Today, I’d like to talk about an uncomfortable subject – your toilet. Well, really I’d just like to talk about its’ lid.
Your toilet is unsightly. I don’t care how gleaming white it sparkles or how expensive that upgraded model cost. Seeing an open toilet is a reminder of what goes on *ahem* in there. Particularly if you have a bathroom in an easily seen part of your home (our powder bath is right off of the entry way), go ahead and keep that toilet lid closed.
Other than an open toilet lid being an eyesore, there’s another good reason to keep that lid closed…
One day when my sister was about 6 months old (I was about four and on a playdate at a friend’s house), my mom was at home with her and my father decided to come home for lunch. Before he left to go back to the office, my dad walked into the master bathroom and found found a big surprise. There was a snake – and not just any snake, but a Water Moccasin – curled up on the toilet seat.
To say that my dad is terrified of snakes would be an understatement. He slammed the door shut and shoved bath towels underneath the crack between the door and the carpet. Clearly, he couldn’t let the snake escape the bathroom.
Panicked, my mom did what any other person would do – she called the police. How else were they going to get the snake out of the bathroom? The Police Department in our small town recommended that she call Animal Control. Unfortunately, Animal Control’s offices were closed for lunch. Desperate, my mom called back to the Police Department and demanded that someone come out and help. I’m pretty sure that tears were involved, although that has never been confirmed.
A few minutes later, two of our small town’s finest, came roaring into our driveway – lights flashing, sirens blazing. My parents led them into the bathroom, where they came face-to-face with the snake.
Unsure of how to proceed, the police did the only thing they could think of – they knocked the snake off of the toilet, followed it as it slithered into the bedroom, and then beat it to a bloody pulp with their billy clubs – all on my mother’s brand new carpet. Once the snake was nice and smashed, they tied a rope around it and carried out outside to the trashcan.
The next day, my parents had a plumber visit the house. They wanted to know if there was some sort of snake trap they could put in the toilet to ensure that the scene would never, ever be repeated. You see, we lived across the street from a neighborhood lake in a newly developing area, and it was determined that the snake must have somehow gotten into the sewer system through the open plumbing pipes at one of the new homes. The plumber laughed at the snake trap request and said, “Well, the only thing you can do is to keep ‘yer lid shut.“
This story may sound like an urban legend, but I can assure you that it is not. It was such a big news in our little town, that the local newspaper actually ran a story on it. My mom still has a copy of the story tucked away in an old photo album. I’ll try to find it the next time I am at my parents’ house so I can show you proof.
To this day, I never go into the bathroom at night without turning on the lights, and I always keep my toilet lid shut. How about you?
OOOOOO Lindsey how terrible.. Lucky for us we have never encountered a snake in the loo. But I am definately a seat down person. I can’t stand the thought of it up, and with 2 young lads in the house it’s the constant battle..
I like the lid down simply because I think it looks nicer ( I mean why would you want to look down the look). I think it’s more hygenic too? Maybe I don’t know I just prefer it down. Another plus is that if you drop anything its going to hit the lid and swim off down the swanny lol
Have a great day!
When I lived in a household full of men, my biggest toilet issue was just getting them to put the seat down! Now that everyone is grown up and moved away, I always keep the lid down because it really does look so much better that way.
Oh my! I keep the lid down because I think it’s unsightly with it up. My hubby and son both put the seat down (well done guys, I’ve trained you both well!)
The only problem I’d encounter in my toilet is when the little on forgets to flush and leaves her own little surprise there for us!
Thanks for sharing your story with us all.
x
Yikes! I’ll bet that you look everytime you lift the lid. I’m very lucky that my husband’s mom trained him to keep the lid down.
I’ve always heard stories like that and wondered if they were true. And I never go to the bathroom at night without “checking” first either. Wow.
Yikes! Perhaps that will be the reason that will finally convince the hubby to keep the lid shut!
One of my clients was taking photos for her house in order to sell. A restoration style bathroom looked perfect except for the toilet. Yikes the lid was up and it was already on a website. I called her imediately and told her to change it. No one wants to see that, luckily she had time to change it. Photo ops are definately lid down moments.
