# What's the deal with multiple toilet flushings? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 25, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437 "2007-09-25T16:23:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![ethelbert](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/958977/32.png) [@ethelbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ethelbert)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437/41 "2007-09-27T19:31:32Z")
In my place of work the bathrooms technically have low flow toilets, but they are flushometer (not tank) toilets and the flush on them is prodigious and is capable of sucking down a medium size dog. I still occasionally find myself sitting next to someone who will flush as many as 6 times in as many minutes. I have always attributed this to some sort of OCD behavior. Once, in my youth, I asked someone about this; “Hey Spanky, what’s with all the flushes?” (it was during a drought and I was a wise ass kid, so it might have appeared confrontational). After telling me to fuck off, he rattled on about “courtesy flushes”. I have gotten older and less able to defend myself, so I keep my own counsel in the bathroom. There are also many people who flush before they sit down, lest any filth (or snakes) be lurking in the depths below. I have a friend who engages in this behavior and when I asked him about it, he said “I like a clean bowl”. I remember reading about a pair of identical twins separated at birth who, when they were reunited late in life, discovered that habit as one of the things they shared. So I gather it is a genetic tendency. I think our shit is like our children; we like having them, but we don’t want them to hang around too long. ---
**Author:** ![Foxy40](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a9a28c/32.png) [@Foxy40](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Foxy40)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437/42 "2007-09-27T19:38:25Z")
I am guilty of this practice. I need to flush to cover up the sounds when I am in a public bathroom. I keep flushing until I am done, wipe and flush again. I think this is what is happening. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437/43 "2007-09-27T19:55:53Z")
Yep, I flush to cover up sounds, too. I don’t want anyone to hear me fart or grunt! And I don’t want to hear them, either. I try to wait them out, but sometimes _they just won’t leave!_. I’ve been known to hang around a nearby printer until all the chatty Cathy’s get out of the damn bathroom. Don’t talk to me in the bathroom!!! ---
**Author:** ![cookeze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@cookeze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cookeze)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2007, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437/44 "2007-09-27T20:04:01Z")
Considering what’s been on the news lately about public bathroom behavior—maybe us straight people are just clueless. Flush. Tap tap tap. Flush. It’s like Morse code. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-multiple-toilet-flushings/420437.md?page=2)