Background: I work for the state, caring for elderly people. One of my clients is a big lady with mobility problems. After a disparaging remark from somebody, she decided she needed to use wipes in the bathroom. Thing is, her building is very old and not well-kept. The landlady is not proactive and it is very hard to get her to fix anything.
I am worried that the wipes will cause a plumbing problem that will be ridiculously hard to get fixed. (my client is very low-income.) I am aware that they make “flushable” wipes, but the internet tells me that most of them really aren’t.
Does anyone know of wipes that truly are flushable, and not difficult to obtain? Putting the wipes in the wastebasket would be pretty much a nightmare in this case.
I’ve been buying them for her for a few months (I do her shopping), but I feel like it’s only a matter of time before it causes a big problem.
Put a designated trash can lined with a plastic bag and with a lid that closes firmly next to the toilet and tell her to put the wipes there. That’s what I do (and I’m old ). She can start out with toilet paper and flush that and finish up with wipes that she puts in the special trash can. I do not believe any wipes are flushable.
I don’t think there is an issue as long as she doesn’t try to flush everything at once.
This is what I do:
1.) Do my business. Flush.
2.) Wipe with regular paper. Flush
3.) Finish with wet wipe. Flush. (No more than two wet wipes at a time. Which is usually more than enough)
That’s not the issue. The problem is that while toilet paper is designed to break down – dissolve, essentially – in water, wipes are not. They can snag in the pipes and cause blockages, and are most likely to do so in older systems. The situation described in the OP does not bode well.
Flushable wipes are flushable in new buildings with good plumbing, or in places that have “force” plumbing, rather than relying strictly on gravity. Flushable wipes are not flushable in old buildings with a lot of lime buildup in the pipes, or new buildings with septic systems. They are ill-advised in new buildings with low-flow toilets-- that is, toilets with smaller capacity tanks that rely on a different type of flow with narrower conduits to make up for the difference in the weight of the water. They have a shorter flush cycle, and don’t always flush “stuff” down the pipes.
The can with the sealable lid is a good idea. If she has a pet, make it a very tight lid. A diaper pail (not a “Diaper Genie,” just an ordinary diaper pail) might be a good idea, if it’s not too big. If there is any odor, put some baking soda in it.
Do you know what the disparaging remarks were? Maybe she is not getting clean enough in the shower? If she has a BO problem that is not actually a wiping problem, but a washing problem, maybe you should see what you can do about that. Maybe she needs a hand-held shower head, or a shower seat.
Except that just punts the problem to some poor bastard who will eventually have to clean them out of the sewer or the screens at the waste treatment plant. I post a link, but I’m about to eat right now and I just cannot go there.
A diaper pail is an excellent idea. You want a good seal.
I buy these California Scents and put one in my bathroom garbage can and one in my kitchen garbage can UNDER liner bag. It’s a can (like a small tuna or cat food can) with a pop top. There’s a scented block of something inside–sort of a cardboard-y thing. Lasts about three months. You can find them in grocery stores, but the best scent is “grapefruit,” and I can only find that one at amazon. I also put an open one in the trunk of my car and it gently masks random car odors without overpowering you when you get in a hot car.
Well, they do disintegrate. They just take longer. They can get snagged in a limed up pipe, but not in a clean one. They make a “pudding,” sort of, which is why they are no good for septic systems-- they make them sludgey-- but water treatment systems can handle them. Or ant any rate could, at the original use estimates: occasional use by parents of babies. Then when that market was saturated, and the companies started to market to virtually everyone, exponentially increasing the number of wipes in the system, they became a problem.
In reality, they don’t dissolve fast enough to count. They are a bane of sewer systems globally. I can’t find the link right now, but I recently saw photos of what happens to the screens at the local sewage treamtment plant on a near daily basis. They simply get for the home to the treatment plant far too quickly where the have to be manually removed from the waste stream.
Keep a receptacle next to the toilet, for her to throw the wipes into., Dispose of them with the household trash. Learn to deal with the ew factor, and get over it.
