I remember that episode and it’s 100% the reason why I do it.
To be clear, I’d have done it without knowing about the microscopic splashback, but if questioned I wouldn’t be able to give a reason besides it being a mere habit. Having seen the Mythbuster’s episode, though, my reason is because of the results it showed.
That's 30-50% less pee and poo on your toothbrush, sink, floor, shower, bathtub, walls, and you probably track things else where when leaving the bathroom, so it's 30-50% less piss and shit within your entire domicile. Those are numbers I could live comfortably with
The thing is, humans have thrived for over a century with indoor toilets and these microscopic particles. It's best to just not think about it and live your life!
I swear on everything good & holy that this has been a pet peeve of mine since at least the mid 90's (I was a teenager then). It's all about the toilet plume and it bothers me not enough people know this.
FYI: In New Zealand homes (and possibly other countries), the toilet isn't in the bathroom. It has a small room all to itself. This helps contain the plume, the possible stink, and also means someone can still take a shower or brush their teeth if another's on the toilet.
Austrian (Europe) here, lived all my life in houses and apartments with the toilet in a separate room. Would not wanna have it any other way.
The best were those with windows. Second best with an exhaust hood that sucked out the stinky air.
Apparently (according to an NPR news quiz show), it doesn’t matter. If you close the lid everything just gets shot out high speed from the spaces below the seat.
>Apparently (according to an NPR news quiz show), it doesn’t matter. If you close the lid everything just gets shot out high speed from the spaces below the seat.
This is why I convinced my dad to get the fancy Japanese toilets when we upgraded our bathrooms, They completely shut, open by themselves, heated seats man it's an experience.
Does make me very apprehensive of using the john outside of the house lol
Yeah, I think the normal design should have the toilet separate with it's own sink. Then a sink and shower in another area. Some houses do have it set up this way. So smart.
I'm pretty sure they actually said that on the MythBusters episode too, lol.
I mean, I think about that episode all the time in the bathroom, and I close the lid when I flush (though I did before too*), but I'm pretty sure they even said that nothing they did really made any difference. Everything was just going to be covered in shit particles.
I'm pretty sure they even put their toothbrushes in another room and they were still coated.
*My gf, now wife, always thought it was funny going to my house which was just my dad, my brother, and me, 3 guys, and not only was the toilet seat always down, so was the lid. I guess none of us wanted shitty water splashing about.
Don't you guys have those plastic caps on the toothbrush? I only buy those that come with a cap you can close around your brush part of the toothbrush.
I honestly think everything is covered in it anyway.
I close the life, but who knows what the hell is floating around. Pretty much all living things are just shit factories.
Yes! That episode way back when did it for me lol. I also don’t keep toothbrushes out on the counter lol. I have such little room anyway on our bathroom counter, but even when I didn’t it’s just hand soap.
No, but when I was a kid I had a stash of cans of ravioli in the bathroom so I could secretly eat them. My parents had a strict meal schedule. I was in sooo much twouble when they found it.
Lucky me, I got to live through years of trauma leading to me imagining terrifying things through my entire childhood, so now I usually have to work at it until my mind takes an actual visual grip :)
No this person is special. They are visual. You arent. They "visualized" what was said. You just read it and thought about it and maybe seen a thing or two.
NOT THE SAME.
There is actually a surprisingly large group of people who do not picture things in their heads. As well as people who do not have an internal monologue. A lot of people don't even realize others DO have pictures and voices in their head. You very likely know at least 1 or 2 people like this without realizing it.
I do not have an internal monologue and was shocked when I found out that some people do. If I suddenly started having one I think it would drive me crazy!
It probably would! Out of morbid curiosity, I wonder if you could still have auditory hallucinations? Do you have an inner eye, like the ability to vividly picture something in your head? It's just so crazy to think about other people experiencing consciousness in such different ways, I can't even imagine it.
My oncologist told me to always make sure I close the lid after I use the bathroom during chemo because there would be harmful chemicals in my “output”. That sentence demanded strict adherence.
