If you don't trust your housemates, where do you keep your washcloth?

May 30, 2005 5:25 PM

If you don't trust your housemates, where do you keep your washcloth?

Well, it's not that I don't trust them per se; it's that I don't trust them not to use my washcloth, or my razor, or my soap, etc....and anyway, there really isn't any place in the bathroom to hang my washcloth, except the shower rod.

The issue is that my bedroom is tiny and crowded, and if I bring wet stuff (soap container, washcloth, what have you) back to my bedroom, I don't know what to do with it that won't end up in mold or some other unsavory result.

Right now I have a dop kit that I carry my razor and other small essentials in, and I leave the big items, like the shampoo bottle, in the bathroom. And my soaps are all liquid, in bottles, so I just rub them on with my hands, and the thought of others using them doesn't squick me out too much.

Still, the situation is silly and I keep imagining that others have found an easy solution that I just don't know about. Sometimes I think about putting some kind of small basin in my room, with hooks above it, whereon I could hang a shower caddy that I would each morning take to the bathroom with me. And yet, this seems ridiculous. Has anyone found a simple way to deal with this kind of situation?

posted by bingo to home & garden (30 comments total)

Leave a note on your stuff, "This is not your shit." What are they going to do? Give you crap for putting a note on your stuff since if they do, that is kind of telling. I'm actually about to do this as I noticed three of my razor blades went missing this weekend.
posted by jmd82 at 5:44 PM on May 30, 2005

You can buy sticky hooks at Staples (made by 3m) which are excellent for hanging towels or washcloths. They also come in large, which holds up to 5 pounds, and I'm sure would hold a shower caddy (though maybe not with a heavy bottle of shampoo in it).

If you are worried about dampness in your room, perhaps you could leave your washcloth on the window sill with an open windown? Though I have lived in a small room, and had trouble with towels drying out, I have never had trouble with a washcloth - it's just too small. My fiance did hang a string from two hooks for his dish towel and wash cloth when in a dorm room with a basin. That worked well to get them all completely dried out.
posted by jb at 5:48 PM on May 30, 2005

I dunno about the washcloth (I don't use one, and soap is communal and I don't understand what's weird about that), but I solved the razor issue by saying "I do not want to get hepatitis or any other blood borne disease and neither do you. Don't use my razor". So far it's worked.
posted by cmonkey at 5:49 PM on May 30, 2005

jmd82, the problem is that I live in a strange situation in which my housemates are constantly changing. One guy has the lease; he rents me my room, and he also rents out the other rooms on a sort of revolving basis, to travelers and the like. The problem is not that someone specific is maliciously using my stuff, it's that I don't feel comfortable leaving things that I rub on my body in what is arguably a public bathroom.

Also, as for the washcloth question; there's nowhere to really put it in the bathroom (that I can think of) that won't either have it dripping on others or necessitate their moving it at some point. And honestly, I wouldn't want anyone else keeping their washcloth in there either. The whole situation is pretty cramped.
posted by bingo at 5:49 PM on May 30, 2005

In college I used a caddy which I'd set on top of a little rubber mat (like those that go under a dish-drying rack) when I returned to my room. It never got moldy. The washcloth (having been rinsed and wrung out at the end of the shower) I hung on a hook next to my bathtowel, where it would dry out by the next day just like my towel would. Those in humid climates may have different results... if this is you, maybe use one of those mesh scrubby things instead of a washcloth; they dry out quickly.
posted by xo at 5:51 PM on May 30, 2005

You could lock everything in a lock box with ventilation holes and leave it in the bathroom. As for your washcloth, if you're afraid of germs, know that if the cloth dries completely everything left on it (well, except hepatitis) dies when it dries. Not that I'd really want to resign myself to having to share my stuff.
posted by scazza at 5:55 PM on May 30, 2005

Use a fresh one every day. You can get a 10-pack for $5 at Target and they're so small they take up almost no space in a weekly load of laundry.
posted by Coffeemate at 6:08 PM on May 30, 2005

soap is communal and I don't understand what's weird about that

Because some people apply the bar of soap directly to their anus, and, like scazza said, if soap doesn't dry, the next person to use it may be rubbing thriving fecal matter on their face.
posted by Mo Nickels at 6:09 PM on May 30, 2005

One time I had pink-eye and I told my roommates "Don't touch my towel, I have pink-eye and I rubbed it all over the towel!" which was true, but it had the side-effect that none of them ever touched my towel ever, ever again. Although I do wash it regularly.

