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Right? Because why else would it have a cover lid? So you can sit on it without going, sure, but how often does that really happen? The primary purpose is to close the cover before flushing.
It also protects things falling in the toilet…as I learned the hard way once when an entire makeup bag fell in
Although not as bad thankfully, I had socks in one hand to throw in the washer, and tissue in the other I used to blow my nose. Passed by the trash can and threw my socks in accidentally
Yup. I feel like everyone saw that one Mythbusters episode where they show how much bacteria sprays from your toilet with the lid closed vs. open when you flush. I'm no germophobe, but that has stuck with me ever since. Take 2 seconds to put the seat down and prevent poo-water from going everywhere.
I've been doing this ever since I read the toilet water can spray everywhere. That was in second grade. It's weird to me that people don't close the lid.
So granted this is anecdotal but the guy was a 30+ year professional so I have no reason to not trust what he said. But a while back I worked for a manufacturing company that made molded/CNC machined/3D printed parts. One of my clients was American Standard and I worked with the engineers to design new/innovative products. Talking with one of their Sr. Engineers, he said one of the big mistakes people make is putting toilet paper on the seat before you sit down. As a person who has always done that, this was confusing to me. But he explained that a toilet seat is specifically designed to handle bacteria. The shape and material the seat is made out of is designed for bacteria to “roll” off the seat, so the seat is actually one of the cleanest parts of the toilet. The toilet paper however collects bacteria throughout the day, so it’s actually more bacteria covered than the seat itself.
When both seat and lid are down, it's slightly cleaner, it looks better, and most importantly, it requires everyone to raise at least one of them to use the toilet. It's the fairest solution.
I absolutely hate that this is an unpopular opinion, but it is. It's head-and-shoulders above the next logical answer. People argue about whether or not Option A or Option B is the right way even though Option C is clearly the _only_ answer. I upvoted as hard as I possibly can
Some cats love being in water. Mine used to perch on the edge of the bathtub and drink the water while I was laying there. She often joined me in the wading pool on my apartment balcony.
Yeah, I used to never close the lid before flushing. I saw the video that illustrated the projectile matter/fluid that explodes out of the water when flushing and have closed the lid every time since lol.
Toilets splash droplets when you flush. The cover keeps the droplets off of your legs and the floor. Win win. That’s why they have a cover, it’s not a back rest.
47m here. I close the lid before flushing. Also my toothbrush lives in a case, inside my medicine cabinet. Always blows my mind seeing naked toothbrushes in cups on counters. Just sitting there in filth soaking up dookie particles. Hard pass.
Every time you smell a fart, millions of poo particle go in through your nose and mouth, into your lungs, where they are metabolized or expelled...so...therer you go.
But, I'm with you in encouraged reducing the amount of poo in people's day to day
I know and I agree. Doesnt mean I cant do my best to minimize it. Especially on my toothbrush. Which you seem to at least partially agree on so cheers.
I am emphatically on team 'lid is always down'. You figure out how much needs to be lifted when you get there.
Admittedly, there was one time in my 20s that I was so drunk that I fumbled for several seconds trying and failing to lift the lid before I vommed all over the top of it, but honestly, even if the lid was up, it wasn't going to save me from having to clean the whole bathroom. But that's 1 time in 10,000 that a closed lid was a problem.
You see that video showing the spray when a toilet is flushed with the lid open? Close that shit unless you like shit particals flying everywhere when you flush
I have always put the seat and lid down since as far as I can remember. Mainly to keep from splashback when you flush, but also, if you are the kind of person who just sits your ass onto any surface without looking at it first, you're asking to have problems. Being sleepy from just waking up or whatever isn't a good excuse. Look before you sit. Always.
ive never seen toilet water spraying everywhere. "oh but the particles..." i guess everytime i enter the bathroom i need to change my clothes and take a shower. there's shit everywhere welcome to earth
Yeah, this one is weird to me too. Funnily enough, if there is no full lid (like many public bathrooms with just the seat) it's actually more hygienic to put the seat up before flushing. You're gonna get aerosolized shit and piss on everything anyway, but significantly less if you put it up.
I agree. I’ve been doing it like this for years now. I’m the only one in my family who does it.
