"You Could Smell Her When She Walked In The Door": 17 Of The Worst Hygiene Nightmares People Have Ever Witnessed

Listen, we all have our moments when we feel a bit "too old" to be learning something that should be a basic life skill. But there are some things that I feel like you definitely should know by the time you reach adulthood. Like showering, washing your clothes, and generally smelling like a decently clean human being.

Well, it turns out that some people just haven't had that figured out yet. Over on Reddit, people are sharing the worst cases they've seen of a grown adult having no basic knowledge of hygiene or life skills, and my eyes have truly never seen such horridness.

1. "I thought I could smell burst cat food at work (pet shop) so I was wandering the aisles trying to find the source of the smell. If you've ever experienced burst tins of pet food that have become maggot infested, you know it's a very distinct and repulsive smell. Anyway, I finally found the source of the smell. It was not burst cat food as I had initially suspected. It was my colleague who was quite adverse to hygiene who had reached new levels of stench."

—anneOkneeMoose

2. "These stories are both about my stepsister and happened when I was pregnant. She was absolutely furious with me when she found out I had gone swimming because she thought I would drown the baby. No amount of explaining the placenta, umbilical cord, and amniotic fluid would sink in. Later on, my shirt crept up a little bit, and she was able to see my belly button and noticed it was 'still closed' and asked what I needed to do to get it open. She thought the umbilical cord was like a tube that attached the baby to the mother's belly button, and you had to feed the baby through that tube."

—soulstoned

"'Drown the baby,' does she think it's dry inside the uterus or something LMAO."

—PessemisticGnome

"I don't think she has ever had a thought in her entire life.

Pregnancy would be so much more nightmarish if the uterus was dry inside and the baby needed to breathe air. Just imagine what that would feel like, just queefing and reverse queefing all day and night."

—soulstoned

3. "My dad refuses to reapply deodorant despite being the sweatiest human I know. He only uses the almond mom brands that don't do shit, anyway. And he only showers on Sunday 'to start the work week clean.' I feel bad for his colleagues."

—Miserable-Note5365

4. "In the time I've lived here, my roommate has told me: 'Mosquitos can't get to us because we live on the second floor (next to a body of pretty stagnant water).' 'The pest control guys should only spray the stairs to keep our yearly ants out.' 'We need to keep the windows and doors closed to keep the yearly ants (that are clearly coming up through the floor) out.' She also does not know a vacuum needs to be cleaned sometimes, and throws them out as soon as the suction gets low."

—yourbaconess

"I hope the rent is low enough to offset those faults for you."

—Embarrassed-Dot-1794

"I'm dying at her thinking the ants need to use stairs LOL."

—MamacitaFajita

5. "Someone I know barely ever washes their hands, even after going to the toilet or taking the trash out, but refuses to touch the buttons in the elevator. It's probably better for all of us."

—SyfaVelnumdes

"On the other hand, I saw a perfectly normal-looking man lick his finger (as one does before turning a page) before pressing the elevator button. I'm already a germaphobe who avoids elevator buttons, but I guess God wanted to hammer it in."

—PainappleSmoothie

6. "My nephew doesn't like to brush his teeth, and got angry at the dentist for removing the tartar buildup because it was 'protecting his teeth.' He also thought his mom couldn't evict him because squatter's rights legally let him stay in her house, so going to the court would be illegal. He's 24."

—WoofPie

"I thought you were talking about a 4-year-old."

—ill_detective_4869

7. "I used to work with a guy who thought deodorant caused cancer, so he refused to use any. We worked at a spa, and it gets hot in the treatment rooms with three heat sources on all day, and he smelled like a horse's ass. He also got mad that no one ate the food he brought in, right after telling everyone his home had a bedbug problem. He was not very well-liked at that establishment."

—SailorVenus23

"I used to work with a guy who smelled like straight up shit and we had to work in a confined booth together on a piece of equipment for hours on end. On top of it all, he was a fucking asshole and he was a creep to the girls in the office. I wanted to beat his ass but he was our client contact for our biggest contract so we just had to endure his stench."

