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AIBU?

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Original poster

AIBU to ask people not to poop in new under stairs cloakroom?

488 replies

keepswimming38 · 17/05/2026 20:46

We are just having a new cloakroom installed downstairs. AIBU to put a sign up saying ‘no poo loo’ or ‘if you plan to do a poo do it in the upstairs loo’?

My DH thinks it’s not reasonable. I just down like the idea of people doing a poop in there and then the macerator having to … anyway AIBU?

OP posts:
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5
wishingonastar101 · 18/05/2026 09:05

My normal toilet blocks quite a lot - we still poo in it.

ConstanzeMozart · 18/05/2026 08:45

roibustea · 17/05/2026 22:00

Just don't tell people about the downstairs loo at all and tell them to go upstairs. Though I too am taken aback at the number of people who apparently just poo wherever, whenever. I go in the morning. It takes about an hour after getting up, then having a shower, having breakfast and having a coffee. I don't go out until after my poo. So it's very annoying if I have a stupidly early appointment as I have to factor in enough time between getting up and pooing to know what time I can safely leave. But I think I thought everybody had a schedule of some sort, unless maybe they had a medical condition. Learn something every day!

I saw a SM reel recently of someone demonstrating exercises to do on holiday/in your hotel room in the morning if you have to head out for the day and haven't yet had a poo.
Quite useful. Plus, I hadn't realised it was something other people worried about; thought it was just me!

rescuingchocolate · 18/05/2026 08:43

We have this rule for the downstairs toilet , it’s a saniflo and we know they have issues with smells sometimes so we said from the outside no poo in it and it’s been fine.

ConstanzeMozart · 18/05/2026 08:41

SurleyTurnip · 17/05/2026 21:26

…into which we do not pass solids.

Grin My first thought too

StarlightLady · 18/05/2026 08:37

But “please do not flush anything other than toilet paper refers to no flushing tampons, pads etc not poo.

Original poster
keepswimming38 · 18/05/2026 08:28

So think it’s fair enough. I can’t send people to different toilets for poos. However, I have purchased a sign saying ‘please don’t flush anything other than toilet paper’. Hopefully visitors won’t be pooing and vomiting in my downstairs loo too often! My daughter I obviously won’t be making her walk upstairs if she’s downstairs. That was a black joke. There haven’t been many of those in our lives lately so apologies if I offended anyone. Many of the comments have made me chuckle so thank you.🙏

OP posts:
Iocanepowder · 18/05/2026 08:28

Seen it all now.

If you’re actually going to make your daughter go upstairs anytime she needs to shit, then literally don’t bother with the toilet in the first place.

And agree YABU for calling it a cloakroom.

tripleginandtonic · 18/05/2026 08:22

Parker231 · 17/05/2026 20:51

Why have it installed if it’s not to be used?

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This. If you can't use it as a toilet for both then wouldn't bother.

pepinillo · 18/05/2026 08:07

bethepeace · 17/05/2026 21:24

Are people really pooing at other people’s houses? I genuinely don’t think I’ve pooed at a friends house since I was a kid!!

Imagine - people using toilets for what they are designed to do! The horror!

ButterYellowFlowers · 18/05/2026 07:43

keepswimming38 · 17/05/2026 20:54

😬 make her walk upstairs ( I know how that sounds)!

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You’re having a toilet put in for your daughter who’s mobility has been damaged. But if she needs anything except a wee she will be forced to go upstairs anyway.

What a waste of money and a fake way of showing care.

hotblankey · 18/05/2026 07:41

What if you have visitors? If they then sheepishly make their way upstairs, everyone will know they’re going for a poo. That’s pretty mortifying. 😂

BiteSizedLife · 18/05/2026 07:39

I'm really surprised at the amount of ppl saying about no2 being done downstairs and smell etc

We always used downstairs toilets for both 1+2, our guests are welcome to use said toilet and I left home and also continued in this fashion and.... no stinks.

I think some people need to check their diets!

Clarefromwork · 18/05/2026 07:36

Everyone will know why you are going upstairs … walk of shame.

BiteSizedLife · 18/05/2026 07:27

So if a guest chooses the upstairs loo over the downstairs you are making them signal to everyone that they need to do a poo.

What an awful way to treat guests.

If the manufacturer of this kind of toilet says that is cannot cope with solid matter the you are not being unreasonable, but I highly suspect that is NOT the case?

Aussiemum87 · 18/05/2026 07:12

No vomits either? Vomits just happen. You can’t time them.

OonaStubbs · 18/05/2026 06:55

Put sensors on the toilet and a loud klaxon and neon signs around the house that announce POO ALARM in case someone has the temerity to besmirch your downstairs water closet with excrement.

loislovesstewie · 18/05/2026 06:40

Just to add, holding a poo in is the way to constipation. You might be lucky and it not effect you but it's really best to empty your bowel when the urge arises.
And only on mumsnet have I seen people who:
Don't want workmen using the loo when working in the house.
People designating loos for different functions
And a controlling person deciding that no flushing will take place after a certain hour.
I feel like I'm in an alternate universe sometimes.

TwoLeftSocksWithHoles · 18/05/2026 06:38

Buy some 'doggy poo-bags' and hang them on a nail in the downstairs loo, with a sign;

"Will Guests please use one of these (free) bags if you wish to poop - and then take it away with you for disposal. Thank you"

That's what I would do.

StarlightLady · 18/05/2026 06:06

An unwritten house rule is probably a good thing, and even then you need exceptions. But in my view a sign is over the top.

LBFseBrom · 18/05/2026 06:05

cariadlet · 18/05/2026 06:03

The problem isn't that it's a normal toilet which happens to be downstairs. The problem is that it's a macerator - something which many of us had never heard of before reading this thread.

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Oh no, mine wasn't a macerator. I would not have one of those noisy things. Mine was in the house from when it was built in the 1930s.

cariadlet · 18/05/2026 06:03

LBFseBrom · 18/05/2026 06:01

I had a downstairs toilet in my house before I downsized and lived there almost forty years with nothing going wrong with it. Why would it go wrong more than any other lavatory?

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The problem isn't that it's a normal toilet which happens to be downstairs. The problem is that it's a macerator - something which many of us had never heard of before reading this thread.

LBFseBrom · 18/05/2026 06:01

cariadlet · 18/05/2026 04:34

Same here.
I've been surprised by how many people on the thread have one as they don't seem to work as well as a normal toilet.

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I had a downstairs toilet in my house before I downsized and lived there almost forty years with nothing going wrong with it. Why would it go wrong more than any other lavatory?

Zanatdy · 18/05/2026 06:00

Oh dear lord, what have I read? It’s a blooming toilet.

Peony1985 · 18/05/2026 06:00

Right;

It's only "poop" in you are American or possibly if talking about very small amounts of poo. Or the sound of Toads car horn

Downstairs cloakroom is a toilet.

People wee far more than they poo. It's much easier to wet yourself than poo yourself.

For people without medical conditions (vast majority of us), it's easy to hold in a poo. You can hold in a poo for a good few hours without it being dangerous.

Saniflow loos are hard work all round.

LBFseBrom · 18/05/2026 05:59

cariadlet · 18/05/2026 04:39

I've heard of cloakroom being used as a euphemism for downstairs toilets in estate agents' house descriptions but I have never heard the term in a RL conversation - I have only heard the room referred to as a toilet or loo.

Like others, my automatic reaction was very literal and I wondered why someone had pooed in the area used to hang coats. It took me a moment to stop and think and to realise that wasn't what the op meant.

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Same here.