I overheard a conversation a couple years ago, between two women being processed out of the Peace Corps, on their way home. One asked “What do you most look forward to, when you get home?” She replied “Throwing paper in the toilet.” Three quarters of the world can’t even imagine throwing paper down the toilet, it is simply not down in third world plumbing. People deal with it and get on with their lives.
After having spent a week in a foreign country and feasting on cuisine that did a number on my GI tract, I now understand the benefits of both 1) bidets and 2) wet wipes.
I would never deign to tell someone what she can’t have for personal hygiene. It would be absolutely rude to. It’s not your place. Just set her up with a lined garbage can with a lid and encourage her to use it.
Any chance of getting a bidet seat/insert instead of the wipes? Looks like it may be under $50 on Amazon and some under $20, and should pay for itself over the money saved on wipes.
Even the least expensive bidet addon requires a fresh water connection, and therefore requires the consent of the landlady (modifications to plumbing).
Yes, the “modifications to plumbing” are pretty simple usually, even DIY in simplicity, but probably not the kind of thing you try to sneak past the property owner. And the resident won’t be doing the work; and if I were a representative of a government agency helping the resident, I don’t think I’m empowered to unilaterally modify a rented domicile.
Any chance you could add up what you’re spending for her on wipes per month and convince her that way to stop using them? Seems a very unneeded expense for someone as low income as you describe. I like the idea of a shower seat or moveable shower head. I also wonder if the wiping is really the issue. Showering too seldom or washing clothes too little can be a stronger source of foul smells. She could even keep several cheap washcloths or rags to use if needed to wash up with the sink.
Out of curiosity, what qualifies as a “modification to plumbing” - I mean, legally speaking? I watched a video of of an addon bidet and it looked like no more than replacing a faucet (from my non-plumber perspective, it seemed like just adding a “splitter” between the toilet hose and the incoming line). So, does replacing a faucet count as modifying plumbing? I’ve never rented, so just wondered.
IMHO, yes. Even if the plumbing in question is easily accessible and workable with routinely-available hand tools, you are breaking into a water supply line and fitting a new joint. Any of which can leak when you’re done, in some worst cases very subtly, causing hidden water damage. And then who’d be responsible for repairing that?
The most common DIY accidents happen on bits of household services that seem easiest to work on.
ETA: Not a plumber, nor a landlord, but I have been a renter, and I have seen other renters in trouble for (and been affected by) unauthorized DIY “tweaks”. (Ask me about the ceiling that came down on us because the upstairs tenant did a comparable plumbing change for a hand-held bidet nozzle.)
About a year ago, we had the incident we unlaughingly refer to as Turd River. My apartments are built on a slight slope. The two buildings on the northwest corner are about four feet lower than the two buildings on the southwest corner. I was in the southwest corner. Someone in NW was flushing personal wipes and it clogged everything up for awhile. Here’s where it got fun. The management put up notices saying “Do not flush Handiwipes”. Well, duh, I thought. Who’d flush a Handiwipe? That’s nuts. Two months later, three of the units in the NW backed up and flooded. This went on for the better part of a week before they could get things fixed. I talked to the landlord and manager and they were discussing “handiwipes”. The lightbulb went on and I brought out an honest-to-god Handiwipe, a reuseable, washable cloth that is 12x4x9. “THIS is what you’re telling people not to flush, but what you mean are baby wipes or butt wipes, right?”
It was a disaster and I don’t care what the side of any container says, if it’s not toilet paper, it doesn’t go in the toilet. Not Kleenex, not hair, not contact lenses, not paper towel, not handiwipes, not ass wipes, not NUTHIN. Turd River is not a vacation spot you want to visit.
The “modifications” are only just putting a T joint on the water outlet on the wall. One side of the T goes to the seat, the other to the toilet. It’s easy, quickly reversible, and totally DIY. A landlord probably couldn’t care less. It’s less of a concern to them than putting a nail in the wall to hang a painting.
As some may remember, I am a big advocate of bidet seats. Folks here seem to pooh-pooh (ha!) the idea whenever I bring it up and that’s fine for you folks here. But in this case, it really seems like an ideal solution for this lady!
). She can start out with toilet paper and flush that and finish up with wipes that she puts in the special trash can. I do not believe any wipes are flushable.