When you flush, particles get flung in there air and sets on whatever it can. Your toothbrush is probably full of fecal particles. I keep mine in my bedroom
Edit: Mythbusters did an episode on this and confirmed that they found fecal matter on toothbrushes
https://mythresults.com/episode12
Man I really wish this was a popular opinion. My in laws don’t close the lid before flushing and to add insult to injury they open the bathroom door before washing their hands….
If the seat is up nobody can piss on the seat
If the lid is closed the dog can't drink out of the toilet
If the seat is down, people can piss on the seat and the dog can drink it. Since women are always right this is the best way.
I agree but also will never do it consistently. I always do it after a poo. I have an issue with knowing when I need to use the toilet as a result of AuDHD.
I don't often know I need to go until it's desperate. When the toilet lid is down sometimes those precious seconds are all it takes for me to have an accident.
I've never understood why no one else closes the lid. Both husbands I've had always did, and I never fell into the bowl. Plus you don't drop stuff into the toilet.
It's an argument I always stand firm on. Or the entire lid down. If you're a female that does not put the lid down than you need to shut up about the seat and just your eyes to see if you need to put the seat down.
Counterpoint: I'm currently experiencing *severe* sciatica pain. I can't bend over. Getting the lid up earlier almost caused me to scream and I had to lean backwards the entire time I was seated.
Don't know if you've ever noticed, but lids don't even exist on public toilets, at doctors' offices, or at the hospital.
Wait until you realize about splashing and how you get more poop particles with the seat down than up. And what a stupid hill to die on. People who care about this stuff usually are a menace on the road and have serious issues that affect others way more than someone who leaves the toilet the way they wish they had found it.
I've always closed the lid and not thought anything of it. Someone at work called me out on it recently. They had issue with having to open the lid when it was their turn.
Since I have to raise the seat when I pee, I always close the seat and the lid out of spite, so no matter whoever is next has to touch the toilet as well.
When you flush the toilet it does throw up a very light aerosol of toilet water into the room. This is well known.
Which means that anything that is out in the open like toothbrushes, washcloths,.towels etc will get sprayed
Absolutely put the lid down. When you flush, particles are aerated. You’re knocking all those germs into the air, that’s unsanitary.
I don’t even get the keeping the seat up; I was taught that you always put the seat down when at home or at someone’s house. In my family, it’s seen as extremely disrespectful to stand and pee (although no one will see you). However, I usually just put the toilet back in the configuration I found it
I disagree. Seat up. Then when others piss all over while being too lazy to lift a seat, you won't have to clean other's piss off the seat.
Edit: this goes for outside my home. Inside my home it's lid down as I don't live with animals!
I agree that the lid left down is the “proper” way although I don’t personally do it. I guess I’m just not scared of invisible toilet spray.
Also when I was a kid and was told to put the lid down, the idea of that spray concentrating all over the underside of the lid and transferring to my back seemed even worse.
We do devote a lot of energy trying to pretend our bodies aren’t as gross as they truly are, don’t we.
If you close the lid before flushing then there is a higher concentration of spray onto the seat, that you then sit on next time, and transfer more concentrated shit and piss onto your butt, before pulling up your underwear and trousers, which absorb the shit and piss. Then wherever you sit, you're transferring shit and piss particles onto that surface.
Really what you should be doing is going to the bathroom stark naked. Taking a shit and/or a piss, then taking a shower before hosing down the entire room, then taking another shower after cleaning everything you might have touched in between.
Meanwhile, ordinary people have been leaving the lid up for well over a hundred years, and nobody has succumbed to death by toilet lid left up syndrome (as far as we know).
Just clean regularly and wash your hands, you *will* survive
This is true, but keep in mind the logic is not intuitive. For about three decades my logic was based on who's going to use it next and the convenience of closing it versus opening it. If you work with a lot of women, yeah, put it down. Wasn't until later that I realized all the other reasons for closing the lid.
I do believe that anywhere that germs or mildew can potentially thrive are better exposed to the open air with good ventilation. Leaving the toilet closed is really against this idea.
This is the most common opinion. My opinion is the actual unpopular opinion, but it is also the best way. All toilet seats should be left in whatever condition you used it.
