When you use public toilet, do you cover the toilet seat?

No, I never use those paper things. I just sit down and don't think about it. Now, I make sure I wash my hands and the kids hands very well afterward and I also ues the papertowel to open the door. I will NOT use my bare hands to open the door. I read something about that and then I started seeing people not washing their hnds and going out the door. I won't touch the door OR the hot cold faucets on the sinks...once my hands are washed, a papertowel stays on them to turn off teh water and to open the door.

You are right about the toilet seat, if you want to see something really disgusting. reach into those places that leave mints and cookies or candy for people to grab. A friend of mine was a nursing student, she was at a nursing home over Halloween and grabbed some candy out of a jar on a desk in the reception area. She cultured it. She also cultured the floor, the desk and the bathroom floor in front of the men's urinal. The candy grew the most bacteria etc. So next time, think before you grab.

I don't cover it, it takes too much time and many bathrooms don't have them. I guess it's just not that big of a deal to me as I'm sure like your husbands class found out, there are more germs on the handels of the doors then on the tolit seat. I guess I like this... I don't go around picking things up with my butt.

That is scary, it makes you want to wear gloves when you go out. It is very interesting though. I would have thought it would be the toilet seat that would have had more. I do cover the toilet seat when I am out because I thought that would have had more germs.

Oh my gosh yes! I have to. Groses me out just thinking about it. If the restrooms don't have those toilet seat covers I have to cover it all up with toilet paper or I won't use the toilet. Even when I take my kids into the restroom. I always make sure they know always to do that too even I'm not with them, like at school. I never knew that, the toilet seat grew out of the fewest numbers of microbes, surprises me. Still, the thought of tons of people you don't know using that same toilet freaks me out! So I always cover up!

When i use a public toylet i huvver over it. i don't touch the seat at all. and i'm careful not to pee on the seat, i hate it when people huver and pee all over the place.

yes I cover the toilet seat, also flush the toilet with my foot. and open the main door with a paper towel

Hi crazynurse I do cover the toliet seat with them papers they have. And I try my best not to even use public restrooms.YUK But what can you do when you have to go well then you must go.LOL If they dont have the paper covers I use toliet paper and line it all up. I try not to touch anything in there. I know some people who are waiting to use the toliet have wait a long time for me. Because sometimes when I putting the cover on it will fall in the toliet. Then I have to start all over again.heheheheh

I had a good laugh over some of the responses. I'm one of those who hover over the toilet but in the case of my daughter, I need to cover the toilet seat with toilet paper for her as she's not tall enough to hover over the seat yet :)

I try my very best not to use public washrooms, but in the situations where I am forced to I try to wedge my arms and legs agains the side of the stall walls and just sort of hover my butt cheeks about 6 inches above the toilet seat, so as to avoid any sort of skin contact with the porcelain. That was of course until I noticed the sort of stuff that people smear on the stall walls.....now I just cover the seat.

I try not to use one, if I had to, then I would cover it with lots and lots of paper just to be on the safe side.

I sometimes do but not always. I will when I see something on the seat that looks like well pee of course ew. Or anything on the seat. Otherwise just wipe it first. Here is a tip for you! Wash your hands for 30 seconds each time you use the restroom. I learned this in a food class I had to take. THIRTY SECONDS! Sing happy birthday 3x fast or 2x slow the whole way through and its 30 seconds! Also use HOT water not cold. I got longer than 3x but 4x singing it if its cold water. Cold water wakes up the germs, hot kills it. Use a clean dry towel (prefer not the soft ones that you keep in the bathroom) paper kind, or air dry it under the blower. I thought I'd add that seeing its kinda of a bathroom talk and I havent really told many people those tips for while now :))

Oh, yeah. If I see that wonderful dispenser above the toilet, I make a grab for it praying that it may not yet be empty. I just don't like the feeling of a warm public toilet seat on my bare butt. Expecially if it's one of those co-ed bathrooms when the guys decide to not lift the seat. Just makes me want to set a bear-trap in there in hopes that the next guy decides to leave a #2.

I refuse to think about toilet seats in terms of microbiological studies. I crouch well, well away from the toilet seat when I am in a public toilet. In fact, in the process, I probably am inadvertantly peeing all over the toilet seat. I don't flush it either, not using the handle anyway. If there's some way to flush it with my foot, then I will. I think the whole place is absoloutly gross and disgusting and I dread going in them. I have enough to contend with in the bathrooms at my own house without public toilet atrocities.

I think that it is really interesting what your husband's class study showed about the other items in the restroom being more germ-y than the toilet seat! That comes as a relief to me, because I just do not have the patience to cover a toilet seat before I use it, and I'm no good at crouching a bit above the seat and trying to go. I just sit down and go, lol! Anyway, I'm sure that the level of germs varies from restroom to restroom, but I just don't know that I'll ever feel the need to cover a toilet seat. It just sounds so time consuming. Even if a toilet seat cover is provided (and i've only seen that about once in my life so far, lol) I really don't feel like taking the time to deal with it, LOL.

I do all the time...and i hate useine public washrooms...but when you gotta go,...you gotta go...lol

Ok, this was probably the funniest post I have seen yet! because this is really a ritual for me. One, I touch NOTHING with my hands, when in a public restroom, if I absolutely have to go into one, except the soles of my shoes. I always use a paper towel, to touch ANYTHING in a public restroom! Next, if the paper is provided to cover the seat, I use it. ALWAYS. Then I use the classic skill of "Hovering." which is why the seat comes in handy, because you don't leave a mess. It is awfully funny to me, that we as people wash our dishes, yet the toilet seat doesn't get a once over after every use. I mean, you wouldn't sleep in someone elses dirty sheets would you? It isn't that I am trying to be rude or anything, I just get sick so darn easy, and I am not sure why. There is nothing I can do aboutthe air, but there certaily is something I can do about the public restroom!

Well as a man I use a urinal, so no chance of catching germs of that :) As I dont contact the urinal, I also prefer public toilets with no doors so I dont have too touch them after washing my hands. It may be colder, and offer less privacy, but I prefer tham.

i simply cover the seat because the thought of my butt rubbing on other peoples butts that i don't know, just grosses me out. plus, sometimes the seats are wet and that's no good.

I don't bother. I always figured that it was hard to get something from the seat. I'll never forget my taking my niece to the public restroom and she refused to sit on the seat until I covered it toilet paper.