The Lounge

Ladies, listen up, it's time for me to drop some science on your ears about the bathroom situation.

The fact that you can catch an STD from a toilet seat is a myth.

What part or your body touches the toilet seat? If you're anything like me, it's your ass/thighs. It's not your vajayjay. It's not your butthole. I'm pretty sure I don't hump my  toilet seat. Okay. So it's my buttcheeks and thighs. Personally, mine are pretty clean. They stay protected in my clothing all day. I don't wipe so crazily that fecal matter or urine end up on them. In fact, I'd go the extra mile and say my thighs and buttcheeks are cleaner than my hands. Seeing as they stay inside my clothes all day and aren't out touching all kinds of things.

Women are very good at urinating standing up. Typically, it gets all over the toilet seat. The toilet seat that would have stayed pristine if you had actually sat on it in the first place.

Okay, so all things considered: STOP HOVER PISSING!!!!! Seriously. It just gets things disgusting for the rest of us. I am so sick of walking into a stall only to find yellow droplets all over the toilet seat. EW!

And for the love of all things civil, if you dribble, clean it up. Gawd. We're grown ups now, it's time to respect each other's most basic right to urniate in a clean environment, okay?

no, i don't do any of that, santo, but the women i work with are pissy, dirty people when it comes to the bathroom, and i don't want that literal crap on my hands. but i do wash my hands before i eat anything, because i have shaken hands, taken coins, etc.

edit: and don't get me started on the guys! i can only imagine the goings on in there! what with the peeing and those who don't wash their hands afterwards! i don't want their wiener germs on me when i go to leave for the day.

basically, i accept that the world is dirt-laden. the money i touch (which since the inception of the debit card isn't that much), the public transpo i take to work, the door handles, whatever. so i wash my hands, and take a little precaution. i use my hands a lot, and they always find their way to my face. i'm susceptible to bacteria--i've gotten food poisoning more times than i can count--and my skin is stupidly sensitive. so yeah, i do what i can to keep myself healthier.

Original Post by santonacci:

No offense, but this comes off as more than a little nuerotic.  Do you also refuse to shake people's hands when you first meet them?  How do you deal with coin change from a cashier?

The world is pretty dirty.  Especially money, and anything in a public place.  When I can avoid touching things easily (opening a door with your hip, or pushing a 'walk' button with your forearm since it is covered by a sleeve), I do.  I don't go out of my way using paper towels and such.

I just make sure to properly wash my hand before I eat.  But hell, everyone should be doing this anyway.  I don't carry hand sanitizer, unless I'm around small children (like my niece, because I hold her hand when we walk in public, and even when supervised, she does not do a good job washing her hands, so I'll carry it to squirt on her hands).

I only have one thing to say to the hover-pissers.  If you are going to pee like a boy, go ahead and lift the seat like one as well.  That would solve the problem of you getting pee on the seat OR having to *ghasp* clean it off afterwards.  If the men can remember to lift the seat, then so can you. 

Original Post by rebepi:

I definitely agree about the ridiculousness of hover-peeing. Please don't pee on the seat and leave it, especially if you're not planning on flushing either.

I don't have an issue touching almost anything in a bathroom. I'll flush with my hands, or my feet (depends on how gross the bathroom is as a whole), I don't mind touching the doors or the faucets.. etc etc.

I don't get sick almost ever. I think this is partly because I'm not afraid of germs.

I mean, don't get me wrong; I'll wash my hands after I use the bathroom, but I don't spend my whole day worrying about what I'm touching. I refuse to use any of that 99.9% germ ridder gel stuff because I'm pretty sure that it's worse for me than my germs.

That's all.

 Yeah, I'm pretty sure it just leaves the strongest .1% to breed on my hands unencumbered by competition. That's how things like MERSA happen. Gawd. People just need to get over their germ fears and get on with it.

Ah, now here is a woman after my own heart!

I do have to say, though, I've given a little leeway to the whole seat droplet issue... as some of those new auto-flush toilets are WAY overzealous. Often it's not pee on that seat, it's just toilet water that was shot out at 1000 miles an hour by the auto flush! It is hard to be sure, though, so I always wipe it down anyway just in case. Regardless, if it's wet, I don't want to sit on it.

Also- you have to be VERY careful when hover peeing because you also have to pay attention to where your panties are. Push them down too far, then end up falling down to your ankles, and possibly hitting the floor. (EEEW!) Leave them up too high, though, and the inside often is in prime position to rub the outside of the toilet bowl.. just as bad as the seat if you ask me, since no one ever cleans the front of that sucker.
I rarely hover anymore because of all of the logistic involved.. much easier to just set a seatcover or some artfully placed TP down on the seat.

Edited to add-- Can public bathroom designers PLEASE create doors that swing OUT, not in!?  Having to put my hand on the handle to the door to the bathroom as a whole after I've just washed it is bad enough... but I DO NOT like to be pushed back onto the toilet just to get out of the damn stall.  Especially in airports- when I have 50lbs of luggage around me- the stall is TOO SMALL to get my body and my bags out without practically sitting on the toilet again just to get out. 

i agree.. makes me sick.. how hard is it to wipe the dam seat??/  i think tyra banks had a doctor on her show about a year ago ( or maybe it was oprah)  he actually said it would be clearner if everyone would sit on the seat instead of squating adn pissing on it... use the toilet seat  cover.

