I think a lot of women just don't realize flushing tampons can be a problem with plumbing, because the packaging says it is ok to flush. Certainly tell your g.f''s not to flush them, they will understand if you tell them its a plumbing issue. I would not show them the plumbing bill though, no need to make them uncomfortable and embarrassed.) And I like the idea of a small basket with disposal bags and a few extra tampons/pads. Also a cute sign, like the one in the frame, is a good idea. This way, with the sign and the basket, anyone who hasn't been told of the "no flushing policy" will see it for themselves when they use the bathroom.

Don't women carry their own tampons any more?

Linelle, yes, they're wet wipes.

I'm with Trebruchet, about the responses :) I am totally amazed. But I think it is a discussion that is important and where else can it take place?

I like the simple sign idea, that says something like: Our specialty TP only, into the toilet, everything else into the trash. Maybe also mention that due to your particular plumbing setup this is imperative.

Several weeks ago after last DS graduated from Iowa State University, we were helping him get his last few things out of the apartment. Muddy feet tramping around needed toweled up before we walked out the door. I threw him the paper towels for the upstairs bathroom floor. He wiped the floor prints up. I yelled up to him as an after thought "and don't throw the paper towel in the toilet!" His response was a yell back "too late!" as I heard the toilet finish flushing. Guess what, it over flowed...where's the plunger! In roommate Justin's truck, heading home to Minneapolis. Dang!

Last weekend I helped my daughter move to a new apartment in San Francisco. We were almost done and had to use the bathroom one last time. She'd already packed the toilet paper. We tore a paper towel into small pieces and use that. I'm sorry. :(

"@ trebruchet - will you post a link to your column?"

mdlm:

Gardenweb is mighty fussy about advertising, but I'm sure my double secret probation is almost over. Google countertopiq and you'll probably find me. If not, email me and I'll send a link.

I agree with a lot of comments above.
I am 49, and back in "5th grade" we were taught that both the tampon and the card board applicator were flushable. I even remember the little pamphlet from the feminine product company our mothers gave us with the information presented in a non-threatening "3 friends who are pen pals writing letters to each other" about this whole topic. And it was right there that both the tampon and cardboard applicator were flushable, and that Susie didn't know that and she wrapped them and put them in the trash.

It wasn't until I lived in a house with old plumbing that there was ever a problem that I was taught by a plumber about these things.

So I guess our suburban toilets in the 1970s with there huge water tanks and relative new plumbing apparently could handle it.

I will also add that I worry if I am at someone's house and they only have an open trash can that a pet will get into the trash and eat the product and have a huge vet bill. So in that situation I am forced by this thought to wrap wrap wrap and then find the kitchen trash. So people, please put in a bathroom trash can with a lid.

And I think men are guilty of flushing things like Q tips and paper towels, and probably condoms. So if you go to the trouble to make a sign, say only TP and #1, #2. Everything else in the trash.

When I was a kid, my brother (8 years older) and I shared a bathroom. Like clockwork, he would cause the toilet to clog.

Yet another wolf girl here. I go back to the '60's when you could flush ANYTHING! I recall watching a builder put sheetrock (wallboard) down a toilet. 5+ gal flushes could take almost anything. Our original toilets were builder Kohlers in 1964. Once after washing the bathroom floor, I dumped the bucket into the toilet...forgetting to remove the terry cloth wash cloth I used from the bucket. The force of dumping the water from the bucket immediately emptied the bowl before I could grab the towel out. I expected to have to call the plumber, but never had to. ;-)

I wouldn't want that to happen now with my 1.2 gal potties. Put up a sign. Your call on how cute or matter-of-fact you need to be. Do what feels comfortable for you (and your checkbook!).

-Babka

Just remembered using flushable kitty litter in the '80's. It was great and never had a problem.

I remember this exact question being asked on a mommy board I was on and literally 50% of the women being completely flummoxed that you are not supposed to flush tampons. In fact, many posters were completely grossed out by the notion of wrapping up a used tampon and placing it in a trash can and came right out and said they would never do it. :\

Like a PP, I too had the mortifying experience of a plumber waving a used tampon he had snaked out of the pipes at me. I was 14 at the time and I never once flushed a tampon down the toilet again.

