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The worst is on hot summer days. My first place was a five story walkup and I was on the fourth floor. I actually remember vomiting all over the stairwell as I hauled up groceries, it was so bad. There was a huge puddle of what appeared to be cleaning solution mixed with urine. Bad combo. Like really cheap solution that had been sitting with a dirty mop in it mixed with stale, day-old urine. What's sad is that four-bedroom unit I lived in just sold for a million and it's still in that kind of condition.
Don't worry about it. Your vomit would only make the legendary smell of NYC stairwells more rich and
flavorful. It will probably still be around after we are all long gone. It's truly a fragrance only a melting
pot like NYC can produce.
The worst is on hot summer days. My first place was a five story walkup and I was on the fourth floor. I actually remember vomiting all over the stairwell as I hauled up groceries, it was so bad. There was a huge puddle of what appeared to be cleaning solution mixed with urine. Bad combo. Like really cheap solution that had been sitting with a dirty mop in it mixed with stale, day-old urine. What's sad is that four-bedroom unit I lived in just sold for a million and it's still in that kind of condition.
You vomited all over your stairwell??
I feel bad for laughing out loud.
Do you vomit all over the subway too when a smelly person gets on?
There's a smell even in cleaner buildings without the urine though. I think it might be many decades of cooking and cigarette smoke.
I think that's more it. It's a similar type of smell dusty, old library books have and old libraries, schools, museums. It's a musty, moldy like smell. Weird how certain scents can bring back long ago memories. Takes me back to how I felt as a child living in Brooklyn. Weird.
Air is not regularly exchanged in stairwells, even in very clean buildings, hence the musty smell that is similar to a library, mixed with remnants of whatever cleanser was used.
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All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages.
~William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II, Scene VII)
Air is not regularly exchanged in stairwells, even in very clean buildings, hence the musty smell that is similar to a library, mixed with remnants of whatever cleanser was used.
I was going to say that---the lack of ventilation.
My last building had an open staircase---no stairwell---and windows throughout the hallways. The hallways/staircases of my last building always smelled nice because the porter vacuumed (and put down some cleaner) at least once a week. Sure, you get the fish odor and god knows what else but the odors didn't travel into the apartments, thankfully, and they dissipate eventually, even faster with the windows.
My current building stairwell doesn't have much of an odor. Odors will get in there and then disappear. I'm surprised it doesn't smell odd because barely anyone uses it (probably why it doesn't smell awful) and there is no ventilation. No windows like in my old building, anywhere, either.
In most NYC staircases and hallways, they all have this similar smell to them. What is it?
I know I sound vague but please bare with me. It's hard to put smells into words.
What a strange thread.
Are you talking about apartment buildings?
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