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Stupid question.....what do you do with the plunger after you've plunged the toilet?


ChristusG
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Humor me LOL.

 

So, what do you do with the plunger after you've plunged the toilet? We have to plunge constantly....it's so annoying. So our plunger is used frequently. There's a differing opinion of what should be done with it in this house LOL.

 

Do you plunge and then just stick it back in its holder? Do you plunge and wash it off in the tub? If you do this, do you feel the need to sanitize the tub afterwards? Do you wash it elsewhere? Do something else with it?

 

Weird question of the day LOL. :laugh:

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After plunging the toilet, I throw away the plunger and buy a new one.  Every time.  I consider them disposable.  :coolgleamA: 

 

Ok, not really.  But I SO WISH I could!  Plungers are soooo nasty.  I haven't come up with a good cleaning method, but generally I flush the toilet a few times, swish the plunger in the water, dump some bleach in the water, swish, flush again.

 

It still completely disgusts me. Our plungers have that flange thingy on them that seems to trap some water inside the plunger which disgusts me even more.  During my swishing-flushing extravaganza after plunging, I also bang it a bunch of times on the inside on the bowl to try to get any of the nasty water out. :ack2: :ack2: :ack2:

 

 

 

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Thankfully I don't have to plunge frequently enough to require a sophisticated system.   :tongue_smilie:

 

What I do is hold it over the bathroom waste basket (which has a liner) to catch any drips and then carry both over to the utility sink in our laundry room.  I rinse it off, pour some bleach over it and let it air dry there before returning it.  I change out the waste basket liner and rinse/bleach the sink once the plunger is dry and back in its place. 

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Our plunger doesn't have a holder.  We put it in the trash can that lives next to the toilet to dry out and then once it's dry, it goes back on the floor.  Gross, I'm sure, but who eats off the floor on the side of the toilet?

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Our toilets are all low flow and don't seem to flush quite right.  We use the plunger a couple times a month.  If it is just liquid in the toilet, after I plunge I just put a splash of bleach in and rinse the plunger in the toilet then let dry beside the toilet.  If it is solid waste, I use a wet wipe on the plunger to wipe it down and then rinse it the same way.   It has a permanent home in the one bathroom that has the most issues.  Luckily it is the kids bath upstairs and not our guest powder downstairs!  LOL

 

No biggie, no fuss.  

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It has never occurred to me to clean my Plunger. I think I've only used it in sinks and the tub. But I just put it back in the closet, in a bucket. If I have to plunge the sink, I have to clean the sink after. If it's the tub that's clogged, it's usually just a toy or a clump of nasty hair (shudder) .

why sanitize something that goes right back into the toilet? Do you disinfect the toilet brush too? I'm just not following the logic.

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We just give it a swish in the toilet after the clog has been cleared and set it in the back corner behind the toilet. Our climate is dry so it doesn't turn into a permanent germ colony. We only handle the upper handle part.

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It has never occurred to me to clean my Plunger. I think I've only used it in sinks and the tub. But I just put it back in the closet, in a bucket. If I have to plunge the sink, I have to clean the sink after. If it's the tub that's clogged, it's usually just a toy or a clump of nasty hair (shudder) .

why sanitize something that goes right back into the toilet? Do you disinfect the toilet brush too? I'm just not following the logic.

We have a sink plunger (a small short one made for sinks) and a bathroom one.  I don't think I could use the bathroom one in the kitchen.   :ack2:  Well, I guess I could if I had to but that would require some serious sanitizing afterward!

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We do the same: swish it in the toilet once it's unplugged and the toilet water is clean. If it seems extra gross, then I'll run and get the Comet, toss some of it in the toilet, and then swish the plunger in that.

 

We only ever need the plunger for the toilet.

