Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think it would be common courtesy and common sense to that? possibly tmi.

436 replies

someonestolemynick · 06/04/2016 19:24

To put a bin next to the toilet.

This makes me irrationally angry: My job involves going to people's houses. Normally I will be with them between a and 4 hours, so occasionally I will have to use their toilet.
Today I'm on my period and have quite heavy flow. I was on a longer job (3hrs) and bled through my tampon. I discovered that there was no von in the bathroom. Just to be clear. I try to avoid having to change my tampon in client's houses by changing in public loos, McDonald's or Starbucks and carry scented plastic bags with me tobwrap the offender in when I have to do it at someone's house.
So, anyway, i was in the very awkward position of having a soaked tampon and no way of getting rid of it. I was in charge of a very young child - so no way of nipping out to the bins or a pub (to use the loo) and ended up stemming the flow with toilet paper and going back to working with their dc for another hour.
I will not flush a tampon down the loo because I don't want to block the clients toilet.

So, aibu to ask you all to provide a bin for female visitors?

OP posts:
GraysAnalogy · 09/04/2016 03:44

Oh for fucks sake.

The rules at places of work are not relevant to ones home. Otherwise I'd be:

Putting all my waste tissue into an orange bag and sent off

Every sign of blood would be put into an orange bag an sent away

My period blooded sheets would be put into a red hazard bag and then a white laundry bag

Anything sharp including a plastic tag would be put into a yellow box

Any medications I dont want would be put into a purple

But you know what, I don't live in a hospital and don't have to live by those standards. If I did have regular periods, my waste would be going in the small bathroom bin. When I do have periods the waste goes in the outside bin. When I'm in someone's house I put it in tissue and put in a bin when I can.

I sure as hell managed in people's homes

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2016 09:19

I'm a bit surprised that some people don't make accommodations for people coming to their houses - trades people or not. I we or just as part of being a nice person. Everyone who comes to my house gets offered a drink.

I'm a nice person too, so I offer drinks - water, coffee, milk, wine, gin, vodka - I don't routinely have anything else, because it's my house, not a hotel.

I have a bathroom bin, but I'd rather you didn't put a used tampon in it, because I don't empty it that often. I'd understand if you made a mistake but on your next visit I'd ask you not to put tampons there again. As the nice person you are, I'd expect you to comply. You would be welcome to put your wrapped tampon in the rubbish in the kitchen, which is held in a carrier bag on the inside of a cupboard and thrown out daily. I wouldn't ask you what it was or inspect it after you'd gone.

If you couldn't bear to risk me seeing you dispose of rubbish, then you'd have to put it in your pocket and take it home.

LogicalThinking · 09/04/2016 09:56

mathanxiety yes I am talking about my house and why I don't want or need a bathroom bin. I have a general waste and recycling bins on each floor not far from the bathrooms. Extra bins discourage recycling.

zoelife111 · 09/04/2016 10:33

maths, no, it is a tissue, the one tissue we NEED to expel, because it is a biohazard, I am a pathologist.

AtiaoftheJulii · 09/04/2016 11:34

I'd understand if you made a mistake but on your next visit I'd ask you not to put tampons there again.

But how would you know? Why would you be checking through it, let alone be playing pass the parcel with the contents? "Ooh, some tissue - wonder what's in here?"

My downstairs toilet bin is very small, opaque, and has a lid. Whoever changes the toilet roll takes the tube away to be recycled. Upstairs bathroom has a bigger open bin, but toilet roll tubes and shampoo bottles don't get put in it, they tend to get chucked out into the landing to be taken downstairs to the recycling.

And as for the aesthetics of rubbish Grin rofl - I totally agree, the amount of times I've gone to throw something away in a kitchen bin, only to be faced with some old tea bags, or the bloody bit of paper out of a packet of meat - sooooo gross Grin

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2016 12:07

But how would you know? Why would you be checking through it, let alone be playing pass the parcel with the contents? "Ooh, some tissue - wonder what's in here?"

Because I'd smell it after a couple of days. Eccentric at it seems to you AtiaoftheJulii, I do sort the contents of my bathroom bin. It's not that I am a fetishist or a private investigator, but because I am a meticulous recycler.

My husband thinks I'm mad but I point out that we and the other people in the house, including visiting menstruating women, throw away recyclable items and I'd rather sort them than bagging them all up unseen and throwing them in the general rubbish. To me, that would be a waste.

Like I said: call me eccentric but it's my house; my rules.

All I ask is that they don't put anything likely to smell very strongly after a few days in my bathroom bin. That includes shit, tampons, bloody dressings apart from the odd plaster and food. I wouldn't eat in the loo, but seeing as OP and other posters want us to be accommodating, who am I to judge?

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2016 12:12

I am a pathologist.

Really zoelife111? I was thinking of something else beginning with 'pathologi...'