Ok, so I did not read all the replies but I learned one thing, there is actually people that flush with their FOOT??????

Thanks a load ladies, I will now never ever touch the lever again, knowing that your dirty shoes have been there grosses me out even more so!!!!

Big Ole Ewwwwww!!

I agree that if we all actually sat down, it'd be a much cleaner situation, but I seriously doubt that all the people in the world who "hover" are going to give up doing it for the sake of cleanliness in public bathrooms, and because of this, I shall continue being a hoverer as well. (I'm a clean hoverer though, lol).

@ soliwit : Yeah, I once saw someone flush with their foot - pretty gross. And because of that, I have never again flushed with my hand.

Original Post by soliwit:

Ok, so I did not read all the replies but I learned one thing, there is actually people that flush with their FOOT??????

i thought everyone did this. i didn't know there were still hand flushers out there!

Yeah, I wasn't always a foot flusher.  I heard someone else talk about it, and then it was like "eww, well, if their feet are on it, I'm not touching it, guess I'll use my foot too".

Haha,  it's a vicious cycle.

Original Post by annielikesapples:

I agree that if we all actually sat down, it'd be a much cleaner situation, but I seriously doubt that all the people in the world who "hover" are going to give up doing it for the sake of cleanliness in public bathrooms, and because of this, I shall continue being a hoverer as well. (I'm a clean hoverer though, lol).

@ soliwit : Yeah, I once saw someone flush with their foot - pretty gross. And because of that, I have never again flushed with my hand.

 There is no such thing as a clean hoverer. Please plant your ass firmly.

Original Post by dalmalama:

Original Post by soliwit:

Ok, so I did not read all the replies but I learned one thing, there is actually people that flush with their FOOT??????

i thought everyone did this. i didn't know there were still hand flushers out there!

 I'm pretty sure at my company people can't footflush, seeing as most of us are in skirts and high heels and the levers are quite high. Though seeing the really short Phillipino elderly lady on my floor try to footflush in her pencil skirt and heels presents a picture.

Foot flushing was bathroom rule #2 when I was growing up, right behind hovering, lol!  And I'm kinda surprised at all the hostility towards hoverers... There ARE clean hoverers out there, you know.  I flush, wash my hands for 30 seconds at least and ALWAYS wipe the seat whether I've sprinkled or not.  (And to the person that doubts people who hover wipe up after themselves: I won't wipe before because I've still got to wipe myself after I pee and I don't want to accidently contaminate myself with someone else's 30 minute old pee.  Afterwards, though, I'm going to wash my hands thoroughly so it's all good!).  It's not all hoverers that are bad, it's irresponsible/uncaring bathroom users in general that are pains in the rear!

(One more pro-hover point: if there are people out there that don't flush, and don't wash their hands, who knows if they wash their butts?  Ewwww!) 

Edited to add: Heather there ARE clean hoverers!  I've been hovering for 20+ years now, and you'd be amazed at what that kind of training can do!  A sprinkle is a very rare thing indeed!  Lol! :-)

this thread freaked me out...today i have been using the toilet cover,flushing with my feet...opening doors with tissues..the whole shebang...i feel like Monk!

"Wipe...wipe!" :)

Not that i am not neat otherwise....i dont like to hover pee...i use a seat cover...and wash my hands well after the deed is done...

I flush with my hands and then proceed to wash my hands. Why is the toilet handle so scary if you're just going to wash your hands straight after?  The only remotely scary thing is the bathroom door handle on the way out because of those who don't wash their hands properly if at all.

I still don't do the paper towel thing. What a waste of paper towels. I only use TP to wipe the seat before and myself afterwards (obviously NOT the same TP >_>).

That being said, I won't use public restrooms unless I'm about to, for lack of a better term, pee myself. I've seen things on toilet seats and on floors far worse than pee or poo. Think red.

Yeah.

I've seen things on toilet seats and on floors far worse than pee or poo. Think red.

Let me just say...Ewwwwww....

I get really pissed off wen women leave the restrooms without flushing or leaving it deliberatly dirty...Manners women!

Original Post by medveditsa:

I've never heard of splash back.  I guess I've never peed so forcefully that the pee (or water) in the bowl has bounced up high enough to hit me in the butt cheeks.  

Have you ever tried to pee over someone else's pee? Because that's what I was referring to btw, splash back isn't something that happens in general.  When people leave pee/wads of TP in the toilet the stream can do interesting things, especially if you drink a lot of water like I do and DO go with some amount of force.  Plus I don't like to linger in bathrooms (they creep me out in general), so I try to be as speedy as possible.

My question still stands...why don't the hoverers just lift the seat?  This is what men do so they don't splash on the seat as well.

Ill tell u why...because touching the toilet seat freaks them so much....thats y they hover!

I am VERY glad I am home by my own clean toilet because I am laughing so hard I gotta pee!