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Vomit Survey (Idle Curiosity)

103 replies

BeanQuisine · 21/11/2025 09:11

When you're at home and need to vomit, and have enough time to get to a suitable place, what do you choose?

a) Lavatory
b) Bathroom sink
c) Kitchen sink
d) Laundry sink
e) Bucket
f) Garden
g) Neighbour's garden
h) Other

I use the big laundry sink. Its ample size and convenient height make it much more comfortable than crouching over a toilet bowl.

But I realise this may be Australia-centric as many British homes don't have laundry sinks.

OP posts:
BeanQuisine · 21/11/2025 09:59

TheeNotoriousPIG · 21/11/2025 09:52

My personal preference would be the loo, because then it can be flushed away, with minimal cleaning up to do afterwards, when I am feeling rotten! I have been forced to vomit in the bath once, during a D&V illness (fortunately, the loo is right next to the bath, so i just had to lean over!), which was a bit messy, and I didn't enjoy picking it out of the plughole. If I am feeling sick in bed, then I have a washing-up bowl for that purpose. I have vomited in the garden once, and would cheerfully vomit in a certain neighbour's garden, just to annoy him. (He likes to make our lives hell at times...).

What's a laundry sink for, OP? I haven't come across this concept before! I'm just wondering if I need one to add to my house's to-do list, despite being in the UK 😁

Laundry sinks here are very large large stainless steel sinks with cupboards underneath, that normally live next to the washing machine. They are mainly for hand-washing naice clothes that are too delicate for the machine.

OP posts:
Tillow4ever · 21/11/2025 10:01

Justlostmybagel · 21/11/2025 09:25

The family popcorn bowl at home.

I carry a plastic carrier bag in my pocket for when I need to vomit out and about.

How often are you vomiting whist out and about you actually carry a bag around for it?

EuroTour · 21/11/2025 10:02

Loo or if I'm sitting on the loo, the bidet.

Justlostmybagel · 21/11/2025 10:03

Tillow4ever · 21/11/2025 10:01

How often are you vomiting whist out and about you actually carry a bag around for it?

At least a couple of times a week right now. First trimester woes and all that.

TheeNotoriousPIG · 21/11/2025 10:10

BeanQuisine · 21/11/2025 09:59

Laundry sinks here are very large large stainless steel sinks with cupboards underneath, that normally live next to the washing machine. They are mainly for hand-washing naice clothes that are too delicate for the machine.

Ah! That makes sense, but I'm not sure that I will be having one, as I avoid buying anything that can't go in a washing machine! It could be useful for soaking the tortoise sometimes, though. Note: this is not cruelty! It is advised for his breed, and he quite likes a warm bath to survey his kingdom from, or to supervise my cooking, in the hope of getting some extra snacks...

HappilyDivorced89 · 21/11/2025 10:11

Toilet more than likely

FlangeWobble · 21/11/2025 10:15

The loo. I can remember having a ticking off as a child for vomiting in a sink.

sueelleker · 21/11/2025 10:15

Toilet, unless I had problems at both ends. Then I'd sit on the toilet holding a bucket.

Strollingby · 21/11/2025 10:16

Used to be toilet but now I get intermittent vertigo attacks which cause sickness (have been diagnosed and have appropriate medication) so have collapsible buckets by the bed/chair/desk so I can stay comfortable....a couple of hours sitting on the toilet floor waiting to be able to move around safely isn't fun.
Travel sickness bags if out and about.

Legomania · 21/11/2025 10:17

a) though luckily not a regular occurrence (maybe once every 5 years).
Half of MN (pregnancy sickness excluded) seem to spend most of their time being sick/thinking about being sick!

Proudsaver · 21/11/2025 10:20

Also one who hasn’t been sick in about 30 years so I have no plan and don’t feel a need to make one. Thank god.

smallglassbottle · 21/11/2025 10:23

The Sick Bowl

BillieWiper · 21/11/2025 10:26

Obviously a toilet but if not possible then a bucket or basin. I do actually have a designated sick bowl just in case of such occasions.

Who would go in the garden? I guess it's better than the carpet!

