When using the bathroom in a public place (restaurant, work, store, etc.), do you check the toilet seat after using and make sure it appears clean before exiting the stall?

I do. It’s automatic, for me.

Oh yes, I hover over it rather than sit. Stationary helicopter mode.

I worked at a state park for a couple of summers during college, and part of my job was to clean the restrooms. In my experience, people generally don’t care how they leave the stall. People would leave all kinds of stuff on toilet seats, including potato chips and lost pregnancies. Also, there is some sement of the population that feels it’s acceptable to leave feces all over the walls.

I was taught to put the toilet lid down when I’m finished, so yes, since I’m looking down at the seat as I go to close it I will clean it if necessary. However, if people don’t put the seat down and just flush, what you think might be urine could just be splashes from the flush.

This is pretty much a necessity for me due to the nature of my internal plumbing but since I go 6+ times a day I will admit, I don’t desire to spend an hour of my life per day in the bathroom so I don’t always thoroughly check the underside of the seat, etc.

Also if your toilet doesn’t flush well enough to clean out its own bowl and you haven’t provided me with a brush then tough luck, I’m not reaching my hand into a public toilet bowl to clean it with toilet paper.

Not really. I don’t sit on public toilets after all. Only when the toilet is too dirty do I clean a bit.

Many public toilets spray a bit as they are flushed. It’s not necessarily urine, or the fault of the person in there before you.

I am short and I have a bad bad knee, so I am unable to hover. Rough estimate, only one time in ten do I not have to clean the seat before using it. I don’t think anyone has bad intent, but they just don’t realize that their stream is not tidy. As a result, I always check before _and _ after use.

Yes going in and yes coming out.

I read somewhere that Kelly Ripa avoids public toilets as much as possible because whether they were a mess before or not, they have to be sparkling after she uses them. She even carries a small pack of cleaning supplies. Why? If she didn’t, someone would photograph and post pictures and say “Look what she did!” and that nonsense would be all over the web.

I always leave them in better shape than when I walked in. Always.

And while we are on the subject… who is the jackass who doesn’t flush? This isn’t Sudan! It’s free!

Indeed.

I know that some toilets spray water when they flush. I am thinking of yellow water on the seat, which is most likely not clean water from the toilet spraying.

@Mariah: I wasn’t referring to the underside of the seat, just the part of the seat that is visible. I was definitely not referring to the inside of the toilet bowl. I am not thinking people should be cleaning the inside of toilets, just the part that others may be sitting on or seeing (the top of the seat).

I am truly disgusted by the toilets I encounter at my college library. I don’t make or leave a mess. One of my biggest complaints is of people who cover the toilet seat with paper so their precious tush doesn’t touch it and then leave the paper there for me to find or pick up. WTF??

@jca Oh yeah, I didn’t figure you were. These are just things I worry people will judge me for.

I like to leave things a little better than I found them. BUT, if it is that bad going in, I will go to another spot. I’ll clean up after myself and maybe you if maybe you accidentally dripped but I am not cleaning up an intentional mess.

So who are the people who leave a mess? Do we need to install cameras? Wait… scratch that.
~ Do we need to install motion sensitive cameras that time and date stamps when a person enters a leaves? And install a bank of Toidycams© that record toilet status before and after use and if the difference is greater than 0.5% connects the time stamp with the user and automatically posts the perp’s photo with results on Instagram, Pinterest, FB, and social dating sites.
An “outing”, so to speak, would reduce their chances of reproductive success.

@LuckyGuy – The last office building I worked in had shared restrooms for many offices. There was one cleaning person who maintained the whole building, and it was impossible to not get to know her. When you know the person who is going to clean up restroom you are in, I think that most people take extra care to keep it clean. I’d occasionally find tissues or paper towels on the floor and I’d clean them up. I’d go into the restroom to find people drying up the counter around the sink.

I suspect it would make a big difference if people really knew and understood that someone would have to clean up their mess. When there is a face and a real person, it’s easy to feel empathy. And they would likely take extra care when using the restroom. I could be (and probably am) wrong, however.

Yes.

I have oft times wondered about the fecal smears on the wall, particularly the ones at ass height that are obviously not done with fingers. Why? Just, why?

@rojo ‘Tis art, my friend!

@rojo Do you think that would end if there was a smear campaign.

@dxs so…...we can say that “Art is in the arse of the beholder”

@LuckyGuy I think it would end if we electrified the stall walls

I am always perplexed by the women who pee all over the seat in a public rest room (I am not talking about backsplash from the flush, but actual urine). What are they doing? Are these the squatters I keep hearing about? Surely, there are plenty of squatters who manage to hit the bowl – and if not, just clean it up! How do these people look themselves in the mirror afterward? It’s so selfish.

