Everyone Should Have to Clean Their Own Toilet

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
1

I have a houskeeper who comes in once a week to vaccuum, mop all the floors (every room is hardwood) and scrub down the bathroom, with the exception of the toilet.

I mentioned this exception to my sister yesterday. “Why doesn’t she clean the toilet, too?” she asked. “Does she charge extra for that?”

“No,” I said. “I just don’t want anyone to have to clean my toilet.”

My sister told me politely and gently that she saw fallacies in my thinking. Well, actually what she said is, “Are you stupid or somethin’? Why not? She’s a housekeeper! That’s how she makes her living! That’s what you’re paying her to do– the yucky jobs that you don’t want to do yourself.”

My husband and I eat an American diet, and to put it as tactfully as possible, the underside of our toilet seat and the rim of the bowl is often a testament to this fact. Cleaning your own toilet is a distasteful chore, but I imagine it would be truly disgusting to have to clean up after someone else. As I told her, tongue-in-cheek, “I’m too much of a liberal to make someone do that, no matter how well I’m paying them.”

After this conversation, I got to thinking, and came to the conclusion that I think everyone should have to clean their own toilet, no matter how rich and powerful they are. Bill Gates and George Bush should have to go into the bathroom with a toilet brush and scrubby-wipes.

To my way of thinking, it serves much the same purpose as the slave who stood beside Ceasar in his chariot as he recieved the accolades of Rome, whispering in his ear, “Remember that thou art mortal.”

Thus, I have made a vow: that no matter where life takes me, should I win the lottery or cure cancer, I will always clean my own commode. It’ll keep me humble.

2

I have a housekeeper and she cleans my toilet. I find the situation to my liking. I’m a pretty big clean freak though, so if my toilet were ever in a state that wasn’t to my liking it’d be cleaned to the point where I felt it was acceptable. My housekeeper is basically the one he brings out the heavy duty crap, the bathroom clearner and the stuff that turns the water blue etc. I do keep it within a moderate level of cleanliness at all times, just like I keep the rest of my house pretty clean. My housekeeper is really there for the stuff that I don’t need to do day to day to satisfy my anal retentive cleanliness needs… stuff like cleaning the windows, dusting in the more obscured areas, beating the rugs, cleaning the furniture etc.

3

I have a housekeeper who comes every two weeks and she cleans the toilet. It was never discussed and I’ve never thought it was any more demeaning to her than cleaning the rest of my house.

Then again, it’s not like I have particularly disgusting toilets. I live alone and have four toilets, so no one toilet gets overused. Plus, if ever a toilet gets nasty, I’ll clean it then and there. I’m not going to wait for the housekeeper while the toilet sits there all gross!

The only area my housekeeper doesn’t clean is the basement. That’s because the dogs go down there on days when she comes. The dogs are friendly to her, but I’d prefer her not to have to deal with them. She’s not my doggie baby sitter.

4

I cleaned my toilet once.

5

Do you clean it every time you use it? I find that there’s some . . .ahem . . . splash back which occurs when you’re sometimes not aware of it.

6

I can tell you don’t have children.
Once you’ve dealt with dozens of diapers a week, the family toilet has no more fight value than wiping the kitchen sink.
While I agree that Bill Gates should wipe his own toilet, I’ll bet he did enough while in college to know what the deal is.

But here’s something your sister doesn’t know, that might put her off:
I was hired by Merry Maids (when an unemployment clerk insisted I couldn’t refuse.)( I only lasted two days, getting excused because of a documented knee injury that made washing floors on my knees painful.) But anyway one thing I learned is that they give you x number of clean towels to do all your wiping with, and it’s never enough.
They will advise that you do the bathrooms last, but sometimes that’s impossible, especially when you go out as a team. So what happens when you don’t have enough dry towels to do a persnickety job? Basically, you just pray that the residents won’t catch you taking shortcuts. Enough said.

7

Hmm, how to phrase this without being crude. I don’t clean it when I urinate, I clean it all other times I use it ;). And my cleaning is just in general to keep things looking nice most of the times it’s not really needed, but I do look under the seat, under the rim etc to make sure I’m being thorough.

8

I’m sorry to rain on your parade, but it seems a little pretentious of you to imagine that you are humble simply because you let your maid off the hook for one task. Most people can’t afford a housekeeper at all.

9

Is the rim of your toilet bowl obese? Seriously, what does the “American diet” have to do with anything? I’ve been to several dozen countries, and I assure you, human waste is not cleanly in any of them. In fact, the spicier the food, the worse, I’ve noticed, which makes this all the more puzzling to me, since most American food is really bland.

On the larger issue, however, if those are your principles, then stand by them. I don’t see how throwing out refuse, cleaning the bathtub of little hairs, or cleaning the greasy muck from oven drippings is any different than swabbing a toilet with a bristley stick, but whatever floats your boat.

10

Bill Gates probabally has a personal toilet cleaner, who stands by and goes in right after Gates gets off the thrown. He most likely makes a pretty decent wage, and pays tax (on money from Gates, which Gates has paid tax on).