Since you've got new roommates coming all the time, you should probably just install a hook in your room (I have one on the back of my door) for your towel and washcloth. A lock on your bedroom door is also a good idea, and not just to keep your washcloth safe.
posted by bonheur at 6:10 PM on May 30, 2005

I think this sort of communal bathroom problem is really why those scrubbit things were invented. They're all plastic, pretty good for washing up, but they don't really hold on to any water, and they smoosh up really small. Depending on how your bathroom is configured, you can put them in a little plastic caddy and drag them back and forth from your room to the bathroom.
posted by jessamyn at 7:09 PM on May 30, 2005

Because some people apply the bar of soap directly to their anus, and, like scazza said, if soap doesn't dry, the next person to use it may be rubbing thriving fecal matter on their face.

Damn, if you're that paranoid about germs, I have no idea how you can cope with the idea of touching doorknobs, keyboards or shaking hands with people. Or even using a bar of soap to wash your hands after using a shared bathroom.
posted by cmonkey at 7:21 PM on May 30, 2005

cmonkey, most people don't open doorknobs with their anuses.

When I was in that situation I used one of those mesh bags that oranges come in. I stretched it out and propped it up on a hacked up frame. Because air circulates above and below the washcloth will dry off quick with no mildewing (if you give it a good wring first).

I just carried my facecloth to the bathroom and back every morning. My towel I just hung over my door and never had a mildew problem. Well, I did once, but then I learned a wet towel in a heap on the floor is a bad idea.
posted by substrate at 7:29 PM on May 30, 2005

Soak the washcloth in ammonia or something similarly noxious. When they complain about it, just tell them it's not for them to use.
posted by Doohickie at 7:54 PM on May 30, 2005

cmonkey, most people don't open doorknobs with their anuses.

You haven't seen Along Came Polly with Ben Stiller have you?
posted by banished at 8:04 PM on May 30, 2005

Perhaps a ventilated cube or tower locker with a built in combination lock? Maybe you can find something reasonably priced on Ebay. If the bathroom has wall space you can mount it. Something like this.
posted by crack at 8:07 PM on May 30, 2005

Basic premise is, do not eat beer nuts because 1 out of 3 people do not wash their hands after using the restroom (they may have used a different figure in the movie), and thus... there very may well be fecal matter on the nuts. He says people go to those places and then wonder why they get food poisoning... and there is indeed fecal matter on many public doorknobs, atms, handrails, and other places.
posted by banished at 8:07 PM on May 30, 2005

*not beer nuts, bar nuts, sorry.
posted by banished at 8:08 PM on May 30, 2005

most people don't open doorknobs with their anuses

Yes, but they open doorknobs with their hands after touching their anuses, or after touching the hands of other people who have touched their anuses, or after touching money that has been handled by people who have touched their anuses. Etc. There is no escaping the anus.
posted by kindall at 8:45 PM on May 30, 2005

Dude, I hate that. Flatmate's girlfriend would come over and obviously use my washcloth, with the effect that it got covered in makeup (she was quite the girly-girl) and I ended up getting nasty acne -- which I hadn't had in probably ten years -- from all the pore cloggage.

I'm with jmd82. Time to send a message.

If they don't care, sorry to say, time to find new roommates, because it won't stop with your washcloth.
posted by dreamsign at 9:46 PM on May 30, 2005

I'm with the "new washcloth every day" idea. One other possibility is to rig a small laundry line outside your window (you do have a window right? Otherwise, omg, time to find a new place!) and hang it there.
posted by taz at 10:41 PM on May 30, 2005

In shared washrooms of dubious sanctity, remove thy toiletries. Always.

