Here’s a place to post all your gripes about public bathrooms, toilets, sinks, etc.
Over the weekend, I unfortunately had to use two public toilets, one in a restaurant and one at a park. Both were the new gender-neutral type. I am here to say I don’t like using a bathroom that is also used by men. Men stand and have ‘splash zones’ and public toilets aren’t cleaned often enough to remove the spots. One had a urinal that had an icky cake thing in it that smelled bad.
It’s one reason I hate using the toilets on an airplane. Splashes in a tiny space that are hard to avoid.
Women’s bathrooms are often disgusting as well. Wet toilet seats, no flushing, gross.
That said, I do anything and everything to avoid using public restrooms, regardless of whether or not they are gender neutral. My training as a nurse has come in handy. It’s not uncommon to not even get a bathroom break during the entire shift of 8-12 hours, so I can usually avoid having to use public facilities. Not saying that’s healthy (it’s not), but I can go a long time between bathroom visits if I have to.
If not: I’m the one putting two layers of TP all along the seat if they don’t have those paper thingys.
When my workplace paid for a credit card with airline lounge access I thought ok, it will be nice to be in a slightly nicer waiting area but not a big deal. And then I was on a trip, went to the lounge and used the bathroom and OMG. It was sparking clean, had lovely smelling soaps ( not like the nasty stuff in airport public bathrooms) and high quality toilet paper and thick soft paper towels ( not the repulsive hot air machines that blow germs around). Oh and NO LINES! I was HOOKED! And my kids are spoiled too since this card allows free additional user cards with benefits.
I would never want to go back to not having lounge access just because of the differences in bathrooms!
Huh. I thought public bathrooms were a necessary evil.
I don’t mind sitting directly on the toilet seat (unless it’s obviously gross), but after I wash my hands (thoroughly), I don’t.Touch.Anything. I use paper towels or my sleeve to open the door. IMO, the germs I touch with my hands are what wind up in my mouth, eyes, nose, etc., and get me sick.
I always just wipe off a toilet seat before using it. I remember the days when toilet seats in women’s bathrooms were always disgusting. Apparently everyone hovered, and no one was any good at it. I think they’ve gotten much, much better. It’s pretty rare that I find a disgusting mess in the NJ turnpike or airport bathrooms these days.
I just spent a couple of months in Hong Kong with a couple of trips to the mainland. All I can say, is I am so grateful that I will never find no choices but squat toilets here!
One nice improvement, although not widespread, is placing those “wave to open” trash cans near the exit door so that, after washing your hands, you can use the paper towel to open the door and wave at the trash can to deposit the towel. Otherwise, I really dislike bathrooms where the only option for drying hands is a wimpy air dryer…I’m looking at you, McDonald’s and my new “green” public library.
How about toilet tissue? I hate the thin stuff. I remember a trip to the Finger Lakes region of NY. Every single public toilet had transparent toilet tissue. So cheap!
I lived in China from 2008-2011 and did a lot of traveling in rural China and southeast Asia. I can pee anywhere now. As a result of my time there, I always carry tissues, hand sanitizer, and an emergency granola bar at all times.
I haven’t experienced any particularly gross unisex bathrooms and I’m happy to see them. I think it’s ridiculous to have a line of women waiting to use a bathroom and the men can just walk in and out of the mens room. I think all public bathrooms should be unisex.
Cheap toilet paper is also meant to keep toilets from clogging.
When my D was about 3 y/o we were at a party that had portta potties. She was adamant that NO WAY was she going in there! So how about a bush instead? Yep, perfectly fine. She’s still that way.
Ally McBeal comes to mind when talking unisex bathrooms.
And as to waiting in the women’s line for a bathroom when the men’s room was open? I haven’t known any group of women who were hesitant to invade.
All that said–I’d rather have a women’s room than a unisex space.
We do a fair number of long drives. It’s weird how some states (NY, PA, and MD) can have spic and span restrooms when you’re just over the state line (NY and PA on I-81, MD on Route 15) but atrocious rest stops along the route. I give high marks to NC along Routes 29 and 85, and to VA in general. I don’t think I’ve ever hit a nasty highway restroom there.
We’ve started planning our pit stops so we can go to a Target, Wegmans, or Harris Teeter. Almost always clean restrooms, and good places to get in a few steps and pick up a snack.
A long while ago, there was an IPhone application…I think it was called findaloo…or something like that. It must have had a GPS function in it because you could search for the nearest public bathrooms from your location…and they were rated as well. We used it a couple of times in cities we were not familiar with when walking around.
At one point in my life, I was going to write a book called “Roadtrips for Women Over 55” and one chapter was going to be devoted to finding decent bathrooms. When on a road trip, I look for a nice outlet mall. They tend to have nice, and plentiful bathrooms.
“At one point in my life, I was going to write a book called “Roadtrips for Women Over 55” and one chapter was going to be devoted to finding decent bathrooms.”
We took many road trips when my kids were growing up. I absolutely refused to go to rest stops. We woukd always stop at a relatively nice restaurant for lunch or at a mall and go to the most upscale store bathroom we could find. Ocassionaly if nothing else wed stop at a hotel, make some inquiry and buy some overpriced drink and candy from the gift shop. They were always happy to have us do so and use the restroom while we were there.
Can you tell I have an absolute distaste for public bathrooms, between this and my now “mandatory” airport lounge membership?
