When you use bathrooms other than the one in your own home, you notice things. The layout, the stall design, the smell, whether or not your shoes stick to the floor, and so forth and so on.
Outhouses, chamber pots (I could never bring myself to use the one Grandma kept under the guest bed upstairs), porta potties, wide open spaces, field rows, small bathrooms, large bathrooms with lounges. No matter how lackluster or fancy, they all provide the same purpose.
C’mon. Step inside with me. Say you push the stall door inward to the right. Have you ever noticed, ladies (not sure if the men’s have the same setup), that most of the time the big toilet paper roll dispenser is immediately on the left creating an obstacle for you to maneuver around? But as you know, there isn’t much room to meander in the stall as the toilet is right there dead center.
Sometimes it feels like you have to do the two-step to just get in far enough to turn around and close the door; in rare instances the space is so tight the door literally smacks the bowl.
Then try doing this procedure with a small child. Yah. I just remember hoping he didn’t take a nose dive into the bowl before I could close the door.
A quick look around and you sigh when you realize there is no hook for your purse and no tank on the back of the toilet. Just the dirty floor with who knows what on the surface. You can hold your bag or take your chances by placing it on the floor. But remember to put it close enough to you so no one can grab it from the neighboring stall. This reminds me, I really need to wash my purse.
You know what’s next, don’t you? Toilet paper. I seriously think there’s a competition among toilet paper companies to see who can manufacture the thinnest, scratchiest, cheapest paper possible. I mean, seriously. Two-ply paper was invented in 1942, but oftentimes the stuff in the dispenser disintegrates quickly.
Operating bathroom utilities can be as frustrating as figuring out gas pumps. If the stall has auto flush, sometimes it activates too quickly and gives you a little shower. Let’s just hope that’s not in the same facility who provides the disintegrating paper, if you know what I mean.
How about soap dispensers? I just found myself trying to use a hand-pump soap to realize it was empty because there was a hands-free soap dispensers on the wall.
Faucets are interesting, too. Auto? Regular? If you have to push it down for water, will the flow last long enough to completely wash your hands?
Then the paper towel dispenser. If everything else is automatic, you’d assume this would be too, right? So there I was waving in front; waving below; to discover I needed to turn the knob on the side. Or there’s the hand dryers that are so powerful your skin has as many waves in it as the ocean! (My son steered clear of these for years.)
I’ll refrain myself from discussing who should or should not use which bathroom, but let’s just say I’ve visited plenty of bathrooms that the stall walls go from floor to ceiling and the only openings are just above and below the door.
I will, however, leave you with this tidbit. A friend of mine recently visited Japan. One of the first pictures he shared was of a bathroom sign stating “do not stand on toilet seat” and the sign even provided an illustration. (Apparently, in some countries the toilet is flush with the floor and you squat over them.) He further noted, “…the lady that cleans the public bathroom wanders in amongst everyone that is using the urinals and goes to work.”
Let’s think about that next time we venture into a public restroom….
