# How do you approach using a public toilet seat? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869 "2009-10-23T15:29:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/1 "2009-10-23T15:29:03Z")
You’re in a public place – anywhere outside of your home, really. You’ve got the use the bathroom in a way that would normally mean sitting down on the toilet seat. It _looks_ clean, but someone may or may not have been there before you since the last time the seat was sanitized. What do you do? What DO you do? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/2 "2009-10-23T15:32:40Z")
Shit on the floor. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/3 "2009-10-23T15:34:16Z")
I take two or three sheets of paper, give it a quick wipe round, chuck the paper in the bowl (to minimise splashback) then plonk my hairy buttocks on the seat and get to business. “Sanitised”? Puh-lease. I’m not licking the seat, I’m putting my arse on it. What nasties are going to penetrate the well-tanned hide of my gluteus maximus? ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/4 "2009-10-23T15:34:19Z")
Give it a quick wipe with a handful of TP and sit down. Been doing this for decades and have never caught a disease of any kind. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/5 "2009-10-23T15:34:19Z")
By the way, the above was my “shoot the hostage” response. In reality, I’ll give it a quick wipe with some TP in a futile attempt to convince myself that there isn’t poo-molecules just a-floating all over the place. Then I cop a squat and do my business. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/6 "2009-10-23T15:37:40Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Give it a quick wipe with a handful of TP and sit down. > > Been doing this for decades and have never caught a disease of any kind. Exactly. I don’t understand how people think you can “catch” something from placing unbroken skin on a toilet seat. Unless you have open sores on your arse (in which case you have more pressing concerns than where to take a dump), then what the hell is the problem? Hoverers, gasket users and other germophobes, you are bloomin’ mental, the lot of you. By all means wipe the piss off the seat, but after that, get on with it. ---
**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/7 "2009-10-23T15:37:57Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > Give it a quick wipe with a handful of TP and sit down. > > Been doing this for decades and have never caught a disease of any kind. For the record, this is me as well. Either a paper towel or toilet paper. Seems to work just fine. ---
**Author:** ![Edward\_The\_Head](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/8 "2009-10-23T15:41:43Z")
Unless it’s got some droplets on it I just sit myself down and crap. If there’s something on it then I wipe it off. ---
**Author:** ![kivrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@kivrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kivrin)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/9 "2009-10-23T15:47:19Z")
If there is something brown or red on the seat, I retreat and try another stall. If there’s urine or anonymous droplets of water, I hover over the seat, and when I’ve concluded my business I wipe up both the preexisting drops and any I may have introduced. I realize I’ve never faced the droplets when anticipating a lengthy sit-down; if I were I think I’d wipe off the seat, then sit. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/10 "2009-10-23T15:51:46Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Unless it’s got some droplets on it I just sit myself down and crap. If there’s something on it then I wipe it off. I would have said that, but as I tend to drop a sheet or two of paper onto the water to avoid the “cold fountain” effect, I usually wipe it round the seat first. I only tend to retreat when it’s either totally blocked up or has evidence of vomit. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/11 "2009-10-23T15:53:36Z")
How do I approach it? Butt first. Always. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/12 "2009-10-23T16:01:10Z")
I don’t use stalls that have brown or red or vomit, as others have said. Beyond that I don’t really care - I’ll wipe up what’s there, and I don’t hover. I really don’t like using those port-a-potties, though I will if I have to. But I try to avoid it as much as possible. ---
**Author:** ![Oregon\_sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/50afbb/32.png) [@Oregon\_sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oregon_sunshine)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/13 "2009-10-23T16:04:59Z")
As long as there’s no splotches of liquid/material/etc. on the seat (or still in the can, I don’t flush for others), I’m good to go. Quick visual inspection then use the damn thing. …I think this is probably TMI but oh well. ---
**Author:** ![EmAnJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d2c977/32.png) [@EmAnJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmAnJ)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/14 "2009-10-23T16:10:31Z")
> [@Edward\_The\_Head](#): > > Unless it’s got some droplets on it I just sit myself down and crap. If there’s something on it then I wipe it off. This is what I do as well. I’m female by the way, and I tend to find that women are more worried about clean public toilets then men. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/15 "2009-10-23T16:17:52Z")
So, is anybody going to cop to being that bitch who thinks she’s too good to sit on a toilet seat and then leaves her pee all over the seat for me to sit in? Because I really, really want to meet her. In a dark alley. ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/16 "2009-10-23T16:21:09Z")
You forgot “I check first to see if the seat is clean”. If it is I sit down, if it’s not I eaither clean it off w/tp or use a different stall. ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/17 "2009-10-23T16:22:44Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > So, is anybody going to cop to being that bitch who thinks she’s too good to sit on a toilet seat and then leaves her pee all over the seat for me to sit in? Because I really, really want to meet her. In a dark alley. If only the stupid search option would actually work here, I could find you a link to the Doper woman who not only does this, she is teaching her daughters to do it too. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/18 "2009-10-23T16:28:50Z")
I used to build a little paper nest on the toilet seat but have since trained myself to just wipe it off. I realize I’m unlikely to catch ass leprosy from just walking in and sitting down but it makes me feel better and that’s what’s important to me. ---
**Author:** ![Gesturing\_Mildly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/65b543/32.png) [@Gesturing\_Mildly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gesturing_Mildly)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/19 "2009-10-23T16:31:22Z")
I know a girl whose mom made her not squat, but STAND on the seat. ---
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869/20 "2009-10-23T17:05:43Z")
> [@Gesturing\_Mildly](#): > > I know a girl whose mom made her not squat, but STAND on the seat. :eek: 😕 How does that work, exactly? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-approach-using-a-public-toilet-seat/514869.md?page=2)