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It has never occurred to me to clean my Plunger. I think I've only used it in sinks and the tub. But I just put it back in the closet, in a bucket. If I have to plunge the sink, I have to clean the sink after. If it's the tub that's clogged, it's usually just a toy or a clump of nasty hair (shudder) .

why sanitize something that goes right back into the toilet? Do you disinfect the toilet brush too? I'm just not following the logic.

I do sanitize the toilet brush, I thought everyone did. Keeping it clean means I never have to worry about one of my small kids grabbing it or a visitor's kid. I have a kot of people with toddlers over and they seem to touch everything.

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Ugh, I am grossed out by toilet plungers.  When we were first married DH set it on the floor beside the toilet.  Gross.  I eventually got a holder for it at least.  I am in the "clean it in the toilet" camp.  Swish in the toilet after the clog is gone, if solid waste is present, throw some cleaner in there, swish some more, back in the holder.  The idea of it touching the floor creeps me out too much.

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I do the same as everyone else, I swish it in the toilet after the toilet is clean.  Every once in a while I soak it in a bucket of bleach.  We keep it in the laundry room.  Once dd had her boyfriend over, from upstairs we heard, "Jeannie, bring me the plunger" from dh.  My dd was so embarrassed.

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I got hit with a security check again, so weird.

 

Anyway I answered long before so I will try to shorten it. The plunger gets swished in the clean toilet, left to air dry next to the toilet and then sprayed with lysol spray before going back in the cupboard. I am paranoid about it spreading e.coli in the cupboard or something

 

Toilet brushes I am not as paranoid about,because it's job calls for it to be covered with cleaner not poo. Though I supposed if someone let their toilet get that disgustingly dirty that there was poo on it everywhere I could see cleaning that. But I just see the toilet brush as being cleaner than the plunger.

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My toilets work well but 2 of my kids bowels do not. I have one that has been dealing with encopresis and one with early stages of it. Fortunately I have figured out some of the food triggers BUT not before needing to put a plunger to good use often.

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I do sanitize the toilet brush, I thought everyone did. Keeping it clean means I never have to worry about one of my small kids grabbing it or a visitor's kid. I have a kot of people with toddlers over and they seem to touch everything.

I keep mine in a closet. I don't worry about anyone touching it. 

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I know that the toilets are a different design in Australia but it seems that they must work way better as well. I have never ever seen a plunger in someone's bathroom, never heard of anyone needing one and don't even know where I would buy one.

 

The reason it's a problem in the US is that only low-flow toilets are sold now in an attempt to save water.  The earlier ones weren't low-flow, and they flushed just fine. 

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The reason it's a problem in the US is that only low-flow toilets are sold now in an attempt to save water. The earlier ones weren't low-flow, and they flushed just fine.

Toilets in some countries are actually set up very differently. German toilets are amazing, but they dont't have much water in the bowl itself (when we moved back to the US, my kids were constantly accidentally getting their clothes wet), they have 2 buttons-little flush" and "big flush," they put out only a little more water while flushing, but the whole plumbing system is different.

 

Dh says the toilets in Australia were like American toilets.

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My daughter wanted to buy a plunger at the dollar store yesterday.

That's so funny to me, as ds6 was after one yesterday when we were at the hardware store.. He was trying them out in his head. I refused to buy one on the grounds that they wouldn't stick because if his hair, but promised that if he ever shaved his head we'd revisit the issue!

 

Australian toilets are low flow and dual flush, and we haven't had to use the plunger in the 4 years we've been here. We spent a month in a villa on an island in the Philippines though, and discovered that Filipino toilets are not made for toilet paper. The plunger got a lot of use before we instituted the system of a bin for 'clean' toilet paper. Icky but better than needing to use the plunger!

 

We simply washed the plunger and stored it outside and out of reach of children that time, but my preferred system would definitely involve bleach.

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The reason it's a problem in the US is that only low-flow toilets are sold now in an attempt to save water.  The earlier ones weren't low-flow, and they flushed just fine. 