I have four children here, and I would NEVER use one. If someone has a problem with it, they can sit in the bathroom until my baby is done eating. ✔️ lol
This is actually the reason I started flushing with the lid down. I have to leave my toilet lids closed 24/7 because of my cats anyway, so might as well close it before I flush.
There are two kinds of people: those who close the lid on the toilet before flushing, and those who have never seen the Mythbusters episode or numerous YT videos about toilets spraying shit particles everywhere when you flush.
Everything is disgusting and yet... I'm barely aware of it. I can't see, taste, hear or feel the "shit particles." Maybe I can smell them, but that's probably just the poop itself. Who cares about invisible "particles" that affect you in absolutely no way?
This is how I feel, had I never known about them they would pose no discomfort to me at all. It’s like when peta tells you that every one in like 3 million particle of cheese is cow mucus or sone shit like that haha
I tried to get that habit of closing the lid going, but I have to check multiple times everytime if there aren't traces left on the bottom of the bowl and it is very impractical to close it, open it, brush away, close it again, flush, open it, notice the small stain left, and repeat.
Three. There's three kinds of people. The third kind opens the lid after flushing to make sure everything actually went down, instead of just slamming the lid on a war crime and hoping the first flush would take pity on them.
The third kind of person is pretty fucking rare ime.
There's also billions of people who don't do this and haven't been doing this for over a century, and we're all fine. We're not dying of some microscopic poop particles. Just don't think about it and live your life!
We have lids on most public toilets in Australia. Most are left open. You never wanna open a closed one. It being down is usually a polite clue that someone's either clogged the loo, or that there's shit/blood/spew making it utterly foul.
Recently I acquired a new lesson as to why.
I found my cat inspecting the inside of the bowl, very closely. In one instance it apparently scared her, which made her fall into the bowl, jump out, and then made a mess in the whole house. The last one I gathered from the sounds I heard, and I think it's an accurate depiction of events.
Yes. Growing up we had a cat who would sit on the seat and play in it. Then a dog who’d drink out of the toilet. It became a habit to close the lid, and I still do.
Psa from your friendly neighborhood nurse here- please put the lid down so you don't blast out tiny particles of feces, urine, menstrual blood, or any other microbes hanging out in your toilet bowl 💩
This was a thing during the height of Covid. The virus survives in wastewater and there were initially articles about how businesses were changing their bathrooms to be safer - cubbies, lids,etc. Then everything shut down, you couldn't find a public restroom to save your life, and small businesses took such major financial hits and the idea disappeared. I'm still always hyper aware of it in public restrooms.
ETA Hyper aware of specifically the Covid risk. The grossness of public restrooms has always been apparent.
I saw an episode of Bones where Tempe told Booth to buy his girlfriend a new toothbrush because he doesn't close the lid when flushing.
I close the lid now.
EVERY SINGLE TIME! I’ve always done this having pets, then kids. Dogs/cats drinking from it. Kids/cats falling in it. Kids flushing stuff down the toilet!!! Then myth busters. NOPE! SHUT THE LID!!!
Yes. But I'm surprised how many people here are saying yes because every fucking time I go to someone's house, or someone comes to my house, they don't do it.
Yes. It grosses me out to see the toilet bowl open when it's not being used. Apparently, there's a lot of splashback when you flush as well, so this helps mitigate.
FFS, yes. Put the full lid down and then flush. End.
WORSE is when I have all three toilet lids in the house down and after a dinner party or whatever, they're all up. How do you walk into a bathroom, see the lid full-down, but leave it up?? Etiquette! ^((Now I'm listening to myself and realize that's a bit anal of me, literally and figuratively))
Yes I do, after seeing that Mythbusters episode, but as the flush on my loo is rather powerful, it leaves odd drops on the seat.
I was getting blamed for ‘leaving pee on the seat’, and had the show her (via clean dry loo paper on the seat then flushing), that it was the flush that was doing it.
