How were you taught to flush a toilet in a public setting? My mom never said anything in particular about this subject…however, it came up here in the office and the consensus is The Foot Flush. Just think, all these years without this valuable knowledge!!! How do you flush? Do you use those seat covers??!
I don’t bother with seat covers - my legs are tough enough to ward off toilet seat cooties.
And I flush by hand. Then I wash my hands. With soap. And I open the door with my hands. I’m 55 and I’m still alive, so either I’m really tough, or other people are just weird…
What FairyChatMom said. Honestly unless the bathroom is really filthy I refuse to let the prospect of a few germs bother me.
I do the foot flush. If there are seat covers available, I will use them depending on the bathroom – some bathrooms are a little scarier than others. While I am not generally phobic wrt germs, I also like to minimise my potential contamination when I can.
As a side note, one thing that squicks me right the fuck out is when people take food/drink in the bathroom with them. Where I work, I will often see people carry an open cup of water/pop/coffee into the bathroom with them and set it on the counter while they void. WTF? ICK! I always leave my (always closed) bottles of water on the water fountain outside of the bathroom – I figure the worst I will get there is some backsplash from someone drinking from the water fountain (and since the lid is on the bottle and I don’t usually lick the outside of my water bottle, that’s a non-issue). Am I the weirdo here or does that squick anyone else out?
By pushing the lever?
Why do (usually) women use their foot to flush? You’re supposed to wash your hands after anyways. And what about the latch to open the stall door then? I don’t expect you use your foot to open that and yet if someone had bodily fluids on their hands when flushing, it’ll be on the door lock as well.
I wonder how many people are sitting with their mouths agape because they just now realized that.
I’ve never understood the foot flush. Frankly, I find it rude. The handle probably wasn’t that bad until they stuck their foot on it. Do they leave their pants at their ankles when they come out of the stall because they haven’t washed their hands yet? use their foot to unlock the stall door?
My hands are washable. And I don’t worry about butt contamination because I don’t have any open sores there and I don’t go around touching my bare behind to things.
I find I get more illnesses from my kids sneezing on me than I do from public washrooms.
I wash my hands when I’m done, so it doesn’t really matter if a pervious user pressed the lever with their hand, foot, or if they slid it up their ass and squatted.
The ones that bug me from the perspective of “What did that toilet do to deserve such abuse” are the ones that karate-kick the flusher. I’m just waiting to hear “Hiii-yah! <kick> <splash> Yahhhh!!!” as they smash the plumbing.
And no ass gaskets. If the previous user was a rude slob and got the seat wet, I’ll wipe that off before sitting, but otherwise, the seat is probably as clean as a seat on the subway. I’m sure a toilet seat sees a sponge much more often than a train seat, so it might actually be cleaner.
Germophobia annoys the fuck out of me, as I believe I’ve stated repeatedly before. I use my dainty little hand.
I too was amazed by this foot flushing craze and thought I had missed the bus entirely…thanks for the reassurance
Add me to the “slide it up my ass and squat” column!
(Actually, I use my hands of course!)
I don’t consider myself a germophobe but I foot flush. I do it mainly because I’ve had the unpleasant sensation of grabbing a flush handle that was dripping wet- whether from piss or condensation from the cold piping, I don’t really know- but I’d prefer to not have to worry about it. Also, considering the location of the flush handle, it seems that the intention is that it be flushed by foot. If I was supposed to use my hand, it would be located more appropriately. I don’t like bending down to reach it lest my tie droop down and land on the seat, or <gasp>, dip into the water.
No ass gaskets, although I do usually wad up some paper and give the seat a swipe. I don’t want to unwittingly sit on piss droplets on the seat.
I unlock the latch and open the door by hand, then wash my hands.
I use my lily white hand. And the public restroom I use most often is in a downtown public library. Still alive and kicking - for what it’s worth, since I started this job I hardly ever catch a cold. My immune system can kick your immune system’s ass.
No gasket, no foot flush. My immune system isn’t wimpy nor my ass pristine. Around the office the women are so neurotic they have this habit of leaving a long piece of towel paper hanging out of the dispenser for the next person so no one will have to touch the handle:confused: The other day I was caught not following this rule but I couldn’t be bothered to dignify the dirty looks with a response.
[George Carlin]You know when I wash my hands? When I shit on them. Which happens tops, two, three times a week.
Ewww… You win!
Well, I probably get more germs handing out the newspaper to homeless people all day. Today one came back damp.
What completely grosses me out is when you have to ask for the key and the establishment chains something to it, like a big ladle, a piece of wood, a huge ring, etc. After I’ve done my business and washed my hands to surgeon-like cleanliness, I now have to hold this object that is probably crawling with germs. This defeats the purpose of a pre-meal hand washing.
What doesn’t kill me only makes me stronger.
I’m a few hours away from spending an extra-long weekend in a resort town. The public restrooms there are usually kept cleaner than the plates I eat off of. I should probably make a habit of licking the entire restroom, just to ingest a little extra sanitation.
I do the foot flush…
Why? As a guy, I know that the floor around the toilet is going to be crawling with bacteria, as well as urine. When a person before me does the foot flush they’ve just transferred all of that bacteria and urine onto the handle. Knowing this would be a good possibility I just assume that someone has done this prior to me entering the stall. Should it be a urinal I usually don’t flush or I flush with the side of my hand, like a karate chop.
Regardless, whether or not I flush with my hand, I always wash my hands after using the bathroom.
I use seatcovers only under certain circumstances:
-If I have to clean piss off of the seat (since this stall is my only option) prior to using the bathroom I will use a seat cover or load it up with toilet paper. Movie theaters are the absolute worst about this.
-If it’s a restroom that is not inside what I consider an upscale joint (nice hotel/restaurant which is more likely to cleaner seats due to more sanitizing and more respectful users) I will cover the seat.