Not heard of a laundry sink but I wouldn't puke into any sick if I could avoid it as it might block it up?

PiccadillyPurple · 21/11/2025 10:36

In this order:

Toilet
Sink (bathroom)
Sink (other)
Any non-absorbent surface

Wonderknicks · 21/11/2025 10:39

I've probably vomited 10 times in my life (I'm over 60) so I don't have a plan!

Hadalifeonce · 21/11/2025 10:41

Very unreal situation on holiday last winter... Seriously bad food poisoning, luckily bathroom was so small I could throw up in the toilet with my rear in the shower!!!!!!

ladycardamom · 21/11/2025 10:53

Toilet! Or an emesis bag! I'm Aussie and would never consider the laundry sink! You'd need to push the chunks down! Emesis bag is good for containing the virus droplets to prevent spread though.

Crunchymum · 21/11/2025 11:02

Justlostmybagel · 21/11/2025 09:25

The family popcorn bowl at home.

I carry a plastic carrier bag in my pocket for when I need to vomit out and about.

You still use it for popcorn after it became a designated vomit bowl?

We have a couple of washing up basins that live in the bathroom for illness and one particularly grim Noro outbreak (3 out of 5 of us were puking) we resorted to the mop bucket as well. Ideally of course it would be the toilet but I still have relatively young children.

Justlostmybagel · 21/11/2025 11:10

Crunchymum · 21/11/2025 11:02

You still use it for popcorn after it became a designated vomit bowl?

We have a couple of washing up basins that live in the bathroom for illness and one particularly grim Noro outbreak (3 out of 5 of us were puking) we resorted to the mop bucket as well. Ideally of course it would be the toilet but I still have relatively young children.

Yes, we do. It's stainless steel so I might think twice if it was a more porous material.

TomatoSandwiches · 21/11/2025 11:15

I vomit quite regularly and I always use the bins in either the bathroom or kitchen, toilets make me feel ever more sick for some reason.
I take a large tie handle sandwich bag padded on the bottom with a few kitchen paper towels in my bag when out.

StruggleFlourish · 21/11/2025 12:03

Oh, what a fun thread!
I puke a lot actually.
Lots and lots of experience with that.

Aside from stomach viruses that I used to get as a kid, and very very occasionally a norovirus as an adult, I had a real problem with puking in my teens and early twenties that no, it was not bulimia related, it was migraine related.
When the migraines triggered, so that the vomiting.
Yes I was under doctors care, and thankfully I finally grew out of migraines.

I also vomited a lot the first day of my period. That was a terrible day. Despite keeping track on a calendar, I never knew exactly what day the first day was going to be and heaven help me if it was a school day or work day or anything else that I had planned to do because I usually lost the entire day. Yes I had problems. No I didn't get them sorted until I was in my early twenties because my doctor seems to think there was nothing wrong with a woman getting sick even that sick, on her period especially if it was only for one day. (Yes I know that was wrong, I knew it was wrong then too. But I didn't have a lot of options because you can't just switch doctors that easily)
Oh that first day... I could start a thread just about that.
But let's just say vomiting was part of the package. Thankfully for the most part, I've learned enough tips over the past 36 or so years to know how to stop the terrible period problems in their tracks. (And yes, I've been for biopsies, ultrasounds pap smears etc, I have some cyst and fibroid issues)

Then of course there's drinking too much which I have done on occasion. That one I haven't grown out of, but it happens far less frequently than it used to.

Okay so back to the puke question. Well of course, in an emergency you puke wherever you can but you said that if you're at home and if you have the opportunity to choose.
More often than not, I am feeling so awful that wherever I have made myself comfortable is where I want to stay. So a very large bowl or bucket is my preferred vessel. Because if I'm very comfortable in bed with multiple hot water bottles positioned just in the right places, I don't want to have to get up.

Sometimes you feel like you want to puke or you have to puke but to puke just won't come, and you feel like jeez if I could only puke, I think I feel so much better. That's usually when I will go to the toilet. There's something about the harsh sensory reality of kneeling on a cold floor hugging a cold bowl with your face hovering above that helps to bring on a puke. And of course, there's always the convenience of flush and done. And if you've got a fever at the same time, it is a relief to lay out on the cold bathroom floor for a while until you start to shiver and then you need to crawl back to the bed to try to warm up.