RufusTheReindeer · 09/04/2016 12:19

My loo is 9 steps away from my kitchen bin...i just checked because i have no life

Bog standard house, downstairs loo is tiny, but there isnt a bin in the bathroom either

I am a good hostess, offer everyone a drink, tradespeople can use the loo. Offer biscuits etc if they are there fir a long time

A bathroom bin in my house would not make my life easier

Original poster
someonestolemynick · 09/04/2016 12:32

I was just wondering why men's bodies don't expel the hazardous blood on a regular basis. Maybe a pathologist could shed some light on that.Grin

OP posts:
Schwabischeweihnachtskanne · 09/04/2016 12:47

On a tangent does everyone really carry a handbag? I own a couple but I have never got into the habit of carrying them, even when I try to remember to... generally just have a wallet and keys and phone are in my coat pocket... If I'm working in people's homes, as I do sometimes, I have a medium sized work rucksack full of text books and a laptop and other stuff... which it would be most odd to cart to the toilet with me...

I admit I didn't have a bathroom bin until my daughter reached an age when her friends might be having periods - at which point it occurred to me - d'oh! So now I have not only small lidded bins but spare sanitary protection etc. in the toilets - would not want to put a pre-teen or young teen girl in the hideously embarrassing position of not knowing how to dispose of sanitary protection, that would be plain mean unless it was an oversight.

Pipbin · 09/04/2016 13:32

I was just wondering why men's bodies don't expel the hazardous blood on a regular basis. Maybe a pathologist could shed some light on that.

Because men don't have a reproductive cycle.

LogicalThinking · 09/04/2016 13:58

I do always carry a handbag. I can't fit all the things I need with me in my pockets and things fall out of pockets too easily. In the days when I did use pads & tampons, I wouldn't have carried them in pockets. Tampons were too big and awkward to put in a pocket (with applicators).
Taking a coat into the toilet could be just as difficult. If you have to carry something discretely into the bathroom, then you should be able to carry something out again too.
And there are about 5 steps between my bathroom and nearest bin and you wouldn't have to go past anyone else to get to it unless they were literally waiting outside the door for you!

Original poster
someonestolemynick · 09/04/2016 13:58

Probably should have pre-faced my last post with "hilarous ironic point"...

OP posts:
Sparklingbrook · 09/04/2016 14:09

I tend to have a handbag with me when having a period. I suppose I could tuck a new tampon behind my ear and stroll proudly to the loo though. Grin

Schwabischeweihnachtskanne · 09/04/2016 16:43

I've been having periods every month (except for 3 pregnancies and subsequent breast feeding which suppressed them) for 30 years now (gulp) and I have never carried a handbag on any kind of regular basis, in fact I can not get myself into a routine of picking a bag up as I walk out the door (although I keep one in the car)... I do wear trousers with pockets and don't use applicator tampons... Am I a freak? Perhaps I don't want the answer to that, as I suspect I am too old to change and its too late to bother now!

Perhaps I should buy DD a handbag before she starts her periods, which could happen in the next few months if she is anything like me...

Pipbin · 09/04/2016 16:47

Sorry Someone, I missed the irony there.

itsbetterthanabox · 09/04/2016 18:02

Zoe what do you think you are going to catch from a wrapped and bagged tampon in a lined closed bin which is put out with all rubbish weekly?
A tampon that you never actually touch or even see?

StarlingMurmuration · 09/04/2016 18:59

She thinks she'll catch cooties.

AuntyElle · 09/04/2016 19:05

"maths, no, it is a tissue, the one tissue we NEED to expel, because it is a biohazard, I am a pathologist."

This is such a weird statement, zoelife111. Menstrual blood is not 'a tissue'. It is not expelled because it is a biohazard. An actual pathologist would never make such a strange and inaccurate statement.

FreeSpirit89 · 09/04/2016 19:26

I would never ever leave my pad or tampon in someone else's bin. I leave it in my handbag until I am home.

apple1992 · 09/04/2016 19:34

I did not know that you cannot flush tampons 😳

apple1992 · 09/04/2016 19:35

But putting a used tampon in my bag sounds really gross. Even is wrapped up. Would it smell? What if it somehow 'got out'?

I've recently converted to a mooncup so will no longer face this issue (thankfully).

CatchIt · 09/04/2016 19:44

Before moving to our current house I'd have said flush it, however we have a septic tank and have had terrible problems due to past owners flushing both tampons and baby wipes down the loo.

Now I always carry little nappy bags so that I can put them in the bin which I do at home now.

They can cause really bad problems further down the pipes if you do flush them so it's best to avoid doing so.

If you know you don't flush them, you should carry little bags to be able to dispose of them properly.

mathanxiety · 09/04/2016 20:15

I'd understand if you made a mistake but on your next visit I'd ask you not to put tampons there again.

It's not 'eccentric' to rummage through a bathroom bin in search of recyclables when you know someone besides you and your husband have used the bathroom, even brushing off the likelihood of encountering used plasters as you sift through. It's taking a good idea and running so far with it that you leave common sense far in your wake. And shaming a woman for leaving a tampon in a bin is horrible, lacking in all human feeling and in all sisterly feeling for your fellow women.

I would stop arguing with your husband on this one. He is right. You are putting your zeal for recycling ahead of every other appropriate consideration here, and there are plenty of other appropriate considerations.

limitedperiodonly · 09/04/2016 21:11

I'm not going to do to anyone, but if you're going to put a used tampon in my infrequently emptied bathroom bin, I'd appreciate a heads up.