# People who use public toilets and don't flush after using them **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 13, 2004, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932 "2004-05-13T11:08:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Audrey\_Levins](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Audrey\_Levins](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Audrey_Levins)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/21 "2004-05-14T10:05:47Z")
At the bar I work at, the bathrooms are single-stall…one toilet per sex…and most of the time this isn’t a problem b/c it’s a very small bar, but occasionally the line backs up and men get creative if there are no women in line. Now, unless the guy walks out of my bathroom and there are women waiting, I don’t really care; I’ve used men’s restrooms out of similar desperation as long as there are no men waiting. I can’t bitch about the condition of the men’s restroom if I borrow it, since I’m not supposed to be in there. But I’ll be damned if I walk into _my_ bathroom and find piss all over the seat, the floor, the walls…I’m pretty easy going and as long as I cannot _tell_ a man was using my bathroom, I don’t give a fuck. But the other night at work during a really busy shift, I walked into the bathroom for the second time that night and found piss all over the fucking seat and the floor. (Yeah, I’m the girl who grabs like thirty paper towels [to reduce ick factor] and wipes the seat off.) The toilet was, re the OP, unflushed and foamy. Everybody knows that the only way for piss to foam is if it’s shot from above. Not woman-hovering-three-inches-above, either. (Because I know some women hover, and I know that can get messy, so I don’t always assume a man did it.) But only men can create foamy fucking piss. So I’d had it. I walked out of the bathroom, told the DJ to give me the fucking microphone, and announced to the entire bar, “OKAY. IF I SEE ANY MAN IN HERE WALK OUT OF THE WOMEN’S RESTROOM AGAIN TONIGHT, HE WILL BE IMMEDIATELY CUT OFF AND EJECTED OUT OF MY BAR. NO QUESTIONS ASKED. LADIES, I’M COUNTING ON YOU TO WATCH THAT BATHROOM LIKE A HAWK; IF YOU SEE A MAN GO IN THERE, I’LL BE WAITING FOR HIM WHEN HE COMES OUT. SWEAR TO GOD, PEOPLE! I’M OVER IT!” All of the women started laughing and cheering, and most of the men had that half-amused, totally guilty look. You knew they’d all done it at one point or another–if not in my bar, than in some other–and not one of them had the nerve to go anywhere near the women’s restroom for the rest of the night. Sometimes you just gotta make your problem everyone else’s problem, too. ---
**Author:** ![Cerri](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3bc359/32.png) [@Cerri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerri)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/22 "2004-05-14T10:34:42Z")
> [@](#): > > 1. Those are industrial-strength, high pressure toilets. They’ll flush fifty yards of hemp rope so regardless of how much poop you evacuated and how much T.P. you used, hit the damn handle. It’s going down. Those potties will suck your wallet out of your pants if you aren’t careful. I’d sell my mother for one of these…I literally have to flush my apartment toilet 5-6times to get the TP from my PEE to go down. The person who invented low-flow toilets should be forced to endure swirlies thru all eternity, imo. ---
**Author:** ![look\_ninjas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/b2d939/32.png) [@look\_ninjas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/look_ninjas)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/23 "2004-05-14T12:54:08Z")
> [@lezlers](#): > > Believe it or not, college restrooms are the worst. When I was an undergrad, you could walk in the restroom and have to pass up 3 or 4 stalls before finding one that _didn’t_ have someone else’s mountain of crap already sitting pretty in it. I never saw any really memorable unflushed toilets when I was at college, but I’ll never forget the day I walked in to my accustomed shower stall only to find a large mound of crap sitting cheerfully on the tile. There are some things that the human mind just can’t handle on a Sunday morning. Shit in the shower is one of those things. ---
**Author:** ![WernhamHogg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a587f6/32.png) [@WernhamHogg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WernhamHogg)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/24 "2004-05-14T13:06:52Z")
> [@lezlers](#): > > Believe it or not, college restrooms are the worst. I work in a college library, sir, and you are correct. College students are fucking animals. ---
**Author:** ![Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bc8723/32.png) [@Unauthorized\_Cinnamon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unauthorized_Cinnamon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/25 "2004-05-14T17:18:58Z")
> [@lainaf](#): > > Many of the toilets at work are low-flow. There’s one toilet that has to be flushed up to 8 times to get it to clear completely. Yep, those low-flow toilets are essential to conserving water! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/26 "2004-05-14T18:38:26Z")
