They Call Me Mellow Yellow…

Warning: This post contains references to toilets and the things that happen in them…

We (and by “we” I mostly mean “me”) use the mellow yellow method at home. As in if it’s yellow let it mellow, if it’s brown flush it down. (And if that’s still too vague: Flush poo, not pee.) I do this mostly for water conservation, and to prolong the life of our toilet. It makes sense to me that if you don’t have to use the flushing mechanism as much it will last longer, right? We don’t save any money by conserving water; we’re charged a flat rate for using under 10,000 gallons per quarter. So this is mostly just my crunchiness showing through.

I feel like this idea has been around long enough that it’s a pretty acceptable thing to do at home. If you have a guest over you do a courtesy flush, no big deal. And if you haven’t tried it, a good way to break into it slowly is to not flush at night. That’s how we got started, I was pregnant and peeing every couple of hours and didn’t want to wake up my husband every time.

Now, here’s a question and the motivation behind the post: Is this an acceptable practice at work?

I went to the ladies today and there it was - yellow was mellowing. I couldn’t decide how to react (besides hustling my pants down because I had to tinkle something awful). I do this so often at home that my very first reaction was not surprise. My second reaction was surprise, and my third was along the lines of, “huh, why not?”

In general I feel like it should be mutually decided on by all users of that toilet, but in a large office it’s not like you’re going to send out a memo. At a small office I worked at where it was mostly men they would send out memos regarding the bathroom, but it was usually humor related. You can imagine…

So, what do you think? Is not flushing pee acceptable at work? Does it matter what type of office it is? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

And, for your viewing/listening pleasure: