Company Blog

Nosy Guests – Three Fifths Admit to Looking in Other’s Bathroom Cabinets

Here at UK Bathrooms we have asked people whether they snooped in other people’s bathroom cabinets whilst visiting their homes. Three fifths of those asked confessed to doing so, and a sixth of those did so mainly to find out if they had any evidence of ‘embarrassing ailments’. Just going to show how nosy people can actually be!

I’m sure it can be quite tempting to have a quick nosy in someone else’s bathroom cabinet. It’s like a little portal into their life. You can find out if they are telling the truth or not when they say they don’t use anti-aging products when in fact they have a stash in their bathroom cabinets. We polled 1,721 men and women from around the UK who were aged over 18 as part of our ongoing research into bathroom related habits. We found some interesting results:

We asked ‘Do you ever find yourself looking in friends’ or family members’ bathroom cabinets/cupboards when visiting their homes?’ to which three fifths, 61%, admitted that ‘yes’ they had done so in the past. We also asked ‘What are your main reasons for doing this?’ which revealed the following top five. Respondents were allowed to select more than one option if more than one applied:

1.            To compare toiletries with your own – 32%

2.            General curiosity – 29%

3.            To find products for a quick freshen up – 24%

4.            To compare tidiness with your own – 20%

5.            To check for evidence of embarrassing ailments – 17%

With people obviously checking out their family/friends bathroom cabinets we wanted to delve deeper into what they had found when snooping, anything embarrassing. We asked ‘Have you found anything amusing/embarrassing whilst snooping?’ to which 41% of self-confessed snoopers admitted that ‘yes’ they had. The most common form of this was ‘medication that indicated embarrassing problems’, as 48% of these respondents admitted to having seen items of this nature. A further 32% said they had seen ‘sex related’ products in people’s bathroom cabinets or cupboards.

It turns out that we don’t just stop at snooping, some people are also brazen enough to help themselves to products they find in bathroom cabinets. When we asked if they’d ever helped themselves to other people’s toiletries 65% of them said that ‘yes’ they had. The most common item that people helped themselves to was ‘deodorant’ as 42% admitted to having a quick freshen up. 36% said that they had used the person’s ‘aftershave/perfume’, whilst the third most commonly used item was ‘hair product’ with 29% of snoopers saying that they’d touched up their hairstyle in someone else’s bathroom.

What’s more shocking however is that 11% of those who claimed to ‘bathroom snoop’ admitted that they had helped themselves to medicine found in someone else’s bathroom. Which is pretty worrying, especially if its medicine for conditions someone is not suffering from.

We also wanted to know respondents feelings on bathroom snooping and if they were worried people were doing the same in their bathrooms. We asked, ‘Do you think that visitors do the same to you in your bathroom?’ to which 73% said that ‘yes’ they probably did. Asked whether they consciously arranged their own cabinet/cupboards in order to hide items from their guests, 56% said that ‘yes’ they did.

Our Director of UKBathrooms.com, Peter Gregg made the following comment:

“Curiosity is a natural human trait and sometimes we just can’t help taking a sneaky look at other people’s belongings. The privacy of bathroom time means that there’s ample opportunity for us to explore other people’s cupboards or cabinets without the fear of being caught.”

He continued:

“Whilst it seems that the majority of intentions are harmless, down to being generally curious or keen to ensure that your own bathroom matches up, the results suggest that one or two of us might have a slightly more mischievous approach; using the opportunity to search for any potential embarrassment. It could be a good idea then to hide the haemorrhoid cream next time somebody visits. Although I’d advise not putting it behind the deodorant can, as it’s likely to be discovered there!”

Here at UK Bathrooms we have a great range of bathroom cabinets, however at the moment none with locks on, if this research is anything to go, by it might be time to start stocking lockable bathroom cabinets!

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