a mile away.

The smell of the temple was always very distinctive to me -- excessive amounts of bleach and cleaning material used too often on things not even that dirty. Other meetinghouses smelled different from the temple though, imo.
I've always been very sensitive to (and frankly, easily annoyed by) certain smells, so I think I know what you're talking about. In my experience, that "mormon smell" came from the fabric -- the fabric from scripture cases, the seats in the chapel, lobby upholstery, sacrament cloth, etc. Call me weird, but I could not go without washing the smell off my hands whenever I came home from church.

My other theory is that it's just a psychological effect, seeing as you find the homes of super-tbms start to smell that way.

Urine

It's garments.

I've smelled it on airplanes full of Mormons flying in and out of SLC.

It's unique to Mormons, so it has to be something they are doing that others are not doing.

My best description of garment smell is b.o.+ urine+perfume/shaving lotion, a sickening sweet odor of body fluids and floral perfume.


Anagrammy

PS. Even stewardesses who travel all over comment about the Mormon smell--esp on flights from the south into SLC.

I think you could be right.

I moved into a ward that had a majority of senior citizens. The "smell" became more pronounced. Especially in the RS room. I couldn't figure it out.

Then one day a lady told me that there were some women that weren't into bathing more than once a week. They also didn't use deodorant. Add that to being incased in nylon or polyester 24/7. I can only imagine what the priesthood meetings smelled like.

It's possible that the constant wearing of nylon garments combined with some who don't bathe daily for whatever reason, including choosing tithing over paying the water bill. Another cause of that smell is the fact that members are the ones cleaning the building, especially the bathrooms, and that trash cans in the bathrooms aren't emptied enough, so the stench of dirty diapers has a chance to marinate longer than necessary.

I thought is was the smell of desperation - possibly fear. Animals can smell fear, so it's not that sarcastic of a response.

The smell of olive oil is very obvious in the temples

lol

Definitely the sweaty polyester garments. The material doesn't breathe. Young mothers and old ladies are in too big of a hurry to bathe Sunday morning. They probably wear the same underwear they slept in. I always thought it was nasty to sleep in your underwear, anyway. Some older women get their hair done once a week, sleep in a hair net, re-spray it with hair spray every day, so it lasts. Can you imagine not washing your hair for a whole week? I know some old men who don't wash their hair, because of their comb-overs, and because they believe shampooing causes greater hair loss. Wigs and hair pieces get gamey after years of wear. They cover it up with perfume or shaving lotion. Our BYU co-ed dorm dining area would reek of aftershave on Sunday mornings.

The only time a ward house smelled good at all was during the "Georgios of Beverly Hills" fad. Having most of the women wear the same very strong perfume, resulted in that scent dominating the other stenches.

Odor comes from bacteria, and I wonder if the Mormons dilute their cleaning products (to be cheap), so their germ-killing power is neutralized.

Our ward house had burlap on the walls, and someone mentioned that they use a harsh chemical glue to stick it on there. LOL! People probably do try to walk on the walls--in their stinky socks. To me, stinky socks and underwear and bacteria get my vote.

To the tune "That Smell" by Lynyrd Skynyrd


"That Mormon Smell"

Dirty diapers, baby spit up
Clean bathrooms, no way
There's too much fear and not enough beer
Look what's going on inside you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of mormons surrounds you

Missionaries are upon you
Stuck a book of mormon in your face
(you fool, you)
So take another whiff, need a plug for your nose
One more lesson fool, we dunk you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of mormons surrounds you

Now they call you Bishop Charming
Can't speak the truth when you're full of sh!t
Say you'll be fondling girls come tomorrow
But tomorrow your wife might be here with you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of mormons surrounds you

Hey, you're a fool you
Paying tithing to the church
I know I been there before

When confounding doctrine confronts you
Lying for the lord will have to do
Just one more hour, Lord I could use a toke
This mormon religion is one hell of a joke
(hell yeah)
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of mormons surrounds you
Ooooh that smell
Can't you smell that smell
Ooooh that smell
The smell of mormons surrounds you

Bravo Vincent, Bravo.

That was great! Now I'm gonna have that song stuck in my head all day...

Very clever! Good job dk.

I well remember a sort of Cheerio-urine smell. Once a kid vomited all over, and his parents just walked away. Sure remember that smell. I will never forgive Mormons for all the foul smells.

Haha Well done, dk!

I also have to vote for the type of cleaning products used because I noticed the dorms at BYU had the same smell as most church buildings. There is an overlying human scent - obviously if people are noticing that smell on Mormons as well as in the buildings. But I wonder if the church has certain cleaning products it recommends (due to a discount) and the combination of those products with the human smell is what makes it so distinct.

I was told that they have their own supplier for their leaning chemicals. It's the only one that's church approved. It wouldn't surprise me at all if its watered down.

The "nursing room" (although it's rarely an actual room) is always the stenchiest place because of the ever-overflowing diaper pail -- but nursery runs a close second. The chapel usually reeks, too. Lots of tiny children, cheap polyester, and stale Cheerio crumbs -- and no open windows!

I win!

The ONLY approved paint for use on "Church Owned" property is Sherwin Williams. That's why it all smells the same.

It is also my understanding that many of the same family owned construction businesses have been getting the contracts for generations. Same builders, same materials, McChurches and McTemples. Always thought it was a little strange to see a Utah contractor building a church in a small nowhere midwestern town......

Sure wish my family had been set up for generations. It's kind of like The Sopranos meets The Stepford Wives meets Jim Jones. But it pays off best if your family started drinking the Kool-Aid on the wagon train from Nauvoo.

I don't know. I have Sherwin Williams paint in my house and it doesn't smell like a stinky church building.

I stand corrected...Sherwin plus dirty diapers and funky undies?

This is the first urge I've had to go back in 20 years. I honestly don't remember the smell....Now like a train wreck makes you look.....I kinda wanna get a quick whiff just so I can recognize it from a safe distance.

Last time I went into the Sacramento Deseret Industries, I smelled it. Like CA girl, I seemed to catch a whiff of desperation in the humid aroma. Faint undertones of soiled diapers and body odors. Unfortunately, the aftertaste was heavy and cloying. Bad vintage. Not recommended.

I painted my house inside and out with SW paint. It smells nothing like a mormon church. I even had a mormon contractor. He just so happens to be the best builder in a not very mormon area.

I guess i'll have to ask Anagrammy. Do you think my house smells like a mormon church? Be honest. I will fix it if you think it does.

Any building, home, etc, that does not get much ventilation will develop odors. LDS Chapels and Temples are not ventilated properly. They claim the temple is, but they are not.

It's common for houses, for instance, to develop odors, especially when closed up in the wintertime for months when it's cold.

Someone needs to open all the doors and windows weekly and air the places out! But do they do that? Nope!

Also, the glue in the carpeting, (especially that burlap sand paper they put on the walls) was not ventilated properly after it was installed.

I know many, many people who have horrible allergies in the LDS buildings but suffer with them anyhow out of loyalty. (Not me!)

It was the carpet in the primary room. Mustn't have been cleaned for decades! It looked OK, same color as dirt, but one could smell it clear out into the hallway -- just filthy rug smell, nothing specific. Then, the last time I was in that room, the smell was gone! Somebody must have discovered rug shampoo.