What is wrong with women when they use public washrooms?
By mmiller26
@mmiller26 (1930)
Canada
July 22, 2007 8:28am CST
I spend a lot of time outside, and that means that when I have to use the washroom, I usually end up doing it in public venues like the mall and such. And I'm really fed up with the female population and their disgusting bathroom habits. It's really easy to come down on men and their habit of missing the toilet bowl. I never thought that women would be just as bad, if not worse!!
I can't tell you how many times I've gone into a washroom to find that a majority of the stalls are either urine-soaked or full of trash. Do these women really think that the washroom is there for their exclusive use and no one will be coming in after them? Either there's urine on the seats, toilet paper all over the seat and the floor, garbage all over the place and in some cases I've even seen menstrual blood and stool on the toilets. A lot of times women go to the bathroom and don't bother to flush. What is wrong with these people?
I know a lot of women think they need to hover over the toilet so their pristine backside won't have to touch anything. And even though you're not going to catch anything from sitting on the seat, if that makes you happy, go ahead. But at least have the decency to look at the seat and wipe up your mess before you exit the stall. If you think you need to drape half a roll of toilet paper over the seat for the same reason, fine. Don't let me stop you. But put it in the toilet and flush it when you're done! Don't leave your maxi-pads on the floor. Stop trying to flush your applicators that clog up the toilets. Have a little respect, not only for the people who are using the facilities after you, but for the poor person making minimum wage that has to clean up everything after you've made a disgusting mess. We're all civilized people, right? Right?
And for God's sake, wash your hands when you're done.
11 people like this
29 responses
@GardenGerty (160696)
• United States
22 Jul 07
Yes, this needed to be said, and said loudly. Unfortunately a lot of people have this condescending idea that "That is what they pay a janitor for!" How disgusting. I have gotten to where I try not to use public restrooms. I think some of this starts in the home, with parents not teaching kids to respect themselves and others. I will tell you the truth, my house is a mess, but I would never dream of leaving that kind of mess in the bathroom, even my own. On a positive note, and I do not know if it speaks for the patrons, or if it speaks for the custodial crew, but the cleanest public restroom in my town is at the public library. It is never messed up like that, and I am glad. It is not fancy or anything, but it is definitely clean and neat, and comfortable to use.
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
22 Jul 07
I wonder how much of that is because the library doesn't get as many visitors? Our town library is generally pretty empty, unfortunately.
I'm outside all the time, exercising, running errands, working, shopping, etc. So I use coffee shop, mall, fast food restaurant and gas station bathrooms frequently and I see things that just turn my stomach. I think a lot of it does come down to respect, but I wonder if some people just don't know any better.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160696)
• United States
22 Jul 07
When I am at the library it is usually pretty busy, we are even building on and doubling its size. I also happen to know that our major homeless person spends a lot of time there, even more so in the winter, when the park restrooms are closed.( We probably have more than one homeless person). There are a number of elderly that come spend parts of their day every day at the library, for the social and for the heating/cooling effects. Actually the library, the parks, and Wal Mart restrooms rank in that order for cleanliness. Eating establishments do not always look dirty, but smell musty and stinky. Convenience stores would be my last choice. Restrooms at the hospital lobby are very clean as well.
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
22 Jul 07
Walmart restrooms? Really?
I've found that the walmart restrooms are usually the worst. Not necessarily because of lazy custodians, but because people seem to think that because it's "just walmart" that they can be as disgusting as they want to be and no one will care.
1 person likes this
@chertsy (3798)
• United States
23 Jul 07
You hit it right on the nail. It's disgusting when I have to go to the restroom with my kids, and 3 out of 5 stalls are germ infested craphole. I feel like asking these women, do you not flush at home, or you think you don't have to when you go out. My youngest child, knows how to use restroom better than some of these women that goes into the restrooms I have to take her into. By the way, we wash our hands, lol.
1 person likes this
@chertsy (3798)
• United States
23 Jul 07
Do you think you can send your son to my house to show my 37 year old husband how not to miss and then to clean up if he does, lol. My daughter is the same way with washing her hands, when we are in a public place, she tends to go overboard with the soap. Also Lord forbid the auto flusher doesn't go off, lol. She will stand there and push that little button til it does. My oldest was totally different public bathrooms freaked her out. Her first encounter with a auto flush, freaked her out so bad that she wouldn't go to the bathroom in public, she would honestly hold it until we got home. Luckily, she got over it, but the first time gees, thank goodness only a few other people were in there, lol.
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
lol, I was just about to say the same thing. My five year old boy knows how to use the washroom better than grown women!! If he misses the bowl, he'll clean it up or at least let me know what happened so I can help him. He loves to wash his hands. And he's been taught not to leave messes for other people, so he'd never dream of throwing things on the floor.
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
24 Jul 07
lol. My son was the same way with the auto flusher. He moved to the side and it flushed and he screamed and cowered behind me. It took forever to explain to him about the sensor, and that the toilet was just doing its job. Now, my son gets all weird about flushing toilets and wants to check each stall to make sure they're all flushed before we leave. That's great for cleaning up after the disgusting people who don't feel it's necessary to flush for themselves. lol
1 person likes this
@badpenny (741)
• Lancaster, Texas
23 Jul 07
When I was in high school, I had a part time job with a company that cleaned office buildings in downtown Dallas. My job was to clean the restrooms in a twenty story building, and let me tell you, the women's restrooms were always nastier than the men's. You would think it would be the other way around, but it's not. Thank you for posting this. I always wished I could have given those women a piece of my mind when I was doing that job, and now you have done it for me.
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
I think that's my point. We need to be more vocal to the people who do this. I think a little shame would go a long way. Of course, I wouldn't have wanted you to lose your job either, but maybe a company memo would have worked.
@urbangirl (1456)
• Australia
23 Jul 07
I don't actually understand where people get these habits from - especially toilet paper on the floor and not flushing the toilet. I have never ever been to anyone's house and seen this, so can't really understand how someone can just suddenly develop a bad habit like this when they are in public. No-one should be subjected to someone else's pad - yuck!
1 person likes this
@urbangirl (1456)
• Australia
23 Jul 07
PS the not washing your hands is the worst. You see perfectly groomed women with no idea about hygiene. If you just quickly rinse your hands with water, that does NOTHING to clean your hands - worse still, if they are not dried then that is worse than not washing hands at all. Then they go to the food hall and eat their lunch. No wonder people get sick.
1 person likes this
@Uskglassraven (39)
• Philippines
23 Jul 07
woah... I always had the idea that us guys were big slobs as compared to women when it came to those stuff. Well of course i haven't been inside the women's restroom so that was just what i thought. I get irritated so much when i find that guys don't flush down their spit and urine and all their crap. Anyway, i feel bad now for the women who like you, are fed up with those who have absolutely no sense of decency. Hope that everyone, both men and women, PLEASE have some sense of decency and respect for the public.
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
lol. otherwise you might find that the women who want cleanliness start invading the men's rooms, since I guess men aren't as bad as women in this area.
Spit and urine, huh? Can you answer a question for me? Why do guys spit all the time? I can't tell you how many times I've been walking down the street and I pass a guy who just leans over and hocks a loogey on the street. What's with that? It's gross, and I don't want to step in it.
@xxbn199xx (61)
• United States
23 Jul 07
I never knew women were this disgusting in they're bathrooms, I thought their bathrooms were perfect and the men's room were bad.....
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
No, it's nasty how disgusting women can be. In creating this thread, I'm kind of hoping that women will read it and recognize some of their own behaviors and make changes.
@rogue13xmen13 (14403)
• United States
23 Jul 07
I agree, some people do not clean up after themselves when they go to the restroom and that is just wrong. After you go to the restroom, clean up! It is so simple to do.
@hjf040135 (1)
• China
23 Jul 07
I agree,public restroom are ourselves .we must keep its clean
1 person likes this
@loujac3 (1188)
• United States
23 Jul 07
It is truly amazing the way some people treat public property. There are wastebaskets in restrooms and usually a small one in each stall. These are provided for disposal of sanitary supplies. I understand that sometimes those nice seat paper covers are not available and then using toilet paper for protection is one's only choice. I have always made sure to push that toilet paper into the toilet and to check to see if I left anything that someone else would not want to deal with. It is just common courtesy.
I raised my daughters from the beginning to never place sanity items into the toilet since older pipes tend to get plugged easier. I also kept all waste baskets inside the cabinet under the sink so that no one had to view less than desirable garbage. This also kept the crazy dog from dragging those same items out and around the house for public viewing.LOL
Isn't it amazing at the statistics about the amount of bacteria that are on the knobs of public restrooms? That means that someone isn't washing their hands! Disgusting!
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
Oh, I know! It's just nasty when you think about it. After I've washed my hands, I don't touch ANYTHING. I use my shirt sleeve or a paper towel to open the restroom door so I don't have to touch the handle. I use my foot to flush the toilet. I carry hand sanitizer everywhere. I know sanitizer doesn't take care of all the germs and nastiness that is out there, but I feel a lot better having it.
@lecanis (16647)
• Murfreesboro, Tennessee
22 Jul 07
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen public bathrooms this bad, except perhaps in really small service stations out in hickville where they seem to just never get cleaned. I don't know if I'm just lucky or what, but most of the time the ones around here seem to be pretty clean.
I do know some women who don't like to touch the toilet seats, but many bathrooms have those dispensers for the seat cover things where I live, and those types of people usually use them. And I don't think I've ever seen maxi pads on the floor unless that little garbage can was crammed full like it had never been emptied or something. Maybe women where I live are just extremely well-mannered or something?
In fact, I think the biggest annoyance I've had with public bathrooms was the ones that just seemed never to have been cleaned, or the rude people who seem to think it's okay to let their kids run lose in the public bathroom doing things like peeking under stall doors. Grrr.
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
22 Jul 07
I agree...women need to watch their children better. My son is 5 and he still accompanies me to the bathroom and we share a stall when we go so he doesn't run around. The few times I've caught him even trying to peek at what's going on in the stall next to us I've explained to him why it's rude and why good boys don't do that. It's not even an issue anymore.
1 person likes this
@ky1119 (698)
• United States
22 Jul 07
Amen to that! It's so nasty to walk into bathrooms. I hear so many people complaining that the store hasn't sent someone in to clean up. Well, would you leave your bathroom at your home in the condition you leave the stall in a public bathroom? That answer is probably no, and if you would, then gross. I can't stand it when someone doesn't flush after themselves, that's just nasty. About the hand washing.. how many people have you seen that walk out without washing their hands? I see a lot of people. No, running water over them doesn't count, use soap!
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
22 Jul 07
I know! I can't imagine going out of the bathroom without washing my hands and then eating a meal or shaking someone's hand. It amazes me that people are scared that they'll catch something from the toilet seat and then don't wash their hands adequately. Germs are spread the fastest through hand-to-hand or hand-to-mouth contact!
One of the worst bathrooms I've ever seen was at a grocery store, of all places. It was just appalling. And I always check out the bathrooms at restaurants when I go to eat somewhere. I figure the state of the bathroom speaks for the cleanliness of the restaurant as a whole. If they can't bother to clean that, I wonder what their kitchen must look like.
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
22 Jul 07
You have no idea how bad it can get! lol.
When I lived in Toronto, it was an every day occurrence to find messes like I described. And I always wondered if people treated their own bathrooms like that, and if they did, how they could possibly live with themselves.
I also used to work in a convenience store when I was in my teens, and we had to clean the bathrooms several times per day. I've found urine on the seats, stool on the floor, blood on the seats...and one of my co-workers on third shift even found semen on the walls. (Who gets turned on by a convenience store bathroom?)
It makes me wonder if some of these people weren't indeed raised in a barn.
1 person likes this
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
23 Jul 07
I can relate to this. I drink alot of water and am out and about alot. I use a lot of public bathrooms. Women can be so darn gross!! I have actually been in a couple of bathrooms worse than the one described here. I think the minimum wage bathroom cleaner got frustrated and quit and no one would do the job for any amount of money.
I have heard from custodians that womens bathrooms tend to be far worse than men's!
1 person likes this
@divine_real (40)
• Philippines
23 Jul 07
I have same experience also with you, but lucky enough I observed that lately in my place women are getting educated about keeping the restroom clean not only for themselves but also for others who needs to use public restrooms. And also malls around our area tend to have standby janitress who keeps on monitoring the cleanliness of the area. Your right mmiller26 all women should do your advice on how to keep the public restroom clean and orderly otherwise they are the one's who will suffer on their on mess also because as for my experience for the girls it is not once or twice they need to go to the restroom and they will suffer also if they don't maintain the cleanliness.
@ahamster (33)
• United States
23 Jul 07
If those women won't be considerate, then there should be some new technology / innovative method of using the bathroom. There is already a Japanese toilet that cleans it self (sanitizes) the seat before use. That's really handy for the germophobic people.
1 person likes this
@mmiller26 (1930)
• Canada
23 Jul 07
Technology is great, but I think in a way it just makes excuses for people and allows them to continue this behavior. I think people need to be better educated about bacteria and other people who use those restrooms need to be more vocal when they enter a stall that someone has just exited and find a mess like that. I think if more people spoke to the people who are doing this and embarrassed them, they might stop.
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
23 Jul 07
yes, i also encounter the same situation like you when i use the public toilet... that's why i try to avoid it as much as i can... i also don't understand what are those people doing... and they can be so disgusting... urrghhh... that's amazing how dirty people can be...
1 person likes this
@venshida (4836)
• United States
22 Jul 07
Amen sister, there are too many nasty females out there. They are very inconsiderate of the poor people who have to clean up after them. Can you imagine some of these peoples home? I worked for a large entity and our director had to send around a email addressing the filth in the ladies bathrooms. Just plain NASTY.
1 person likes this
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
22 Jul 07
My son had to clean the restrooms each evening at the grocery store in which he worked during high school. He was forever telling me that women were such slobs as compared to men in terms of cleanliness of the restrooms. As you described, he was always complaining about feminine hygiene products being on the floor (that he had to pick up!) and soaked toilet seats, toilet paper (wet) caked to the sides of the toilet and more. It is like people have the mentality of, "well, I don't have to clean it...so I'll be as messy as I can." They seem to have no respect for others and of course none for themselves!
1 person likes this
@Calais (10893)
• Australia
22 Jul 07
I am a female, and I really do not use public toilets for that reason, that are disgusting pigs to say the least, you can imagine their own homes if they leave the public area in the state they do...I am too scared to touch anything in there and I have to hold my breathe...Its wrong you'd think that females would be padantic about where they go and how they leave it...Pigs, thats all I can say.
1 person likes this
@wiccania (3360)
• United States
22 Jul 07
Amen. I use seat covers or toilet paper, and it always gets flushed. I hate walking into a stall and finding a wet seat or worse. It always makes me wonder what these peoples bathrooms at home look like. Do they leave their used "product" on the floor in their own bathroom? There's a trash receptacle in the stall, and even if there isn't there's surely one in the bathroom somewhere.
1 person likes this
@sanachan (15)
• Chile
23 Jul 07
Hahaha, it's so funny to read that people from so many places share the same experiences with public toilets!!
I've had the same problems as well: going to the mall and the toilet is just disgusting... of course from time to time they are cleaned and all that, but still, what's wrong with those women who just can't flush?!? Why do they have to throw the toilet paper to the floor?!? One really wonders if they do the same thing at home, and I really wonder if men are as disgusting as well...
1 person likes this