I've heard about some rather crufty fruitcakes that had a verifiable fetish for rubbing other's personal effects on and in his nethers. Toothbrushes, razor-handles, hairbrushes, cosmetics, soaps. I'm not sure about doorknobs.

I've lived in a lot of weird and often crowded situations. Get a good ballistic-nylon toiletry bag with compartments for dry or dry-ish stuff and a mesh external compartment for wet stuff. And if you wring out your washcloth in really hot water it'll dry faster.


Tangentially:

Basic premise is, do not eat beer nuts because 1 out of 3 people do not wash their hands after using the restroom (they may have used a different figure in the movie), and thus... there very may well be fecal matter on the nuts.

There have been some studies recently that washing your hands after using a public restroom may be much filthier than not washing your hands, considering the tepid water, the festering piles of paper towels, or no paper towels at all, or no soap.

I don't know the specfics, whether it's specific to male or female, urination or defacation, or what.

Instinctively, I don't wash my hands if I'm just going to the urinal - unless there's some kind of freakish logistical accident. All I'm touching is my my zipper and my waistband. But I also don't touch bathroom door-handles or doorknobs if I can help it. I also frequently trip the flush-handle on the few urinals that I find without an infrared-sensing autoflush with the top of the toe of my shoe, 'cause I'm still marginally flexible and ninja like that.

However, I generally try to avoid avoid dropping the kids off at the pool in public restrooms, paper butt gaskets or no. Sitting on some seat thousands of other dudes sat and shat on is just gross, especially when you sit on it and and find it still warm.

I'm certainly not phobic about germs, though, however the above makes it sound. I'll eat dropped food. I don't buy faddish antibacterial products. I don't think I even own a proper can of Lysol or a bottle of chlorine bleach. I hardly ever get sick or catch colds or get anything resembling food poisoning.
posted by loquacious at 11:17 PM on May 30, 2005

I use a pants hanger with two clips to hang my washcloth. It holds the washcloth flat and helps it dry (its always completely dry by the next morning). I use a mesh bag for my soaps and such.
posted by joelr at 8:06 AM on May 31, 2005

Use a pack towel as a washcloth. Superabsorbent, but they wring out to nearly-dry with a good squeeze; you'll be able to hang it in your room without a mildew problem.
posted by desuetude at 8:19 AM on May 31, 2005

most people don't open doorknobs with their anuses

There was an episode of Penn and Teller's Bullshit where they did a hygiene test of three people and the anus was cleaner than the hands (hands and mouth have the most germs by far). So, maybe we should start doing that...
posted by dagnyscott at 8:54 AM on May 31, 2005

Note: the above fact is also confirmed by what I learned in high school biology, I don't just believe everything I see on Showtime.
posted by dagnyscott at 8:55 AM on May 31, 2005

What about something like this or this behind your bedroom door?
posted by geeky at 10:44 AM on May 31, 2005

How about dyeing the washcloth with some blotches of brown dye (like for tye dyeing) to make it look like you just used it on your anus?
posted by 445supermag at 11:04 AM on May 31, 2005

What would you do if this guy were your housemate?
posted by grouse at 1:46 PM on May 31, 2005

I second the recommendation for the shower puffs - in college I used one and just hung it on my doorknob to dry. They dry really really quickly and I never had any puddle on the floor or mildew on the puff problems.

I also have to say that whoever is washing their anus and their face with the same soap has problems other than potential fecal matter... I would wager that these individuals suffer from chronically dry faces, seemingly "mysterious" in nature.
posted by grapefruitmoon at 3:50 PM on May 31, 2005

Try keeping the soap in a closable plastic travel dish and tucking it out of sight in a bathroom cupboard. Then find a spot in your bedroom to hang-dry a couple of washcloths.

[Gotta say, though, the idea of different pieces of soap for the ass and face makes me laugh; we used to joke about AssSoap, PitSoap and FeetSoap as the next wave of toiletry marketing, right after men's razors get their 7th blade. I mean, something's* got to touch a dirty part and then a clean part *sometime*, doesn't it?]
posted by mediareport at 9:03 PM on May 31, 2005