closing toilet lid before flushing

[garlicandsapphires]

Big signs up in work loos to close the lid before flushing.
Does everybody do this?
Surely you need to see inside to make sure everything is gone, in which case you'd open, close to flush, open again to check, close again for the next person.
Do people really do this? on public loos? AIBU to not do it?

Close it, of course. Think it's bad manners not to. Plus (at home at least) it's the only place to sit in the bathroom - it's the default setting, if you will, to facilitate cutting my toe nails or supervising bathtime.

I do it but only as of the last few years. And it's only since I've had the kids that I've ever used antibac cleaning stuff. And ironically it's since all this that I've been unwell more often! So we obviously need some germs in our life 🤣

Always. The flush creates an aerosol of germs that spray up. Lid contains it.

My toothbrush is not even in the same room as the loo. Surely I am not the only one with a separate loo to the bathroom?

I am very much a slattern by MN standards but I always close the lid when flushing to reduce the spread of bacteria. If I’m concerned it might not all have gone then I lift it up again to check.

Always, always close the lid.

The wee and shit spray will go all over the inside of the lid instead. So after we've washed our hands we need to get a cloth wipe it , close it again and wash our hands again.

What a faff. No wonder so many of us succumb so easily to infections [not talking covid, obviously] . We don't find it easy to breeze through germs like we used to.

@choosername1234

Just use your toilet brush to swat the poo & wee particles back down

brilliant - or you could use a shoe (on no! - not shoes IN THE HOUSE).

Of course you close the lid! Do people NOT close the lid?! Why?!

YES!! Close it! FFS.

Gross.

@ShirleyPhallus

The new toilets which you have to close the lid to be able to flush, and then reach under the rim to open them when you go in - they really give me the heebie jeebies

Everyone I know does it with their shoe, especially at service stations! Those loos are vile!

Lid. Closed.

Agree with others that closing the lid and leaving….. just no.

And yes, if I find a closed seat in a public loo my spider senses tell me to beware.

Never shut the lid on the loo in my life. I should probably be dead

The hygiene advice on a Covid doc lasylt year was that bacteria from a toilet can go 30feet in micro droplets when you flush with the lid up. So yes, it needs to be closed before you flush .

I always swerve the closed toilet in public places, too many encounters with hidden nasty surprises and I'm happier to risk regularly updating my immune system with a general miasma than risking putting my hand directly in someone's neat bio-hazard.

Trying to live in an overly sanitised world is not healthy.

Despite horrors like owning toilet brushes, shoes making it past the threshold, 5 second rule for dropped food and not closing toilet lids, my DCs have very, very rarely had sickness bugs.

People were also bleaching their post last year, so I’m not sure cowering in case a blast of toilet contents hits you from 30ft is decent advice either.

I never do. I probably should but my loo is in its own room. No sink and toothbrushes nearby so not as crucial.

I hardly ever close the lid, and I hate it when visitors do so. I don't want to have to bend down (back problems) and lift up the lid you put down immediately after your piss/shit, before you washed your hands. So there.

but to be VERY honest with you, in public toilets I avoid touching the lid

I’ve never quite understood the squeamishness around touching things in public toilets. I’d avoid touching something visibly dirty, but since I am about to wash my hands anyway, I don’t see why touching the lid of the loo would be a huge issue.

If it were a slightly neglected public loo that I thought might not have soap then no, but in standard ones where there is always some soap, it’s fine.

@Firenight

My toothbrush is not even in the same room as the loo. Surely I am not the only one with a separate loo to the bathroom?

Nope, you're not.

Absolutely close the lid before flushing. 100%. The water is full of bacteria and it does spray. If you think there might be a skid, wait and open if you check.

I never do. In fact I find it really annoying when visitors leave the lid down and I have to put it up before using the loo.

It makes me blood boil when house guests don't put the lid down. They sure as hell found it down when they entered.

Had to say something to guests who were staying a week, and I'll be saying it again if it happens next time, my son's toothbrush is in the bathroom

Of course!! Otherwise you're spraying your own urine / faeces over yourself. Confused at why you'd want that?