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Replaced old toilet seat yesterday.............reassurances please

15 replies

worrybum · 21/04/2009 11:07

Admittedly I am a complete germaphobe and know that I live up to my name but this is bothering me quite a bit. We have been in the house we are in for about 18 months now. The bathroom is poorly ventilated and the bathroom suite must be about 15 years old and dated but serves it's purpose for now but yesterday one of the hollow casing covering the hinges on the toilet seat snapped so it needed replacing. Got dh to pick up a new seat on his way home from work. When we removed the old seat I can't believe what was underneath these hollow fittings and around the rubber supports. They were not accessable for cleaning but obviously years worth of grime had worked it's way inside and there was clumps of brown moist gunky stuff that was also around the srews/bolts that were removed.

To top it all off dh dropped one of the fittings on the floor which broke, hence brown gunky stuff over the floor. Armed with the bleach and hot water I cleaned the loo before fitting the new seat and then mopped the floor. Do you think I've done enough to kill any harmful bacteria that's been lurking and multiplying for years?

Feel quite anxious at the moment so I think my paranoia about germs is getting the better of me quite a lot. Usually am more in control, have had CBT in the past but then something like this happens and I have a bad spell.

OP posts:
fishie · 21/04/2009 11:15

it sounds as though you have done a thorough job. it will certainly be cleaner in there than it was too

i change loo seats every couple of years but i live with a man and a small boy and they do tend to miss occasionally.

schneebly · 21/04/2009 11:16

bleach kills just about everything going so I would try not to worry. I know it is hard if it is something which makes you anxious.

yappybluedog · 21/04/2009 11:17

well, the brown gunky stuff was probably dirt or rust

bleach & hot water will be more than enough to kill anything ( i speak as a microbiologist

I have a toilet seat that can detach so you clean the toilet properly

Don't know what CBT is sorry, but it sounds as if you need some help dealing with this

morningsun · 21/04/2009 11:18

The brown stuff was probably rust from the screws

JustCallMeGoat · 21/04/2009 11:18

gunk was most probably rust (thats what i tell myself). do you have an coping mechanisms from your cbt that you could use to help you with these situations?

Picante · 21/04/2009 11:19

Am loving your nickname... goes well with the thread!

ibbydibby · 21/04/2009 11:22

Did the same tihng myself last week (replace toilet seat that is). Also found disgusting brown gunky stuff, which I put down to a combination of rust and errrm wee (have 2 DSs with not brilliant aim).Some of this stuff has dripped down on to pale carpet and made yukky rusty stain. Looks awful but not a lot I can do about it until carpet is changed.

Sorry not a lot of knowledge here, just trying to be reassuring!

flightoftheeasterbunyip · 21/04/2009 11:24

YOU HAVE CARPET UNDER YOUR LOO???!!

yappybluedog · 21/04/2009 11:28

my dp wants carpet in the bathroom, to warm his poor little tootsies when he gets out of the shower

it's not going to happen

worrybum · 21/04/2009 11:29

looked like a paste of rust and dirt and water.

thanks for the reassurances. think this has made me realise how bad things have gotten lately. CBT techniques seem to have gone out the window, even imacting on dd and dh - I force them to wash their hands probably more often than they need to, don't like dd (9) sitting on the floor etc. Today i'm completely paranoid about what might still be lurking in the bathroom and whether I stepped in anything before mopping the floor and could now have spread it into the carpets around the house!!!

Picante 'worrybum' is what my bestfriends nicknamed me at school so i stuck with it. Sums me up to a t,not just the thread!

OP posts:
JustCallMeGoat · 21/04/2009 11:30

boak @ carpet. we had carpet in the bathroom when we moved in. it was removed.

ibbydibby · 21/04/2009 12:19

Yes, carpet in the loo. Sorry. Only moved in last April and have had more important things to consider - like replace central heating. After spending all of October, November and some of December freezing cold, it seemed better to spend our money (a fair bit) on the heating than new flooring.

Even now it is not on our list of Things To Do. It is ok-ish. Doesn't anyone else have a carpet in their loo? (it is a bathroom actually, does that make it any better?)

friedfish · 21/04/2009 20:40

Yes I've got carpet in my bathroom kindly put in by the previous owners, which my 7yr old daughter has been sick on twice so it's got to go as soon as possible. It's like a magnet for bodily functions!!

yappybluedog · 21/04/2009 20:56

when we moved in, we had to replace the carpet AND FLOORBOARDS because they were urine sodden

that's why you don't have carpet in the bathroom

sorry, worrybum, that's not going to help you

MargaretMountford · 21/04/2009 21:01

please don't worry - I promise you will come to no harm and it's all perfectly clean - I speak as someone with previous history of OCD and huge cleaning/germ fears...

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