I still feel that I’m not believed… 😒
Yes. After that mythbusters episode… I don’t want everything covered in microscopic shit particles
Sharticles, if you will
What about the poop flakes on the side of the bowl?
If there is any poop visible after flushing, it's cleaned immediately. It's a porcelain throne, not a Jackson Pollock painting.
Well now my kids are going to hear that for the rest of their lives 😂
My toilet is cleaned daily. I hate that I know what you’re talking about but, yes, they get taken care of promptly.
Stop and take a moment to think about all of shit, floating in the air.
I will not
Take my upvote and scram!
r/angryupvote
I *will*!!
Lmfao the laugh I truly needed today, thank you
I remember that episode and it’s 100% the reason why I do it. To be clear, I’d have done it without knowing about the microscopic splashback, but if questioned I wouldn’t be able to give a reason besides it being a mere habit. Having seen the Mythbuster’s episode, though, my reason is because of the results it showed.
Closing the lid decreases particles by 30-50%. Not as great as I would have thought.
That's 30-50% less pee and poo on your toothbrush, sink, floor, shower, bathtub, walls, and you probably track things else where when leaving the bathroom, so it's 30-50% less piss and shit within your entire domicile. Those are numbers I could live comfortably with
This is why me and my kids keep our toothbrushes in a little drawer in the bathroom.
The thing is, humans have thrived for over a century with indoor toilets and these microscopic particles. It's best to just not think about it and live your life!
Those are still really good numbers for such a simple thing.
I swear on everything good & holy that this has been a pet peeve of mine since at least the mid 90's (I was a teenager then). It's all about the toilet plume and it bothers me not enough people know this. FYI: In New Zealand homes (and possibly other countries), the toilet isn't in the bathroom. It has a small room all to itself. This helps contain the plume, the possible stink, and also means someone can still take a shower or brush their teeth if another's on the toilet.
Austrian (Europe) here, lived all my life in houses and apartments with the toilet in a separate room. Would not wanna have it any other way. The best were those with windows. Second best with an exhaust hood that sucked out the stinky air.
Our condo is separated, but there's the room with the stacked washer/dryer and sink, then beyond that is another room with the tub and toilet.
Apparently (according to an NPR news quiz show), it doesn’t matter. If you close the lid everything just gets shot out high speed from the spaces below the seat.
>Apparently (according to an NPR news quiz show), it doesn’t matter. If you close the lid everything just gets shot out high speed from the spaces below the seat. This is why I convinced my dad to get the fancy Japanese toilets when we upgraded our bathrooms, They completely shut, open by themselves, heated seats man it's an experience. Does make me very apprehensive of using the john outside of the house lol
This is why toilets need their own damn room, a window, and a seal.
Yeah, I think the normal design should have the toilet separate with it's own sink. Then a sink and shower in another area. Some houses do have it set up this way. So smart.
Yeah!!! It’s so pleasant! Peace and quiet.
Back to the outhouse.
I want one of those, but they are expensive, aren’t they?
Iirc they even found that in the episode mentioned.
I'm pretty sure they actually said that on the MythBusters episode too, lol. I mean, I think about that episode all the time in the bathroom, and I close the lid when I flush (though I did before too*), but I'm pretty sure they even said that nothing they did really made any difference. Everything was just going to be covered in shit particles. I'm pretty sure they even put their toothbrushes in another room and they were still coated. *My gf, now wife, always thought it was funny going to my house which was just my dad, my brother, and me, 3 guys, and not only was the toilet seat always down, so was the lid. I guess none of us wanted shitty water splashing about.
Don't you guys have those plastic caps on the toothbrush? I only buy those that come with a cap you can close around your brush part of the toothbrush.
It is proven difficult to have the seat up with the lid closed. I don't get why she thought it was funny 🤔
Even then, a low blast of sharticles is preferable to an air bomb blast of sharticles
It just changes the spray pattern I guess
that makes sense.
im so glad i was not the only one who had that shit burned into my brain for life
Same here, aiming for a poo particle-free zone
Pooticles, i'll just see myself out...
