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Bathrooms: you poop in them, and therefore sometimes they smell like poop. There’s no real getting around it, unless you want to install some sort of industrial-grade carbon-filtered fan system, which would probably work but honestly? It’s poop. We all make it, and it’s not like a stinky bathroom is a surprise. (How dare this place where people poop smell like poop?!)
That said, there are a few common sense ways to make your bathroom stink less after its gotten a fecal workout. Stop snickering for a couple seconds, and let’s talk about it.
So, of course you should make use of all technology available to you: turn on a fan and open a window. Yes, duh. But there are a couple other things too.
Minimize Particulate
Flushing toilets are an awesome joy of modern life, but their method of swirling the water around actually sends a misty geyser of water (AND POO!) into the air. Here’s a choice quote from a guy named Charles Gerba, PhD, a professor of microbiology at University of Arizona in Tucson: “Polluted water vapor erupts out of the flushing toilet bowl and it can take several hours for these particles to finally settle — not to mention where.”
I’m not a germphobe at all, so I’m actually not worried about where the particles might finally settle, but I do hate the smell of poop, and those “polluted water vapors” smell like poop. So regardless of how you feel about germs, shutting the toilet bowl can minimize poop smells. Heck, you can even flush the toilet while still sitting down, using your own body to prevent the poop air from circulating. (Although your butt may get wet.)
The ol’ “light a match” trick
It’s an old trick for a reason, but you can make it a little more snazzy by having your own DIY matchbooks on the back of the toilet.
Excuse to clean!
If the bathroom smells particularly bad, use the odor as an excuse to do a couple minutes of cleaning. Take out your cleaning product of choice and take literally two minutes to wipe down the bathroom sink, or clean the bathroom mirror. By the time you’re done, the bathroom will smell as much like clean sink as it does like poop … which is better than just smelling like poop.
Surely you’ve got a trick you’ve learned that we’ve missed. Don’t leave us in the stink! What’s your freshest-smelling idea?
IMHO all closing the lid does is trap the poo smell as a nice surprise for the next person who comes in.
In my house, we keep a vase full of incense sticks and a pretty box of matches on the back of the toilet. We light the incense before we leave the room. It works great.
Thanks for this!
We’ve just moved into a new flat where the bathroom is opposite the kitchen and the thought of poo smells drifting is already worrying me.
Will definately be trying some/all of these.
My lovely fiance always sprays air freshner. Yes, he’s very considerate, but the problem is this:
“I smell flowers. Did you poop?”
My mother has ruined lavender for me. Me: “I smell poo,” Husband: “we just walked by a lavender bush.”
Side note: This comment just made me laugh so hard that tears ran down my face and my husband ran into the bedroom to see WTF was wrong with me. 🙂
My husband hates when people spray air freshener after pooping – it usually doesn’t get rid of the odors so it just ends up smelling like you dropped a deuce in a perfume factory.
made me think of this
Oh, HEART Target Women.
Wallflowers by Bath & Body works. i love the fresh linen and the bamboo scent. one in each room! i only buy them when they are on sale, but each oil scent plug diffuser lasts a month and a half!
Yankee Candle Fluffy Towles scent. Smells like dryer sheets!
I happen to be addicted to Lush products, especially the bath bombs, so I keep them in a basket on the back of the toilet (in baggies so they don’t get ruined by humidity, etc), but the conglomeration of scents in my tiny bathroom really does help it to stay smelling nice.
(I also have Febreeze air freshener in there for the bad times, although apparently my father has never noticed it when he comes to visit.)
Arm and Hammer has a baking soda neutralizing spray for litter boxes. I keep it in our bathroom, works just as well on humans 🙂
i didn’t read through the comments, so sorry if someone already said this…BUT…
i keep a little bottle of eucalyptus oil on top of the toilet and drop in 1-2 little drops after flushing. it makes it smell soo nice and stays for awhile!
I use Ozium spray… it’s used in hospitals and schools, and completely eliminates odour-causing particulates.
I also have a Scentbug from Bath & Body Works that works really well.
Lavender essential oil spray is the best thing that’s ever happened to my bathroom. The trick is to spray it IN the toilet bowl as well as in the air around it.
We tried Lysol and other fresheners to get rid of that poop smell, but it only ended up making it smell like flowery poop (which isn’t a great combination. When I got pregnant, my nose became really sensitive to those aerosols so I forbad them.
So my husband lights a match and then flushes that down the toilet. Best thing ever.
Scentsy! took the place of all my candles, plug-in’s, and sprays (though I do still use the scentsy sprays when a room needs a little extra kick!…like I got distracted and forgot to throw poopy diaper away!) I have 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 cats (one who pees all over my basement….grrrr)and we are home most of the time … my house can really start to stink after a long winter hibernation … :)… I have a scentsy warmer in every room of the house and love having so many smells to choose from.
i live in a tiny apartment with three cats, and the litterbox is also in the bathroom, so I think people just assume it’s the cats…but I have a grapefruit candle from Williams Sonoma that works quite well for human and pet odors.
