The Politics of Public Restroom Usage

Everyone has standards when choosing a public restroom. After just recently beginning a new job, I quickly became reacquainted with my public restroom expectations and etiquette. The following is what I have discovered.

Keep in mind: this is from a woman's perspective. I don't often visit men's bathrooms, so I'm not an expert in that area.

Clogged Toilets

The first problem with public restrooms is obviously the toilet paper. Most people are used to plush toiler paper at home. That is, unless you are a poor college student (my life one year ago today), etc.

But we are supplied with single ply crappy (no pun intended) toilet paper. To combat this, many people use an exorbitant amount of sheets to mimic, as best as possible, the comforts of home.

The result? Clogged Toilets.

I can only see two ways to deal with this issue.

1. Encourage the management of public bathroom facilities (do they have management?) to spend the extra ten cents on better toilet paper and save themselves from paying plumbing bills.
   
2. Bring your own toilet paper.

Or, you could just wait until you get home. But that can apply for any of these. And please, everyone has emergencies.

Liquid Droplets on the Seat

Whether you're used to a cushiony toilet seat or not, there is a huge stigma related to allowing your skin to physically come into contact with the toilet seat or flush handle.

So, people set off the flush mechanism with their shoes, and hover above the toilet seat when peeing.

The result? Pee on the seat and germs on the handle.

What about the toilet seat covers that are supposed to protect your tushie from germs? I heard somewhere that you need to use a whole lot of them for it to actually work. But then, I found this article called "Flushing Out the Truth."

It details a study conducted at the University of Arizona. Guess what they discovered? Phone receivers contain 25,000 bacteria per square inch, whereas a toilet seat contains only 49.

The Usual Stall

This is a fairly consistent phenomenon about which I recently again became aware. I never noticed my tendency to visit the same exact stall as I first did upon entering any one given public restroom. Until the stall was occupied, that is.

All of a sudden, I had to change my routine, and that made me upset. But there isn't a whole lot to do about this one. Get over OCD, I guess. It did make me question whether experience this same need, though. Do you?