Forcing guests to close toilet lid before flushing

[MerryBlimminXmas]

In our house, we close the toilet lid before flushing. Reason being is that the poo/wee water spray will go absolutely everywhere if the lid is left open (lots of videos available online if anyone is interested).

The issue we have is that pretty much ALL guests don’t do this. Now, I don’t mind what people choose to do in their own homes and appreciate that the majority of the population are happy for everything in the vicinity of their loo to be covered in urine and faeces don’t bother to close the lid. However, I would much prefer it if they closed the lid before flushing in our house.

How can we make it happen? In a previous home, the flush button was literally behind the toilet lid, so it should have been easy to close the lid just to get to the button and people STILL left the lid up every time.

Don’t really want to put a sign up (would be annoying the majority of the time when we don’t have guests), nor to speak to people about it (cringe). Any ingenious ideas that could work? Surely we’re not the only people who prefer the lid closed - how have others made it work with guests?

I absolutely cannot for the life of me understand why Teflon don't diversify into making toilet pans.

They'd be bigger than Amazon and Google combined within a year.

...Or do neither...

I’d be quite shocked if a guest didn’t flush the loo tbh

Why not make a sign that reads as if it’s aimed at your kids, but only put it out when guests are due to stay.

I think you'll just have to let it go when having guests.Realistically, everyone gets through life without becoming ill from toilet water. You'll sound like you have serious OCD if you try and enforce this.

It says it has a hygienic handle. But omg, all those little nooks and crannies, it must be a magnet for germs. You would have to get down on your hands and knees with a Lakeland Plastics speciality brush to be sure you had captured every lurking microbe.

Guests are flushing the loo, OP just expects them to put the lid down before flushing but won't actually tell them this, or put up a sign, just expects them to be telepathic.
OP thinks that if they flush with the lid up that the whole bathroom will be covered in poo and wee spray...

I always think then people are putting down the lid with dirty hands, you're lifting it back up and putting your hands on your clothes, tk me that feels worse 😆 and like a PP I'm freakish about a lot of things cleaning wise

If ever there was an argument for the return of the laughing ‘React’ this is it but I suppose we now just have to make our amusement public ?

😂😂

I think you're overthinking slightly. You can't control what people do. You could ask them to put the seat down but that's going to make them feel awkward and unwelcome to use your bathroom. Just continue to put the seat down when you use it and clean your bathroom frequently as you do normally.

The US studies that have been quoted - don’t they assume US - sized bathrooms, ie bigger than the average British downstairs loo, which is barely wider than the toilet itself. I’m sure the spray mist up the walls (and onto the wall-hanging sink and hand towel) will be quite a bit more substantial with the lid up!

In any event, we also want it down for aesthetics - hate the way toilet looks with the lid up and, as PPs have said - that’s kind of the point of the lid isn’t it? And also as a safety measure in a house with animals and toddlers who can’t be trusted to not go toilet-diving / throwing stuff in the toilet on occasion. See above re guests also regularly leaving the toilet door open for no reason!

“I think you need to learn to relax a little.”

Most definitely this!

Your OP on this sounds paranoid. Bear in mind that the TV/online stuff re toilet flushing is usually published by people who want you to obsess over germs and spend lots of money on their ‘solution’.

The very idea that lidless flushing hurls wee and poo around the room is exaggeration in the extreme.

I think you’re extremely toilet controlling.
It really is nothing to do with you.
As long as the toilet is left tidy & clean anything ‘done’ in there is not your concern.
You may wish to seek some sort of professional help for your unwanted thoughts.

Another day, another Mumsnet thread of toilet squeamishness. This one hasn't come up as often as other toilet threads ("I don't want workmen using my toilet!").

I'm in the camp of "a few germs are good for your immune system". I never close the lid, and nor does anybody in my house. I do get annoyed by people who don't use the brush to wipe away poo smears above the water line, because otherwise they harden. And I don't care if Mumsnet hates toilet brushes! When I flush, I need to look in, so that I know how long to hold the button in until the contents disappear.

As for not liking looking in the toilet: there's a very old computer game where if you type "look in toilet" it says "I'd rather not, thanks". However, typing "close toilet lid" doesn't work.

As for @CatrionaBalfour 's suggestion to go in blindfolded, I've done that for wees in the night if I've forgotten to take my sleeping blindfold off. 😌Perhaps guests should only be allowed to use the toilet if they can do it blindfolded without splashing at all, it could make a good Crystal Maze game.

Or just pull it forward, flush and put it back again

This

I suspect that’s what guests did at our previous house, because they managed to flush the loo and leave the lid up, even though the flush button was behind the lid. It was a soft close as well, so they would have just needed to gently nudge it for it to close, rather than hold it all the way down. Couldn’t have been easier really and in fact they would have had to handle the lid twice to leave it up like they did!

We have a loo that has self closing lid-just goes slowly down when you get up. Is that an option?

I haven't RTFT because I lost the will to live in the middle so if someone else has already suggested it -apologies.

I sometimes have to flush halfway through for reasons I won't go into but I never feel a splash so I don't thinks its likely that plumes of spray go everywhere. I've also never noticed droplets on the loo seat after flushing. I have a modern toilet but I do remember years ago that there would be splashes of water on the seat sometimes that I would wipe off in case someone thought I had peed on the seat. You do know that water from our toilets is cleaned in the sewerage systems and put back in the water supply? I honestly think I couldn't get worked up about this.

You don't need to use a loo brush, just wipe the smear away with toilet paper and flush again. Then put some bleach down.

I’m not sure how self-closing could work without making times when the lid does need to be up difficult, eg when toilet is being cleaned or men are going for a wee. Wouldn’t want lid to start closing then!

What we need is a flush that only works when the lid is down. There’s been a couple of those options posted but nothing that’s just a normal toilet with that mechanism.

Hmmm! I think you just need to get over it!

I'm with you on this @MerryBlimminXmas. I like the suggestion of the Niagara sign. Get it laminated & just stick it up when people are visiting.

I wonder what all the naysayers think the lid is there for? To look pretty?!

Naysayers I challenge you to try this just one time: Close the lid, flush, then lift the lid & see if there are any water droplets. YMMV but there are loads on droplets afterwards on the inner lid at mine so it always gets closed when I flush.

What do you think is going to happen? That you're suddenly going to get very ill?? Or is it just the thought of it?

We used to live in barns with animal crap all over the floor and bathing once a month - our lives are so overly clean now and this is quite an extreme worry you have

Did you read my post about loos that only flush when the lid is down?

These were installed in all Moto service stations across England not long ago. They have now all been removed and replaced with loos that have only a seat (no lid.)

The reason is, I assume, that there is no evidence now of contamination by flushing (with no lid) but there was the additional hazard of having to lift the loo seat AND lid in order to a ) use it and b) flush it.

I hated using those loos because you had to get your hands right under the sides of the lid to lift it, then do the same to put it down (so it would flush.)
I always felt filthy after doing it, knowing that thousands of other people had touched the lid with (sometimes) dirty hands.