Why don't people flush the toilet?

Lazy?

I’ve always wondered this. Because they don’t want to touch the handle? Or maybe they want the next person to witness the breathtakingly large shit they just took?

It conserves water. It doesn’t wake people up in the middle of the night. Though, I agree that it is pretty gross when someone doesn’t flush after taking a dump. :)

@TheOnlyNeffie Yep.

If you’re talking about not flushing after taking a shit, that is one thing. But I have come across only once in my life that situation so I assume you’re talking about urine. And unless it’s the morning and it’s dark yellow, wtf is the big deal? It saves water. It makes sense.

I don’t think it saves water unless you are a guy and the next person who comes to use the toilet is also a guy. If you are a female, you are not going to want to sit down and pee over a toilet already filled with urine, because when you go, the previous person’s urine can splash up onto your privates. Disgusting. So, the female has to flush the toilet before she can go. Same number of flushes required, so it doesn’t save water. It just makes the second person have to be first person’s janitor.

No one should be forced to have to deal with another person’s waste, even if it is just urine. For one thing, it is dirty and it also smells. Also, letting it mellow makes the toilet get moldier and dirtier faster.

@deni both actually.
My boyfriends housemate leaves a shit in the loo every morning without fail. Loo roll ‘n all so it’s not just that it hasn’t flushed properley.
My mum also used to not flush her pee, citing noisy pipes. But she did it throughout the day so her ‘noisy pipes’ excuse was just rubbish.

I see this a lot in public toilets. if a person does not flush in a public toilet, chances are they do not flush their own toilet at home. being a lazy person comes first to mind or maybe they are afraid to touch the public toilet handle to flush? no way. this is just an excuse i am offering for these lazy people. lazy is the key word here.

@john65pennington. To me, people who don’t flush the toilet in a public restroom because they are afraid of germs are the ones who are germing it up to begin with. Just like women who squat instead of sitting because of germs, but then sprinkle pee all over the seat and leave it there for the next person to have to clean up or accidentally sit in.

Flushing every time you urinate is incredibly wasteful. I’m sure a lot of people are just kind of slacking, but really, there’s no reason to do it. In a lot of areas with cistern-based plumbing (e.g., St. Thomas), flushing is often discouraged until there’s fecal matter involved.

@iamthemob. If it’s your own waste and your home toilet, I don’t have a problem with leaving it and going multiple times before flushing. However, I don’t think it’s right to force another person to have to deal with your bodily waste. The only exception being if that person has agreed they are okay with it, such as your roommate or spouse.

@diavolobella

Sure, I agree. Technically, I think that everyone should just accept it considering that even if we flushed every other time it would reduce the use by half…but that’s another (and grosser) story.

But that’s more of an issue of roommate relations.

If I’m at home by myself or with just my husband, and I just go #1, I wait once or twice before flushing just because I find it unnecessary wasting of water to flush every time. I alway flush if it’s #2. Leaving that stuff in there will stink up the place. I’ll gladly ‘waste’ water to get that out of there! Now if we have company over, or if I’m in a public restroom or at a friend’s house, then I flush every time.

Whoever doesn’t flush at a friend’s house/public restroom OR after going #2 has a nasty habit that needs to stop really quick.

I understand the argument for “public flushing” if we’re talking about standard toilets. But if we’re talking about urinals, I don’t think any regular flushing is really necessary. In fact, there are some zero-flush urinals that drain only now that take flushing out of the equation completely.

This is the weirdest and most extended conversation I’ve ever had about flushing.

And what about the toilets and urinals that auto-flush? There’s nothing you can do about that!

@erichw1504. The auto toilets at Walt Disney World are so loud and violent when they flush that they have been known to scare small children and/or disturb people in neighboring resort hotel rooms. There are even long threads on Disney-specific travel boards about how to avoid this by covering the sensor with a Post It!

I have heard that in some cultures, they don’t flush the toilet for 2 kind of different reasons. One being that toilets in some other countries don’t have a flush mechanism at all, so those folks are probably unfamiliar with U.S. toilets and customs. The other example is that in some countries, there are actually people/attendants who have the awful job of flushing the toilets (and usually the pooper puts the toilet paper into the trash can instead of the toilet, which is also kind of gross, but they do that because the toilets in those countries can’t accept toilet paper, it will clog)

As for home use, when it’s just immediate family we go by the if it’s yellow, let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down. But we always flush if we have company!!!

They’re sick jacksacks, or I guess have no manners…or maybe they’re proud of it and WANT people to see.

I mean it’s an everyday thing, yet the reasons may be baffling…it pisses me off when people do that. I don’t want to see no damn logs floatin around when I go damnit.

Lol once at work I went to the can and this great big log was just chillin out in there, with no toilet paper. I’m all like, whoever’s log that is is one sick mutha.

Save water.

For all the people who say it’s wasteful to flush every time there isn’t poop:
I tried that for several months. My toilet got seriously backed up all the time, and I had to plunge it every other day. Toilet paper needs to be flushed, or you’re going to have other problems.

@papayalily i really think it depends on the toilet. i’m pretty sure a toilet shouldnt get backed up if more than one piece of toilet paper is in it. sounds like a plumbing issue. you should see what we can flush down our toilet. sometimes i stare in utter disbelief at what DOESN’T clog it. hahhaha. i mean, to each their own, but it just seems so silly to me to waste so much water. and for how much i pee (seriously 20 times a day…yes its an issue) it would be totally obnoxious to flush my toilet 20x.

Only 1 piece of toilet paper…? Maybe if I only ever peed a thimble full… hmmm, but that’s probably a bit too much information for lunchtime.
Anyhow I think I’d rather try and save extra water and paper from other household activities than skimp on toilet paper, or flush less.

There are countries that have different kinds of toilets, especially in Asia and Africa. It takes a while to pick up the Western habit.