OH. MY. GOODNESS! Now you have me all freaked out & we don’t have any poisonous snakes in Maine!
My rule (for the seat) is this: 100% of the time a female uses the toilet she sits down & 50% of the time a male uses it he sits down. So if you have a man and a woman living in the same house 75% of the time someone is using it the seat must be down, therefore: majority rules!
It stops some men dead in their tracks to hear that lol luckily my husband always remembers!
This is fantastic! I am laughing a little at the thought of the bloody mess on her new carpet! Police love any excuse to use the clubs! Good idea of closing the lid, but training the husband and kids will be the hard one!
Hey having my 1st giveaway so I’d love you to stop on over!
O.M.G.
Having met your parents, I am totally picturing this and it is cracking me up!!
Thank you for a VERY good reason to make sure the lid is shut!
:shiver:
As glad as I am that I read that, I’m afraid I’m going to be terrified every time I go to the bathroom now! When I was in elementary school, I saw (or thought I saw) half a cockroach’s body sticking out of the pipe coming out of one of the sinks. For years I had to thoroughly inspect the toilet to make sure there were no cockroaches. Once something like that gets into your head, it’s hard to get it out!
Oh, I ALWAYS check for spiders, too. That’s another reason why I turn on the light at night. I am such a baby about spiders. ::shudders::
Great story Lindsay. Made me chuckle. We recently had a friend who’s first grader went to use the restroom only to have a drenched squirrel shoot out of the toilet as she lifted the lid. The dog then chased the wet squirrel throughout the house until dad came home and trapped it. Understandably, the little girl wouldn’t go to the restroom by herself for weeks after that.
Oh my gosh! That’s like the movie Christmas Vacation! Poor little girl!
My in-laws had a squirrel get into their house when they were out of town, and it really destroyed a lot of stuff.
Oops. I should always proof read. That should be whose not who’s. Sorry.
We’ve had this happen before and it’s scary as heck.
I’ve never found a snake in the toilet, but I have heard of a floating mouse before. EW!
OMG!!! Too funny! I’m totally with you on the whole toilet lid thing. And not necessarily because of snakes, just cause it’s the way it should be! Lids are on toilets for a reason, right?! Unfortunately for me, living in house with 4 “men” results in a constant challenge in keeping not only the lid down but the seat! My Hubby’s rationale is that since I’m the only female in house, we should practice democracy, and have ME put the lid and seat UP when I’m done! Imagine!?
Anyway, thanks for a nice chuckle this Monday morning :o) Have a great day!
Y’all are cracking me up. I remember telling my college boyfriend that he had to close the lid, because otherwise my cat would fall in and drown. He totally fell for it…which is perhaps one reason why he wasn’t my boyfriend for much longer.
What-the-what! Part of me was thinking this was going to turn into a joke and I kept looking for the punch line.
That is unbelievable though. Now I’m all scared about snakes in my toilet!
Omg, now I’m going to be scared to go to the bathroom today! I’ve heard of people getting snakes in their toilets, but always thought it was an urban legend type thing.
We always keep our lids down because I’ve read that you should always close the lid when you flush to keep from spreading germs.
Great, now you’ve given me one more thing to worry about! My brother once found a dead squirrel floating in his toilet, which was of course wide open for the poor thing to fall into from the ceiling above. I’m not sure if it drowned or was already on its way to death when it fell, but I can’t imagine it was a pleasant thing to clean up. Better him than me!
I always have to turn on the light before going in at night too!
YIKES! well, I’ll keep it shut now!!
Lindsay — great story! Cracking up first thing this morning. I will never go to the bathroom at night again…and I promise to shut the lid!
Well, my toilet lid stays closed to ward off 2 year old boys. However, I will now be totally paranoid of snakes in the toilet! yikes! 😉
our cats play in the water if we leave the lid up, so we always close it.
plus I read that water particles fly through the air up to 10 feet every time you flush. I don’t know about you, but my toothbrush is within 10 feet of our master bath toilet.
Augh!!!! This post is freaking me out so bad!! Like…I am seriously wondering how the snake got in there in the first place! It must be what you said because how else could a snake get in the septic system? Augh!!
