This common bathroom practice could send germs flying everywhere
No matter how thorough you are with cleaning your bathroom, there's one common mistake you could be making that regularly fills the space with germs.
According to home hacks expert Stephanie Booth, that habit is leaving the toilet lid up when you flush. You’ll probably never do it again once you hear what she has to say about it in a TikTok.
@stephanieboothrealtor Who’s still flushing their toilet with the lid open? Close that lid to stop all the nasty bacteria 💩from coming out of your toilet and landing on all your bathroom surfaces #tiptok #germs #hometips #bathroomcleaning ♬ original sound - Stephanie Booth
"Flushing with the lid open launches all that nasty bacteria from what you just put into the toilet, into the air. And all that bacteria lands on all the nearby surfaces, including your toothbrush," she said.
If you're wondering just how true this claim is, it's been backed up by Australia's favourite scientist Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, explaining why it’s such a gross habit in a video of his own.
@drkarl Do you need scientific evidence to make your housemates flush with the toilet lid shut? Here you go 😎 #drkarl #drkarlkruszelnicki #science ♬ original sound - Dr Karl
"If you flush with the toilet lid up a polluted plume of bacteria and water vapour just erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl," he said.
"The polluted water particles, they float around for a few hours around your bathroom before they all eventually land, they will land, and some of them could even land on your toothbrush.
Putting the lid down before flushing is even more important if your toilet is right next to the bathroom vanity where your toothbrush holder sits.
In addition to putting the toilet lid down before flushing, cleaning the toilet on a weekly basis using disinfectant will also help keep the potential for germs spreading down.
Image: TikTok