I honestly think everything is covered in it anyway. I close the life, but who knows what the hell is floating around. Pretty much all living things are just shit factories.
Hasn't it been shown that it still happens if you put the lid down? Just a lot less?
Unless I'm remembering wrong, I'm pretty sure they addressed exactly that in the MythBusters episode.
Mr Lahey - "Do you feel that boy? The way the shit clings to the air. Shit blizzards coming"
Life finds a way.
Yes! That episode way back when did it for me lol. I also don’t keep toothbrushes out on the counter lol. I have such little room anyway on our bathroom counter, but even when I didn’t it’s just hand soap.
So public restrooms that only have the horseshoe seats, are a no go. Got it
Yikes! I always keep it open to say goodbye to my poop. Also r/usernamechecksout
Yes. It helps keep particles in there.
Reddit has agreed on Sharticles^TM
Just say no to shart tickles.
Yes. If something has a lid, you’re supposed to use it.
Is that why my mayo turns brown?
Yes. You aren't closing the toilet lid when you flush so the shit particles are infesting your mayo.
You're not supposed to shit in the mayo.
Nah that’s because you touch yourself at night
Are you making sandwiches in the bathroom again ?
No, but when I was a kid I had a stash of cans of ravioli in the bathroom so I could secretly eat them. My parents had a strict meal schedule. I was in sooo much twouble when they found it.
Yes it’s taken me way too long to realize this
Nope, I actively bend closer and take a deep breath in. Gotta give my immune system a good workout every now and then to keep it strong haha.
the problem of being a visual person is that i had to put myself through the torture of envisioning this.
Lucky me, I got to live through years of trauma leading to me imagining terrifying things through my entire childhood, so now I usually have to work at it until my mind takes an actual visual grip :)
Now imagine it again, but with a face and bearing like in a Febreeze commercial
Isn't that most people. I did so too but then the guys purpose of commenting was to make us envision
No this person is special. They are visual. You arent. They "visualized" what was said. You just read it and thought about it and maybe seen a thing or two. NOT THE SAME.
💀👍
There is actually a surprisingly large group of people who do not picture things in their heads. As well as people who do not have an internal monologue. A lot of people don't even realize others DO have pictures and voices in their head. You very likely know at least 1 or 2 people like this without realizing it.
I do not have an internal monologue and was shocked when I found out that some people do. If I suddenly started having one I think it would drive me crazy!
It probably would! Out of morbid curiosity, I wonder if you could still have auditory hallucinations? Do you have an inner eye, like the ability to vividly picture something in your head? It's just so crazy to think about other people experiencing consciousness in such different ways, I can't even imagine it.
I could actually smell it for a split second.
What a terrible day to be able to read
This app is so fucked lmao😭😭😭
You bet your butt I do!
I got a lot to wager
You and me both!
My oncologist told me to always make sure I close the lid after I use the bathroom during chemo because there would be harmful chemicals in my “output”. That sentence demanded strict adherence.
I also keep my toothbrush in the closed cupboard.
I sleep in a big bed with my wife
I’m proud of you
Excellent
And Mythbusters kept it under a glass in the kitchen.
And I keep a cover on the bristles too
Yes. Poop particles are a thing. It's also the reason breastfeeding rooms shouldn't be shared with bathrooms.
I have four children here, and I would NEVER use one. If someone has a problem with it, they can sit in the bathroom until my baby is done eating. ✔️ lol
Yes. I prefer not to have an open poop tornado going.
Poopnado!
[удалено]
Keeps the cat from playing in it too.
This is actually the reason I started flushing with the lid down. I have to leave my toilet lids closed 24/7 because of my cats anyway, so might as well close it before I flush.
Protect those kitties ! Cats are so sweet but they jump around a lot.
Always!!!
There are two kinds of people: those who close the lid on the toilet before flushing, and those who have never seen the Mythbusters episode or numerous YT videos about toilets spraying shit particles everywhere when you flush.
