Wednesday, January 23, 2013

10 Tips for surviving Public Toilets

I try to avoid public toilets but I have two girls that need to 'go wees' as soon as we leave the house. They also need to go as soon as I sit down with a coffee in a coffee shop, when our meal arrives in a restaurant, the climax of a movie or when I have started placing groceries on the conveyor belt at the check out. Needless to say, I end up spending a lot of time in public toilets for someone that avoids them.
My top tips are:
  1. Assume every surface is covered in faeces. Never touch a handle, a button or tap. Use your a paper towel, sleeve, or corner of your shirt or scarf (or get your children to do it).
  2. Pick a good cubical. You need one that has distance from other toilet guests, it looks relatively clean, has toilet paper and is free from pee drops on the seat and skid marks down the bowl.
  3. Hang up your handbag. If there isn't a hook, then hold onto it. Never place it on the ground.
  4. Place toilet paper around the seat, but still try to balance without touching the seat. Use this opportunity to give yourself a leg and gutes workout. Squatting is excellent exercise.
  5. Create a nest with toilet paper in the bowl. This is to stop splash back and also to soften sound effects.
  6. Hold your breath. I try to do this for the entire time. It makes me rush but I don't want to have to breath in the air that has possibly come out of someone else's bottom.
  7. Wash your hands really well.
  8. Dry them really well
  9. Don't touch the tap to switch it off or touch the door handle when leaving else you will have to go back and wash your hands again.
  10. Check you haven't tucked up your skirt or have toilet paper stuck to your shoe.
Have you got any tips to add?

20 comments:

  1. Know where the best toilets are in town. We have a carpark with a parenting change station that is brilliant and cleaned during the day, and also our library and museum have clean public toilets that are well maintained. We don't venture far out of these "safety zones"!

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  2. So funny Rachel. I am a germ-a-phobe - you forgot to ALWAYS carry hand sanitiser!

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  3. Byo paper. Often there are no squares to spare! Also in parks, check for spiders, snakes and frogs...

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  4. Byo paper. Often there are no squares to spare! Also in parks, check for spiders, snakes and frogs...

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  5. Definitely always have hand sanitizer so if you have to touch something you're still good. My husband calls number 5 laying down a fireman's blanket. I don't know how old the study is but I have read multiple times now that the first cubicle in a row is most often used the least and as a result is often the cleanest and freest of germs. So I often use the first one as I have watched people and not many go in to that first one from my own observations! And it does often seem to have the most paper compared to others (I have spent much time in public toilets having worked in shopping centres and have done research, yes, I'm a freak!)

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    1. Omg lol that makes sense! Maybe I should start choosing the first one! This is a good public service announcement, although you don't want to tell too many people 😉

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  6. I get really excited by good public toilets... I'm not too precious though as I lived in developing countries for a while when I was younger (in Africa and Asia) so running water and toilets that flush are exciting. And... it took me a while to stop carrying a toilet roll around in my bag!

    Deb

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  7. Oh this made me laugh! However I do like the idea of putting toilet paper in the bowl to avoid the icky splash back when you have to squat :)

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  8. I always BYO paper (as in a tissue or two. Prefer to use my own rather than touch the roll. I also carry hand sanitiser in my bag for such occassions. Give that extra clean feeling after you leave. I always throw my bag over my shoulder - I have heard too many stories about people having their bags taken from hands coming over the top of the door and taking them off the hooks.
    Great tips.

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    1. That's why a number of public toilets now have the hook half way down the door

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  9. Yep. Ditto. Long haul plane toilets are the worst. BTW if you ever see scrunched up tissues behind the public toilet door - that's me, using it to open the door and chucking it before it closes - without touching! (sorry for littering cleaners, but...)

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  10. That's just hilarious! I always try to get my daughter to hold on - the first time she says it she can wait a few minutes till we get somewhere decent. I've walked into some public toilets and told her she will have to go behind the bushes they were SO bad!

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  11. Love it! I'm a germ phobic as well. I can't believe the mess some people make eew....Leisa Flanigan

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  12. Ha ha - a woman after my own heart!

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  13. I've heard that using hand dryers is unhygienic so if you can, go for paper towels.
    I squat all the time. I'd hate to think what's been sitting there before me...eeeeewwww!

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  14. hahaha this is hilarious! I hate public toilets and where I work we have toilets that are shared between the whole arcade so I've had to deal with this lol its hard to hold on for an 8 hr work day.

    Love your blog, thanks so much for dropping by mine, I'm your newest follower :-)

    www.lifestylen.blogspot.com

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  15. Oh god just reading this makes me want to take a bath in disinfectant. I hate public toilets particularly at the pool or the beach where there is always a tonne of suspicious looking wet matter in the floor. Having kids means far too much time groveling round on public toilet floors for anyone's liking. Yurghhhhhhhhhhahahahgah....

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  16. Had no toilet paper just today while out & about. Luckily sis, daughter & niece were there too & passed a spare square or two (remember that episode on Seinfeld?!)!

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  17. Lol I hate public toilets too. I avoid them whenever possible - easier with boys who can pee behind a try - and I tend not to take my boys to places that don't have trees bahaha. Two things - don't hang your bag: I have heard people have had theirs stolen off hook behind door (whilst squatting over toilet. Second is a fact I read many moons ago - that the public surface that actually has the most germs is in fact the humble shopping trolley! MAybe from people who've left public toilets without washing their hands?!

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