Don’t flush while sitting down if you can help it!! Yes, it blocks bacteria…aka shit particles…from entering the air and landing on your toothbrush, but that just means the particles land on your nether parts. A serious infection/reaction is unlikely to occur regularly, but it is possible!
Serious infection from particulate that came out of my body landing on my cheeks? Sources, please? This just seems really, REALLY unlikely.
I think it’s more referring to your bajingo- cystitis is caused by poop particles entering the urethra. (http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/cystitis/Pages/Introduction.aspx) it’d be pretty difficult to get them in from flushing, i have to say (babies wear nappies with poop and don’t get infections) but if you wipe front to back then you can push some poop up in there. careful how you wipe!
Method has a toliet bowl cleaner that is mint-eucolyptus scented. That smell pretty much covers up anything in the bathroom.
i use a great odor eliminator called Just A Drop
works the best. one drop in the toilet before I go and 1 drop in the toilet after i go.
bathroom smells great!
This may seem obvious but scrubbing the toilet every so often is great for getting rid of lingering pee/poop odors. But aside from that I’ve gotten some great natural cleaning ideas! And even more reasons to buy more essential oils 😛
The Original Incense Match! Basically, it’s just lighting a match and flushing it down the toilet, but it comes in wonderful fragrances, and you get to ply with fire!
Does the best job on poop-stink, IMHO.
I don’t have time to sit and read all the comments now, but I did have a few questions. What do you suggest if your toilet doesn’t have a lid? (I’m not flushing while sitting, that’s just icky). What exactly does lighting a match do to the smell? In my dorm bathroom cleaning wouldn’t do much. It smells gross because the steam from the showers traps in the smell, there’s no vents/fan (no lid on the toilets), and since the doors shut on their own, all that smell just gets trapped inside and it’s just always muggy and poop-smelly.
This always works;
1. If there’s a window in the bathroom, OPEN IT before you sit on the toilet.
2. There’s a deodorizer for this, it’s called…JUST ONE DROP. You place a drop in the bowls before you sit, but I recommend two drops.
3. Regardless of the above, flush the crapper after each plop. This won’t allow enough time for the poop smell to permeate.
4. Put two drops of the deodorant in the bowl after each flush, if you have it.
5. After your final flush, fan the room with a towel in the direction of the window, if there is one.
6. A match works well, but it’s obvious why you lit it. So if you don’t want the stench without people knowing what you did, follow my advice.
7. Be sure to look in the toilet after the final flush to be sure all contents have disappeared.
I read this tip a few months ago, and it really does work. This is valuable info for a one bedroom house and those untimely office poops. God I hate those.
Just put a couple drops of Eucalyptus oil in the toilet bowl BEFORE you take a crap. I don’t know what it does, but it somehow surrounds the delivered pile of stink and prevents it from ripening the whole bathroom.
It really works!
I think this is one of those times where being Asian/having access to Asian things just makes me laugh sadly at the rest of heathen humanity (joking!) But seriously, this entire article hasn’t been a problem for me since I was a little kid and we started having these in all our bathrooms: http://www.amazon.com/One-Drop-Powerful-Bathroom-Deodorizer-Pack/dp/B0051AOIWA
In a rare case of truth in advertisement, it really does literally take one drop. You put it in the toilet before you poop (or, if you have a “surprise”, while you’re on the pot) and flush normally (I do close the lid for the article’s aforementioned reason). It may take a couple minutes to fully air out, but usually by the time you’re done washing your hands, there is no odor at all, and our bathroom is tiny and not at all ventilated. And in the scheme of things, while the drops aren’t cheap, it lasts for a long while since you use so little of it, and it’s certainly no more expensive than plugins or sprays that honestly don’t do as good a job of actually deodorizing, just covering up the smells.
As has been said: put a few drops of essential oils (or pretty much any oil) in the loo before you poo and you will not get 90% of the smell. Seals it in, under the water, don’t cha know. I use eucalyptus oil to mask the remaining smell and for the mild antigermification it affords. If you want to get fancy put it in a pump spray.
Hi there,
If there is anything I hate it is the smell of poop after someone has used the toilet. In my apartment, it is really bad because our toilet door is literally right beside the main outside door to the apartment, so when you come in the first thing you smell is poop.
I use to use air freshness but that only masks the smell, it does not take it away completely. But I have finally found the cure.
It has been one year plus now and my home is poop-smelling-free! Hahahaha!
I buy a bulk if my favourite incense and store then in the cupboard. I always leave the incense box on top of my bathroom window along with a lighter on the side. All one had to do is light it up when they are about to do a number 2. Instantly the smoke engulfs the smell. All you smell is incense.
Try it guys. It works like a charm.
Porcelain Company has a fantastic product that really works! http://www.porcelainco.com