Poll: How Many People Flush The Toilet with The Lid down?

Who here cares about the faecal bacteria in the toilet that gets sprayed around the bathroom whenever the toilet is flushed with the lid open? do we flush our toilets lid-down or not? Do we even care?

I've always been somewhat of a (well not a clean-freak) but very germ-aware.

It all started when I had severe acne as a teen, where I became very strict on bacteria-triggered pimples and would wash my hands and bring sanitiser with me everywhere. Then, I worked briefly in healthcare as a dental assistant where I had to work with infection-control and cleaning procedures between patients.

Ever since, let's say I run a pretty tight ship around my apartment (e.g. alcohol spraying my phone whenever I get home because it is actually dirtier with bacteria than the average toilet seat).

P.S People also think that covid-19 can be spread through our poo which is nice and super disgusting
https://theconversation.com/we-dont-know-for-sure-if-coronav…

Poll Options

  • 558
    I flush with the lid down
  • 495
    I flush with the lid open
  • 16
    I don't even have a lid on my toilet

Comments

        • It is where you toss a salad 🥗

          • +1

            @kev98: With just your mouth

  • Didn't know of any other way tbh. Brought up that way.

  • +1

    I have flushed that way since a family member mentioned it about a decade ago due to cancer treatment.

    One way to realise how effective it is, is not to wash the inside-top of the lid for a couple of weeks while flushing with it closed. All that would have been scattered throughout the room.

  • -2

    I flush once a day before bed.

    If it's yellow, let it mellow.
    If it's brown, flush it down…in the evening.

    • +1

      Don't do that. Piss is slightly acidic and will destroy the glazing of the bowl over time, then it will look like shit all the time. Happened to us.

      • it will look like shit all the time

        HEYOOO!

  • I like to watch it go down.

  • forum reminds me some country today don't even use toilet

    • Which country doesn’t use some sort of toilet?

      • -2

        start with an 'l'

        • You don't have to cross our island to witness that,

  • I've always been paranoid of opening closed toilets in case there was a surprise!
    What's behind door number 1? …my mistake, it's a number 2!!!

  • +1

    I remember watching a MythBusters episode as a kid where they looked into something like this. They found that bacteria splashes up and becomes airborne when you flush with the lid open. Since that point I've been putting it down habitually. Also stops the typical housemate complaint - "who left the seat up?"

    • I mean, you could always just piss all over the toilet seat and leave it down?

  • what? no "i don't even flush the toilet" poll option?

    best of both worlds - i don't have to worry about germs flying up and i don't have to worry about touching the seat …

  • +2

    If there's any germs or bacteria in your waste. That means it's already in you.

    • Not really, things that go through you are never techinally inside of you, but simply travel in the middle of you through your inner skin also known as your intestine. It only gets inside of you if you absorb into your bloodstream via your lungs.

      • So people only get fat by inhaling food?

  • +3

    People who think they are "germ aware" tend to be the people who have enough knowledge about germs to stir some fear, but not enough to be rational. For instance, worried about toilet vapours when science shows time and time again that the real concerns are what your hands are touching during the day. Nobody is catching any disease from something that already came out of them, vapourized by their own toilet.

    For instance, you mention the phone is dirtier than the toilet seat… but that's basically because EVERYTHING is dirtier than the regularly-bleached toilet seat where your clean butt skin sits for a few minutes of the day.

    And it's hard to teach these people otherwise because poop has such a very powerful "yuck factor." Even published science is misleading. Phrases like "faecal coliforms" get thrown around to imply "poop bacteria" and people turn their nose up. But faecal coliforms are ubiquitous in society. They're everywhere. We know this. And we know the bathroom typically doesn't have enough to make you sick if you wash your hands.

    You're probably getting sick from the kitchen. Or childcare. Or your sniffly friend you hung out with for coffee. Or the person you're having relations with - directly or indirectly.

    • What about highly contagious Gastroenteritis?

      Airborne virus. Contaminated objects?

  • +1

    I've always flushed with the lid closed.
    I can't believe how many people flush with the lid open while they're stuck in tiny public restroom cubicles, at that point you're flushing other people's germs into the air too.

  • -1

    At home.

    Number2 yes close lid. Number 1 leave lid open, hold breathe and dash away.

    In a public cubicle. If it's really dirty before I use it, don't flush.

    • In a public cubicle. If it's really dirty before I use it, don't flush.

      Even for a number 2?!

    • If it's really dirty before I use it, don't flush.

      So if I visit your house, and your toilet is really dirty before, #2, and I shouldn't flush?

      Sounds considerate.

      • Depends if he has smeared his poo all over the handle and pissed on it too, plus some more random bodily fluids from others who have done the same.

  • My no.2s are usually so pasty. The process usually involves a good scrub after the first flush with the perpetually soggy bog brush, a few solid whacks of the brush on the inside of the bowl to release the big clods, and another flush to get rid of the remnants. Buggered if I'm gonna cycle the lid twice on top of it all.

  • +1

    I'm against lid down flushing. People shit all over the bowl, then close the lid and feel it is magically clean.

    Leave lid open, inspect the damage, clean if required.

    Not saying you can't do this with an interim lid close, but in my exp no one ever does.

  • Get a Toto tornado flush toilet - no spray!

    https://gb.toto.com/perfect-hygiene/en/tornado_flush.php

  • Where's the option of "I don't flush"?

  • Don't use toilet paper, unless living with someone.

  • dig a hole, do the do, cover it back up!

  • I have started doing poo's with the lid closed since COVID.
    Used a step drill bit to make a hole big enough for most poo through the lid
    if you do this BE SURE TO FILE THE EDGES DOWN AFTER
    I failed to do this, and with 3 kids under 4, had multiple disasters

  • I don't have a lid…

    https://www.tripsavvy.com/thmb/MtkMe9TqlETh4SrshLy8Fyv0Nc8=/4322x3242/smart/filters:no_upscale()/squat-toilet-asia-5a89f123119fa800373b15b0.jpg

  • +2

    So when you lift the lid next time, do you sterilise the undersurface or do you just sit down and lean back?

  • I'm sensitive to noise - and as my partner is often still asleep when I first use the toilet on arising in the morning, I tend to close the noise to reduce the noise - also helped a lot by the padded stick-on seat cover which absorbs a lot of the noise

    as for the aerosolisation of E.Coli - that's another reason

    and if I've done a good job - cor, look at that pile of jobby ! - then it's only polite to reduce the 'blow back' which tends to result when I then walk out of the bathroom and see she who reigns on my parade …

  • +1

    for those who close your lids while flushing, I have a question:

    do you open the lid again to check its been flushed properly and do you leave it opened or closed for the next person??

    • I check

    • I check and brush if required, then flush the brush clean as well (lid open), figuring most of the bad stuff has gone down the drain already. It's not a perfect system but it's where I'm at now.

  • We don't seem to have many environmentally conscious people on here, I'm a little disgusted tbh. Many of my friends run with "If it's yellow or hard and brown let it mellow, if it's soft or spray and brown flush it down".
    Be kind to your planet people!

  • Here is a question: how many to those that close the lid when flushing - to actually clean the toilet seat before use?

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