My husband thinks IABU for NOT allowing

[Nooneelseisallowedafergus]

Toilet brushes in the house.

I have a toilet duck one with disposable brushes which you flush after one use.
And strongly feel this is the only option for hygiene. I can't bear the thought of my toddler or baby getting their hands on a poo encrusted toilet brush, or god forbid coming anywhere near the poo water which is always to be found pooling in the bottom of the toilet brush holder.

In my opinion it is beyond minging to own them, especially if you have young children in the house.

My husband thinks I am an anal germ hater.

What say the wise users of Mumsnet?

[chandellina]

Wow, real obsession here. My one year old will reach for the brush but never pulls it out. She did eat her own faeces once but only had a little vomit the next day. I wish I were joking.

I also wish we'd just let a little more water run in the bowl here and then toilets would only need the regular deep clean not constant wiping out. This is simply not a problem in places where the bowl fills up high, and I wonder what is really worse for the environment.

[GiveMeSomeSpace]

The germs, the germs. Beware the germs!

echt "deluded obsession with hygeine". Yep. Deluded and hysterical

[Startail]

We have one because we have horrifically hard water and the lime scale has to be discouraged.

Horrid thing. my DMum certainly never had one.

[Delalakis]

Goodness, I and my brothers grew to my current ripe age despite being brought up around the dreaded loo brushes, likewise my children. Like someone said, the germ phobia round here is ludicrous. You can't live in a germ-free bubble for ever, and if you're too obsessive your children will never develop natural immunities.

[EvenIfYouSeeAPoppy]

cantspel

Also bemused at the horror of loo brushes on here. Ours is rinsed in the flushing loo, left to stand in loo cleaner and replaced regularly. Neither of my very active boys have ever played with it. Bogeyface makes a valid point - it seems environmentally less than ideal to use flushable loo brushes . (Must add, though, that I am a shoes-off-in-the-house person despite feeling perfectly comfortable with loo brushes ).

We keep our bathroom clean and are pretty hot on handwashing. That seems to work despite the malign presence of the loo brush lurking.

[hopkinette]

I love the loo-brush hatred on MN, I think it's one of the funniest things about this place. Imagine describing a bog-brush as "evil" - PMSL at that!

[EvenIfYouSeeAPoppy]

puts it mildly, I meant, of course.

[3monkeys3]

People are allowed to wear shoes in my house and we have the disposable loo brush thing. Am I a Mumsnet anomaly?

[Nooneelseisallowedafergus]

Well, I hope none of you germ deniers work with the v young, sick or elderly.
Or indeed in a restaurant that I might visit.

[WorraLiberty]

Why doesn't your Husband just go out and buy one if he thinks YABU OP?

I've always had a loo brush. It doesn't have lumps of shit on it and in the 18yrs I've lived in this house, the countless number of toddlers who have been in my bathroom have never eaten it.

[EvenIfYouSeeAPoppy]

'Germ deniers'?



I've heard it all now.

[weblette]

I don't think so much deniers as realists.

[EverybodysSnowyEyed]

I caught DD cleaning DS' bum with the loo brush

Can't see why people are so hysterical about toilet brushes - you can clean them with bleach and they don't have to get pooey

The disposable brushes and quilted toilet paper are causing blockages in waste pipes. The other problem is people putting fat down the sink - you should pour into a pot and bin

I'm not sure bleach will get rid without a good scrub - any clever sciencey types about?

[monsterchild]

We can't use those disposables due to being on septic system, so its loo brush for us.

[cantspel]

I can go one worse than a loo brush.

i have a second hand loo brush in my upstairs loo. It was left by the previous owner when we moved in last year. it is a really nice loo brush so i bleached it and its rather nice holder and kept it. The whole loo was later ripped out and redone ( the 1970's burgundy was hurting my eyes everytime i took a pee) and i still kept the loo brush and holder as it matched everything i choose for my new loo.

[GiveMeSomeSpace]

Germ deniers fucking hilarious. This gets better and better

[Mia4]

As someone with IBS, I can tell you I've shared with some of my fellow IBS followers embarrassment when having an 'episode' at someone's house and a mad panic finding nothing to ensure the bowl and rim are thoroughly clean and my bad stomach hidden!

YANBU to hate but I absolutely abhor no brush of any kind, however it sounds like you have something someone like myself could use in place of a brush, disposable brushes? At least without having to do what a good friend once did and put hands into the clean water to 'mop up stains'. Thankfully never had to do myself but I'm sure it's a matter of time-urgh.

[chandellina]

Love the second hand one! Do I score gross points for not replacing my brushes in a year and a half? I have some spares but there's never a good time.

[PhallicGiraffe]

What a bizarre thread.

[AdoraBell]

I only have them because OH insists - I haven't told him I replace them as often as weekly sometimes, and he only grew up with them because his father insists on having. I put disinfectant in the bottom of the holder.

Maybe you could compromise, he gets to have the disgusting things as long they are thrown away and replaced with a new one after each use. See if that sounds like a workable solution. Off to throw up now, this has put me right off me dinner.

[HelenLynn]

It doesn't seem reasonable that We As A Society have begun to chuck lots of little brushes into the sewerage system rather than cope with owning an object that has come into contact with poo, but it seems harsh to lay the unreasonableness at the OP's individual feet for buying something legal that's been marketed to her and clearly makes her feel more comfortable.

You rinse your ordinary non-disposable loo brush in the flush and clean it like Bogeyface says, and you also pour away the water that's gathered in the bottom of the holder and give that a quick bleach too if it needs it. If any cleaning implement becomes "encrusted" with anything you can't remove, you obviously chuck it away and replace it rather than keep using it! You don't give your young children unsupervised access to the bathroom.

Unreasonable doesn't seem quite the right word, but it is definitely some way down a slippery slope of unnecessary squeamishness, expense and environmental shafting.

[CloudsAndTrees]

I am not a friend of the toilet brush. The duck things and bleach all the way in this house.

We are in a hard water area, but some lime lite sorts out any lime scale in the toilet.

[Nooneelseisallowedafergus]

I am off to bed now.
Goodnight to all, including those who own toilet brushes. You have made me smile.
I am anal. This is true. Now shoes off please and the disposable brushes are in the cupboard if you do a sticky one. Now would you like red, white or lager?

[cantspel]

chandellina my second hand loo brush and holder looks like original 1970's retro. The brush loos like it has been replaced but the holder could well be original.

[cantspel]

I NEED this loo brush

www.shinyshack.com/product.php?prid=215554&pn=Royal-Flush-Loo-Brush

It would look great in my downstairs loo