So I am always paranoid about finding something freaky in the toilet and here’s why:
When I was a teen, Dad had us enrolled in a private school. At that time, the school barely had any extra money for stuff and things were back burnered. It was not a rare thing to see giant cockroaches on walls or find them in your locker…or to be in class and hear rats and mice run across the ceiling and run back to the side and munch, munch, munch on something all through a test. Yeah. Craziness. Well, one morning I had to go to the bathroom really bad. When I got in there, it was just starting to fill up with girls because the bell had just rang to let everyone out of class. There was one empty stall and I ran to it quickly, went it and turned around to shut the door. I got situated to go – and started to sit down slowly on the toilet when something told me not to do it without looking. Intuition? I dunno…but I turned around real quick and saw something big and brown and furry in the toilet. HUH?? It was a giant RAT. I kid you NOT. A freakin’ RAT in the TOILET that I was about to sit on!! This thing was as big as a cat. Ridiculous. I quickly and quietly backed out of the stall, pulling clothes back on and when I got safely to the door, I yelled out to everyone to get out because there was a rat in there. To say that it was pandemonium is a gross misrepresentation of the sitchy. Anyway, how in the world did it get in there?? It couldn’t have fit up the toilet, surely. Did it fall out of the hole that was in the ceiling at the time? EEEEeeeww…I am just SO GLAD that I looked before sitting. I am SO GLAD that the stupid thing didn’t bite me!
And that was the SECOND time I had had a personal run-in with a cat-sized rat at that stinkin’ school!! o.O
We are out in the country with our own septic system in our yard…and I sure hope there is no way that anything can come in through there!
OMG seriously.. this EXACT same thing happend at our country home when I was 12. My little sister was the one who found it… Crazy!
YIKES! We started shutting out lids when we brought home our two kittens. My husband was afraid they’d fall into the toilet and drown (never crossed my mind) so we started keeping the lids down. For me, it’s a WIN, WIN, WIN. I never have issues with falling in because he’s left the seat up, I don’t have to see into the bowl every time I walk into the room (a pet peeve of mine and OMG why do people PHOTOGRAPH their bathrooms with the lids up? Gross!), and now that the cats are grown, they don’t confuse the toilets for a water bowl.
Ugh! I have a serious fear of this, for no reason in particular since its never actually happened to me. But I have heard horror stories about snakes in toilets before and, let me tell you, I *always* check before I sit down!!
Thank you so much for the fabric from your big stash giveaway! It arrived over the weekend. I can’t wait to play with it!
Well, that officially, completely creeped me out…I will for sure always turn on the light now. ::shudder::
Oh my gracious! Once while living in middle Georgia I woke up in the early morning and proceeded to sleepily walk into the bathroom. Upon finishing as I was looking down two small eyes peered back at me. There has never before or since been such a scream. Tried to flush it. But it was a sucker frog and it clung to the bowl like nobody’s business.
Lid closed for sure.
I know this to be true because it happened at my house when my boys were small. Seems the clean-out cover in the yard was knocked loose and the snake got in that way. Lucky for us it was still in the toilet when the boys found it, so I was able to slam the lid and flush it down.
All these years later it’s kind of funny, but then? Not so much…
what a great great story! now that is what i call unique content. ha ha. glad everyone was safe in the end.
Actually, there is another reason to keep your toilet lid closed when not in use and that is for Feng Shui reason. Symbolically, the lid make the energy ‘go down the drain’. So if it is in your career corner, well, your career goes down the drain… if it is in your money corner, money keeps on draining, etc.
Keep that lid on firmly, will ya!!
Oh, if you want to know more about Feng Shui, and which area in your house relates to what, here is an excellent overview of the ‘bagua’ (house map): http://therapeuticreiki.com/blog/feng-shui-baqua-to-realize-love-abundance-career-goals-more/ Check it out as she has other insightful articles on Feng Shui there that are of interest to us home decorators/artisans.
Mythbusters did an episode on the germs that make it outside of the toilet when you’re flushing. They put out a bunch of toothbrushes and got them wet with warm water and after two days they found all sorts of yucky toilet germs in the toothbrushes.
Now, I’m sure the germs can still travel, but if your lid isn’t wide open when you’re flushing, my bet is that you’re spreading them just a little bit less. That’s why I shut my lid.
