this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2026
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
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- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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It could also be solved by everybody always putting the seat up ...
But it won't because everybody not agreeing on one course of action is the more fundamental problem.
You're basically just saying "This disagreement could be solved if everybody would agree".
But seat (edit: I meant lid) down is more hygienic when you flush. It isv the morally situation superior position
How is it more hygienic? I can't imagine that extra brim holding off a lot of the shit particles launched into the room upon flushing.
It doesn’t make your bathroom shit free or something but it does do this 🤷♀️
Not sure if it’s better or worse in any meaningful way tho
Edit: I assume commenter meant the whole seat including the lid but that could be a miscommunication
I was too quick, missed mention of the lid, that makes more sense 😄
I really doesn’t matter tho because poop particles are everywhere regardless of your toilet seat orientation.
While true, quantity of poop particles also matters.
Your body can fight off loads of bacteria. But once it gets to an infection point, it can't keep up and you become ill.
So yeh, poop is everywhere. As long as it's small amounts, it's fine.
The study where gustofwind got the illustration says it's around 10x reduction of deposited bacteria with the lid down.
https://www.ajicjournal.org/article/S0196-6553(23)00820-9/fulltext#tbl0010
10x reduction doesn’t even make sense. It’s not possible to reduce by more than 1x, as that would be 100% of the bacteria gone.
And your link doesn’t support what you said at all.
Am I misreading something?
I'm not interested in their narrative, I'm talking about their numbers. They measured plaque formation - colonies - of bacteria from surface wipes around the toilet after flushing a contaminated toilet bowl. Depending on the location & lid state, they got, generally 10^3-10^6 plaques. 10^5 with the lid closed, 10^6 open, which is a 10x difference. There's no difference in the surfaces directly facing the bowl; hardly surprising that there's little contamination left by the time you get all the way to the walls - 1/r^2 effect. Look at the surface you sit on.
I’m much more interested in the conclusions and the meaning of the numbers, for two big reasons:
But how does it compare to what's already there? How does it affect the average toilet user's bacterial load, and how does that compare to an approximate threshold for infection?
House dust is up to 50% human skin particles. You're breathing in all sorts of crap, and outside I'm sure there's loads more including animal crap.
It’s a lot easier to clean the walls than the ceiling
☝️🤓
Clean both. Don’t clean both.
Still. The poop particles remain.
But I don't lick the ceiling...
yeah i get the picture but the real question is whether this whole topic is even worth discussing or whether the effect size is so small that it practically doesn't matter.
i mean, handbags and door knobs are some of the worst offenders to hygiene but you never see people getting all worked up about those topics, even though i suspect they're much more significant than whether the toilet lid is up or down. that's why i'm suspecting people are inflating a small issue into a big trouble here.
I don't give a flying f about the toilet seat (it's IMO a child level discussion, do what you like people), but I and my whole family do wash our hands when we come back from the outside. Always.
yeah i do that too.
It does make a difference, it means measurably less poo bacteria on places like your tooth brush
Mythbusters tested this and found no appreciable difference.
If you want a sanitized toothbrush, you'll need to use one of those UV cases.
It keeps the fecal mist a little bit more contained.
Sure, but not really the point.
I think the user meant to say "lid down"
seat down: easy for one group, slightly inconvenient for the other, unhygienic when flushing
seat up: easy for one group, slightly inconvenient for the other, unhygienic when flushing
seat and lid down: slightly inconvenient for both parties (but if it's consistent then you can build muscle memory), and hygienic when flushing
You are correct, I did mean lid down too
My point is, the entire problem is agreeing to one option in the first place. Which option you pick is irrelevant.
Well rather OP is pointing out that there is a third option that both parties nay consider to be a fair compromise, and thus be more likely to agree to.
It doesn't matter if there are 2 or 20 options.
But one option is hygienic, the other two are convenience. Fuck convenience, put the lid down and wash your hands, it's for everyone's sake
It does if one of the options leads to a successful compromise. Based on the comments on this post, it seems that this solution has worked for a lot of households
Sure, whatever ... not the point.
?
I think the idea of “fairness” comes in that everyone has to do something, regardless of whether you use the seat or not. If you don’t use the seat, then you put the lid and seat down (presumably in one go). If you do use the seat, you put the lid down. Either way, you have to lift something before you use the toilet.
Personally I think toilets should just have their lids closed when not in use, regardless.
I agree. But the sole reason is that I don't want my cat to drink out of it (and potentially fall in). I'm also an enjoyer of the sit-down-wee, so no arguing there, either.
There are still good reasons for having other opinions about it, for people in other circumstances. And that's exactly why this is just a disagreement that can't be solved all and for once.
… if everybody would agree with me.