If Gates were to fire his toilet cleaner, he would have to go on unemployment, which would cost taxpayers more, and less of Gates $ would be taxed.

FOr the good of us all, let the rich get thier toilet cleaned, or as I like to put it, the rich can not wipe their ass w/o helping the middle class.

11

My first job, the summer when I was 14, was cleaning toilets at a YWCA homeless shelter. I figure the world owes me a few cleanings from here on out.

bristley smiley :confused:

12

Word.

But I do agree with “Everyone Should Have to Clean Their Own Toilet” I refuse to clean my hubby’s because it’s too grotty. I clean mine every other day. I can’t imagine having a less-than-pristine throne if I got an unexpected visitor.

Welcome, New Guy.

13

Well, sure, I understand that. 'Twas a long time before I could afford one, myself.

I don’t have one because I’m lazy (well, honestly, I am lazy, but that’s not the point.) I have a back injury which makes tasks like scrubbing a tub or floor very painful.

But very fatty and fiber-less. Both Hubby and I seem to have fragile systems which rebel on occasion because of this abuse, resulting in Explosive Diarrehea. In our household, unless one cleans the bowl every day, brown spots appear on the rim of the bowl and under the toilet seat.

I try to clean it at least every two or three days. I don’t want anyone to see that. I always clean the toilet before the housekeeper comes over because she dumps the mop water in there when she’s finished.

She doesn’t clean the oven, nor does she toss out trash, and I use the shower hose to rinse out any little hairs before I have her clean the tub. All she does for me is scrub the bathroom (excepting the toilet) and she vaccuums/mops all of the floors.

Half of the reason for not making her clean the toilet is consideration. I think it’s a gross job, and I don’t think she should have to do it. No one should have to wipe up a healthy, mobile adult’s shit stains. The other half of it is a privacy/embarassment issue-- I don’t want anyone looking at my dirty toilet.

14

If I had the means, I’d have a person wipe my ass for me.

You’re WAY too hung up on your own dung. Housekeepers clean toilets. They don’t use their tongues to do it.

15

In that last sentence, kanicbird misspelled “helping”. Should be spelled “using”.

16

Surely she is humbler than she would be if she did not clean her own toilet.

17

Seriously, get yourself some fiber. You’re fouling your own home, forcing constant cleanup of feces because of your diet. Even if you’re not that big on fiber, try something like this. They taste like cookies, really, I’m eating one right now, it’s like a graham cracker.

18

O.K., I changed my mind. Lissa, you are humble. I figured you’d tear me a new one for my inflammatory post, but you didn’t even bat an eye. That’s pretty impressive. I definitely misjudged you.

19

That was inflammatory? You really are The New Guy. Stick around, fella. Especially since you obviously can spell - ‘definitely’ AND ‘inflammatory’ both correct - impressive. :smiley:

You do raise an interesting question, Lissa. If I could afford a housekeeper (and I’m getting one the day I can afford it), I would expect my toilets to be cleaned, because I’ve cleaned so many other peoples’ toilets. I’ve paid my dues - what goes around comes around. If I had been raised upper middle class or rich and never cleaned anyone else’s toilet, I might feel differently about that.

20

I’m pretty easy-going. After being here nearly six years, I can count on one hand how many times I’ve ripped into someone. Hey, I do sound pretentious sometimes-- it’s good to be checked on it.

I’ve cleaned quite a few toilets in my time, as well, and I’ve always hated it. I work in a museum currently, and because it’s a small place, we’re all multi-purpose workers. This means I may be cleaning a priceless artifact in the morning, then cleaning the public bathrooms in the afternoon. It’s a task I loathe, but we’re a team, and we all have to pitch in and help where needed.

Because I hate it so, I don’t feel right about making someone else do it for me.

As for affordabilty, it hasn’t been too bad. My last houskeeper I paid $10 per hour (which is twice what I make when you consider taxes!) and she was usually here about three hours. This one, I pay a lump sum of $40, and she finishes at her own pace.

The image this put into my head had me laughing intermittenly for hours. I pictured myself laying on the floor in the living room, stuffing a Big Mac into my face, helplessly pooping all over the place.

But I don’t like graham crackers. :wink:

Part of my problem stems from being picky. I don’t much like bread or sweet foods like cookies. I love vegetables, but I’m to busy/lazy to cook fresh ones and canned veggies are horrifying.

I tried taking fiber supplements, but I’m forgetful. I do snack on almonds, though, so that gives me some fiber.

My worst problem is that I passionately love dairy foods, but am lactose intolerant. I mentioned that I’m forgetful, didn’t I? Well, I probably wouldn’t have this problem if I could remember to take my Lactaid. And I just have a sensitive system. Something new will sometimes set me off, or something too spicy, or too fatty, or too heavy . . . .

I’m hopeless. I guess I’ll just have to endure a lifetime of befouling my home. :smiley: