How do you decide which toilet stall to use in a public restroom?

If I’m alone, I definately check for the cleanest. If there is alredy people in there, I pick one a decent space away and check for cleanliness as I go down the row.

If its early in the morning, and I find one with the seat still up, I assume that it has not been used since it was cleaned the night before. I call this scenario a “Neil Armstrong.”

I generally go for the one without excrement all over it.
I have never been in a bathroom with a handicapped person. The stall is SO big.

I don’t

A)Apparently cleaning people have reported that everyone avoids the very first stall. So
that’s where I go first. I’ve never been disappointed.

B)Let’s imagine a line of fifty women at the opera during intermission. There are three stalls. One is for handicapped people. There are no handicapped people in the line.
Do you think it’s reasonable for all those antsy women to avoid the third stall? I sure don’t.

At my work I go to the third stall.
Any other places I check for the cleanest.

Hund’s Rules

(It’s also how I choose a seat on the bus)

smell? i think i am a dog

I’m with Susanc on her A) answer. I saw this once on the news, and I have to say, I’ve found that the first stall is always empty and the cleanest one.

I don’t. But if I have to use the farthest and cleanest from the door.

my criteria: clean (often the first stall as stated in previous posts), one with a working lock, one with toilet paper.

the one with loo paper! why are they called restrooms?

I look for the one with no pee on the seat. They’re called restrooms because it’s a room where you rest your inner stresses.

I like to leave an empty stall between me and the next person (if the toilet in the favored position is clean enough), but after reading this, I’m going to try using the first one from now on!

I always pick a “wall stall” cause as a kid I was convinced someone was gonna stab me in the ankles or something crazy like that and it gave me one less place to be wary of, now it’s habit. I look for water on the floor or toilet paper scraps that seem overabundant, smell, and whether anything shiny is on the seat.

If nothing applies, I’m good to go. Literally.

@susanc I agree, if there are no disabled people in line, it is fair game. There are never enough stalls for women. Back in the day, I worked in an office that was mostly women. The mens room had 4 stalls and 4 urinals. The womens restroom only had 3 stalls. The split in the office was 100 women 35 men!! Men always think we are having a pow wow in the ladies room, when in reality, we just have to wait forever. I won’t even talk about pantyhose in the process!

@asmonet You must have grown up in the city like me. My mom had me terrified that someone was going to “get Me” in the restroom. I am sure it was just to keep me from goofing off!

Haha, nope, just saw too many horror films as a kid. :)

Use the one furthest from the front. Usually, people don’t take the time to think which is cleanest. the just go to the closest one.

I look for the one that has toilet paper.

I use the one at the end so that there’s only one person immediately next to me rather than one on each side.

If you have the time to check each stall for the cleanliness go ahead better that you find the best one. But if you are in a hurry use the first stall. Studies show that most people go to the farthest stalls because they think more people use the first one the most. That is wrong. Most people go to the farthest stall and few go to the first one. So the first stall is generally the cleanest.

I usually used the handicapped stall, because of its size, and the extra privacy that is often had, otherwise the family restroom or the cleanest stall available.

I check the one on the end first. If it is dirty, then I will check the next one up, and so on until I find one that is acceptable.