Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

Original poster

Shut the toilet lid before you flush!!!

70 replies

ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 09:53

..or you will be sending a fine, invisible aerosol spray of faecal matter (etc!) high into the air, and it lands on your towels, toothbrushes () and in fact everything!

Saw it on TV the other night.. they used an ultra violet light to show up where the aerosol spray landed each time somebody flushed without shutting the lid. Blleeeuuughhhh...

I had read about this before so already shut the lid.. but am now making everyone obsessed about it..

Just imagine.... no.. don't! [puke emoticon]

OP posts:
Bethron · 31/10/2006 09:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

foxtRottingCorpse · 31/10/2006 09:55

ugh ugh ugh

Socci · 31/10/2006 09:55

Message withdrawn

peegeeweegeeWITCH · 31/10/2006 10:32

Urgh, it is my pet hate too!!! I am forever yelling 'shut the lid before you flush!!!' at anyone using our toilet... (I even found myself shouting it at MIl once as it has become such a habit...)

I am a huge fan of those decorating type programmes on TV and cringe when I see a jar of toothbrushes on the window sill right above the toilet or on the sink right next to the toilet...
(at least move it to the side of the sink furthest away from the loo.....)

I am very lucky in that my bathroom is relatively big, but I still have visions of everything covered in....... urgh, yuck...

DumbledoresGirl · 31/10/2006 10:34

You do need to be in contact with a certain amount of germs you know, in order to have an efficient immune system....

saintAugustine · 31/10/2006 10:34

we have seperate toilet
no wonder you lot wash your shitty towels three times a day

Original poster
ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 10:34

I keep the toothbrushes/paste etc shut in a cupboard. But there's still the towels etc... ugh...

OP posts:
southeastastra · 31/10/2006 10:35

yeah i'm with DumbledoresGirl it does seem slightly obsessive

saadia · 31/10/2006 10:37

I always shut it as I heard once that it's like the toilet sneezing at you if you don't.

KathyDCLXVI · 31/10/2006 10:39

Yeeuurgh, Saadia - that's just too vivid an image!

I always shut it. I am keen for me and dd to come in contact with lots of lovely germs (as you can see from the state of my house) but not from the toilet, and preferably not on our toothbrushes.

Original poster
ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 10:39

Germs yes, but I'm not sure any of us need microscopic amounts of faeces on our toothbrushes....

OP posts:
alligator · 31/10/2006 10:41

dunno if I was watching the same programme but on Mythbusters they showed that all the toothbrushes in the bathroom had fecal matter on them but so did the the ones that they kept in the kitchen as a control. the levels were on all the toothbrushes were so low as to not cause a problem.

ludalooOOOOO · 31/10/2006 10:41

uck a fi!! (its a welsh saying for something yuck)

thats gross!

southeastastra · 31/10/2006 10:41

you must all have incredibly runny poos

Original poster
ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 10:43

Saadia yes, it's JUST like the toilet sneezing.. this programme showed a slow-mo of the flush obviously with the right camera setting etc.. and it literally sprayed tiny bits of water (etc!) high and wide.

Actually I don't think it's at all obsessive to shut the toilet lid.. am really surprised that anyone has said that. I would have thought that it's merely something most people might forget to do until they leave the bathroom.. or at all.. and that once they think about the effect of not doing it, they would do it like a shot!

OP posts:
NOMurDErousPLUME · 31/10/2006 10:43

We have to shut the lid on the loos in this house because they all have quite a shallow bowl and a fierce flush. If you don't shut the lid, water (and the rest) actually spatters over the top (yuck). I go a bit mad when the kids and and DH don't do it, mainly because I'm the one that has the clean the sodding bathrooms....

Original poster
ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 10:45

But wouldn't it stand to reason that there would be a helluva lot more airborn feacal matter residing in a bathroom than a kitchen?? And toothbrishes too for the matter... [bewildered emoticon]

The poos don't need to be runny.. everything has fragmented microscopic airborn particles.. shutting the loo just minimuses those from poo that would otherwise have escaped

OP posts:
KathyDCLXVI · 31/10/2006 11:48

Ooh, v interesting about Mythbusters, Alligator.

(The other reason I always keep our toilet lids shut is that it has not yet occurred to my 17 month dd to throw anything in there, even though she loves throwing things in the bath or the bin. I am trying to preserve this state of innocence for as long as possible.)

jessicaandrebeccasmummy · 31/10/2006 11:50

another thing to add to my "insane" rituals

bovvered · 31/10/2006 11:52

Separate toilet - pmsl laughing at StA's post - shitty towels!!!

Original poster
ShinyHappyPurpleSeveredHeads · 31/10/2006 12:06

Just for the record JARM, I didn't call you insane or anything else on the other thread, sounds like I do nearly (or as!) much washing as you and I don't have OCD tendencies.. I was just commenting on how people shout LEAVE JARM ALONE when anyone says anything to you. I'm not sure why?! (And that was before you were called insane, which I think was tongue in cheek actually.. you are not alone in being critiscised on the washing thread...)

OP posts:
jessicaandrebeccasmummy · 31/10/2006 12:12

i know... i was jesting, it wasnt a dig- and this is truly something i am implementing with immediate effect.

as for people shouting to leave me alone - i havent asked anyone to! Im a big girl, i can look after myself!!!

DumbledoresGirl · 31/10/2006 12:27

Ok, let's put it this way. I never put the lid down before flushing the toilet and my toothbrushes are sitting by the sink in tooth mugs. I haven't been sick for 32 years and rarely have diarrhoea. My 4 children and dh are all healthy too.

Now I don't like the sound of faecal matter floating around the bathroom any more than you do, but it clearly isn't having a vast effect of any of us, is it?

It is like those facts about how many millions of bugs there are crawling around on the mattress and how there are millions more germs on the average dishcloth than there are on the average toilet seat (btw, ever thought how many more germs you must have trapped on your toilet seat and lid because you put the seat down when you flushed?!) It all sounds disgusting, but we mostly seem able to live healthily despite it.

skanger · 31/10/2006 12:33

hows this- we have raw sewage in our water system!

DrFrankenZooey · 31/10/2006 12:34

Yes, it makes you feel awful to think about it, but I mean does it make us ill? I don't think so. So it is just about being squeamish - well I can live with that.

Wouldn't leave my toothbrush on the toilet as I have seen in other people's houses though

Swipe left for the next trending thread