A couple of years ago, I hosted a baby shower. Twenty-five women in my house, no cute sign prohibiting tampon flushing in the powder room, 50 year old cardboard (yes, cardboard - google Orangeburg sewer pipes) sewage pipes with a mass of tree roots growing through them, well, ... you know where this is going. Needless to say, 2 days later, we had an eruption of raw sewage spewing out of the toilet onto our powder room floor, which seeped into the carpet and baseboards of the powder, family and play room. We had to rip out and replace 1 foot of drywall and all the baseboards. I like to call it the $40,000 tampon. Luckily insurance covered the repair which was $23K. The other $17K was new upgraded flooring and new furniture which decided to replace just because. But hey, we wouldn't have had a reason to get new furniture if the tampon(s) hadn't been flushed in the first place.

We moved to a new house that has a septic system and will be putting a sign on the powder room door. Sorry, I don't care who is a guest at my house, once you experience raw sewage erupting from a toilet (and cleaning up the mess *ick*), that pretty much emboldens you to say or do anything to get women to not flush tampons in your house!

Growing up in a small NE city in a house built in 1954, we had four tampon flushers, three males, and one bathroom that could handle it all. We never had an overflow.

"I like to call it the $40,000 tampon."

That's funny right there.

"I don't care who is a guest at my house, once you experience raw sewage erupting from a toilet (and cleaning up the mess *ick*), that pretty much emboldens you to say or do anything to get women to not flush tampons in your house!"

I agree. I've lived with a septic tank for many yrs of my adult life and flushing tampons is a major no- no!

yesterday while searching on Amazon I saw a tiny wastebasket with a swing top. It was something like 5" x 7" - great size to set on the tank of the toilet just below your beautiful framed sign (warning) not to flush those things. It was by simplehuman I think and around 10.00 (or even less).
or keep an empty kleenex box to put on the tank for them (the sq kind that pulls out from the top). Then the whole box can just be tossed later.

for those who would absolutely refuse to wrap a tampon and put in waste basket - what would you do with a pad? flush it?

We, too, had an expensive tampon repair. Ours didn't clog anything, it got hung up in our pump.
This is a peeve of mine, though, because I believe that if women designed toilets, toilets would handle tampons.

Do you honestly believe women aren't involved with toilet (and everything else, for that matter) design?

The toilets can handle them just fine - it's the pipes that can't, particularly with low-volume flushes. Even if the pipes could handle them, it would still be a bad idea to flush them. Go to a sewage treatment plant sometime and see all the extra measure that need to be taken because people flush tampons and other stupid things.

"I believe that if women designed toilets, toilets would handle tampons."

annpat:

Yours is an example of the logical fallacy or relevance, ad hominem circumstantial, to be specific.

It is as illogical as believing that having a vagina somehow gives one superior tampon designing power as purveyed by the ads for OB brand.

grew up in a new home built in 1971 that my father who was in the commercial building industry (skyscrapers) had all of his commercial friends build for us. tampons were always flushed. in junior high, the health nurse came and spoke to us and we got a freebie bag with brochures, and samples by the tampon and pad giants. yes, they were advertised as flush-able. everyone who used them flushed tampons. i even had a friend who showed me how to flush a pad when she was in a bind - remove the fluff from the plastic. I don't recall toilets out of order in junior high, either. i think the plumbing was able to handle it.

moved to the US as an adult and lived in a 1940's cape-ish bungalow on the east coast with original everything - all flushed just fine.

moved to a 1940's cape-ish bungalow with a 1990's master reno and new kohler and nothing would flush, not even the usual stuff. this bungalow was in a town with water table issues. same goes with the house I currently live in which was completely rebuilt - issues with sewer due to water table issues - this is michigan which is surrounded by lakes and you cannot buy flood insurance here in most places. when we rebuild the home, extra money went into complete gut of the sewer system which was completely clogged with tampons from the previous owner. we now get the drains snaked regularly in the spring and autumn and have had no further issues.

except when my preschooler empties an entire roll of toilet paper into the toilet for fun then flushes.... but that is an entirely different issue.

Did anyone mention paper towels? I may have missed it.

Never flush paper towels. We have a paper towel holder in our downstairs (main full bathroom). People use it when they don't want to wipe their hands on the communal towel or when a quick clean up is needed.

