I think they would have preferred you just dispose of the brush and buy a new one.
I’ve never had a toilet plunger, mine is just a plunger.
Way back when the world was young, our kitchen sink would need plunging periodically. There is no such thing as toilet plungers, they’re just plungers.
There was a thread where I mentioned having a toilet brush in the toilet at work. In Spain that’s pretty much universal; in my last job abroad (France) there was one as well. But judging by the reactions I got, they’re pretty much unheard of in work toilets in the US. None of the apartments or shared houses where I’d lived there had one until I bought one, but I’d never thought about it in “cultural” terms.
Sugar is brown and comes in individual packets, kept in the same plastic box they came in. Love being able to buy individual packets from the supermarket.
You will take my Tres Claveles scissors from my cold dead hands; I have four identical pairs. During the Dunkirk Job, when we had to fly up and down every week, I’d check my bag simply to be able to fly the Tres Claveles and the metal file. Pbbbbthththt on glass files, seriously! Those cardboard things? Barely worthy of their name. The item most commonly asked about at Mom’s? The Tres Claveles. There’s other scissors in the house (two in the kitchen, plus three in the kids’ room, plus any I’ve brought, plus nail scissors), but those are the ones which always seem to be in use. My sister in law does her nails at Mom’s: says it’s the only place where she can actually find both the time and the accoutrements, as her mother doesn’t see the point of having files. When she mentioned it, Mom invited her to leave some polish there; now there are two groups of nail polish in the big bathroom: Mom’s and SiL’s.
My grandparents used to refuse to get a microwave until Mom showed Grandma that she could use “cup” once for her own coffee and twice for if-it’s-not-burning-it’s-cold Grandpa. They got one the next week.
I can understand not having sugar. Many people don’t sweeten, and don’t bake, so they have no need for it. My wife bakes, so we always have it around, but not in a readily accessible bowl.
Toilet lids – I never ever close it. I probably should, to flush, but don’t. The only time the lid is ever closed is if I need to stand on the toilet to reach a lightbulb or something.
Microwaves – now this one is puzzling. I can’t imagine living without a microwave.
You’d probably enjoy David Sedaris’ story “Big Boy” very much. And by You, I mean Everybody should read this.
Having had ferrets trained me to always, ALWAYS close the toilet lid. Little fuzzbutts have been dead for years and I’m still well-trained!
They do this in some places in China too. Each cubicle has a little dustbin with paper in it. Fortunately all of the paper I could see was white.
My contribution is floor traps/drains in toilets/bathrooms. I think I didn’t see a single home toilet in Australia with a floor trap. How do people wash the floor? With a mop? That’s so inefficient, and you can’t scrub. With a floor trap you only have to 1. Dump water 2. Scrub 3. Keep dumping water as needed. Also, what happens if your toilet overflows?
Also, how about using sponges/scouring pads for washing dishes? I know some people use cloths, hence dishcloths. Tried them once. Too high friction and not abrasive enough.
I… don’t think I’ve ever seen a residential home with a bathroom floor drain. Are you serious?
I’d obviously only say that if I saw two rats in their house.
I keep flashlights in an easily accessable area in each room of the house. The power to our neighborhood was often affected during thunderstorms or heavy snowfall, so it became practical to keep a little flashlight always close by. I now live a thousand miles from that neighborhood but still keep a dozen flashlights in my house.
Whaaaaaa?!? It’s not a stat? Hmph.
I learned on these here boards that US Americans don’t all have an electric kettle in their homes. It’s one of the traditional marriage/housewarming gifts here!
I found a perfect liquid detergent containing dish sponge with just the right scrubbiness. As for using a dishcloth, I also have a separate scrubber for the tough stuff.
It’s a fantastic idea - just go in there and hose down your bathroom!
I found some cheap little wind up flashlights and keep them around the house, too. I have one in a dark corner of the basement so I can see what the heck is in the dvd cupboard there.
Hey, there’s another non-universal universal practice - basements! I have always taken basements in houses for granted - you have your upstairs one or two floors, then all your bonus space in the basement. They’re very useful for storage, keeping cool in summer, games rooms, send your kids there to play to get out of your hair, etc., but I’ve learned that there are many places that don’t have basements. Freak show.
Is this one of those times when bathroom doesn’t mean what I think it means??
Every bathroom I’ve ever seen in Australia has a floor drain, for when the bath or basin overflows or when your kid points the shower rose into the room. A toilet in its own little room generally not, but if it’s in the bathroom along with the bath/shower/basin there will be a floor drain.
Yeah, I don’t know about Canada but in my US experience, a residential bathroom (that is, a room with a toilet and/or shower) will not have a floor drain unless it’s a basement bathroom and even then it’s not a guarantee. I can understand the appeal and the logic but I think in general, people find it a bit industrial looking for their cozy home bathrooms.
I’ve seen bathrooms with floor drains, but they were always on the ground floor and not every ground-floor bathroom I’ve seen had floor drains. And yes, you wash the bathroom with a mop, same as the kitchen and every other room in the house.
To me what sounds inefficient and dangerous is washing the floors by flooding…
Haha well yes, washing the floors by flooding is a bit over the top :D. But seriously, a floor drain in the bathroom is standard here. I’ve always thought it was a legal requirement.
How to improvise a toilet plunger: Take a plastic bag and an empty 2 litre plastic bottle. Leaving the cap in place cut the bottom of the bottle. Holding the bottle whilst using the plastic bag as a glove plunge away. Ease the bag over the bottle and tie it for disposal.
In someone else’s house the hard part might be getting hold of the plastic bottle… but it’s gotta be easier than what Orville mogul did.
I’ve encountered the no plunger problem, but in that case it was someone had recently moved and the plunger was still at the old place (bought by family so there was no rush to get every last thing out) not simply not owning a plunger. Still hella embarrassing having to go ask “do you have a plunger”. Damn you low flow toilets…
For me it was a decent tool kit. Not necessarily a full on rolling Craftsman tool drawer system, but at least a toolbox with pliers, screwdrivers, duct tape, etc. When I left for college, I took a good toolkit with them. All of sudden people are asking for help - I was shocked that I was the only in the dorm with tool box.
OK - I quickly realized that THEY were the universal, but it was a shift in culture for me I admit.
One of the things that my husband and I bought for our daughter when she moved out was a basic tool kit. The tools weren’t top of the line, but they weren’t crap tools, either. She has found it very useful.
No, sounds like we share the same idea of what a bathroom is. Are all your bathroom floors concrete or tile? And are they sloped toward the drain?
Like Inner Stickler says, that sounds rather industrial.
I think it is a legal requirement. I’ve never seen a bathroom without a floor drain, except for when we were in the US. My husband is in a wheelchair and the bathroom in the hotel where we stayed wasn’t very accessible, so he had to shower sitting in his chair (we’d done this at home for the same reason). I only noticed the lack of a floor drain when the flooding commenced. Fortunately, we had enough towels to mop up the excess. Not sure what the domestic staff made of it all.