—hamburgerishelping

"God these people drive me nuts. The girl who gave me and all of my other friends lice in middle school had a mom who knew she'd had lice for weeks and still sent her to a sleepover and school. She didn't want to use any chemicals, so she had just been 'vacuuming more' and hoping that would fix the problem."

—youngfilly

8. "There was an older guy (single, probably mid-50s) that I worked with at my first office job. The guy probably bathed regularly but what he did not do was take his clothes promptly from the washer to the dryer. He positively reeked of mildew 100% of the time."

—JimTheJerseyGuy

9. "Storing soup in the bottom clear vegetable drawer of the fridge. Like, pouring in 'loose' soup they made, and it was just sloshing around in there."

—Leeloo_82

10. "There was a woman at the gym who wore the same workout outfit daily for at least two months. She didn't launder the clothes and did the StairMaster for an hour daily. Pungent doesn't begin to describe the odor; one could smell her when she walked in the door."

—Sometimesunaware

"Christ, are these people that unaware, or could she smell herself and just didn't care?"

—PessemisticGnome

11. "The worst smelling people I've met just never washed their clothes. You can get away with not showering for a while with fresh clothes and deodorant although that obviously has its limits. But when you keep yourself clean but can't be bothered to put on fresh clothes it gets disgusting fast. Sweat isn't the greatest smell but old sweat baked into your clothes is even worse."

—Shai-Huldi

12. "At my first place of work, I witnessed the manager shouting at a coworker because she’d gone to the bathroom to change her pad. He was adamant that she should have 'held it' until we were less busy. She said it doesn’t work that way. He claimed he knew multiple women who didn’t need pads or tampons because they’d been 'toilet trained' and would hold it. (I assume these women were either on birth control that stops periods, or post menopause, if they existed at all.) He said my coworker was just lazy, unhygienic, and that her parents had failed to potty train her when she was a toddler. (Which is, apparently, an age at which he thinks menstruation takes place.) I also told him that that isn’t how menstruation works. He told me, 'You’re not a woman, so you don’t know.' I asked how he knew, then, and he was like, 'I’ve had a lot of girlfriends!' A claim which I still find rather dubious."

—HOMANDER1996

13. "I used to work in a lab. A coworker of mine 'sweat too much in gloves' so he just opted to not wear them….even when opening and pouring urine samples. He hardly washed his hands. Management knew and never addressed it."

—NoPersonality7502

"Skipping gloves is disgusting, but management watching him pour urine barehanded and doing nothing is the real horror."

—meuldwairk

14. "They would go straight to bed after a gym session because it was clean sweat.... I don't know what that means either. My best guess is that, since running outdoors results in dirty sweat, dirtiness probably occurs when there are sandy particles stuck to the skin."

—MonsieurScruffy

15. "In med corps school in the Navy, there was a girl that smelled so bad and always had oily hair. One day, after several talk attempts and her refusing to shower, the girls literally dragged her into the showers and cleaned her because they couldn't stand smelling her."

—boardjock42

"Every basic course in the Army has the stinky guy. It's usually corrected with a GI shower. I knew a captain that would shower with his uniform on to save laundry costs. Not even kidding."

—Major__de_Coverly

16. "I used to work at LAX airport doing what is now performed by TSA. The stories I could tell...One in particular was about a very well-dressed man who was wearing a suit that easily cost $500 or more. (This was in 1973.) He REEKED of urine!"

—franksymptoms

17. "I once went into a grown man's house with a friend, sat on his couch, and thought something felt off. Lifted the cushion and found a pizza box. Opened the pizza box and found an entire meat lover's pie minus one slice. I dragged my friend out of there while he was in the bathroom."

—creepydollcupcake

"I once went into a guy's house with a friend, and there was a giant trash can, like a leaf bag size, full of aged urine in the living room. He said he didn't have water service, so he just pisses in the trash can. I RAN"

—Apprehensive-Log8333

Now it's your turn: what's the worst case you've seen of a grown adult having absolutely no basic knowledge of hygiene? Let us know in the comments, or use this form to be anonymous!