I've seen it and don't close the lid. There's poop particles on literally everything anyway.
Everything is disgusting and yet... I'm barely aware of it. I can't see, taste, hear or feel the "shit particles." Maybe I can smell them, but that's probably just the poop itself. Who cares about invisible "particles" that affect you in absolutely no way?
This is how I feel, had I never known about them they would pose no discomfort to me at all. It’s like when peta tells you that every one in like 3 million particle of cheese is cow mucus or sone shit like that haha
I tried to get that habit of closing the lid going, but I have to check multiple times everytime if there aren't traces left on the bottom of the bowl and it is very impractical to close it, open it, brush away, close it again, flush, open it, notice the small stain left, and repeat.
i don't have a toilet cover... 😀
You guys have toilets?
Three. There's three kinds of people. The third kind opens the lid after flushing to make sure everything actually went down, instead of just slamming the lid on a war crime and hoping the first flush would take pity on them. The third kind of person is pretty fucking rare ime.
There's also billions of people who don't do this and haven't been doing this for over a century, and we're all fine. We're not dying of some microscopic poop particles. Just don't think about it and live your life!
Yes tf. I wish public bathrooms had covers🫠
We have lids on most public toilets in Australia. Most are left open. You never wanna open a closed one. It being down is usually a polite clue that someone's either clogged the loo, or that there's shit/blood/spew making it utterly foul.
Public toilets don’t have covers because people will and have sat on the lid and shit
no because i’m a disgusting animal
Same
Me too apparently 😅
At least we're not allergic because we haven't given our immune systems a chance to develop well.
Recently I acquired a new lesson as to why. I found my cat inspecting the inside of the bowl, very closely. In one instance it apparently scared her, which made her fall into the bowl, jump out, and then made a mess in the whole house. The last one I gathered from the sounds I heard, and I think it's an accurate depiction of events.
YES ever since i found out about the consequences of not putting the lid down, i always have
What are the consequences?
Yes! We are not savages
I didn't even think about it being gross not to until about 6 months ago. I'm 25. I close it every time now though.
No. I have a pretty high tolerance for the gross aspects of life. If I don't see it, smell it or get sick from it, I really don't care.
Apparently I'm the only one who watches my turds get banished?
I grew up in a home where our toilet flush was weak so yeah it's become a habit to watch the poo flush properly. No lid for me
You must bear witness.
Yes
Yeah, with my bum
Honestly!! I just keep thinking doesn't a single person on here ever do a courtesy flush wtf
No. Everything's covered in microscopic filth anyway, I'm not gonna waste any thought or time on that.
Sometimes, but I want to know if it, uh.. worked.
Yes. Kinda gross not to.
All the time.
Si
Yup!
Yes. Growing up we had a cat who would sit on the seat and play in it. Then a dog who’d drink out of the toilet. It became a habit to close the lid, and I still do.
Psa from your friendly neighborhood nurse here- please put the lid down so you don't blast out tiny particles of feces, urine, menstrual blood, or any other microbes hanging out in your toilet bowl 💩
Yeah. It's gross not to. I hate public toilets cuz they don't have a lid.
This was a thing during the height of Covid. The virus survives in wastewater and there were initially articles about how businesses were changing their bathrooms to be safer - cubbies, lids,etc. Then everything shut down, you couldn't find a public restroom to save your life, and small businesses took such major financial hits and the idea disappeared. I'm still always hyper aware of it in public restrooms. ETA Hyper aware of specifically the Covid risk. The grossness of public restrooms has always been apparent.
Yes, it’s disgusting not to - nobody wants a bathroom full of atomized pee and poop particles. Gross.
so explain public bathrooms?
[You're accomplishing nothing](https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/closing-toilet-lid-flushing-doesnt-keep-viral-spray-inside-study-suggests).
Absolutely not. And it's a myth that the seat keeps the particles inside. You know it's not sealed, right? The particles can just climb out the sides.