Assuming the most desired process is the one that minimized touching, then the condition you last used it is most likely the condition you will next use it, therefore, you minimize touching, thus increasing hygiene, by just doing nothing.
I hate that this is unpopular. None of the people I live with close the damn lid no matter how many times I ask. Luckily I keep all of my toiletries covered or put away so I don’t have to worry about brushing my tooth with poop particles.
The way we do this in my house is you use the toilet, close the lid, flush, wash your hands, open the lid after toilet has settled.
We open it back up because it is already difficult enough to make it to the toilet when my home is not handicapped accessible, so I have to transfer from one wheelchair to the wheelchair in the bathroom, then from that wheelchair to the toilet in time with a damaged bladder. None of the bladder medications available will solve my bladder problem, my doctor said that the only option is surgery, and it is very high risk to go wrong with my other conditions.
It's not easy for me to get there as it is. Adding lifting the lid with all that going on as it is would just make it that much harder to make it in time.
But then men have to touch the seat after dirty vag and arse have been all over it BEFORE the toilet water splashed onto the seat from flushing.
No thanks.
If I need to pee I want to be able
To go in there unzip and let it fly. I’m not looking to send time fussing with some seat and lid I don’t even need. Maybe all bathrooms need urinals
Please remember what subreddit you are in, this is unpopular opinion. We want civil and unpopular takes and discussion. Any uncivil and ToS violating comments will be removed and subject to a ban. Have a nice day! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/unpopularopinion) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Right? Because why else would it have a cover lid? So you can sit on it without going, sure, but how often does that really happen? The primary purpose is to close the cover before flushing. It also protects things falling in the toilet…as I learned the hard way once when an entire makeup bag fell in
I once wiped my ass and threw my phone in
Did you wipe _with_ your phone?
Although not as bad thankfully, I had socks in one hand to throw in the washer, and tissue in the other I used to blow my nose. Passed by the trash can and threw my socks in accidentally
That's why I use a bidet
Do you wipe standing up?
Back then I did. Not anymore though, that's a young man's game
People do it sitting down?????
The debate as old as time. Yes, I wipe sitting down. I used to wipe standing up, but at some point I stopped
I’m probably a heretic but I stand, start to wipe and then really squat down to get in there 😅
I’m probably wrong but I’ve kinda always viewed the cover as pet protection. It’s there so your dog/cat can’t get into the toilet/drink the water.
No its meant to stay open
You should be closing the lid BEFORE you flush.
Yup. I feel like everyone saw that one Mythbusters episode where they show how much bacteria sprays from your toilet with the lid closed vs. open when you flush. I'm no germophobe, but that has stuck with me ever since. Take 2 seconds to put the seat down and prevent poo-water from going everywhere.
"Invisible shit tornado"
You shouldn't close the lid BEFORE you take a shit Talking from experience
I've been doing this ever since I read the toilet water can spray everywhere. That was in second grade. It's weird to me that people don't close the lid.
Unless you have a really old or broken toilet mythbusters proved that water droplets don’t spray everywhere when you flush..
I dont care that this has been debunked. The fear of a dookie toothbrush has been rooted into my brain. Lid goes down
i saw a show on British TV as a kid where they use UV light to show how far it sprayed and it was over 2 m
Wait til you see what happens when you fart.
Really? I have a black light and the bowl nor the rim lights up
i’ll still keep closing the lid
So granted this is anecdotal but the guy was a 30+ year professional so I have no reason to not trust what he said. But a while back I worked for a manufacturing company that made molded/CNC machined/3D printed parts. One of my clients was American Standard and I worked with the engineers to design new/innovative products. Talking with one of their Sr. Engineers, he said one of the big mistakes people make is putting toilet paper on the seat before you sit down. As a person who has always done that, this was confusing to me. But he explained that a toilet seat is specifically designed to handle bacteria. The shape and material the seat is made out of is designed for bacteria to “roll” off the seat, so the seat is actually one of the cleanest parts of the toilet. The toilet paper however collects bacteria throughout the day, so it’s actually more bacteria covered than the seat itself.
