Author Topic: Is it rude to guests if you hide the plunger in your bathroom?  (Read 1708 times)

Pandorica

I think plungers are kinda gross and I don't think they need to be "immediately apparent" unless your toilet is one that gets clogged easily.  It's probably good if it's easy to find if there's an emergency, though.
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shadowfox79

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I can understand, as a person with IBS, why having them visible might be easier. I can still remember having a very awkward conversation with a hotel cleaner who simply could not grasp why I might want a toilet brush.
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DaDancingPsych

I don't know that it's rude to hide these, but I can see where it might be kind. Not to be crass, but I was taught that it was rude to go number 2 outside of the home. (I am now not convinced that this is true, especially for those with medical issues.) But if something happened in the bathroom, I would want the opportunity to clean-up and correct things. It avoids the awkward conversation of having to ask a host for such things.

I think that there is a compromise here. You could have a hidden storage spot, but pull the items out (more so the brush than the plunger) for gatherings. That would avoid the brush getting messy from daily use, but allow it to be available for guests. Or print a little sign that notes what that hidden door is. If you had an overnight guest, you could make it part of the house tour. I don't know that it would be rude to not do these, though.

Hanna

I can understand, as a person with IBS, why having them visible might be easier. I can still remember having a very awkward conversation with a hotel cleaner who simply could not grasp why I might want a toilet brush.

As an aside; if you are worried about this consider dropping a few strips of TP in the bowl before you go. Prevents the problem. 

I offices I visit in EU always have toilet brushes and sometimes have funny little signs in the bathroom telling people to use them!  I will try to find a picture I took of one and post it.
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TootsNYC

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It's not about looking at it so much as it is about cleaning it and cleaning around it, so "in plain sight" is not helpful for that goal. That's just something else to get dusty and pee-splattered.

I figure a label of some kind will probably work for the incredibly rare someone in my home. It's not an office with lots of strangers coming through. The sink cabinet is rightnextto the toilet, so they'd be looking in that area for the brush or plunger anyway.


DaDancingPsych

I figure a label of some kind will probably work for the incredibly rare someone in my home. It's not an office with lots of strangers coming through. The sink cabinet is rightnextto the toilet, so they'd be looking in that area for the brush or plunger anyway.

I think that this is a solid consideration. The only people who visit me are close family and friends. They would have no problem asking for whatever they need. I would probably be so proud of my hiding spot, that I would have told them a long time before they need it!
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TootsNYC

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I would probably be so proud of my hiding spot, that I would have told them a long time before they need it!

I was talking about this whole issue at the dinner table last night, and this is the point my daughter made: I'd be showing it off to everyone, so they'd all know about it anyway.
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bopper

I would take into account how often your toilet overflows and how often you have guests.  It may be your problem to clean up if the toilet overflows

Although people can keep in mind if the toilet is about to overflow, they can take off the top of the toilet and pull up the plunger so the bowl won't keep filling
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TootsNYC

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I have a feeling that nobody I know would think of that solution, LOL!

I've done it once in the past, but even I might forget nowadays.
At least the lid to my toilet tank is curved, so you can't set anything on it. That means you can always lift it up ina  hurry.

I should probably walk my kids through that kind of thing, prepare them for the real world.

oogyda

I have a feeling that nobody I know would think of that solution, LOL!

I've done it once in the past, but even I might forget nowadays.
At least the lid to my toilet tank is curved, so you can't set anything on it. That means you can always lift it up ina  hurry.

I should probably walk my kids through that kind of thing, prepare them for the real world.

Keep in mind that with all the new and improved technology, there are a few different kinds of "ball **** (floats)" nowadays.  In fact, it's been almost 20 years since we've had that kind.  Now we have the ones where the float is on the fill tube. 

You're better off showing them how to turn off water at the inlet valve.  It's pretty much the same no matter how new the toilet is. 