I’ve seen my share of shit and piss left in stalls before but thankfully never any picked _bugars_. That really would make me hurl. They obviously didn’t go in there just to Pick & Plant so do you think it was just after holding their cock down to pee or just after reaching within their asscrack to wipe their butthole that they stuck their finger in their nose? Can you say sinus infection? ---
**Author:** ![Chanteuse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Chanteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chanteuse)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/27 "2004-05-14T21:52:08Z")
> [@lezlers](#): > > The only thing worse was the 5 girls who would wait in line for 10+ minutes for the one clean stall because they were to icked out to just flush the other 9 that Jane _I-was-raised-in-a-fucking-barn_ Doe left her shit in. > > Just flush the damned toilet. Use your foot if you have to. It may be that not only is the idea of dealing with someone else’s load gross, but fear that the toilet may overflow, increasing the “ick” factor 100 fold, and embarrassing the would-be flusher to death! 🙂 I know there’ve been times I didn’t flush a pre-pooped potty because of this (a situation I once saw referred to in a poop dictionary as the “please, God, no” poop–you attempt to flush a full pot [in public] only to see the water swirl and slowly rise to the top). ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/28 "2004-05-15T11:44:55Z")
> [@Mayflower](#): > > I know there’ve been times I didn’t flush a pre-pooped potty because of this (a situation I once saw referred to in a poop dictionary as the “please, God, no” poop–you attempt to flush a full pot [in public] only to see the water swirl and slowly rise to the top). That happened on some Doper’s first day at a new job, did it not? ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/29 "2004-05-15T17:12:00Z")
I often see urinals un-flushed and in fact, I have seen people do it right in front of me. Most of the time, they pull the level a bit too mildly, or sometimes, they plain forget it. Nothing malicious, but they need to be more careful. I bet they come back to the restroom and complain about how _some_ people never flush the urinals! ---
**Author:** ![litost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@litost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/litost)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/30 "2004-05-15T17:13:13Z")
replace _level_ with _lever_ ---
**Author:** ![1010011010](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/ea666f/32.png) [@1010011010](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/1010011010)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/31 "2004-05-15T17:57:25Z")
At work they have the infared autoflusher valves on all the urinals and toilets. Sometimes they don’t go off, and I’m willing to accept that many people don’t know you can push the little rubber nubbin on the top to flush them manually. There are a number of other disturbing things about these toilets though… They seem to have borrowed some jet engines from the air wing and retasked them to flush the toilets. This would be all well and good, except that even under the best circumstances they tend to produce a light mist and you don’t want to know what can happen if there’s a semi-solid obstruction placed _just so_ in the flowpath. If you drop something on the floor whilst seated and bend down to pick it up (though, you’d just leave it there if you know what’s good for you) you’ll more than likely trigger the infared detector and be treated to a refreshingly moist cool breeze on your nether bits. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/edb3f5/32.png) [@The\_Asbestos\_Mango](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Asbestos_Mango)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/32 "2004-05-16T00:15:39Z")
The grossest thing I ever saw in a public toilet was blood. It was in the ladies’ room at a movie theater back when I was about ten. Someone was apparently having an extremely heavy period, I’m talking multiple large fibroid tumor heavy, and had left the water in the toilet a bright, screaming, frightening bloody red. To make matters worse, the movie I had just seen was _Jaws_ ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/33 "2004-05-16T00:24:18Z")
The worst is when it’s all over the freaking walls-what do these people do when they shit, fingerpaint? Come to think of it, wasn’t there a thread that asked about “prehensile rectums” or something like that? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2004, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/34 "2004-05-16T00:42:06Z")
I thought the prehensile rectum thread was at least in the top ten funniest threads. [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80957&highlight=prehensile+rectum](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=80957&highlight=prehensile+rectum) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/35 "2004-05-18T20:39:04Z")
