My partner and I watched a tiktok that was horrifying. It has been haunting me, and now you must also know about it too.
TikTok by Wellandsepticlife2.0
This wells and septic specialist tells this story about a family complaining about constant illness in their household. He ended up checking the aerator on their kitchen faucet.
An aerator is a part that is attached to the ends of most faucets to control the water flow with air (plumbersupply.com).
In this story, there was so much growth, sludge, and mysterious material on the aerator. The storyteller makes sure to emphasize to the viewers that all water consumed in that house was filtered through that shocking mess.
It was appalling to see but even scarier to imagine what was going on in our own home.
Our aerator wasn’t designed to screw off, so we soaked the kitchen faucet in some vinegar and dish soap for a couple of hours and then we vigorously scrubbed the nozzle. (When I say “we” I actually mean my partner… ha!). He also replaced the water filter since that was something that was rarely done. Both were gross.
About a month later, that TikTok video still occasionally pops into my brain and I cringe at the memory. I thought we were safe. I thought we were in the clear. Until, I was sitting on the toilet and something caught my eye. I noticed that there was a black sludge dangling from the bathroom faucet. The bathroom faucet that I stick my head under to slurp up water when taking my nightly medications. The same bathroom faucet that I use to rinse out my mouth after brushing my teeth. THAT bathroom faucet!
I screamed and a shiver of disgust ran through my body.
I quickly shuffled over to Justin, pulled him in the direction of the bathroom, and fearfully pointed at the faucet!
I know we should be embarrassed. How could we have let it get that bad? How could we have not known?! But I also feel like this should be in an excerpt from an adulting manual that someone failed to give me. I had no idea! Clean water comes out of the faucet! Why would we have to clean the faucet?!
I mentioned this to some other people and I instantly felt better knowing I was not the only clueless adult. But I still feel sick thinking about how long we have been drinking from ALL of our faucets.
So if you already knew about this adulting responsibility, please just look away and carry on. If you are shocked by this information, you are not alone. Now is the time to deep clean your faucets and set a calendar reminder so we never have to mention this again.