Although, now I’ll do it to avoid snakes too. 🙂
I am so happy for this post! I cannot stand to see the lid open. I MUST put it down no matter where I am, which means sometimes I do it with my foot. I’ve never seen a snake in one, but I did see a scorpion in one, and that is as bad as a snake to me.
Thanks!
You know, sometimes I get sick of wintertime. I think to myself, “it would be so nice to live some place where you can spend time outside more than 5 months out of the year. And then I hear stories like this and I decide I can handle the cold.
I keep the lid down, as do my husband and kids. Why else would there be a lid??? I so dislike seeing an open toilet. I have been known to turn the light on at night as some little ‘inkling’ tells me there might be something in the bowl. You KNOW what that inkling will be from now on…your snake! LOL!
Oh, my dear mercy. I’ve heard those stories before and just chalked them up to urban legend. I’m a believer now! 😉 I always try to keep the lid shut–I just like it better that way. The kids don’t seem to agree with me.
Laughing so hard about the police and their billy clubs.
This is so funny…I’m sending this to all my family…especially my DH and grown boys…so that they will keep the lid down…lol
My DH is already afraid of snakes so this will really scare him to keep the lid closed…I put a lid cover on the toilet because it softens the “noise” of the lid hitting the tank so now I can’t tell when it’s closing…lol Boy don’t ever try to play a joke in your family of leaving a rubber snake in the bathroom…you’d all have heart attacks…oh my!
::blank stare:: Well, I certainly will be keeping my toilet lids closed now!
Haha, so glad I’m not the only one afraid of snakes in the toilet. My husb thinks I’m funny for turning on the light and checking first.
As for the lids themselves, my husb is better at that than I am. I guess his mommy raised him right. 😉 For me, though, we live in South Texas where it can get pretty humid and I’m too frugal to keep the house freezing cold, so my toilets are prone to mildew. Keeping the lid down would meaning cleaning my toilet every day instead of every 5 days.
would mean*
Jona from Fabritopia had a similar experience in that the snake was in her toilet stuck, unknown to her for a few days. UNTIL… he showed up! yikers. Her post on it is actually hilarious – she tells it well.
Snakes and toilets, just not a good combination.
I’m passing the Versatile Blogger Award on to you! Please swing by and check it out!
Oh. My. Gosh.
Now I WILL turn the lights on at night and will always take a look before sitting down.
Eeeeeeeeeek!
Liz
Loving This Mom Stuff
nightmares tonight.
There’s no hope of getting my husband to put the lid down, since he refuses to even put the seat down. Other than that, he’s a wonderful husband.
It’s always been a closed lid for me and our household. I’ve never understood the up or down toilet seat debate since clearly it should be shut. who wants to see in there? Love the story though, maybe you’ll start the trend to be the normal (correct) way, instead of the lazy open seated way. Your poor parents!
Enjoyed reading your story.
I have a similar one…
Not a snake, but a bird. It was sometime during our first year of marriage, we got home from church, and of course I had to go straight to the bathroom. Well, I lifted the lid and something jumped up. Scared to death, I slammed the lid down. I yelled for my husband and when he opened it, we found that it was a bird. It was alive, but when I slammed down the lid, we think I killed it.
The only thing we can think of is that it came down through the sewer exhaust pipe thing that comes out of the roof. That day, my husband went to Lowe’s and got a cap for that pipe!
I am now making sure that all lids are shut-I don’t want any snakes!
{Shudder} I’m totally having nightmares tonight and will forever fully inspect the toilet before sticking my hiny on there. Wouldn’t that be a surprise in the dark!
As a newly divorced woman with a toddler, I moved into a small rental house. One morning, only half-light, say around 6:00-6:30, I went to the restroom, sat down and when I stood to flush, noticed the mouse clinging to the rim of the toilet bowl! There may have been dancing and screaming… now I ALWAYS leave then lid down and ALWAYS check the toilet bowl prior to each use!!!
I’ll never stumble into the dark bathroom in the middle of the night again. Oh my.
I love this story! don’t we all look in the toilet before we sit? Just in case there is something in there that shouldn’t be? Hahahaha….great story. but when I get home…I’m shutting the lid!