@dappled_leaves Yes, I find it incomprehensible how they and the toilet paper layers are so concerned for their own hygienic purity but don’t give a piss(?) about any one else’s!

@janbb Exactly. Should we say that they do give a piss? Hmm.

All I know is it certainly pisses me off!

I clean the lid every time I use a public toilet.

Well, I usually don’t make a mess to begin with. I actually don’t understand how people end up pissing all over the seat and whatnot, especially if you’re a woman. What the fuck are these people doing? I worked in a hotel for a long time, and people are just gross when it comes to toilets. Backed up toilets, tampons floating in there, and more than once I’ve found small chunks of fecal matter on the floor. I just don’t understand it, it’s like people are doing it on purpose.
Whenever I use the can, I find it easy to be clean. What mess I make I will clean, and I always flush. I don’t want nobody seeing what I leave in there, that’s embarrassing. And I sure as hell don’t like it when I go on a public toilet and see a wad of toilet paper in there, or a big ass piece of shit floating around going, hey man, what’s up?
Being considerate isn’t hard, although I get the feeling some people feel like they never live if they don’t fuck up the can as much as possible.

@janbb @dappled_leaves It seems they’re the cause of their own problems.

I was in a public cubicle years ago, not for a shit, I just like pissing in private :D
Someone had written on the wall inside, “if you are gay & want your cock sucked, meet here at 8:30pm” Imagine my fucking horror when I glanced at my watch which told me the time was 8:29…I pissed on my shoes & put percy away without wiping, couldn’t get outta there fast enough.
Anyway yeah, that was the one time I left without a courtesy clean XD

LOL @ucme, that’s hilarious. XD

@dxs I don’t think they would use a stall in which someone had made such a mess before them. So, they’re just making problems for everyone else, and benefitting from other people’s diligence.

Yes I do.

@Symbeline Yeah, I can look back on it & laugh, but at the time, me was properly scared man :D

Yeah, but would the dude really have showed up? ...I’m sure you don’t even want to know. XD

Judging by the queue of eager looking camp men I ran past as I exited the place, yeah :D

You might not realize, or perhaps you did it on purpose, but “queue” is a French slang for penis. (it means tail, but it’s used as often here as the English dick or cock)

I know you like word games, so I had to share the moment. :D

And holy shit, it’s 8:27! XD :D

Really? I never knew that.
Makes sense, last time I visited Paris there were huge queues at the urinals, I know…I looked XD

No need. I piss in the toilet, not on it. It’s squatters that leave urine all over the seat. They’re trying to avoid getting germs on their ass and, at the same time, forcing other people to come in close contact with their bodily fluids. Real nice.

I sit on my butt, pee into the toilet, wipe, and toss the paper between my legs directly into the water. There’s no opportunity to leave anything behind.

I do glance behind me when leaving the stall, but it’s to make sure the toilet flushed everything down, not to check if I peed on the seat or left toilet paper stuck to it.

Yes. More likely to check after than before.

Usually yes. I always use the toiley doilies too and make sure they flush.
The other day though I had a terrible experience, the freaking automatic toilet in the grocery store went off while I was still on it. Ewwww! I took a shower when I got home after being spayed with public toilet water.

Gah!
I HATE, HATE, HATE, the auto flush toilets.
They always go off when you least expect it and scare the crap out of you. pun intended lol
Seriously, have we become so ^&$#!&* lazy we can’t even flush after ourselves?

I’d never experienced automatic flush toilets until I went to Canada/US. It was quite unexpected.

What @livelaughlove21 said. I sit down, take care of business, then look to make sure my business is gone.

Always. I hate when people hover and pee all over the seat. That’s just gross.

Yep. I always check that. I’m surprised at the people who don’t—although I’m sure many of them do, they just choose to do nothing about it.

And yeah, I check the underside of the seat if I’ve had my ever-present Montezuma’s Revenge. Icky if it’s mine, disgusting if someone else’s and appears to dry quickly.

^^^^ TMI. setting coffee aside, taking deep breathe, cleansing my mind of unsavory images lol

^^^ And here I sit with my omelet of roasted corned beef and mushrooms. Really!

@ibstubro you know, your initials are IBS? lol

Although I’m not defined by IBS,
and therefore it has nothing to do with my moniker
I was, at one time, diagnosed by one of the leading doctors in the field as an IBS sufferer. Treatment was worse than the disease.

Recently I’ve had extreme relationship, financial, and business traumas that have turned a solid diet into liquid, er, elimination. The opposite of projectile vomiting. I try to be considerate.