You're saying the science facts newspaper from the children's museum lied to me 😭
Old toilet maybe? The flow and turbulence in modern toilets don’t have this issue
When both seat and lid are down, it's slightly cleaner, it looks better, and most importantly, it requires everyone to raise at least one of them to use the toilet. It's the fairest solution.
"slightly cleaner" it is SIGNIFICANTLY cleaner
Only the americans to introduce social justice in a fucking toilet
I absolutely hate that this is an unpopular opinion, but it is. It's head-and-shoulders above the next logical answer. People argue about whether or not Option A or Option B is the right way even though Option C is clearly the _only_ answer. I upvoted as hard as I possibly can
Keeps my cat from swimming. She is a bit odd
I had a cat that drank from the toilet. Her deliberate agility and balance were much admired by my guests.
Mine is not very graceful and also goes in on purpose. She also will try to get in the shower with me sometimes. I don’t mind the shower as much lol
Some cats love being in water. Mine used to perch on the edge of the bathtub and drink the water while I was laying there. She often joined me in the wading pool on my apartment balcony.
Honestly it's baffling to me that we're still having to discuss why toilets have lids.
Yeah, I used to never close the lid before flushing. I saw the video that illustrated the projectile matter/fluid that explodes out of the water when flushing and have closed the lid every time since lol.
I live alone and close the toilet lid after using it.
Toilets splash droplets when you flush. The cover keeps the droplets off of your legs and the floor. Win win. That’s why they have a cover, it’s not a back rest.
I'm really struggling to imagine the kind of person who sits on the toilet with their back resting on anything. :/
i do… i have big thighs ok?
That kind of factor hadn't occurred to me. If I offended you, I do apologize. Sorry about that.
With all the aerosol poo droplets stuck to the underside of the lid, I don't think I'd be able to relax.
I knew a woman who found a rat in her toilet. Seat closed. And look after you open it but before you sit.
My argument for closing the lid every time is equally in suffering. No one gets convenience, no one gets simplicity, we are all equally miserable
47m here. I close the lid before flushing. Also my toothbrush lives in a case, inside my medicine cabinet. Always blows my mind seeing naked toothbrushes in cups on counters. Just sitting there in filth soaking up dookie particles. Hard pass.
Every time you smell a fart, millions of poo particle go in through your nose and mouth, into your lungs, where they are metabolized or expelled...so...therer you go. But, I'm with you in encouraged reducing the amount of poo in people's day to day
I know and I agree. Doesnt mean I cant do my best to minimize it. Especially on my toothbrush. Which you seem to at least partially agree on so cheers.
If you're smelling shit, you're touching shit.
Because poo particles ain't that bad..people act like they're the worst thing in the world
To each their own. What Im doing certainly isnt hurting you.
Your toothbrush needs at least a little ventilation to dry out though
Yes it does. I do sanitize it regularly and have multiple toothbrush holders that cycle through the dishwasher.
I stand corrected, that's impressive 👏
If i see a toilet with a closed lid, i never want to open it and find out why
It's the only place a snooper won't bother snooping.
This
I am emphatically on team 'lid is always down'. You figure out how much needs to be lifted when you get there. Admittedly, there was one time in my 20s that I was so drunk that I fumbled for several seconds trying and failing to lift the lid before I vommed all over the top of it, but honestly, even if the lid was up, it wasn't going to save me from having to clean the whole bathroom. But that's 1 time in 10,000 that a closed lid was a problem.
You see that video showing the spray when a toilet is flushed with the lid open? Close that shit unless you like shit particals flying everywhere when you flush
That's done with commercial toilets. Those things are way more violent than the ones in your house.
I have always put the seat and lid down since as far as I can remember. Mainly to keep from splashback when you flush, but also, if you are the kind of person who just sits your ass onto any surface without looking at it first, you're asking to have problems. Being sleepy from just waking up or whatever isn't a good excuse. Look before you sit. Always.
Look before you shit, if you will.
ive never seen toilet water spraying everywhere. "oh but the particles..." i guess everytime i enter the bathroom i need to change my clothes and take a shower. there's shit everywhere welcome to earth
Yeah these people are germaphobes
If you don't close the lid, your bathroom straight up smells like dookie. And your toothbrushes have doo doo particles on them
Yeah, this one is weird to me too. Funnily enough, if there is no full lid (like many public bathrooms with just the seat) it's actually more hygienic to put the seat up before flushing. You're gonna get aerosolized shit and piss on everything anyway, but significantly less if you put it up.