When my daughter was about 4 years old she was "cleaning" something and flushed about 4 paper towels down the toilet. My DH said it became like cement. Completely blocked. He had to take off the toilet to remove the blockage.

None of the females in our house use them but I don't think I would ever consider flushing them.

While I might consider a sign that said something like..."The package lies. Its NOT flushable." I think the men in our house would have a fit.

If you use a sign you better make sure everyone will see and read it before its too late. Perhaps a information campaign is in order. Such as a facebook post of things not to flush down any toilet.

It's all about the plumbing. Because I live fairly close to the Mexican border, I can tell you with authority that there is much plumbing south of the border that doesn't even take toilet paper. They'd think all of you that throw the TP in the toilet were brought up with the wolves. How do I know this? Check the trash can near the toilet in public restrooms.

I think we can agree that toilets that connect to septic tanks and toilets in houses with old plumbing, and maybe located in MI (?) are off limits. In fact, anywhere where there is a doubt should be off limits. Signs to that effect can be helpful, cute or otherwise, but maybe not the plumbing bill. You can come to my house, and it hasn't been a problem for the last 40 years. I've also never had trouble with onion skins or celery in the garbage disposal, although my mom and SIL do/did. I could have used a sign on that one - oops. How was I to know?

For those wondering about wipes, some of us have issues and need to use wet wipes. They are not flushable. They are dirty. You do not want them in your garbage just wadded up, and since they are "wet" wipes, balling tissue around them still is gross and lets the germs get all over - yuck!

I have gone online and purchased waxed paper bags for such disposal. I figure that the waxed paper will keep things contained, but by the time it gets to the landfill, can decompose better than plastic (which doesn't).

I also will sometimes use empty toilet paper cardboard rolls that might be sitting on the counter waiting for someone to take to the recycling center. I just fold up the used wipe and tuck it into the roll and throw it in the trash container, where it will stay isolated in its little cardboard tube until the trash is emptied. Yeah, we recycle even those little cardboard tubes, but someone has to carry them to the other end of the house, and that does not happen every day!

In the OP's situation, I advocate for a little sign, no bill, and a stack of little sanitary bags on the back of the toilet in a basket (with other hygiene products if you like). The bags will make it easy for your guests no matter what their needs are, and if you entertain large groups at least a few times a year, it will prevent issues for you. I took a stack of sanitary bags to work with me and shared them in the restrooms there, since I bought them online and had so very many of them!

In the end, though, I simply purchased what my Middle Eastern neighbors would call a "shattaf," or Europeans would call a "bidet wand." Now I use far too much TP drying!

Here is a link that might be useful: Biodegradable disposal bag with dispenser

As a matter of fact, these little bags I linked to above can stick to your wall or vanity with enclosed double-sided tape. So you can put them up when needed and not when it is just the usual folks at home. The dispenser gives all the info needed, no need for a second sign! It really is a neat system.

One of the reviewers noted, " This is a lady-like way to take care of disposing of your sanitary napkins or your used incontinence pads without the accompanying odor issue." THAT was one thing that was not discussed as an up-and-coming disposal issue for guests on this thread. Now this gives even the post-menopausal women and their male generational cohorts a need for bathroom disposal discretion.

Many said that they hung the dispenser right next to their TP holder and that family and guests loved it. If you go to the company's ste, you can even choose from different styles of cover for your dispenser!

Here is a link that might be useful: Scensible Source

For those wondering about wipes, some of us have issues and need to use wet wipes. They are not flushable. They are dirty. You do not want them in your garbage just wadded up, and since they are "wet" wipes, balling tissue around them still is gross and lets the germs get all over - yuck!

I have gone online and purchased waxed paper bags for such disposal. I figure that the waxed paper will keep things contained, but by the time it gets to the landfill, can decompose better than plastic (which doesn't).

I also will sometimes use empty toilet paper cardboard rolls that might be sitting on the counter waiting for someone to take to the recycling center. I just fold up the used wipe and tuck it into the roll and throw it in the trash container, where it will stay isolated in its little cardboard tube until the trash is emptied. Yeah, we recycle even those little cardboard tubes, but someone has to carry them to the other end of the house, and that does not happen every day!

