German Toilets and the Display Shelf

Did you know American toilets use anywhere from two to three gallons of water for each flush? Do you know how much a gallon is? Do you realize that is a few bathtubs full at the end of the week depending on how many are in your family! That's nuts! No wonder Americans are known as the resource wasters of the world...and rightly so. Now here in Germany, you gotta love the ingenious way they are designed to save water. I am equally impressed with the industrial strength vacuum that accompanies every flush. But the one thing I am having the hardest time dealing with and teaching our children, is the added work of the display shelf.

There just is no other way to describe it. Almost every German toilet has a bend in the porcelain, where "things" can get "caught up", leaving a little bit behind if you know what I mean. And it's right there for all the world who uses your toilet to see. If my little ones could only throw down a perfectly square piece of kleenex, the toilet would at least look clean, after every time they have to do their duty.

But my older one insists that a "pre-flush" will do the trick. Well, why don't you do it then? He is all talk. I could just see him and his friends discussing German bathroom issues on the playground at school. Anyway, I have decided that THEY will clean their own toilet the next time. Maybe then they'll be more inclined to be a little neater. Are girls any neater with this kind of thing?

For those of you in Germany, what other quirky things have you seen?