Since such a feat of gymnastics is completely impossible for me to perform, it seems awfully extreme (not to mention amusing to visualize). I touch flush handles and wash my hands with soap and hot water afterwards, and I’m still alive. And well, even.
But this reminds me of the misadventures a co-worker related a while back: She was using the ladies’ room at a high school sporting event and also tried to flush the toilet with her foot. Unfortunatey, just as she flushed, her cell phone slipped from her pocket and went straight down the drain. She practically dove into the toilet to retreive the phone (she got it back, but the battery was sucked off and gone). So the person who was afraid to touch the handle ended up with her arm in the bowl almost up to her shoulder. <Chuckles evilly>
Gr8Kat – glad I could give you a good visual. And it’s not that difficult for me to do. I just really, really, don’t want to touch it. Especially when it’s WET! Ewww! Someday, when I get old and am not as flexible, I’ll have to touch it. But for now…
Wow, so I’m not the only one who does this! I probably err too heavily on the side of caution but c’mon, have you seen some of the public restrooms out there?
My routine is: flush with foot (if possible), wash hands thouroughly with hot, soapy water, and turn off the faucet with the paper towel (if there are any). Hell, I even use the paper towel to turn the doorknob on my way out.
And for those of you in the splash and rinse crowd, don’t forget what Uncle Cece has to say about washing up.
Eww… I have to touch toilet handles that people have been putting their feet on?? After their feet have been on the restroom floor??? I had no idea that practice was so common! Yuck!!
I guess I’m not that choosy.
If I see moisture on the seat
I go to another stall. If all are
taken,I try to clean it off as best as I can
with toilet paper and then put down
a paper protector.
Otherwise, I sit. I’d rather be comfortable
while going, than hover. I haven’t gotten any
diseases so far from my bathroom practices.
But let me tell you, I’ll hold it until as
long as I can so I can get home to my nice
clean, sterelized bathroom.
Ah yes - holding… I avoided the girls’ rooms in high school because all the “bad” girls were in there smoking… Those bumpy bus rides home were torture, but I learned SUCH control…
Personally, I’m not concerned about getting a disease from a seat. What bugs me is that folks are such slobs!! How you live and act in your own home is your business, but in places where you must coexist, is a little courtesy and cooperation too much to ask? <yeah, yeah, I know - dream on…>
At one of my jobs, our VP actually posted this rant about how if you have to hover and sprinkle the seat, at least have the decency to clean it off, etc., but in harsher words. This didn’t do the trick for her so she started following people into the bathroom, hanging around (so easy to be casually spending time in a small bathroom :rolleyes: ), and checking behind them after they left! We all figured out who it was without these tactics but since we hated our VP we couldn’t rat her out. Thank goodness she never resorted to cameras…or did she?
My HS bathrooms are SOOOO disgusting. It’s like none of the high schoolers are potty trained. I mean, you have no idea. And there is never TP, and there is never soap, and there is never any seat covers. So I have created my own bathroom grab bag. I always bring a bar of soap, TP, papertowls, and every once in awhile I have glade air freshner.
OK- I’m an epidemiologist. I’ve spent time thinking about this, and I hear about it a fair amoutnt also. Bottom line (so to speak): WASH YOUR HANDS!
To quote a wonderful infectious disease epidemiologist, one whose job involves investigating outbreaks of stuff that is so disgusting it is enough to put you off restaurants forever, “Magic water - give me a break!”
Washing your hands means using soap and hot water. Yes, hot water, not cool water, not cold water. And soap.
And it is a good idea to use your paper towels to shut off the faucet, because you turned the water on with dirty hands. I don’t like thinking about people flushing the toilet with their feet, but I wouldn’t stress about it too much because you’re just about to wash your hands anyway, aren’t you?
Anyway, Cecil did already cover this, the thread is referenced above.
FairyChatMom – oh, now, that’s no way for a mother to talk! Shame on you! I’ve got the bar of soap ready, someone grab her arms. We’ll teach her to keep a civilized tongue while she’s in the Pit!
Annie-Xmas – “* don’t like bending over” Ah, been to prison have you?
And I said I “perfected” the hover technique. I do NOT pee on the seat. I am just more comfortable doing this; also, it gives my thighs a bit of a work out. No harm, no foul. I’m not obsessed about germs really, I just am more comfortable this way. To each his/her own!
I don’t know who came up with the ‘macho’ concept of removing the separation partitions between urinals in most men’s rooms, but I would like to punch him in the jaw for doing it. I take no pleasure in standing shoulder to shoulder with a guy – especially one who farts while micturating – (pissing) – and getting splattered with over spray and getting the occasional ‘shaken drop’ dumped on my pants leg.
Then he walks out without washing – a macho thing – and leaves his seriously diseased looking piss in the urinal for the next sucker. (How about those public urinals where the management has turned the water pressure down so much that it takes 8 or 10 flushes to get the ‘yellow’ out?)
Guys, in a crowded washroom, use the toilets to pee in – and it only takes a second to take a piece of TP and use that to lift the seat with, but I suppose they don’t want to seem ‘prissy.’ So they pee all over the seat and walk out.
You think that’s bad, you ought to go into a busy restroom to use the urinal and observe the yellow swamp on the floor, right where you have to put your feet. Few businesses buy those urinals with the extended cup and guys ‘leaning’ in to be neat do not like touching the back of the urinal.
Know what the real problem with toilets these days is? Inadequate flushing power (if you read Dave Barry you know what I’m talking about). Apparently there is a Federal law requiring toilets to use only so much water per flush. The result–weak flushing toilets. In fact, (Dave was not making this up), in Michigan, contractors ran a TOILET SMUGGLING RING, bringing the high-powered toilets across the border from Canada and installing them in the States.
