posted
I'm sure you're all aware of that tracing-paper material they put in bathroom stalls that is there for sanitary purposes. Supposedly, the extra layer keeps your bum region from contracting anything gross that could have been left by a previous user of the stall.
My question is, do you guys use them?
I mean, I think they're a good idea and all, but for lack of a better way to say this... I'm not too fond of sitting my bare butt on a slip & slide piece of tracing paper. Of course, I generally detest the touch of paper anyway (it's a distant cousin to the cardboard reaction), but I got to thinking... I've never seen one of those dispensers empty or running low. As if hardly anyone uses them.
So do people generally prefer touching their buttocks to a piece of hard plastic that was recently touched by someone else's buttocks--while performing an activity not generally thought of as touch-worthy--or do they generally prefer the paper alternative?
Don't be shy. How do you (shhhh)sit?
Posts: 1307 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
If the seat looks clean, I sit. If not, I clean it with toilet paper, throw that in the toilet, then sit.
I used to think it was so gross to see sprinkles on toilet seats. Heck, there are times when I've wiped the seat even when I didn't need to sit, for the sake of the next person. Well, and so if someone went in right after I left they wouldn't think it was me. But I've noticed sometimes that the power-flushing that some low-flow toilets do actually causes sprinkling on otherwise dry seats, so I now assume (unless it's clear that it was otherwise) that it's just water.
posted
In women's bathrooms, the dispensers often run low or are empty.
They only do any good if the seat is dry -- if it's at all wet, they're worse than nothing. Wicking action.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I'm with Moose on this one. I guess I'm not a good representative of my gender though, because rivka is right. I personally hate the tracing paper thing. I end up touching much more than I ever wanted to just trying to keep the thing on the seat. I gave up a while ago.
Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
I try my absolute best not to have to use a public restroom for that, but if I have to, I do like Pop.
But why should there ever be pee on the seat? Don't people have enough sense to raise the seat before they do that? Or are they just practicing their aim?
Posts: 221 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Although I'm really curious and want to ask why you brought this up, I'm a little afraid of what the answer might be.
Posts: 6213 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
I was just asking for the heck of it, Pop. Plus, I expected lots of pun jokes to entertain me. Those are still pending, I hope.
But it did just strike me as wierd that I never use those things (tried them twice, I think) and wondered whether anyone else felt the same way about them.
I'm getting so far that most guys don't use them while most girls do. Interesting.
Posts: 1307 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
Have you ever had to go in a bathroom at a water park? Even at the urinal, you can never be quite sure if that's water on the floor you're stepping in barefoot or something else. Posts: 221 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
Have you seen the plastic ones where you push the button and a new one comes out? Those are sooo cool! The only place I have seen them is the Chicago airport.
Posts: 252 | Registered: Jan 2003
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posted
I check the toilet, and if it's dirty, I move to another stall. I just sit down right on the toilet... But then I have this weird complex about systematically exposing myself to germs to build up a tolerance...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
So how many people will admit to just sitting on the seat? (as long as it passes visual inspection)
If there's something messy I just look for a stall that isn't and THEN sit down. Wierd that I won't touch someone's stuff but don't particularly mind sitting on the bare seat.
Posts: 1307 | Registered: May 2000
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posted
I'm sort of a germophobe. This thread is creeping me out. You MUST use toilet paper on the seat! And wash thoroughly! If not, eeyyww!
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I just got to thinking about our cats and litter boxes and this thread. I sat here chuckling to myself. We think we are different from other animals?
Posts: 440 | Registered: Oct 2001
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posted
If it is really gross, well I won't sit there.
Otherwise, a little once over with some TP is good enough for me. I hate those paper seat thingies. Every once in a while I will try to use them and quickly remember why I don't.
Posts: 240 | Registered: Jun 2003
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posted
I carry a little spray can of disinfectant for the seat and a bottle of hand sanitizer. If the floor is wet, I dry it with all the paper towels or go somewhere else. Those paper seat covers do absolutely nothing to keep germs off your butt. Paper is very porous. Eewww...ick. I flush the toilet with my foot, wash my hands, open the door with the paper towel and prop it open with my foot, toss the towel at the trash can and leave. If I have to touch anything without washing afterward, I feel gross.
