Jiggle the handle, kids, you have to jiggle the handle

If you live with another person, or several other persons, there are things they do regularly that annoy you.

That's just how it works. It could be something simple like not putting their plate in the dishwasher, or leaving the cap to the toothpaste on the bathroom sink.

We had seven people living in our house for several years, so there were many of these little botherances. I once wrote an entire post urging my children to pick up blankets off the basement floor. Another post featured photos of messes left by my family around the house for someone else to clean up.

For the record, neither of those things was ever truly resolved.

Now we're down two people, yet there are still things about which I feel the need to constantly remind the denizens of this house. One of those is jiggling the handle on the toilet in the kitchen bathroom.

That toilet hasn't been right in years. Even installing a new handle/flushing mechanism wasn't enough to make it so that it would reliably flush, fill back up with water, and be ready for the next user.

Unless the previous occupant of said bathroom is considerate enough to wait an extra few seconds to ensure everything is working well with the toilet and the water isn't going to run forever and ever, chances are the half-full tank will not be ready to sufficiently dispose of whatever the next user deposits into the bowl.

It's just a few extra seconds. And if you find the handle is very loose and the flap in the tank is clearly not seated correctly, all you have to do is jiggle the handle.

Just jiggle the handle. That's it. Then you can go on your merry way.

Recently I walked into the kitchen bright and early at 5:30 in the morning and I heard that toilet running. I'm always the first one up, so there couldn't have been anyone in that bathroom.

And there wasn't. The toilet had been running all night because the last person to use it the previous evening had not followed the instructions above, even though we've tried to convey those instructions in the most understandable of terms.

Relative to life's truly big problems, this is a minor one in the extreme. Yet it frustrates me, because the solution is so simple.

Just jiggle the handle, kids. You have to jiggle that handle.