The Aussie toilets are completely different . They are not brimful of water, there is just a tiny puddle into the bottom. when you flush it water rushes into the bowel from just under the seat and washes everything down the pipe, none of that funny swirling around floaty thingy that happens with US toilets. The Aussie toilets use way less water, 6 liters for a full flush and 3 liters for a half flush.

 

The first time I want to Canada I got a pretty big shock seeing a toilet full  to the brim of water :scared:  

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Toilets in some countries are actually set up very differently. German toilets are amazing, but they dont't have much water in the bowl itself (when we moved back to the US, my kids were constantly accidentally getting their clothes wet), they have 2 buttons-little flush" and "big flush," they put out only a little more water while flushing, but the whole plumbing system is different.

 

Dh says the toilets in Australia were like American toilets.

the toilets in Australia are not like the American ones at all.

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The Aussie toilets are completely different . They are not brimful of water, there is just a tiny puddle into the bottom. when you flush it water rushes into the bowel from just under the seat and washes everything down the pipe, none of that funny swirling around floaty thingy that happens with US toilets. The Aussie toilets use way less water, 6 liters for a full flush and 3 liters for a half flush.

 

The first time I want to Canada I got a pretty big shock seeing a toilet full to the brim of water :scared:

Not my American toilets. Sure there's water in the bowl that may be more than those in Australia (can't say as I've yet to visit,) but nothing filled to the brim or else we'd experience an over flow. :x We now have low flow toilets which I'm not fond of. I wouldn't mind something dual flush. Alas, we rent so the ultimate decision is not ours.

 

As to the OP, when used (and not as often it seems as you) the plunger is rinsed in clean toilet water, sprayed over the bowl with a cleaner like Lysol, rinsed with not water in the tub, and left there to dry. We don't have a holder but then ours is a weird shaped one that we got at Home Depot.

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The things I do for this board!  Yes, I really did this.  I just went and measured the water level in my low flow, American toilet.  The best measurement I can come up with--because I was NOT going to let the ruler actually touch anything--is that the water is about 8 inches below the top of the rim of the toilet.  Anytime the water level comes anywhere near the rim . . . well, you better go get the plunger.

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For the first link, ewww....

 

One must open the door without washing one's hands and go to another room to complete the task. Te potential for contamination is great. I'd spend a lot of time cleaning doorknobs.

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The water in the toilet bowl in my Canadian not low flush toilet is not to the brim at all. If it was that would mean it was needing to be plunged. Now when I flush the water comes rushing out from under the rim to flush it down. It does fill up a bit first then everything goes down before the under the rim water slightly fills the bowl again. Never in the process unless there is a problem does the bowl fill to the brim

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We are in an old house with bad plumbing. At best guess there is a right angle in the plumbing under the toilet. We have to use the thinnest 2-ply paper we can find, and still have daily clogs. So the plunger gets used a lot. After use it gets swished in the toilet and put in a terra cotta flower pot saucer next to and behind the toilet.

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One must open the door without washing one's hands and go to another room to complete the task. Te potential for contamination is great. I'd spend a lot of time cleaning doorknobs.

The Aussies don't appear to be in danger of dying out, so I suspect this nation-wide experiment in toilet hygiene rather disproves the theory of contamination from door handles!

 

It's the same in South Africa, at least in older houses.

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I put ours in a bucket of bleach water.  We used to have to use one a lot, but replacing the toilets helped a lot.  I've only used it once since then.

 

Same here.  After we got our Toto toilets, we've only had to use a plunger once in over two years.  Before that, it was multiple times a month.

 

Although I never dealt with the plunger.  That was ALWAYS DH's duty.

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The reason it's a problem in the US is that only low-flow toilets are sold now in an attempt to save water. The earlier ones weren't low-flow, and they flushed just fine.

The early low flows were awful. My parents have them in their house and they plunge all the time. The newest low flows are MUCH better. We've had 2 for 9 months after remodeling 2 bathrooms and have plunged one time.

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