Posts: 1379 | Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
It's really strange. Although I'm somewhat germ-phobic, I never use paper toilet-seat covers. I guess I figure that I've gotten to this age without catching anything, so it can't be that dangerous.
However...I won't sit down on a toilet seat that is obviously wet or otherwise gross; I will not flush for someone who has left their mess (of either kind; I don't know if that's a problem anywhere else, but it seems to be in my part of California - people, please flush) - I move to another stall instead; and I am not shy about complaining about dirty restrooms to the management of places where I find them.
posted
i never use seat covers. they are a waste of my time. i don't know, maybe i'm just really gross, or am used to really gross situations. i bathe eventually so i just don't see the point. if there is something wet on the seat i wipe it with some toilet paper before i sit, or if it's really bad and i can't wait i do the balancinact.
what can i say, i am at one with the universal rear!
i tend to think we are overly phobic of germs and dirt nowadays, and i guess i am pretty laid back about such things because...well just because.
oh, and those plastic-wrap robot seats ARE super cool.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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posted
much to the dismay of my mother, who's a nurse (infection control was a common term around our house), i do not bother with the paper covers. i look at them in amusement, inspect the seat, wipe it off if necessary and have at it. i do, however, wash my hands thoroughly. i am a nazi when it comes to handwashing, and i hate having to remind my friends who are all supposedly adults.
quote: We think we are different from other animals?
in some ways we are not so different from other animals, but i have yet to see/hear of anyone go to the bathroom, dip their feet in the toilet and then lick them. i, for one, can't get my feet to my face.
posted
They have these toilets in Europe that when you flush them, the seat rim spins around and gets cleaned off. We went to the bathroom in this particular restaurant about 12 times during the course of our meal.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
I don't use them because when I've tried I've never been able to get comfortable. All the crackling and sliding around with the bum and the seat and ugh...just not pleasant.
We need those revolving permanent toilet seat covers they have at O'Hare airport. [edit] Or like what you just said Annie.[/edit]
My favorite Euro W.C. experience was in Austria where they had one of those fountain urinals--a flat granite wall with water running down it (exactly like the one in the men's restroom in Matrix: Reloaded, when Persiphone takes Neo and pals into the restroom to exchange a kiss for the keymaker... there's a guy at the urinal when they walk in and she says, simply, "get out!")--and inside the wall was a TELEVISION set. There's nothing quite so satisfying as urinating on a moving image of David Hasselhoff.
posted
Public restrooms are disgusting. I don't use them. I just find a semi-secluded spot at the mall or at work or the restaurant or the stadium or Publix or wherever I happen to be, and do my business right there.
Hardees is good for isolated spots. Nobody ever goes there.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Dec 2002
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posted
Wait a sec, Icarus. When you say out-of-the-way spots, do you mean the back of store in the mall that nobody goes to or the pharmacy section of Publix after the pharmacy is closed? Posts: 221 | Registered: Mar 2003
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1. Wait until the absolute LAST second you can hold it. 2. Find an EMPTY public restroom and pick the cleanest stall. 3. Wipe down seat with exceptional vigor. 4. Form a protective layer between butt and seat with approx. 3 inches of toilet paper. 5. For the love of Bob, FLUSH.
If you are unable to comply with EVERY rule listed above, just suck it up (gruesome pun?) and risk prairie-doggin'.
Posts: 1595 | Registered: Feb 2003
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posted
A habit I think I formed when I was working at a biomed company: If there is someone else in the bathroom to hear it, use the seat cover. A strange twist on the tree falling in the forest scenario.
My grandmother tried to teach us to always use them (it was her way to assume my mother was being derelict in our social education) but in eight grade health class I was told (by the teacher) that the only STD transmissable by toilet seats is Trichomoniasis.
Still, one time I sat down in a hurry and cringed because the toilet seat had been wet... and I was on a road trip through Nevada.
Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I was in the Chicago airport today, and I saw the seat covers that ravenclaw was talking about. Dude! Those things are weird! It's attached to the seat, and you wave your hand in front of a sensor to get another one to rotate around the seat.
Posts: 1658 | Registered: Sep 2003
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