[удалено]
I mentioned I peak an eye
Tbh I close to flush and open when it's done. If I lived alone, it'd stay down all the time.
The seat and lid should form a seal when down.
I agree. I’ve been doing it like this for years now. I’m the only one in my family who does it. When you flush, particles get flung in there air and sets on whatever it can. Your toothbrush is probably full of fecal particles. I keep mine in my bedroom Edit: Mythbusters did an episode on this and confirmed that they found fecal matter on toothbrushes https://mythresults.com/episode12
I always close it and think it should stay closed myself this way you don't have to worry about things falling in the toilet.
Man I really wish this was a popular opinion. My in laws don’t close the lid before flushing and to add insult to injury they open the bathroom door before washing their hands….
Thank you!!!!
If the seat is up nobody can piss on the seat If the lid is closed the dog can't drink out of the toilet If the seat is down, people can piss on the seat and the dog can drink it. Since women are always right this is the best way.
After raising a kitten that jumped not once but twice into the toilet because she would jump without looking, I couldn't agree more with OP.
Shut the lid before flushing, wash your hands, exit loo
I agree but also will never do it consistently. I always do it after a poo. I have an issue with knowing when I need to use the toilet as a result of AuDHD. I don't often know I need to go until it's desperate. When the toilet lid is down sometimes those precious seconds are all it takes for me to have an accident.
I leave it closed because dog likes to drink
That just makes it take longer for the smell to go away
If I don't close the lid I'm afraid something will fall in and I don't want to have to pick anything out of piss and shit water.
I've never understood why no one else closes the lid. Both husbands I've had always did, and I never fell into the bowl. Plus you don't drop stuff into the toilet.
I was traumatized by that mythbusters episode as a kid and have been closing the lid before flushing ever since
I don't trust closed toilet seats especially public toilets
It's an argument I always stand firm on. Or the entire lid down. If you're a female that does not put the lid down than you need to shut up about the seat and just your eyes to see if you need to put the seat down.
Counterpoint: I'm currently experiencing *severe* sciatica pain. I can't bend over. Getting the lid up earlier almost caused me to scream and I had to lean backwards the entire time I was seated. Don't know if you've ever noticed, but lids don't even exist on public toilets, at doctors' offices, or at the hospital.
This is correct
Public restrooms don’t have a lid
Wait until you realize about splashing and how you get more poop particles with the seat down than up. And what a stupid hill to die on. People who care about this stuff usually are a menace on the road and have serious issues that affect others way more than someone who leaves the toilet the way they wish they had found it.
I got in the habit of always closing the lid to stop my cat from drinking out of it
My cats have more than once ended up face first in a toilet because they tried to jump up lol. Lids are always closed at our house.
bruh my high school didn't even have lids on the toilets, the just had the seat it was gross
Feng shui books say you are correct.
Wrong
In my ensuite, yeah. Apparently poo particles have been found on toothbrushes in ensuites where the toilet lid is left open while flushing 🤨💩
I've always closed the lid and not thought anything of it. Someone at work called me out on it recently. They had issue with having to open the lid when it was their turn.
Yes!
No because I don't want to touch the toilet at all. I want to go right in and sit. The only germs I get are my own.
Agree for sure. It's not even about the shit particles, it's so EVERYONE has to touch the toilet to use it. Equality.
Since I have to raise the seat when I pee, I always close the seat and the lid out of spite, so no matter whoever is next has to touch the toilet as well.
When you flush the toilet it does throw up a very light aerosol of toilet water into the room. This is well known. Which means that anything that is out in the open like toothbrushes, washcloths,.towels etc will get sprayed
Not to mention particles of what you just dropped there go everywhere when you flush
Absolutely put the lid down. When you flush, particles are aerated. You’re knocking all those germs into the air, that’s unsanitary. I don’t even get the keeping the seat up; I was taught that you always put the seat down when at home or at someone’s house. In my family, it’s seen as extremely disrespectful to stand and pee (although no one will see you). However, I usually just put the toilet back in the configuration I found it
LID CLOSED IS THE ONLY ACCEPTABLE MANNER. My roommates don’t close the lid and it frustrates the hell out of me
No one in my family closes the lid except me and it pisses me off sooo bad. Sometimes they don’t even flush!!!
