Miss Manners: Trashcan to be used, not admired

DEAR MISS MANNERS: On a trip visiting relatives, one thing baffled me. They do not put any garbage bags in their bathroom garbage cans.

So, I am always wondering if they are intended to be used or if they are just for decoration. (They are always empty, except sometimes the toilet bowl cleaner tool has been placed in there.) It seems strange to me to leave my hair or other items for disposal in the garbage can for our host to empty when we leave – without a bag, it seems a much messier and unpleasant job.

But it is equally awkward to walk my items through the house to put in the kitchen/laundry garbage can, which is the only one that has a bag (and the only one that seems to be intended for regular use).

What would be the appropriate way to handle this?

I always put a plastic bag in my bathroom trash cans. It’s easier to clean up and seems more understanding of the need to throw things away. I guess it’s not quite as neat-looking. Is there something wrong with that?

GENTLE READER: There is something seriously wrong with a society that does not understand the purpose of bathrooms – that thinks of them as places to tease guests by displaying practical items that are not intended to be used.

The guest towel fetish is bad enough. Miss Manners used to blame overzealous child-rearing rules that left people terrorized of using guest towels even when they grew up and became guests. But then she started hearing from hosts who proudly defend their guest towels against their guests.

And now you harbor the thought that a wastebasket might be considered too fetching to use.

At any rate, Miss Manners does not accuse your hostess of this silliness. Lining a wastebasket may be convenient, but is certainly not necessary. It is thoughtful of you to want to spare your hosts the sight of your trash (it is just trash, isn’t it?), but you can do that by emptying it into their garbage can once, at the end of your stay.