I'm editing to say....Never mind.  Show them both ways and expose them to different kinds of floats.  Let them learn about the inner workings of a very basic item that most of us have in our homes.  You can teach them (or they can learn on youtube) to change out the little $5 flapper themselves instead of spending $XXX to have a plumber come do it. 
« Last Edit: July 10, 2020, 02:05:02 pm by oogyda »
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Aleko

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I'm baffled by the notion that the plunger and the toilet brush are in any sense a pair that need to be placed together, like say salt and pepper grinders. They absolutely aren't.

The toilet brush is something that anyone who uses the toilet, whether resident or guest, may need in order to leave the bowl as they found it; which I think we're all agreed is a basic social duty. So it needs to be placed close to the toilet in plain sight; no guest should be obliged to hunt through cupboards or ask their hosts for it, both of which are embarrassing.

The plunger is a tool that would only be required if the toilet should malfunction. In most households this is thankfully a rare occurrence, so that it no more needs to be left out for the use of guests than a spanner, screwdriver or hammer! Anyone whose toilet does often get blocked needs to make up their minds whether they would rather have their guests try to unblock it themselves or come to them to report the problem. Having decided, put up a sign saying that unfortunately blocks do randomly happen (makes them feel it wasn't necessarily their fault, so they don't have to be embarrassed) and what they should do if one does, e.g. 'Try flushing twice more. If that doesn't clear it,  let us know / use the plunger below this notice'.
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jpcher

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A tiny bit off topic . . . my DD#1 hides her toilet paper. Why? Because her cat is fond of unrolling it from the holder.

When I visited her I went to the bathroom and saw the TP holder empty. I went back out and asked "Where do you keep your TP? It seems that you are out."

She laughed and brought me into the bathroom and showed me the sticker that she had on the side of the cabinet (next to the toilet) with an arrow pointing to a drawer saying "TP is in here."

I told her that "I actually like to check for TP before I sit down." She said "Oh, right. I didn't think of that." Then she put a sticker on the TP holder telling people where to look for the TP.


Toots -- I see absolutely nothing wrong with your dream bathroom. My plunger and toilet brush sit in the utility closet and I would prefer that guests quietly mention something to me instead of trying to take care of it themselves.
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Aleko

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My plunger and toilet brush sit in the utility closet and I would prefer that guests quietly mention something to me instead of trying to take care of it themselves.

Dealing with a blockage - yes, I totally get that you wouldn't want visitors trying to wrangle that. But if there's just a smear or two on the toilet bowl, you really don't trust them to brush it off, and prefer to force them to mutter shamefacedly in your ear that they've had to leave a mess on the bowl because they couldn't find the appropriate implement to remove it? That's just cruel. I mean that. It forces conscientious people into an embarrassing situation.
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OnyxBird

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My plunger and toilet brush sit in the utility closet and I would prefer that guests quietly mention something to me instead of trying to take care of it themselves.

Dealing with a blockage - yes, I totally get that you wouldn't want visitors trying to wrangle that. But if there's just a smear or two on the toilet bowl, you really don't trust them to brush it off, and prefer to force them to mutter shamefacedly in your ear that they've had to leave a mess on the bowl because they couldn't find the appropriate implement to remove it? That's just cruel. I mean that. It forces conscientious people into an embarrassing situation.

Um, I wonder if there's a difference in toilets at play here. I know that I encountered toilets in Germany (in private homes rather than public facilities) that had a very different shape to the bowl compared to American toilets that made them much more prone to retaining smears that needed to be brushed away. (This is not just my perception, either. A host family I stayed with noted the difference and pointed out the toilet brush kept handy.) I suspect that the average flush volume of American toilets may be higher as well. I don't know how English toilets compare.

I'm honestly not even sure if we have a toilet brush in our house. It's not a tool we use to actually scrub our toilets, and needing it for "smears" has just never seemed to be an issue. We're not out to cruelly doom our guests to embarrassment by not displaying a toilet brush--it's just not an item we use and thus we don't keep one around. (We do have a plunger, but it's not kept in the bathroom.)
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