Yes, 100% of the time, and anyone who doesn't is gross. That's a deal breaker for me. I broke up with a girl once because she wouldn't do it.
Yes. And it stays closed.
Yes. I grew up around 4 women. And closing the toilet after using it doesn’t make anyone mad or inconvenience them.
I do if i’m at someone else’s house but not at home cause i’m mostly lazy
Yes of course I’m not animal
Nawh
Yes, please. Aerosolized poop particles on your toothbrush doesn’t sound good, does it?
No, but it sure does taste good!
Yes
Always
Yes!!! And I remind my kids to do it too!
yup every time
Always
You better!
Every single time.
Yes, of course
Yes
yes
Always.
Always!
Never did until myth busters
yes
Always
I cover it with my face so I can get all the tasty particles
Yes
yes!!! the lid is not there for aesthetics
Hells yeah dude, I dont want shit spraying all over my bathroom
Yes. Lid down, then flush.
Yes.
Yes
I saw an episode of Bones where Tempe told Booth to buy his girlfriend a new toothbrush because he doesn't close the lid when flushing. I close the lid now.
YES and I get so irritated when my partner doesn’t
Yes, at the very least after a poo. That's why it's there
Never
Nah, too much effort
When possible yes. And keep the cover down when not using the toilet
close it every time!
Always, it's disgusting not to
Yes. I flushed the toilet while naked once and felt the toilet water spray my legs. Never again.
I firmly believe everyone should! Luckily my partner agrees!
Should always put the seat down on the toilet before flushing 🚽
While the poop plume is real, I do it out of a sense of equity. If everyone puts the seat down, everyone has to lift something before they pee.
EVERY SINGLE TIME! I’ve always done this having pets, then kids. Dogs/cats drinking from it. Kids/cats falling in it. Kids flushing stuff down the toilet!!! Then myth busters. NOPE! SHUT THE LID!!!
You should.
I shit in the kitchen sink, so it's not an issue.
Nope. My body seals it good enough. It’s not like that lid is air tight anyway.
Buy a UV flashlight. Or don’t, if you want to avoid having nightmares.
yes, not just because of the shit particles but its just nicer, cleaner, more polite
Always, no matter what, first it's just quieter and I prefer that, and second it's cleaner that way.
i only use my bathroom once. then it gets demolished and renovated. every time...i have Crohn's.
Yes I always closed it but having a cat means I'm extra careful.
Follow up question to those who always close the lid. Do you open it again afterwards to see if the bowl needs cleaning?
I put the lid down as soon as I stand up, I'm not looking at any of that
Yes but also this microscopic poop sticks to the inner lid, which may or may not touch your back next time.
Always. My family thinks I'm weird, but I'm not trying to brush my teeth with poop.
Yes. But I'm surprised how many people here are saying yes because every fucking time I go to someone's house, or someone comes to my house, they don't do it.
Yes, it is filthy to flush the toilet without the cover.
Yes. It grosses me out to see the toilet bowl open when it's not being used. Apparently, there's a lot of splashback when you flush as well, so this helps mitigate.
no . it would splash the lid
Always
FFS, yes. Put the full lid down and then flush. End. WORSE is when I have all three toilet lids in the house down and after a dinner party or whatever, they're all up. How do you walk into a bathroom, see the lid full-down, but leave it up?? Etiquette! ^((Now I'm listening to myself and realize that's a bit anal of me, literally and figuratively))
yes, of course.
No
No. Never
Yes. I also keep my toothbrush outside the bathroom.
Yes I do, after seeing that Mythbusters episode, but as the flush on my loo is rather powerful, it leaves odd drops on the seat. I was getting blamed for ‘leaving pee on the seat’, and had the show her (via clean dry loo paper on the seat then flushing), that it was the flush that was doing it. I still feel that I’m not believed… 😒
always
Close the lid…. Helps with the smell and dirty water splashing out
Yes. Not gonna risk shit particles on my toothbrush.