To wonder why people/it’s considered normal to keep toothbrushes in bathrooms?

[Exemptfromcontent]

Why is it considered normal for toothbrushes to be left in bathrooms, near toilets, poo particles just flying around. Even if everyone guest and children/husband remembers to put the lid down before flushing.. it’s still somewhere where people poo, why keep something you put in your mouth in there?!

Our toothbrushes live in the kitchen, I just load up with toothpaste, brush, then spit out in the bathroom, rinse toothbrush and return it to the kitchen.

AIBU to think in hindsight, the bathroom is a really weird unhygienic place to keep toothbrushes or am I being a bit germaphobey 🤣

I think you don’t have much grasp of risk or science OP. Even if your brushes live on the cistern the chance of illness would be minuscule. You just don’t like the sound of this in some ill-defined way.

How does this work if your bathroom is nowhere near the kitchen

Kitchen....that's even worse!!!
Simple solution - go to the toilet, close the lid and oh wow, the germs stays inside the toilet!

Honestly I do wonder how come people cope in 2025

Has no one thought about the makeup brushes? Smearing poo over your face as well as brushing it into your teeth? Mine are all out but have wee covers for all airborne dust and debris. 'A peck of dirt' as the old saying goes.

My toothbrush is in my bathroom. My toilet isn't.

I wouldn't keep my toothbrush in the kitchen because kitchens are full of bacteria that will happily splash onto your toothbrush. Bacteria that is far worse than the possibility of poo particles (how would they end up on your toothbrush?!)

Salmonella, Listeria, Campolbachter and E-coli come to mind for starters. They can all result in requiring hospitalisation for severe infections and have a spray radius that would easily cover your toothbrushes...

Trust a toxicologist and mine keeps his toothbrush in the bathroom.

I’ve only ever heard this from one other person and that’s my sister who has pretty severe OCD!

This. Also the OP seems to live in a house with endless cupboards everywhere.

I can't wrap my head around keeping toothbrushes in the kitchen - we use them to scrub out old food from a bacteria-laden body cavity, and in my head they just don't belong in the kitchen. Also, I'm far more likely to have visitors in my kitchen than my bathrooms and (again, in my head) other people's toothbrushes aren't generally things people want to see. (Where do kitchen-toothbrush MNers keep them? In a cupboard? In a holder by the sink? I'm curious now!)

Mine live in the bathroom cabinets and we all close the loo lide when we flush, so they're about as safe as I can make them.

After reading a dental study showing that poo particles can spread up to six feet in a bathroom—confirmed by testing people’s toothbrushes—I decided to move my brushing routine to the kitchen.

I’m not a germaphobe by any means, but once I pictured Uncle Bob’s shit landing on my toothbrush, there was no going back.

Bonus: brushing in the kitchen is actually much more convenient in the mornings

Mine lives in my bedroom on my vanity table, I also don't like the thought of it being in the bathroom, it works out because that's where the charger is for it anyway

Yes but I doubt it would be passed on via a toothbrush

I do keep my toothbrush in the bathroom but it's inside the shower cubicle.

I've come across a lot of people who think it's revolting to brush your teeth in the shower and never understood why.

My toilet and bathroom are separate

It sounds to me like your household must either have serious digestive problems, or dodgy toilets, or both, if particles are regularly being sprayed round the bathroom.

Tooth brushes in kitchens sound properly grim to me…who wants something that’s been in a mouth lying around in a food preparation area? if I went to someone’s house and toothbrushes were lined up by the sink I’d politely decline and food or drink offered!

Also, have you considered the transfer of bacteria from uncooked chicken, which using your logic must be floating around the kitchen every time a pack is opened, to something you put in your mouth?

I mean.. every kitchen should have cupboards, and surely most houses have an airing cupboard on the landing? 🤣

Google is free. Everyone’s toilets splash poo particles around and the projectory of them is pretty wild.

No airing cupboard here, we have a combi boiler and have done for over 20 years.

We also always put the loo lid down before flushing and trained DD to do the same right from the start.

If you don't have a towel hanging in the bathroom what do you dry your hands on after using the loo?

No airing cupboards. Because no hot water tank. I’m shocked how little storage there is in some houses. Bedrooms so small there’s barely room for anything beyond the built in wardrobe, which isn’t that big. Tiny kitchens. I’ve a meter cupboard apart from built in wardrobes. I have no space for a chest of drawers. There’s barely room to walk round the bed in this bungalow. Sheds outside. My own house is better, but not much. It’s got 3 cellar rooms underneath. Cupboard under stairs and bigger bedrooms.

How very droll - well done you. Your use of the phrase 'pretty wild' is hyperbole really isn't it?

Most analysis has said 'up to 1.5 metres up and up to 1.8m sideways' , so unless you have a tiny bathroom with no extraction then there's not really a problem, Also, the phrase 'up to' is doing the heavy lifting I feel. A simple understanding of the aerosol effect and aerodynamics tells you that :)

However, simply closing the lid, as any civilised person does, and using a bathroom cabinet eliminates the issue

I keep ours in the closed bathroom cabinet. Does that pass the poo particle test?

Ours too. I think that’s common with older
houses and, in my view, has many advantages.

So you make everyone trek downstairs to get their toothbrushes to brush upstairs and then bring it down again?

I would think the bedroom would be better tbh.

We keep ours in a bathroom cabinet.

Anyway, it’s possible to be too clean. Bacteria is good. The more you meet, the stronger your immune systems. My loo is always containing bleach solution and I shut the lid. Apart from that, I clean every day as I was raised to, but I’m not losing sleep over a few germs. I’ve got 2 dogs bringing muck in every day just now, with the wet weather.
There are tribes that rarely wash, clean teeth with sticks sometimes, cook fresh killed meat over a campfire, sleep on the earth, don’t have toilets , but ‘give it to the earth’ unless some anthropologists or other scientists request a sample. They share food, passing a chunk of half raw animal from person to person, or biting into one end while someone else is eating at the other, eat from a common pot with their hands and drink from a hole they dug in the ground to find water , putting their heads down to the water. Chew food up and then give it to their children or whoever is beside them. Fruit is shared the same..passed around in one piece.
They have the most diverse gut microbiome on the planet. They are free from diabetes, colon cancer, colitis, Crohn’s disease, autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular diseases. They just don’t get them because of the diversity of the bacteria in their gut. We live longer. Our children are more likely to grow up. They live healthier…so long as they can avoid malaria and other transmitted diseases that we have vaccines for. If they had the medicines and facilities for injuries and infection and childbirth, they’d be better off than we are and they don’t give a thought to germs.

We should stop obsessing about all germs. Care in the kitchen and wash hands frequently.

My toothbrush lives practically next to the toilet as that's where the charger socket is.
I never close the toilet lid and don't plan to as I find that to be less hygienic - touching the toilet lid.vs not touching the toilet lid - I'll opt for the latter.
Haven't had a day off work sick in 8 years.