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.

Because we are not allowed to use matches in the building since someone was found to be lighting candles in their office.

I’m not pushing for anything tbh - I have my own battles to fight about a particular reasonable adjustment and I’m only in the office a few days a week.

I imagine if you have a ‘main home’ then I’m sure it is normal among your social circle to have lots of bathrooms

YANBU
We use a lovely natural room spray.

I always steer clear from products like Glade as they have nasty chemicals in them.

I get annoyed if there isn’t a toilet brush.

Fecal matter smells, even if it’s just tiny traces below the water line. A quick scrub and an extra flush takes care of smells, and in the time it takes to wash hands, they are gone.

Buy a mini air freshener spray from Home Bargains for 99p and pop it in your bag for future use. No need to stress, or to insist that friends provide an air freshener. I have an essential oils spray (not aerosol) in both bathrooms, 5 drops of orange and lime oil to 50mls water, it works perfectly and prevents embarrassment about unsavoury odours wafting around for the next person.

They never can. I grew in a house where the toilet was outside - luckily it wasn’t too far but I did lock myself out of the house in the middle of the night when I was about 6 or 7!

Is there a reason why your employer hasn't complied with building regulation requirements? It does seem odd particularly if in a modern in a work place facility used by multiple people that some kind of mechanical ventilation isn't installed to change the air.

It seems a terrible waste when people use loads of toilet paper for trying to hide the fact that a toilet is a toilet, and gets used by people needing to do the same standard toileting actions that all of us do.

Placing a wodge there to hide temporary stains, pre-loading the bog to muffle perfectly mundane splashing sounds, double-lining the entire seat before use because you're too squeamish to sit on it... just why do people do this?!

We don't even have a dishwasher, and we do all our washing up by hand - which would doubtless leave your typical MN open-mouthed in horror at the very idea that somebody in the developed world could survive this way!!

Spot the stealth boast!

It’s never occurred to me that one should be provided. In any event, the odd natural aroma here and there helps me to ground my chakras, and reminds me that we are, ultimately, only one step from the beasts.

I think it's only really women who often have hang-ups about the shame of being discovered as humans who sometimes need to poo and use a specifically purpose-designed cubicle in which to do it.

If a man needs a poo and there's a toilet nearby, it won't even enter his mind for a moment that it could be somehow viewed as bad to use it to poo in. If anybody who has chosen to enter a toilet room and is shocked to hear standard toilety noises coming from a toilet cubicle... well, that rather makes them the idiot, doesn't it? In fact, in men's public toilets, with urinals used most of the time, even being seen entering a cubicle means it's odds-on that he's planning to drop a steamer - and he wouldn't care less about that.

we have such that ground-breaking modern concept called "a window".

Which stays opened all year round (partially because privacy before you start moaning).

It's becoming more and more clear that the whole industry built around so-called air-fresheners - to delicately season your poo smells with a very faint top-note of fruits of the forest, that leaves you coughing and gasping for breath - is based on nothing more than social fear and anxiety, and the wish to convince people that they need this useless snake oil, rather than to provide consumers with a useful product that they actually need and will benefit from.

When the 'solution' to a 'problem' ends up causing people far, far more discomfort than the problem itself, it's probably time to dial back your thinking and ask a few logical questions. Which is actually worse, really: a poopy niff that makes you wrinkle your nose and comment "Ugh!" for a few moments, or something that has you spluttering, struggling to breathe and triggers an asthma attack in sufferers?

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(MN up to its usual techy glitches - posted the same comment twice)

I agree.
My attitude is that if I got to go I got to go and will use any toilet to do so.
I try to keep it as nice and pleasant for the next person, though. I don't see anything wrong with that. It's just good manners.

Even my dh who has no qualms about pooing in public feels a bit awkward about my relative whose downstairs loo is literally next to the dining room (no door in between dining room and toilet, of course the toilet itself has a door!).

I can't think of anybody who'd feel particularly happy about going for a poo with 20 dining guests within a few feet of them. It's a private act that needs a bit of privacy for most of us.
Yes I know some people have no choice.

He uses their upstairs bathroom.

I thinks it’s pretty normal nowadays to have more than one bathroom. Modern family living standards have changed and having more than one bathroom as well as a downstairs loo has become a normal expectation in family homes, particularly in newer or renovated properties.

Nobody is expecting you to pretend to be poor or 'struggling' - but the truth is that many people (like us) manage perfectly well with only one toilet and it doesn't mean we're on our uppers or living in slums.

It's just the nonchalant way of dropping in 'our main home' that brings to mind Hyacinth Bucket to many people's minds - or maybe memories of treasured Enid Blyton stories, where all normal families have a cook, housekeeper, governess and driver as a given!

It would be the same if it were a discussion about the hassles of finding time to deal with endless life admin, and somebody commenting that their butler seems to manage it all for them just fine!

Brilliant...I was going to say my grandad always used to shout "light a match" when we headed to the loo.

Genuine question: with all the 'just strike a match' suggestions, does nobody ever get a little concerned when they smell smoke coming from the toilet? Surely the risk of being in there and somebody smashes the door down and blasts you with a fire extinguisher is far worse than having left a bit of a pooey whiff in the place that everybody uses as standard when they need a poo?!

Also, how many people routinely carry a box of matches around with them these days? Even the ever-dwindling number of smokers mostly use a lighter now.

I don't know why so many people are obsessed with nasty synthetic chemical smells but some of us get migraines and itchy noses and tight chests with artificial scents and would actually prefer the smell of poo. You can't dictate what people use or not in their own house. I'd actually be fairly annoyed if a guest brought their own air freshener with them.

We have a spray air freshener in the toilet at work - its horrible though and basically signals when someone (who uses it) has had a poo because the sickly scent wafts down the corridor.
I prefer the open a window approach - I don't have an air freshener at home and haven't really given much thought to guests (or residents) toilet smells.