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?

For a moment I thought the OP actually had a toilet that fountains like the Yellowstone geyser!

Viruses and bacteria still get out via the gap between the seat and the lid when it's down so you aren't preventing them escaping, and of course the lid will be absolutely covered in them, I do hope you are disinfecting that after every guest visits, or are they also forced to clean that as well?

Your DH doesn't flush?!

Yuck.

Just because his standards are low doesn't mean your standards also have to be low... get rid.

If they're family then why can't you send them a link to one of the videos you're talking about and say, "Guys, please can you close the toilet lid before you flush the toilet in my house because if you flush with the lid up it sprays poo particles everywhere."

I mean, if you can't talk plainly with your own family, when can you?

I’m just surprised you have any visitors 😂

This, much like whether every person who touches your food outside your home has washed their hands properly (spoiler: they won't have) falls into the category of - if you don't think about it, it won't hurt you. Unless your guests have stomach bugs, your health is not at risk.

That's what I do every time I poo. Close lid, flush, lift lid to check, clean if necessary, lid down again.

The effects of an 'open' flush are massively exaggerated (for whatever reason).

Urine is sterile until it has been outside of the body for a long time and faeces are in water (that may have had a rimblock added). None of the products of the flush are pathogenic bacteria and the direction of the water is designed to take the lumps first before there is anything much to affect your breathable air.

I'm not saying take lungfuls but it's only by coming up against airborne and otherwise, stuff like this that our immune systems stand a chance.

When you drive anywhere, you are inhaling utter filth, dried up spit and dog poo and wee from pavements, agricultural airborne particles and etc etc. that's before you consider the skin cells and microbes from other people. This is why carpets weigh a tonne when you remove them compared to when they were freshly laid.

A toilet lid, up down or propped halfway with a dead tortoise will make zero difference to anything in your life in reality OP.

Not quite the point of the thread but if you close and then flush to you have to peep to make sure everything has gone down?
I increased my fibre intake dramatically a few months ago and now I find I sometimes have to double flush to ensure it has all gone.
Sorry that’s too much information.

Don’t worry about it. Most reasonable people will put the lid down before flushing, I myself could not do anything else.

but you cannot enforce this and the impact of them not doing so is minimal even if it gross and crass not to

So do you make sure you leave the seat up after using the toilet at any of your visitor's houses? Or should things only be left the way you found it if it follows your preferences?

How often have people been told not to flush when it’s just for a wee, to save water.

this really is the thread that just keeps on giving 😆😆

Do toilets really make that much spray? Do you have a very small bathroom?
Other than politely asking your guests to shut the lid, I can't see a way round it.

As a teen I had a boyfriend whose mum was like this. When it was clear I would be a regular guest, he mentioned it to me, just like my mum hates the toilet lid being up, any chance u can close it. Felt weird to me but I did as asked so maybe you can do that with regular visitors.

Unfortunately you are a cringe sign person! I don't care about flushing with the lid open. I think the vast majority of people don't!!

I can see you really care about this, and you have three options: no more guests (this would be a shame, guests are fun, we all love house parties, even open loo flushers), talk to them, or a sign.

Whichever way you choose, you are a bit of a neat freak and you just have to own it!!! Can you get one of your kids to make the sign or something? YANBU at all, it's your house, but this is why signs got invented, sorry!!! FWIW when I see one I do obey it, I think "this person cares enough to have a sign" so I respect it 😜

Ok so there’s videos - I’m sure there are videos of all kinds of germs. If you think like that you’ll never take public transport or go to a pub, or use a public loo.

Nobody’s died from using a bathroom where people flush with the lid open occasionally.

I say this as someone that puts the lid down. Because it makes sense to me but I’m never going to force others!

If you're doing up/talking about the downstairs loo, surely there's nothing in there to get sprayed!? I get it in small family bathrooms with toothbrushes and toothpaste and everyone's grooming stuff all over the shop. A downstairs loo, in my experience, has a loo, a sink,toilet roll, some soap and maybe a small towel. I don't think I'm actually bothered about any of this being sprayed, I barely use the downstairs loo and I regularly wipe it down/disinfect it and swap out the towel, it takes 2 mins because there's nothing in there.
Honestly, I think you're lucky if guests wash their hands properly, in my experience they do a quick rinse and then touch the door handles, sit at your kitchen table, get the milk out the fridge etc.... your FiLs wee is probably allll over your house, the downstairs loo is the absolute least of your worries. It's best not to think about it

Get a life

This is hilarious. I'm going to out myself as someone who DOES have a sign in the toilet saying 'please put the lid down'. It's accompanied by a picture of my cat, headfirst in the toilet and drinking out of the bowl .... that's why I don't want it left up.

It won't do the cat any harm at all, but as he then usually jumps on the worktop and drinks from the tap I'd rather he hadn't been in there first.
While you all recoil in horror, I have not had a stomach bug in years and enjoy excellent health. 😂 Animals are good for you.

Complete sympathy with OP. If somebody comes over as a one-off and leaves it up I don’t bother mentioning it (but quietly judge them). If it’s a regular or longer-term visitor, I ask them to put it down. Apart from the faecal plume issue and it being better feng shui, a friend of mine had a rat saunter out of her basement loo, so I’m happy to nag my visitors.

Imagine it as a sampler, in a cross stitch, framed! I’d do it then

We are all aware that every time we flush the loo we are apparently spraying ourselves, our toothbrushes, our facecloths etc with poo and wee. The problem is that this seems to have no adverse effect on us, so we carry on doing it. It is an unnecessary level of hygiene.
Which begs the question, why does it bother you? It has no effect on your life, whatsoever. It would be like standing alone in a field during lockdown with a mask on. Why?

Still alive and well after 46 years of not putting seat down.

you could install a toilet that goes down automatically. As you are having a new bathroom then tell people who are regular visitors that you have read some studies and going forward please can they put lid down.

There’s also Blackadder’s answer to this problem.

Mrs Pants: what about the privvies????
Blackadder: we have front wall fresh air orifices, combined with a gutter installation below
Mrs Pants: You mean you crap out of the window?
Blackadder: Yes.
Mrs Pants: in that case, we’ll definitely take the house. I can’t stand those dirty indoor things.

@MerelyPlaying I hope you remembered to put the sign “please close the lid” high enough, so that it’s not hidden by the lid when it’s open. That would be a basic mistake.

Plastic sheet the room and remove after.
Seriously though I work in water filtration and there is a fair bit of poop and urine already in your utility water. Where do you think all those sewage spills are going? 2024 hit a new record of 361 million hours of sewage discharged into rivers, reservoirs and the sea.
Easier not to have people in the house, they are not going to suddenly change their habits.