The debate over whether to keep the bathroom door closed or open is still ongoing in many places. What about your house, do you keep it closed or open when not in use?
Most bathrooms and toilets today are enclosed within the main house. Therefore, there is a debate that many people, including scientists, are interested in: whether to keep the door closed or open when not in use.
Firstly, to understand whether to close or open, it’s important to understand the characteristics of a bathroom. Bathrooms are usually damp and, especially when combined with a toilet inside, they tend to harbor many bacteria. The constant humidity also makes bathrooms prone to mold. Hence, leaving the main door open allows the humid air and bacteria from the bathroom to spread to other areas of the house.
The opinion of experts is to:
Keep the main door of the bathroom closed to prevent humid bacteria and mold from spreading through the main door to the outside. However, you should open a window or use a toilet exhaust fan for ventilation and airflow, ensuring that it doesn’t feel stuffy when in use. Moreover, it aids in keeping the bathroom dry.
Leaving the main bathroom door open may cause foul odors from the bathroom to waft into other rooms, creating an unpleasantly confined atmosphere. This can also pose health risks to other family members, especially in cases of digestive illness outbreaks. There are numerous bacteria that are not visible to the naked eye but are densely present in bathrooms. Hence, if you don’t close the door, they can spread outside, polluting the air inside the entire house. Many families have bathrooms facing their kitchens, which further impacts household hygiene.
Furthermore, during the summer, when other rooms have air conditioning turned on, closing the bathroom door prevents the cold air from the air conditioning system from escaping into the bathroom.
To ensure better ventilation and cleanliness in the bathroom:
Many homes lack windows or exhaust fans in the bathroom, leading to the habit of leaving the main bathroom door open for drying purposes. However, this is unreasonable. Opening a window or using an exhaust fan is much safer for ventilation. Additionally, opening windows and using a fan helps ensure that when you take a shower and close the main bathroom door, the person inside does not feel suffocated. Bathrooms are typically small, and without proper ventilation, the closed door may cause the space to become stuffy. Ventilation and odor extraction also help purify the air in the house.
Therefore, it’s best to renovate the bathroom’s design by adding windows or an exhaust fan and then close the main door when not in use.
Additionally, avoid hanging wet clothes, bath towels, and face towels in the bathroom, as they might take longer to dry and retain moisture. Also, avoid cluttering the bathroom with too many items.
The bathroom trash bin should have a lid to prevent the spread of bacteria, and it should be cleaned regularly.
