To ask my wife to stop using blue cistern blocks?

[Breadandwine]

Which are absolutely unnecessary and environmentally unsound.

But apart from this, I've been following the 'If it's yellow let it mellow, if it's brown flush it down' dictum for some years now. (The lid of the toilet is always kept down.) If my wife doesn't use cistern blocks (these things appear intermittently), everything is fine. However, when she puts the blocks in, there is a reaction between the urine in the bowl and the chemicals in the blocks resulting in a crust forming around the sides of the bowl.

This can't just be wiped or brushed away. The best way I've found to get rid of it is to use a (dedicated) pan scrubber. But it's a pain in the arse, to coin a phrase.

[accidentalpirate]

Yabu the pink ones are much better than the blue ones.

[TheFlyingFauxPas]

Maybe she uses the blocks to try and disguise your quietly mellowing yellow. I can't bear 🐻 a toilet with pee left in it. I also don't like lids down as it means I have to touch it to lift it up. Flush it away. Problem solved.

[TheFlyingFauxPas]

With lid closes also that would be a really nasty treat on lifting lid and I would flush it with a shudder before going myself.

[NovemberInDailyFailLand]

Do you have any idea how bad stale male urine actually smells?!

I feel sorry for her. I would go mad.

[5BlueHydrangea]

If you flush with the lid up the contents can be sprayed up to 6 feet into the room...

[apatheticfallacy]

Can't comment on the blocks because we haven't tried them (don't see the point!) but having read the responses I wanted to stand up for your flushing practices. I don't think make urine smells any more than female urine (slightly different maybe - HCP here with plenty of experience in urine )

I think it's a shame that we use clean drinking water for flushing the loo - if only it were financially sensible to install grey water systems so we could flush with the water from the washing machine or shower or (filtered) from the dishwasher or kitchen sink.

OP, I presume you've discussed it with your wife before posting here? What did she say?

[mathanxiety]

Flush the loo after you use it.

It's disgusting to leave it festering.

[mathanxiety]

Amen to what November said. The smell of male urine left sitting in a loo is nauseating.

[SandyPantz]

so, eh? have you asked her?

[ScarletForYa]

Flush the toilet. Piss left festering stinks. It's contemptuous of you to leave it there, literally marking your territory.

[memyselfandaye]

Fucking hell you sound like a big old bundle of shits and giggles.

[MerryMarigold]

Interesting. We used to follow the 'if it's yellow' dictum. However, with 3 kids, who are notoriously terrible at flushing, the toilet bowl becomes disgusting with caked on urine/ limescale in a matter of days. I now use a block though I prefer the clear ones with a zesty fragrance (I'm sure they are no less environmentally unfriendly). This does keep the bowl a lot cleaner than it was and so I will continue until the flushing improves. I do usually leave a few days at the end of a block and have to again clean the loo with a limescale remover soaked in for several hours and toilet brush. Whilst the block is in there I don't need to do that.

So, I suggest you start flushing every time which is probably more environmentally friendly than using the blue block, especially with the amount of rain in this country. Or you will need to persist in being a lot more environmentally unfriendly by forcing your wife to use the block.

[DropYourSword]

I would much prefer blue toilet blocks to a stinky unflushed toilet. Bleurgh.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Could you compromise with no blue blocks and no mellowing yellow? And a low flush cistern?

[CaoNiMao]

Flush the bog, you mucky devil.

[DoItTooJulia]

Have you heard about the plumbing defect in toilets? If you have a bloo
Block and lose water you're water will
Come out of the kitchen taps bright blue once the connection is restored.

[Unicorntrainer]

I am with Merry, give me lemony bleach your blocks every time, the blue ones annoy the shit out of me -no pun intended-

[scoobyloobyloo]

Surprised by the replies here - I thought most people let the yellow mellow!saves a good few litres each time...

I clean the loo twice a week and bleach it once - it's fine - if it ever smells, I flush it.

YANBU.

[BennyTheBall]

God, just flush the flipping loo.

[WellErrr]

That's disgusting.

Would you piss in a bucket then just leave it standing quietly in the corner?

Piss stinks. Flush it.

[FullTimeYummy]

LOLZ at mumsnetters managing to make this into a male vs. female debate, genius.

We're a part time mellow yellow family. It saves water, but more importantly for us, saves an enormous racket during the night to leave it until the morning. We don't use blocks.

Yes, there is a slight smell, but do you know what smells worse? My shit. My partners shit. Everybody else's shit.

If you can handle using a toilet that has been used for a number two in the previous few hours, a slight urine funk shouldn't be too much of a problem.

[Skittlesss]

Oh no this wouldn't work in our house as I don't like to go to the loo in other people's pee so would have to flush before using it.

[daisywhoopsie]

This has made me shudder.

I have a message for your wife - LTB!

[MaudeandHarold]

I think the blocks are just staining the crust formed by urine resting in the bowl, like disclosing tablets and plaque on poorly brushed teeth. Just flush the loo every time....and use some bleach. If the water use bothers you, investigate greywater collection.