> [@Master Wang-Ka](#): > > Yup. > > Right up there with those jolly fellows who seem to feel obligated to piss all over the seat. Oh god, not just men. WOMEN ARE DISGUSTING CREATURES! 9 times out of 10 when I use a public women’s room, I have to wipe the seat because some scuzzy bitch pissed on it and left it! I once wrote up a Pit post about it, but I ended up not posting it. I was so angry because it was after a Dope gathering and one of the attendees left the seat awash in her nasty piss, came out of the stall, saw me waiting there and then walking in. Didn’t even have the decency to apologise. HEY BITCH, I DON’T CARE IF YOU ARE A DOPER, CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF! It’s what I call the fucking “hover virus” and it’s an epidemic. Skank A hovers, pisses on the seat, and doesn’t clean up. Skank B goes in and sits down in the piss, says to herself _“ewwww, I’m never sitting down on a toilet seat again!”_ and so hovers, pisses on the seat, and doesn’t clean up. Skanks C through triple Zed go through the same process. LISTEN! JUST BECAUSE **YOU** SAT IN SOME PISS ONE TIME DOESN’T GIVE YOU THE RIGHT TO MAKE OTHERS SIT IN YOUR PISS OR CLEAN UP AFTER YOU. Fucking hell! I like to sit. My balance isn’t good and I can’t hover. Even if I did, I’d check and wipe the seat down with some TP if there was so much as one tiny drop of liquid. I tend to be considerate in that way. hell, I’ll even check to make sure the flushing action hasn’t sprayed up some droplets. Women, wipe the seats. Don’t be a nasty skank. Teach your daughters to wipe the seats. Don’t let them grow up to be nasty skanks. UGH! ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Pastrami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Captain\_Pastrami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Pastrami)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/36 "2004-05-18T20:50:26Z")
But mommy says I have to leave it there so she can see that I really did make a stinky. ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/37 "2004-05-18T21:03:05Z")
A friend of mine and her husband were returning home at night after a weekend away. She was busting to use the loo and finally saw a public loo and they screeched to a halt. Friend races into the loo, empties her bowels asap, gets up and goes to flush. Then she notices that there are things wrong with her toilet world. The flusher goes clunk, there is no water in the loo, there are no connecting pipes, there is a sign on the door saying closed for maintenance, there is a tape (admittedly broken) by the door saying no entry, there are other loos lined up outside the stalls waiting to be installed. She ran out, jumped in the car and said to husband: “just drive!” ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/38 "2004-05-18T21:15:30Z")
Friend, hah. It was you, wasn’t it? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Carol\_the\_Impaler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carol_the_Impaler)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/39 "2004-05-18T21:45:26Z")
I’m gonna puke, people. > [@1010011010](#): > > They seem to have borrowed some jet engines from the air wing and retasked them to flush the toilets. This would be all well and good, except that even under the best circumstances they tend to produce a light mist and you don’t want to know what can happen if there’s a semi-solid obstruction placed _just so_ in the flowpath. Maybe that’s it. Perchance these people have an understable fear of [aerosolized fecal matter](http://www.limbicnutrition.com/blog/archives/021100.html). Myself, I was just thinking this morning how disgusting it is that workplace toilets don’t have lids. And there you are, trapped, in the stall, breathing in fecal fecal FECAL matter! ::hurl:: That’s it! I’m gonna spew again!!! ---
**Author:** ![MelCthefirst](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eada6e/32.png) [@MelCthefirst](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MelCthefirst)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2004, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932/40 "2004-05-18T23:28:33Z")
> [@Jenaroph](#): > > Friend, hah. > > It was you, wasn’t it? 😃 No really, it was a friend, when I lived in Sydney, really. My sister (yes, really) did something similar. She was in the uni library, had an upset stomach and ducked into the nearest loo -went to flush and it wouldn’t work, then saw the workmans tools, high-tailed it out just in time to look like she was browsing the nearest books when the workman returned. She reckoned he must have been gone all of 5 mins. Imagine his surprise when upon returning the fix the loo, there was a bad smell and a present in the bottom of it. He must have thought that the loo obviously needed fixing bad or was possessed. God I love loo stories! Agree that leaving the loo in a state when it can be avoided is a disgusting habit. I have seen the most disgusting loos all around the world. What perplexes me most are the Koreans. The city women are so beautifully coiffured and dressed, not a hair out of place and not a thread out of place, but they go into public loos and make a goddamn awful mess (we’re talking poo on the walls), then they leave in as immaculate a condition as they arrived in. It’s like a Monty Python sketch - they mind boggles as to just what they get up to in there. The Japanese are also immaculately dressed etc, but their public loos are nearly always in a good condition, even the remotest country train station one, so it’s not such a major contrast. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-who-use-public-toilets-and-dont-flush-after-using-them/244932.md?page=3)