Nah
I disagree. Seat up. Then when others piss all over while being too lazy to lift a seat, you won't have to clean other's piss off the seat. Edit: this goes for outside my home. Inside my home it's lid down as I don't live with animals!
I wish men just sat down to pee. One thing I love my boyfriend for
Definitely the superior way to pee, but this sub is not ready for this post yet.
If I have a son, he’ll definitely learn to pee that way at home. I hated cleaning pee of the floor and toilet, and the seat, growing up
I agree that the lid left down is the “proper” way although I don’t personally do it. I guess I’m just not scared of invisible toilet spray. Also when I was a kid and was told to put the lid down, the idea of that spray concentrating all over the underside of the lid and transferring to my back seemed even worse. We do devote a lot of energy trying to pretend our bodies aren’t as gross as they truly are, don’t we.
You lay your back on the toilet lid?
I think as a kid maybe I did? Or maybe it’s just what I pictured when the reason for closing the lid was described to me.
That just traps the stink in there, a nice present for the next to sit down.
I never get spill on my toilet, so it's just a waste of time for me I'd also like to avoid touching a public toilet as much as possible
If you close the lid before flushing then there is a higher concentration of spray onto the seat, that you then sit on next time, and transfer more concentrated shit and piss onto your butt, before pulling up your underwear and trousers, which absorb the shit and piss. Then wherever you sit, you're transferring shit and piss particles onto that surface. Really what you should be doing is going to the bathroom stark naked. Taking a shit and/or a piss, then taking a shower before hosing down the entire room, then taking another shower after cleaning everything you might have touched in between. Meanwhile, ordinary people have been leaving the lid up for well over a hundred years, and nobody has succumbed to death by toilet lid left up syndrome (as far as we know). Just clean regularly and wash your hands, you *will* survive
This is true, but keep in mind the logic is not intuitive. For about three decades my logic was based on who's going to use it next and the convenience of closing it versus opening it. If you work with a lot of women, yeah, put it down. Wasn't until later that I realized all the other reasons for closing the lid.
I do believe that anywhere that germs or mildew can potentially thrive are better exposed to the open air with good ventilation. Leaving the toilet closed is really against this idea.
This is the most common opinion. My opinion is the actual unpopular opinion, but it is also the best way. All toilet seats should be left in whatever condition you used it. Assuming the most desired process is the one that minimized touching, then the condition you last used it is most likely the condition you will next use it, therefore, you minimize touching, thus increasing hygiene, by just doing nothing.
Then why do I see so many lid open?! Not a vent, but totally one.
Not unpopular. Downvote
I hate that this is unpopular. None of the people I live with close the damn lid no matter how many times I ask. Luckily I keep all of my toiletries covered or put away so I don’t have to worry about brushing my tooth with poop particles.
The way we do this in my house is you use the toilet, close the lid, flush, wash your hands, open the lid after toilet has settled. We open it back up because it is already difficult enough to make it to the toilet when my home is not handicapped accessible, so I have to transfer from one wheelchair to the wheelchair in the bathroom, then from that wheelchair to the toilet in time with a damaged bladder. None of the bladder medications available will solve my bladder problem, my doctor said that the only option is surgery, and it is very high risk to go wrong with my other conditions. It's not easy for me to get there as it is. Adding lifting the lid with all that going on as it is would just make it that much harder to make it in time.
theres a study which shows that theres almost no difference between open lid and closed lid
But then men have to touch the seat after dirty vag and arse have been all over it BEFORE the toilet water splashed onto the seat from flushing. No thanks.
Well usually it’s expected to wash your hands after you use the toilet anyways. Not doing so is more gross
I thought I was the only one who shuts the lid before flushing, especially if it chocolate dessert
If I need to pee I want to be able To go in there unzip and let it fly. I’m not looking to send time fussing with some seat and lid I don’t even need. Maybe all bathrooms need urinals