Other places I've puked in the last year aside from bucket, bowl or toilet include coffee cup, hard hat, empty fish bowl and out the car window.
Thank you for the most interesting conversation topic
(Edited for a spelling error)

BeanQuisine · 21/11/2025 12:27

StruggleFlourish · 21/11/2025 12:03

Oh, what a fun thread!
I puke a lot actually.
Lots and lots of experience with that.

Aside from stomach viruses that I used to get as a kid, and very very occasionally a norovirus as an adult, I had a real problem with puking in my teens and early twenties that no, it was not bulimia related, it was migraine related.
When the migraines triggered, so that the vomiting.
Yes I was under doctors care, and thankfully I finally grew out of migraines.

I also vomited a lot the first day of my period. That was a terrible day. Despite keeping track on a calendar, I never knew exactly what day the first day was going to be and heaven help me if it was a school day or work day or anything else that I had planned to do because I usually lost the entire day. Yes I had problems. No I didn't get them sorted until I was in my early twenties because my doctor seems to think there was nothing wrong with a woman getting sick even that sick, on her period especially if it was only for one day. (Yes I know that was wrong, I knew it was wrong then too. But I didn't have a lot of options because you can't just switch doctors that easily)
Oh that first day... I could start a thread just about that.
But let's just say vomiting was part of the package. Thankfully for the most part, I've learned enough tips over the past 36 or so years to know how to stop the terrible period problems in their tracks. (And yes, I've been for biopsies, ultrasounds pap smears etc, I have some cyst and fibroid issues)

Then of course there's drinking too much which I have done on occasion. That one I haven't grown out of, but it happens far less frequently than it used to.

Okay so back to the puke question. Well of course, in an emergency you puke wherever you can but you said that if you're at home and if you have the opportunity to choose.
More often than not, I am feeling so awful that wherever I have made myself comfortable is where I want to stay. So a very large bowl or bucket is my preferred vessel. Because if I'm very comfortable in bed with multiple hot water bottles positioned just in the right places, I don't want to have to get up.

Sometimes you feel like you want to puke or you have to puke but to puke just won't come, and you feel like jeez if I could only puke, I think I feel so much better. That's usually when I will go to the toilet. There's something about the harsh sensory reality of kneeling on a cold floor hugging a cold bowl with your face hovering above that helps to bring on a puke. And of course, there's always the convenience of flush and done. And if you've got a fever at the same time, it is a relief to lay out on the cold bathroom floor for a while until you start to shiver and then you need to crawl back to the bed to try to warm up.

Other places I've puked in the last year aside from bucket, bowl or toilet include coffee cup, hard hat, empty fish bowl and out the car window.
Thank you for the most interesting conversation topic
(Edited for a spelling error)

Edited

Thank you for a detailed and interesting reply, and I hope your vomiting adventures become less frequent with the passage of time.

And thank everyone else for taking part in what some may regard as a rather distasteful thread. 😊

OP posts:
ladycardamom · 21/11/2025 12:30

I saw a poor lady vomit into her handbag on a packed London bus once.

Tillow4ever · 21/11/2025 12:40

Justlostmybagel · 21/11/2025 10:03

At least a couple of times a week right now. First trimester woes and all that.

Ahhhh - congratulations and sorry about the sickness! That must suck to be that bad. I hope it clears up in the second trimester!

BeanQuisine · 21/11/2025 12:40

ladycardamom · 21/11/2025 12:30

I saw a poor lady vomit into her handbag on a packed London bus once.

That's a sad little scene.

But it reminds me of the time Charles Hawtrey (from the Carry On films) and his elderly mother were having lunch on set, and she absent-mindedly set fire to her handbag by dropping a lighted cigarette into it.

Joan Sims shouted: "Charlie, Charlie, your mother's handbag is on fire!", and he then casually put it out by pouring his cup of tea into the bag.

OP posts:
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