In the OP's situation, I advocate for a little sign, no bill, and a stack of little sanitary bags on the back of the toilet in a basket (with other hygiene products if you like). The bags will make it easy for your guests no matter what their needs are, and if you entertain large groups at least a few times a year, it will prevent issues for you. I took a stack of sanitary bags to work with me and shared them in the restrooms there, since I bought them online and had so very many of them!

In the end, though, I simply purchased what my Middle Eastern neighbors would call a "shattaf," or Europeans would call a "bidet wand." Now I use far too much TP drying!

{{!gwi}}

Here is a link that might be useful: Biodegradable disposal bag with dispenser

Just put a sign up and leave it up. I keep nonflushable wet wipes in the guest bathroom and wrote in magic marker "do not flush" on the dispenser.

Wow, thanks for bumping this up, Nancy. My mother, grandmother, and I were all raised by wolves, apparently. We always flushed, unless on septic, traveling in an RV or boat, or visiting a third-world country.

How strange. I always flushed the tampons -- that was part of the point of using them. I never, ever heard that you couldn't, and I assure you I considered myself educated. Never had any plumbing problems associated with them.

Too late now. Yay!

Ditto everything Violet said!

I grew up flushing tampons, but not the cardboard applicator. Wrapping them and putting them in the garbage - gross. We never had any plumbing problems, either. My mother never told me to do anything different. Of course, she never told me much about "feminine" things, either. Not something you talked about in those days.

I like the signs that aren't too graphic and cover every possibility. Tampons aren't the only problem - some people think the toilet is a type of garbage can, it seems.

I think flushing issues are more common with older homes and when you don't have town septic.

We recently remodeled our beachhouse. In every bathroom, I had the carpenter custom make a very small cubby recessed between the studs, with a door, near the baseboard. Each one has a pretty knob on it. The kind you can't resist peeking.

Inside the cubby are extra feminine hygiene products, and a few small opaque wax paper disposal bags (bought online, very simple ones but you can get them with designs ... lifetime supply for like $7.99).

When we have a new guest and they ask to use the bathroom, I walk her to the bathroom, gesture to the cubby and say "and here you will find anything extra you will need, as well as a little bag for disposal please".

If we were to have a party, I would make up a little sign that says the same, and frame it and leave it on the sink. Ostensibly it's a gesture that is about providing an amenity for your guests, but hopefully at the same time it gets them to do the right thing and gives them what they need to do it with a minimum of fuss. I think by combining the messages that way it seems more pleasant and less awkward.

(I can snap a photo of the cubbies when I have a chance; in our primary home I only have one, in my water closet)

Here is a link that might be useful: I didn't want flowers or long haired maidens...

We had an older home - with septic. I don't recall plumbing issues despite my flushing tampons...maybe we were just fortunate?

Ick. I am *so* glad that I no longer have to deal with that stuff!

Wolfpack Gal here, started using tampons in the late 1970s and that was the big selling feature over (once-belted) pads: you could FLUSH. I had no idea this was a problem for normal houses/pipes; I've seen signs on boats and with in-home macerating toilets and of course not flushed there, but didn't think at all about flushing, as a guest or at home, in a regular home toilet.

The things you learn. I like those Scensible bags, nice idea.

Count me as one who never knew that tampons were not to be flushed.
When I was at that time of life, I stopped using tampons years ago anyway, and used a silicone cup. I highly recommend that instead of tampons or pads.

I remember Mom being mortified when my brother and I were small kids. He had fished out the cardboard applicators from the garbage and came out to the kitchen pushing his cast-iron tractor and wagon toys with it's load of "logs". LOL

I am AMAZED at this discussion. I never never EVER flushed a tampon. We always lived in old houses and I knew this could be disastrous. Besides, just think about it - a tampon is designed to hold a lot of liquid, expanding to get the job done. Seems to me that it would easily become sluggish in the plumbing. (not that I ever experimented - I'm just guessing) We didn't flush toilet paper, either.

But on the other hand, I remember feeling really embarrassed about putting a wrapped used tampon in somebody else's trash. I used to avoid that at all costs if I possibly could. These new disposal bags that have been mentioned seem the perfect answer.

