AIBU to expect air freshener in toilets when visiting friends?

[HangryBrickShark]

Is there an expectation that people's toilets should have an air freshener in? Like a spray air freshener?

We always have air freshener in both our toilets in case friends or family get caught short when visiting us or even to freshen the bathroom after having a wee if necessary, so I hate it if I go to a friend/family members house and they have none.

I get some people may be affected by asthma but surely if you had asthma you wouldn't use it?

We have a glade air freshener at work that sprays into the space where the wash handbasins are for example.

YABVU

Not only does my dd have asthma (which you’ve accounted for) but they smell disgusting.

When there’s a bad smell, the last thing you want to do is try to mask it with a second smell, this one artificial and also horrible.

You need to open a window to get rid of smells in the bathroom, and put some toilet cleaner in the toilet.

I don't want airfreshner smell on my clothes...grim.
Open a window if you make a smell. But also maybe think about adding fibre to your diet. And drink more water. You poo and wee should not stink (obs anything not flushed will stink but hoping you flush!)

Air fresheners are toxic. So bad for your body and the environment.
Also, if you’re using one, you’re just bringing it to everyone’s attention that you’ve had a shit, no?

honestly the smell of air freshener and shit makes me ill. There’s no covering up that smell so let it be.

Eew, no. Air fresheners smell disgusting and they don't actually disguise any unpleasant smells - they just mix together like shit and chemical flowers. Literally. So gross. That's why I'd never live in a home that has no bathroom windows. The only way to make a bathroom smell nice is by airing it out with fresh air.

I loathe spray air fresheners, they smell revolting and you get a horrible combo of shit + fake flowers. Open a window, squirt some bleach down the loo if you’ve had a shit, that should do it. Failing that a box of matches as PP said

I don't think I've ever had air freshener in any of my bathrooms. I have loo cleaner gel, loo brushes, and the windows are almost permanently open.

Some aerosols get on my chest anyway, and I come from a long line of asthmatics, so I don't think they have air fresheners in their bathrooms, either.

I’m allergic to air freshener and perfumed products so there is no freshener but my bathroom window is always open a tiny bit.

New research is linking over use of fragrance products to various health issues. It will be the way of sweeteners, people will not care. They set off my sisters asthma.

I hate those bloody timed squirt ones in public loos.

I know. I’ve had this conversation with my daughter a hundred times as she doesn’t open the window after as it doesn’t smell. I send her back in!

As an aside I wish people wouldn't open my windows without telling me, because I don't think to check windows I haven't opened and then go out leaving them open which is not great from a security point of view!

You sound like my SIL, who panicked when staying at our house and started keeping body spray in the bathroom for this purpose. Air fresheners are vile. Just a load of carcinogens floating around your bathroom, settling on your kids’ towels, toothbrushes, your cat’s fur…

Bleach wouldn't remove specks or lumps of stuff though. It would just disinfect and whiten, wouldn't it?

If I open a window in someone else’s bathroom, I’d be too self-conscious to tell them because it’s a essentially letting them know you’ve had a shit (I know everyone shits but some of us are more private than others about such things!)

But what I would do is shut the window the next time I go in there, before leaving.

It does though. We bleach where necessary. Liberally. Then let it sit in the toilet overnight or while out at work.

Usually when you flush the next morning it washes away.

There is nothing more disgusting than lifting a toilet brush out of its base and there being a little puddle of water - whether that's clean or not. I literally want to retch when I see it.

I have also come across loo brushes where the user seems not to realise that after using it for a bit of a scrub, you then hold it under the flush deluge to rinse it off before putting it back into the pot! It should be free of faecal matter when it is returned to the pot, just as you rinse your toothbrush so it is free of paste before putting it away. A squirt of disinfectant in the loo before flushing will disinfect and clean the brush off to a reasonable degree.

Also they do need replacing, at least as often as a toothbrush: you don't buy one and keep it for life like a grandfather clock in the hallway!

They smell worse than anything a human can produce.

My coworker had bowel issues and the smell mixed with air fresher and bm was disgusting and gag inducing. It didn't mask the smell just mixed in a horrible way. It makes me cough, gag, loose my voice/clear throat constantly which was very awkward with clients. Artificial fragrances can contribute to causing cancer as well.

That horrible glade smell never left the bathroom whereas toilet smells tend to dissipate quickly. Yabvu.

😂
I know you like to think
your shit don’t stink
but lean a little bit closer
see roses really smell like poo ooo ooo!!

I have severe respiratory issues and a complex heart condition. I do not have anything like air freshener near my house. When I went into labour with my oldest, a family friend wanted to do something nice for me. She borrowed my house keys off my mum and hoovered, dusted, tidied away stuff (I went into labour during the afternoon and didn’t have a chance to clear up). As a final thing, rather than opening the windows and leaving them on the latch, she used Air Freshener everywhere.
I came home with my newborn and stepped into my house and started coughing. I turned around and asked my husband to open every window and door, because I couldn’t breathe. He actually had to go around with his jumper and tshirt pulled over his mouth, to open everything, even the loft hatch.
I spent the first 3 days after coming home with my mum, whilst I waited for it to actually dissipate. Not the lovely bonding time I expected.
It’s really vile stuff that can properly affect the lungs even if you don’t have respiratory conditions. It’s truly nasty and it always shocks me when I use a public loo and they spray that shit all over the toilets. Why do that, when the smell of poo only lingers if it’s unflushed?

Another one who really hates the smell of crappy air fresheners mixing with toilet smells and making it 10 times worse. Reed diffuser or candle or open window.

No air freshener and no toilet brush. I’m surprised my guests keep on coming 😂

Why would air freshener be less embarrassing. People will still know you’ve been… It’s not a more pleasant smell anyway.

No we don't because they trigger my cluster headaches, i'd rather smell shit 24/7 every day for the rest of my life than have another one 🤣

Air fresheners are toxic and an environmental scourge. They also exude the most awful, sickly synthetic smell which doesn't even mask the original smell. In fact it makes it even more obnoxious.

With all the 'bog brush' talk I have to add, I started a thread a couple of years ago about a lodger I had leaving the loo pebble-dashed and was absolutely annihilated for NOT having a loo brush! I do have one now, but if I am totally honest I am not sure of how to operate it. I've learned a few methods from this thread!

I hate going into a loo where there’s no open window or way of it smelling fresh.
Whilst air freshener isn’t great it is far better than some of the scents in the toilet cubicles at work.