Most people have heard of the bidet, a bathroom fixture designed to help people wash their undersides – but they may not know the benefits of actually using one.
To some, the bidet is a literally foreign concept; they see it as something exclusive to other countries, or as an outsider’s cultural custom. To others, it’s an unnecessary luxury item; they see it as a fixture for rich people.
But the reality is, using a bidet can be massively beneficial – and not just for the user.
Let’s take a look at some of the impressive benefits.
More Hygienic Bathroom Experiences
When you get your hands dirty, you might wipe them off with a piece of paper, like a napkin, paper towel, or piece of tissue, but do you really feel clean after that?
Most people don’t, and they realize their hands are still covered in residue, so they wash them with running water. That’s because wiping with paper can never rival the hygienic clean of a true wash.
Bidets bring this simple concept to the bathroom. Wiping yourself with toilet paper is better than nothing, but it doesn’t provide you with the thorough clean that a bidet can. Most health professionals recommend bidets as the hygienic choice for bathroom cleaning.
Limited Germ Transfer
No matter how careful you are when wiping with toilet paper, there’s a chance your hands could come into contact with fecal matter.
If you’re responsible, you’ll wash your hands thoroughly after you’re done – but even then, tiny amounts of residue can remain, increasing your likelihood of transferring germs to other people and your general environment.
Using a bidet doesn’t guarantee you’ll leave the bathroom with sterile hands, but your capacity for germ transfer will be significantly reduced.
Reduced Risk of Hemorrhoids
Did you know that using toilet paper too much can irritate your skin and cause hemorrhoids? If you use toilet paper that has a rough texture, or if you rub yourself too hard or too much, you’ll increase your likelihood of experiencing this profoundly uncomfortable health condition. By using a bidet instead, you’ll be reducing your risk profile – in addition to keeping yourself cleaner.
Greater Personal Comfort
The first time you use a bidet will likely be uncomfortable, awkward, or confusing. But it’s not an unpleasant experience. After a few times using this device, you’ll be much more comfortable with it – and you’ll leave the bathroom feeling cleaner and more refreshed than you ever have in the past.
Monetary Savings
The average person uses 8.6 sheets of toilet paper per trip to the bathroom, with 57 sheets of toilet paper used per day. That amounts to more than 20,000 sheets of toilet paper used per year, or more than 100 rolls per person.
The average person spends more than $100 per year on paper products like these, and sometimes, much more than that.
Using a bidet can dramatically reduce the amount of toilet paper you use in the bathroom, while increasing your water usage by a negligible amount. Therefore, switching to a bidet should help you save money.
These money-saving benefits tend to stack with the number of people in your household and the amount of time you use the bidet.
If you have a family of four, and everyone switches to using the bidet instead of relying on toilet paper, you could end up saving thousands of dollars over the course of just a few years – more than paying for the initial cost of the bidet.
Less Environmental Impact
Remember all that toilet paper the average person uses? It impacts more than just your budget. All paper products are derived from trees, and as you’re likely aware, deforestation is a massive, international environmental problem.
Additionally, toilet paper and other wipes can cause long-term sewage problems. By switching to a bidet, you’ll be limiting your impact on the environment.
A Talking Point
Now for a benefit that’s much more fun; bidets can be a great talking point. If you’re entertaining guests at your home for the first time since installing the bidet, they may see your bidet and have questions about it – or they’ll get to use one for the first time.
If you’re the first person in your family or group of friends to use a bidet, you may even get to become a kind of trendsetter.
Once people get to use a bidet and feel how clean it makes them, they’ll never want to go back to using toilet paper exclusively.
It’s not hard to see why bidets are a popular bathroom installation in countries all over the world. It’s only a matter of time before they begin to become more mainstream in the United States; the benefits are simply too powerful to ignore.