But, thank goodness I don't have to worry about it anymore. One of the benefits of having a hysto.

I love Mtn's cubby! I will add one of those when I do moms old house. It is about 120 years old and pretty sure the septic tank is only a bit younger. Even paper is an issue, that is a fun one to explain-I may need a much bigger cubby than Mtn.

For the funnest thing ever put down a disposal and clogged, a tenants husband bought her a few dozen roses for an anniversary, she thought the disposal was for grinding long stem rose cuttings.

Of course, if you pour grease down the drain, expect a bill. But pasta, rice and beans will make one nice clog after the disposal too (not enough water to flush them through the pipes)

I found a photo of the cubby in my w/c at home.

Here it is close up...

Can we see inside :) is it a drawer, a shelf?

Hi enduring,

This is the one I have in my personal water closet in my MBA.

The cubby I just put in in the PR in our beachhouse, for example, is organized a little differently ...with a little silver vase and a little box inside so when you open up the door you see what's there right away.

It looks perfectly functional. Thanks!

"I remember Mom being mortified when my brother and I were small kids. He had fished out the cardboard applicators from the garbage and came out to the kitchen pushing his cast-iron tractor and wagon toys with it's load of "logs"."

That is too cute! Gross, but cute!

People got WAY OFF SUBJECT...I thought I’d find an answer here as to what should I write on my sign I’m making to go on the back of the basement toilet -should it say simply “No feminine products” and an arrow down to the toilet to grab someone’s attention? Or “TP ONLY?” Or WHAT would be funny?

The GW gang is notorious for getting off topic. That’s one of the things I love about Gardenweb!

Agreed! Not to mention that the link to the little bags and dispensers to hold the things that you don't want people to flush is still working. You can learn a lot reading these old threads. You may be able to find wax paper baggies in the grocery store. There are plenty of suggestions for signs in the thread, some funny, and even a poem by MongoCT.

When I see the "TP Only" signs, my "take everything literally" gene pops in and I want to say, " but I wanted to evacuate my bowels, too!"

You want funny. Hmmmm. How about, "Flush only TP. Please throw wipes and feminine products in the trash. If the house floods, violators will be required to dive in and fish out the offending item!" Then do a Dr. Suess-type drawing of someone perched on the edge of the toilet, hands together in the "gonna dive in" pointing manner, knees bent, wearing goggles and a snorkel.

I posted above, but the link seems to be missing. Bought a sign that says " Please do not flush girly things". Not funny, but cute and understandable (except for my 6 year old grandson who wanted to know what a girly thing was).

And while we're talking about tampons, please read about Cora, a non profit company that makes organic tampons (no toxic chemicals in your body) and also provides free tampons to girls in other parts of the world, so they don't miss work or school because they are having their periods. Some posted this on another thread a while ago.

https://cora.life/

I leave a little notepaper in front of the toilet on the floor that simply says,

"Country septic. Please flush only toilet paper."

Years ago (when everyone was pre-menopausal!) I would have the same note but add,

"Please put tampons and other things in the wastebasket."

Someday, old women will say to their great-granddaughters, “When I was your age, bathroom disposal systems weren’t designed to handle tampons! No, I’m serious!!” I still find it hard to believe that septic systems can’t be designed to handle biodegradable tampons. It’s not a frivolous consideration to have a system that works efficiently for 50% of the population.

I lived my entire pre-menopause life without flushing a tampon. I don't think it is anything that any sewer system should be asked to take care of. Nothing can biodegrade between my house and the sewage plant, where the tampons from all the women in the city would create a heck of a mess. Why should the sewage plant or a private septic tank be expected to deal with this solid waste?

Just one more thing ... we're still okay flushing bugs down the toilet, right?

LOL

We are on septic and acreage just outside a city. Many of our friends aren’t used to septic systems. We leave a small card with this “poem” on it in each of our bathrooms that guests might use.

Those of us with septic tanks
Would like to give a word of thanks
For putting nothing in the pot
That isn’t guaranteed to rot.

Tissues are bad; hair is too
Feminine products are taboo.
With your kind co-operation
We’ll keep our tank in operation!

I got this somewhere off the internet some years ago so I can’t remember who to credit. So far, it has worked well and often become a discussion point among those on city sewer systems.