An odd question

[curly_kate]

Really, how germy is a toilet? OK, I'm not saying I'd be eating lunch in there or anything, but commercials for bathroom cleaners make it seem like a toilet is a nuclear waste dump. I understand that a very effective way to sell a product is through fear, but are any of you guys worried that you could 'catch' something from a toilet?

 

[FarmerChick]

HA HA I agree Kate.
'they' make 'anything and everything' seem horrible to the max cause they want to sell their product to you.

No a toilet isn't going to kill ya anytime soon. I do normal cleaning...I am not a germ freak at all.


it is all about advertising and doing what it takes to make you buy their stuff to save yoru life LOL

 

[hillfarm]

I use a bleach and water wipe down and I clean the inside with the same. We have never had any cooties from it. Keeps things sanitized and clean, IMO. Im still not green when it comes to the bathroom. I want to be, but I like the idea that bleach is on the potty. My two guys have bad aim.

But all these cleaners and such, i dont see the point. Unless you have hard water rings, then maybe.

 

[Denim Deb]

Ever watch Myth Busters? They did a show on toilet germs.

 

[valmom]

I think Mythbusters did a show on this- germs from the toilet migrating to the toothbrush. They put a toothbrush next to the toilet and one next to the sink. The sink one cultured more germs.

 

[curly_kate]

I'd heard about that Mythbusters ep, but as gross as it sounds, I wondered what the big deal was. All these years I have been brushing my teeth with a toothbrush that potentially harbors toilet-germs, and I don't seem to have had any ill effects from it...that I know of. But maybe that's the reason I seem to be losing brain cells as I get older!

 

[FarmerChick]

I think we lose more brain cells smelling those chemical cleaners instead of toilet germs

 

[Marianne]

Think of all the years that people used outhouses that never got sanitized. I want my bathrooms to be cleaner than that, but I'm not a germ-a-phob at all.

I wonder if they just rinsed out the chamber pots instead of washing with soap? The little things we take for granted, huh.

 

[Britesea]

I don't use bleach on my toilet because we have iron in the water and bleach will 'set' the iron stain into the porcelain. Vinegar or hydrogen peroxide for me. No one has gotten any weird rashes or anything, and we are rarely sick, so I think that either we have become immune to toilet germs due to exposure, or my cleaning methods keep the bad guys at bay.

One thing I use in my cleaning is a Reka cloth. It's a micro-fiber cloth that was originally created as a replacement for fleeces for burn victims, but the inventor discovered that it did a fine job cleaning as well. An experiment was run in a hospital, where 1/2 of a room was cleaned using the hospital's usual procedure and the other half was cleaned using a Reka cloth and cold water. Bacterial counts were taken from the walls before cleaning, immediately after cleaning, and 24 hours later. After cleaning, the wall cleaned using regular procedures had the expected very low germ count. The Reka-cleaned side was slightly higher, but still within safety parameters. The interesting finding was that 24 hours later, the wall cleaned with regular procedures had a bacterial count nearly as high as before it was cleaned, while the wall cleaned with nothing but Reka and cold water was almost as low as it had been shortly after cleaning. Apparently the Reka cloth, while not actually KILLING bacteria, cleaned so thoroughly that there was nothing available to the bacteria to feed on, thus limiting their regrowth.

I just throw the Reka cloth in the washing mashine, and dry in the sun to kill any bacteria that might be growing on it.

My problem is, there isn't anyone selling Reka in this area, and I don't know what I will do when the ones I have finally wear out.

 

[abifae]

I'm with you FC. I think we lose brain cells to the chemicals and the germs themselves aren't gonna kill us.

Have any of them met infants or potty training toddlers? I mean, feces EVERYWHERE and no one gets sick. You would think pre-industrial never existed and all the animals in the wild keel over dead because they poop. If it was that big a deal, no animals would currently exist.

I just use vinegar-water to clean everything. If I've been sick (like nasty bathroom sick), I will use bleach. That's about as germophobe as I get