apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

For me, the toilette seat isn't a debate: You put it down. As a woman with bad vision, I stand a strong chance of getting a wet butt if the seat is left up at night. It's just a thoughtful element that goes a long way. You can learn a lot about a man by whether he leaves the seat up or down....

I like the shower curtain closed so I can see the whole design on it.

kaytied, I have a similar pet peeve--I like even the lid down, though, after the toilet's been used. When I was a kid, though, I'd have to put the seat up--I shared a bathroom with my four older brothers!

And like LauraZ, my shower curtain is always closed, to show the design, help the liner dry out, and to hide my cheap shampoo. ;)

Making sure there's always toilet paper on the holder is also at the top of my list!

Towels should be hung on the towel rack. No wet towels on the door know, slung over the curtain rod or left on the floor.

i share a bathroom with my boyfriend. since we are still at his place for the time being, i try to keep my dirtiness to a minimum. basically just make sure there is TP under the sink, try to wipe up the hair after i blow dry (kinda made that one up myself out of courtesy), and dont leave metal in the shower (leaves rust rings). other than that, its more about trying to minimize the clutter.
having had roommates, we usually had our own toiletries- basically you just clean up after yourself. refill the TP roll, wipe up all the wetness, and if something spills clean it up!

Wash your hands. With soap.

My boyfriend and I are pretty good about keeping the bathroom tidy. We have a cute medicine cabinet with glass in the doors, so we organize our daily used toiletries (tin of q-tips, deoderant, tylenol, bobbypins etc) as if they were on display in a store (he likes to face things in the cupboards too).
I always wipe the sink if there's toothpaste drying in it, close the showercurtain (unless the window is open). The whole toilet seat issue isn't really an issue since our toilet seat wasn't installed properly and it has to be held up to stay up. Mwahahahaha... It's excellent. It falls down automatically and I never have to worry about harrassing the man about it.

This is very superficial (but probably understandable for anyone reading this), but we spent a lot of time/money figuring out a color scheme we like - it peeves me when people leave things out that blatantly don't match! Especially ugly, branded plastic tubs of cosmetic stuff like a pea green tub of face wipes. That's why we got that nice cabinet!

The key to the strength of my 17 year marriage is separate bathrooms. When we were co-op shopping here in New York 4 years ago, 1 bathroom was a deal breaker. Our persistence paid off.

My rule is that the sink must be rinsed out completely, meaning there ought to be NO evidence remaining in the sink of anyone having brushed their teeth or shaved. My husband's rule is that the toilet paper needs to be put on correctly - but I still don't know if that means over or under?? LOL

TP is always over, not under! :)

Don't use the Method after shower spray if guests are coming over ... unless you want to kill them with the overwhelming ylang ylang fumes and then steal their jewelry.

Also, if the cat "misses" the box, whoever sees it first has to clean it up immediately, and then inform the cat that we're taking her back to the shelter (this happens about twice a month, but the fact that we haven't taken her back yet seems to embolden her).

Shower curtain closed, TP on the right way, extra TP in its storage space, clean sink, hairless tub...I ask for a lot. But, pretty soon I will be room-mate-less! Yiipppeeee

oh - it was such a blessing to leave the roommatte situation behind years ago. I constatly had to clean this girls hair and her hair fell a lot - one time I even snapped after a very tiring day - and then I was the bad guy...

cakekick - I am LOL-ing to your comment about the smelly things. I have perfumes in the bathroom - bathrooms should smell clean - not perfumy... :-)

I live alone, so I don't really have to worry about it either way. When I've lived with other people, I think my "rules" were pretty minimal -- basic cleanliness. Don't leave globs of hair products or toothpaste in the tub or sink, etc.

The toilet seat thing never really bothered me. Either way, one of us is going to have to move the toilet seat, and I don't really care which one of us it is.

I have long hair, and it's impossible to keep it from getting everywhere, but I don't leave globs of it lying around.

One thing that does kind of gross me out is little bits of shaved hair in the sink or tub.

the shower curtain must be closed and bath towels and hand towels must me neatly folded on the rack. it drives me absolutely bonkers when someone uses my bath towels to dry their hands when i always have a hand towel hanging next to the sink.

Cakekick---

My cat used to "miss the box," too, until I read somewhere that cats really don't like the feel of tinfoil on their feet. I spread tinfoil on all sides of the litterbox for a few weeks, and she hated it so much she would always get entirely into the box. Solved my problem, and after a while, I didn't have to lay the foil out anymore.

I really detest when people use my hand towels and then rumple it up on the towel bar. Um - wtf? It was hanging nice and folded why wouldn't someone put it back that way?

A poem by the dear departed writer William Rossa Cole:

A thing with which
I cannot cope
Is pubic hairs
on bars of soap.

Aulaire,
I am with you!!!

also, I hate when people leave tampon boxes in plain sight (and I do consider the medicine cabinet in plain sight...because you know that is where your company looks first).

very simple: don't just clean yourself, clean up AFTER yourself !

i hate going to someone else's house and they don't have a hand towel put out. what do you do? wipe newly-clean hands on their sometimes-damp bath towel (double eew)?

I live with my gf and our bathroom is such a disaster, as in tiles coming off the walls and floor, enamels chipped and stained beyond repair, and worse, that we have essentially given up on maintaining any kind of rule and order beyond basic cleaning. When we finally move out of this flophouse of an apartment, though, things will change!

I don't like when people wear shoes into the bathroom, especially when I have white or light-colored rugs down. I try to wipe out my hair out of the sink after blowdrying and to rinse all the toothpaste residue, and expect others to do the same. I also like the shower curtain closed unless it's a very sunny day and I want extra light in the apartment.

Toilet lid down.

1. Pick up the bath mat and put it over the tub side or shower door. I had a house mate who would walk her nasty dirty shoes all over it, and I'd get dirty hairy feet when I got out of the shower.

2. Use the washcloth kept handy for the sole purpose of blotting up sink-splash.

3. No make-up on my bath linens, and no make up in the sink (rinse or wipe it away).

Now I live alone, and my boyfriend and I just visit. It's so very nice that I may never live with someone again... or at least require separate baths. I have a hypothesis that duplexes would save many a marriage... but I digress.

Hmmm... it seems to me that there are a lot nerotic people out there than I realized!
Here's my weigh in:
I live with one boy. That puts the gender debate about toilet seats at 50/50. I've learned to check before I sit, even in the dark and as such I've also learned to keep a very clean toilet.
He never forgets to flush, so I can't complain.
As for the rest of the place, the bathroom should always be clean and tidy. It's a very small room so it's not hard to keep clean, and as someone who enjoys the sense of accomplishment of cleaning a whole room, I like cleaning the bathroom.

My first rule is keep very thing neat and super clean for any guest. After that I try my very best. Until recently we had one bathroom, and now we have two and one half. The half bath is ALWAYS super clean. Hand towels are always there and more fresh ones in sight. My hubby and I no longer share a bath so one is very clean and one not. He's a lot of work to clean up after... he's just not a neat person, but means well.

When we have over night guests everything is in order. I also always make sure to have lots of nice shower gels. That way my guest never have to worry about the bar soap.