We have a linen closet that for a time in my childhood was emptied out and made to serve as the “Nintendo room”, containing an NES hooked up to an old Commodore 64 monitor. I still associate that fabric/crafty smell with 8-bit gaming.
I also love the smell of sun soaked dog fur.
My favorite smells are the few that nearly transport me back in time, maybe like some form of déjà vu but I can’t quite pinpoint what exactly those scents are. I’d never be able to recreate them intentionally. Two different soap scents bring me to two different familiar childhood places. Sometimes when I come back in through the back door I get a rather neutral smell but also very intense feeling like I’m suddenly at an old friend’s rental house from decades ago. There’s one smell that instantly brings me back to a childhood scratch n’ sniff book. As a side note, I find that nostalgic textures bring back strong memories too.
When I was a kid, my friends and I thought it was funny when an older woman mentioned to us that she loved the smell of crayons and that they brought her back to her childhood. Now I understand!