Blessings,
Debhbie
Oh my goodness! I am terribly terrified of snakes and (oddly enough as it may sound) always worried when I was little that I would find one in the toilet or some random place. To find that it actually happens….well….maybe that nightmare will be coming back to haunt me! Great story! Gave me a laugh!
I’m going to have nightmares, too! I’ve been told that only happens in houses on septic tanks, so I’ve felt relatively safe in my sewer-connected houses. *shudder*
Yeah, I’m REALLY phobic.
We always close the lid anyway, though, because you’re right – an open lid is gross.
WOW!! How crazy is that!
We keep it shut. I have always kept it shut. My kitties like to play in the water.
I’ve never found a snake but we did find a nice sized frog in there once. We always keep the lid down because our cats and puppy like to play in the water.
I thought the only problem with keeping the lid up might be someone falling in or little kids or cats flushing the toilet just to watch it run.
I was sooooooo wrong.
Never discovered anything coming out of the toilet. However, when you flush, shut the lid. Think about what spews up while the water is swirling and twisting. When scientists do studies of fecal matter that is in the bathroom, it travels after the flush…so, shut the lid and keep the lovely mist where it belongs. I absolutely HATE the tiny bathroom in the old school I work in; it has no lid, so it just spreads the nasty stuff all over. Talk about germ oh rammah!
As a little girl, I was sure that something might be waiting to bite my booty during my middle of the night potty break if we left the toilet lid open. I can remember being so mad at my sister for leaving it up! Looks like my fear wasn’t too far off.
OMG. I am so scared to go use the bathroom now. We have one bathroom under construction and the potty is moved to another room and the pipe is just open. I will be throwing a tile over that pipe until its finished. We already had two copperheads in our yard this year.
Um…thanks for that scary story…I’ll have visions of it as I try to go to sleep tonight. Scary!! I’m gonna demand my toilet lids are closed now. Period.
P.S.
I {love} your blog. I just finished my book page wreath tonight. Yay!!
O.M.G. This happened at my elementry school when I was a kid!!! I’ll never forget it. In the boys bathroom, I must have been in the first grade. I don’t understand what the lid has to do with it? I guess they think there is no where to go?
No. I just can’t take it. I’m dry heaving right now just thinking of this. And now I read all your damn comments to find that Jonah of Fabritopia found a snake in her freakin toilet too. I live by her! Gah!
I ALWAYS shut my lid, but I cannot get my hubby to do so. Our house has an open floor plan, and if you look just right, you can see our toilet from the great room. It DRIVES me crazy when hubby leaves the lid up and the door open. I don’t believe in fung sway? but it totally freaks me. I probably need medication, but that’s another post.
I am horrified!!!! We always keep the lid shut and I am happier than ever that this is a habit in our house.
I NEVER thought of a snake! Never had to. I was an R.N. and as part of my studeis I took Microbiology. Seeing how germs spread was an eye-opener for me- enough to keep the lid down at all times when not in use, ESPECIALLY before flushing! I hate to be gross here, but the ‘spray’ from a just flushed toilet can be dispersed up to 8 feet from the toilet. Keeping that in mind—NEVER keep your toothbrush on the countertop! Sorry, ladies…
another thing you can do to ensure yourself that there are no snakes in the potty is MOVE UP NORTH! Seriously, we get a bad rep due to our cold spells, but we also don’t have funky things in our water. Safe swimming and safe cans. This also applies to big bugs.
That’s crazy! I can’t imagine finding a snake on the toilet seat. Yikes!
ha ha! thanks for sharing this story. When I was a kid my cousin used to always scare me with stories of snakes in the toilet and I never believed her… until now!
Nothing quite as fun as opening the lid to find a big giant rat sitting on its’ haunches and staring at you, a cute little 4 year old, from his wet perch.
Yes, my grandmother’s house years ago.
After my scream, my mom came running and decided to first boil water to pour on it…then she remembered my grandmother’s gun.
Needless to say it was an early 1900’s porcelain toilet bowl (wow, that would have made for a more interesting story all these years!)
Anyway, my grandmother calmly reached from behind her and…
flushed the toilet.
Bye bye rat.