Mathieu is not stingy, he is thrifty and a bit green too. This is how he established the three pees rule at home and he explains why this controversial gesture is no longer so controversial today.
At home, we all know the classic little actions for the planet: turning off the water while brushing our teeth or taking quick showers. But have you ever considered ignoring your toilet flush button? In somewhat radical green jargon, we call it “if it’s yellow, let it mellow”, in other words “if it’s yellow, we let it sit”, a subtle way of making it clear that when it comes to the big commission, no debate, we flush the toilet. Behind this habit, which can make the most obsessive among us wince, there is in reality a rather dizzying financial and ecological calculation, believe Mathieu’s experience.
Before, he flushed the toilet purely automatically, without realizing that each pressure on the mechanism released on average 6 liters of drinking water, yes 6! He multiplied that by the number of bathroom trips per day – about 5 – and got a bill that ballooned without anyone even noticing.
So, a simple idea came to him: no longer systematically activate the flush for a small need, but wait until he has accumulated several flushes. It’s a trade-off between one’s olfactory comfort and the reality of one’s bank account. Because if we have fun projecting this habit over the long term, the figures go beyond simple anecdotes to become a real investment strategy.
Like Vincent Madelaine, from the eponymous account on Instagram, take out the calculators, the result will blow your mind. If we consider an average cost per cubic meter of 4.35 euros and a frequency of five daily visits, the calculation is quickly done. By deciding to only flush the toilet every three pees, and by placing the approximately 2.62 euros saved each month on a support at 7% (thanks to compound interest), we can potentially earn 33,600 euros over an adult life. And the icing on the cake, we preserve around 450,000 liters of water “and that’s good for the planet!”
Nuance all the same, especially if you don’t want to transform your bathroom into a disaster zone. From a technical point of view, urine accumulation is not without risk for your plumbing. Uric acid, combined with limescale in the water, promotes early scaling of ceramics and can weaken the seals. Part of your earnings could therefore evaporate in the purchase of powerful descaling products or the intervention of a plumber. The secret? A happy medium and regular maintenance with white vinegar to keep your toilet healthy without ruining your efforts!
