Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to expect a bin in the bathroom?

356 replies

IsabelleSE19 · 16/01/2017 13:30

Recently I've stayed with a very dear friend of mine and close family of DH's. Both households are very hospitable and I love visiting them. BUT. In neither case was there a bin in the bathroom, and in one of them there wasn't even one in the guest bedroom. AIBU not to want to put used cotton pads/buds and sanitary stuff back into my sponge bag, or cart it round the house in my hands looking for a bin?

OP posts:
Terramirabilis · 18/01/2017 19:56

My parents never had bathroom bins and it used to drive me up the wall. One of the first things I did when I moved out years ago was buy a bin for every room. Now the only room without a bin is my DS's because he's young enough that he'd go rooting through it.

jinuntonik · 19/01/2017 10:04

I live in a shared flat with shared dealing with bins and rubbish - so I'm affraid I flush. I have used bins in the past but helpful flat mates have processed the rubbish for putting out only for personal hygiene items to re-appear. The worst one was when my BF binned a used condom - only for it to appear on the front path to the house when a cat had a go at the black bag out for collection. My flatmates must have known it was mine because they were single and definitely don't have sex! I'm ashamed to say that now I even have to flush condoms and the wrappers - but my plan for a coil will make my sex life and period trash more environmentally friendly (cheaper too!).

LRDtheFeministDragon · 19/01/2017 10:10

WTF? Why would living in a shared flat make it ok to flush? That's even more selfish surely - everyone else will have to chip in when you block the pipes.

My mum is one of those with no bathroom bin, all the time I was a teenager. Hmm She also didn't like us going downstairs after bed, so she expected me to leave wrapped tampax in my (wicker) bedroom bin. Hmm Hmm Because apparently my dad found the idea of them in the bathroom to be 'upsetting'.

She has finally bowed to pressure, having acquired three daughters-in-law as well as me, and eventually ushered DP and me upstairs to proudly show us her new bin. Bless her.

Gileswithachainsaw · 19/01/2017 10:53

Presumably all these "men" who find evidence of periods upsetting have families?

Surely they then know how biology works?

Who gets upset at the idea of tampons? Would he allow then to be put in the shopping trolly or walk fifty paces behind incase someone sees them?

What do these men do if they split with their wife and have to have daughters stay over

MitchellMummy · 19/01/2017 12:37

My bathroom bin is inside cupboard under sink (no room elsewhere). So visitors wouldn't necessarily spot it. Having had my arm down the manhole recently to clear a drain I wouldn't relish the idea of picking out san. towels and used condoms (albeit I was wearing gloves!)

WashBasketsAreUs · 19/01/2017 13:20

Many, many years ago my mum had a "sanitary towel routine ". First of all, absolutely no sanitary stuff (and we're talking in the days of the sanitary belt with the pads being the thickness of the encyclopaedia Britannica ) was allowed to be on show-ever. Anything you carried in your bag had to be wrapped up with many layers to disguise it, just in case anyone saw it. Nothing on show or in the cupboards at home in case dad or brother saw it.
We had to wrap them in loo roll, then newspaper and then put them in a bag in the spin drier, pushed down to the bottom in case anyone saw them. Every now and then mum used to burn them in the incinerator in the garden (obviously when dad was at work/brother at school).
One day the spin drier broke and had to go to the spin drier mender. (You know where this is going, right? )
Anyway, mum sent it off but didn't realise there was still a bag of festering jam rags hidden in the bottom and it didn't twig that until some time later. She was mortified and couldn't look the chap in the face when he brought it back. What they must have thought I can't imagine but I can remember laughing (a lot! )

Rainbunny · 19/01/2017 17:56

Even if there is a bin in that bathroom where I'm staying as a guest I wouldn't put sanitary products in it, that's too grim IMO especially as many bathroom bins don't have a lid! I use my dog's biodegradable doggy poop bag for disposing of tampons, of course it still involves a discrete trip to the kitchen bin to dump it though... I have also been known to leave a roll of doggy pop bags in a visible place in the bathroom if we have guests staying and just hope that somehow the female guest divines the purpose of the doggy poop bag's presence lol...

Fluffyears · 19/01/2017 18:20

I grew up with a father who thought periods were dirty and shameful. If you mentioned it you got a sharpe glare an a warning as if you had just sworn.

Once I left a backing strip from a ST on the floor of bathroom be accident. My dad duly shouted my mother through to remove it saying 'what if her brother had seen that?' I started my periods at 13 my brother was 2 years older. He would've seen it andcrealise his sister was doing the exact thing every single woman does!

DesolateWaist · 19/01/2017 18:25

No bin in my bathroom as there simply isn't the room.
However I use completely reusable sanitary protection and I don't have friends round with enough frequency to worry about it.

Soubriquet · 19/01/2017 18:26

My dh couldn't care

He buys them for me happily, has seen me change them and will even put one in my knickers for me if I need him too

Gwenhwyfar · 19/01/2017 21:26

"I feel uneasy about putting purely a sliding bolt on the doors due to the children and the landlord would have a hissy fit about his doors being damaged/changed anyway."

Is it legal for a LL to refuse to let someone have a lock on their bathroom door? Shouldn't be. I hope you put a bolt on when the children get older, there's nothing worse than being constantly worried someone's going to walk in on you.

Gwenhwyfar · 19/01/2017 21:30

"If I had a bathroom bin, I'd have to go through it to remove toilet paper holders, recyclable plastic, glass containers, etc from the rubbish that could only go to landfill."

No, I take recyclable things straight to the relevant bin in the kitchen and leave mixed unrecyclables in the kitchen bin to be taken to the general waste bin later on.

I put food straight into the food bin so I don't know why you'd have to prise it off a cardboard box.

Gwenhwyfar · 19/01/2017 21:39

"Can't understand the logic of it someone apparently finding unacceptable and somewhat disgusting to take their own used pads away with them (nappy sacked) yet feel its perfecting acceptable to wrap a used pad in loo roll and leave it in for someone else to dispose of"

Where is used sanpro supposed to be? In a handbag or in a bin? In a bin of course. The person throwing the contents of the bathroom bin into a bigger bin does not have to touch the contents of the bathroom bin at all and can avert their eyes if you want. Bins are FOR waste products.

Gwenhwyfar · 19/01/2017 21:47

"Who gets upset at the idea of tampons? Would he allow then to be put in the shopping trolly or walk fifty paces behind incase someone sees them?"

A lot of older men are like this I'm afraid, one of the reasons why the advice to walk through someone else's house carrying used san pro to their kitchen bin is just not very realistic in some situations. You can be as open as you like, but if the host is horrified by periods, you might offend them a lot more than if you left something in the bathroom bin.

bonbonours · 19/01/2017 23:09

We don't have one either, we don't need one and just never occurred to us. Might need to change when the dds get to teenage I suppose.

But then we don't really have a normal bin either as we make hardly any rubbish that isn't recyclable/compostable. People must hate coming to stay with us. Luckily it doesn't happen much.

bonbonours · 19/01/2017 23:13

Gwenfa yes well I would never mix recyclables with sanpro but having a bin there gives other people a licence to throw anything they like in there.

Fluffyears · 19/01/2017 23:16

If you take the recyclable rubbish to the relevant bin (I assume outside of bathroom) why not all rubbish. Plus the faff of having another bin to remember to empty....nah I think I'll remain bin free I'm happy that way so why change.

GinAndSonic · 19/01/2017 23:20

I don't have periods on my birth control, but I have pads from regular up to nighttime size and tampons from regular to super extra plus and opaque bags for wrapping used ones on my toilet window sill. No bin as no room but the kitchen bin is just outside the bathroom.

I also almost never have guests at my house as I don't like having guests, amd my daughter is only 5. But I still have them because if I do have a mate around for gin and pizza for a couple of hours I wouldn't want them to be caught short or feel embarrassed.
When i go to friends houses we are all very open. Im really sad to hear that some women are so mean about a basic function of the female body that they would shame their daughters for daring tk menstruate

Gileswithachainsaw · 19/01/2017 23:20

He buys them for me happily, has seen me change them and will even put one in my knickers for me if I need him too

For all dps faults being embarrassed about buying tampons I thankfully is not one of them.

We have 2 dds. There is no way I'm never going out should one if them start their period while I'm gone. And the idea A father would be unable to buy their children sanitary towels is ridiculous.

Some of these stories are terrifying

MyWineTime · 19/01/2017 23:57

No bathroom bins in my house Grin

I don't need more bins - the main rubbish that comes out of the bathrooms are toilet roll tubes and shampoo bottles, all of which can be recycled so if I had bins, no-one would bother recycling.

I only allow 1 bin bag in the house too.

There are bins close enough to the bathrooms for anyone to be able to dispose of rubbish discretely.

I do think women need to take responsibility for their own sanitary products though. If there's a bin then fine, but if not you need to be able to cope with it. I use a mooncup now but in all the years I used disposables or washables, I carried little disposal bags or a cosmetic bag to store them before and after use.

viques · 20/01/2017 00:41

I have a bin in the bathroom, my bedroom and indeed every room in the house. except the kitchen. I hate kitchen bins.actually I lie, there is a bin in the kitchen but it is only for clean non smelly recycling.

I also have a radio in every room, even more essential IMO. My dreamhouse has Bose radio piped into every room.

ChristinaParsons · 20/01/2017 00:58

Not had a period for 20 years
Are people really this hung up about getting rid of evidence of normality?

OptimisticSix · 20/01/2017 01:09

I don't have a bin in my bathroom either and now I feel bad because I have experienced the awkwardness of where to dispose of tampons at friends houses but had forgotten now I am moon cupped...but I wouldn't want my friends to feel awkward coming here. Oh but I really don't want a bin... hmm. Will get rid of friends I think. Bin not needed Grin

NicknameUsed · 20/01/2017 07:41

How come so many of you use cotton buds? What do you use them for? Like faffalotty we don't use them either. DD doesn't wear make up and I don't need them for make up.

We never needed a bin in the bathroom until DD started her periods as our bedroom is right opposite and I just put any rubbish in our bin. I haven't had a period for years so there wasn't any sanpro waste.

In the days when I was still having periods I flushed them down the loo because the packet said they were flushable, and there was no awareness that you shouldn't.

n0ne · 20/01/2017 08:00

I use a moon cup but still have a bin in the bathroom, and it fills up pretty quick! Cotton buds, finished loo rolls, facial wipe pads, old toothbrushes, packaging... where do people put that stuff otherwise? There's also a bin in the bedroom, mainly for the tags cut off clothes or used tissues.

I was even thinking of installing a recycling bin in the bathroom as I hate throwing the plastic, glass and paper/card in the rubbish when it could be recycled.