The toilets are cleaned too often...

[Marmalady]

So, the first job I do on every shift I work is to give the store toilets a clean. They're done first thing in the morning, but by the time I come in, the store has been open a couple of hours and that's plenty long enough for them to get messed up again. I give them a good clean, then I know they're OK for a while and I can get on with something else.

The other day, I'm cleaning the ladies' toilets first, because the mens' and disabled toilets are occupied. I'm busy wiping the sinks, cleaning the mirrors etc and can vaguely hear some voices outside in the lobby but I pay no attention because I've got things to do. Having cleaned everything that needs to be cleaned, I check there's enough hand soap, TP etc, then mop the floor and when everything is sparkling, I open the door and take the 'Cleaning in Progress' sign off. There are two or three women waiting outside, who mumble and mutter a bit as they head into the toilets, but I think nothing of it and start cleaning the mens'.

Only afterwards did I find out that these women had been to Customer Services, the oldest one complaining bitterly because 'Every time I come in here, those toilets are being cleaned! That sort of job should be done before the store opens!'

J (who the complaint was made to) said to me 'Don't worry about it' and I said 'I'm not' (most customers, those that say anything at all about the toilets, tell me how nice it is to use a store toilet that is clean and fresh). Though I would dearly have liked to be able to say to the woman involved, 'Mrs, if you think that a toilet stays clean all by itself without regularly being cleaned, then I'd hate to have to use the one in your house'

[Evannah]

Wow! You know she'd be the first one to complain if she found out one of the sinks had a speck of dust on it, right? She'd complain that "no one ever cleans the toilets".

[sirwired]

Half-unrelated, but how long do men's toilets usually last before the whole thing needs to be re-grouted? I've been in several men's rooms lately where they have that "stale" smell that no amount of scrubbing will ever dislodge, since Guys With Bad Aim (or splashing) have spent years soaking the tile grout.

[seigus]

I worked with a guy who had cleaned restrooms at the Mart of Wall in a previous job, and he said he would rather clean the men's room any day due to the "hovering" phenomenon in the ladie's room.

[Marmalady]

What tends to happen here is not so much the 'hovering' thing as the habit (in both mens and ladies toilets) of people using a load of TP to line the seat with, so their bottoms don't come into direct contact with the seat. I don't care if they do that, what annoys me is when they don't flush it away afterwards and I find what looks like the aftermath of a tickertape parade in each cubicle.

[Android Kaeli]

Half-unrelated, but how long do men's toilets usually last before the whole thing needs to be re-grouted? I've been in several men's rooms lately where they have that "stale" smell that no amount of scrubbing will ever dislodge, since Guys With Bad Aim (or splashing) have spent years soaking the tile grout.

I'd be more worried about the WOMEN'S bathroom over the men's -- I've had to use the men's bathroom in times of emergency and those are so. much. cleaner. At work I've found that even if the maintenance people clean the women's bathroom five times a day, it STILL looks like it hasn't been cleaned for a year.

[Marmalady]

To be honest, I couldn't tell you which one of our toilets has the worst 'clientele' - they all seem just as likely to have puddles of dubious liquids on the floor, or snot smeared on the walls, or 'brown battleships' left in the pans.... Although I wish I had £10 for every woman who's come out of a cubicle, checked that her makeup and hair are perfect, sprayed perfume, taken a final admiring glance at herself in the mirror and left - but hasn't thought to wash her hands. I'd have retired long since.

[sirwired]

I've never understood "hovering" or "tush-on-seat-phobia". Unless you, yourself, have gaping open sores on your bum, I'm having trouble understanding how one could contract even the most dread disease through a toilet seat. That part of everybody's body (including yours) already ain't exactly sparkling.

If I must sit down, I might, if it looks damp or slightly soiled, wipe it down with a little bit of paper. But otherwise, what's the point?

[Lace Neil Singer]

If I must sit down, I might, if it looks damp or slightly soiled, wipe it down with a little bit of paper. But otherwise, what's the point?

If I see spillage on the seat, I'll give it a wipe with some bog roll. Otherwise, I just plonk my bum down on that loo seat. Look, I've used the loos at Glastonbury, and didn't catch any horrific diseases, so it's unlikely that a public loo seat is going to give me one.

As for "clean the loos before opening time", well, dear customer, thanks to you and your ilk's constant demands for earlier/later opening times, this just is not possible! The local supermarket opens at seven and shuts at ten. I don't know if it's still the case, but when I worked on checkout, it just wasn't possible to get cleaners to turn up at the store to clean the johns before the store opened. They normally showed up at around one to three hours after the store had opened.

At the petrol station, the cleaner normally rolls in about an hour after we open to clean the floors and our staff loo, and finally empty the bins. No, he can't show up before we open cuz it takes him about an hour to finish his cleaning, and if he turned up an hour before the petrol station opened, who'd let him in?

[notalwaysright]

I've never understood "hovering" or "tush-on-seat-phobia". Unless you, yourself, have gaping open sores on your bum, I'm having trouble understanding how one could contract even the most dread disease through a toilet seat. That part of everybody's body (including yours) already ain't exactly sparkling.

I get what you mean, about people being germaphobic. I believe keyboards have more germs (generally speaking) than a toilet seat. However! I will occasionally hover, if the general appearance of the bathroom looks bad. If it looks icky, I'm not going to sit on it, I don't think that's unreasonable. And I'm not going to hold it, either. I guess I could use paper, but why bother when I could just not touch anything? I don't miss the bowl, though, which I guess is what Seigus was talking about. And I haven't been anyplace that gross recently.

The bathroom at my store is cleaned before we open, and people mess it up INSTANTLY. I often make little "bets" over what the first person in the door will do. Will they run in and do a return, or run straight to the bathroom? It is not cleaned after we open, and we do get complaints about it, but that routine is not going to change.

[MoonCat]

Perhaps one of the medical folks here could weigh in on this, but I've always read that hovering is a bad idea. You don't completely empty your bladder this way, which can lead to UTI's. Just sayin'. One of my sisters carries a small bottle of antibac gel and wipes down the seat with tissue and gel before using a restroom in a restaurant or store.

I think the main reasons women's restrooms are messier than men's is that (1) women who haven't reached menopause yet have an additional bodily fluid to spread around and (2) women often bring little kids into the restroom with them and, as we all know, a lot of parents let their kids run wild in public places. Even if 90% of the kids who use that restroom don't mess it up, it only takes one or two turn it into a swamp.

[Seanette]

I get what you mean, about people being germaphobic. I believe keyboards have more germs (generally speaking) than a toilet seat. However! I will occasionally hover, if the general appearance of the bathroom looks bad. If it looks icky, I'm not going to sit on it, I don't think that's unreasonable. And I'm not going to hold it, either. I guess I could use paper, but why bother when I could just not touch anything? I don't miss the bowl, though, which I guess is what Seigus was talking about. And I haven't been anyplace that gross recently.

As long as you leave the seat dry for the next user, do as you like. I do get annoyed by the Princess Prissy types who hover because THEIR regal behinds are just TOO special to touch a public toilet seat, then leave a mess for the next person. Trust me, Princess, I have even less desire to clean up your urine before I can use the facilities than you do to clean up your OWN body fluids.

[Marmalady]

I don't know if it's still the case, but when I worked on checkout, it just wasn't possible to get cleaners to turn up at the store to clean the johns before the store opened. They normally showed up at around one to three hours after the store had opened.

At the petrol station, the cleaner normally rolls in about an hour after we open to clean the floors and our staff loo, and finally empty the bins. No, he can't show up before we open cuz it takes him about an hour to finish his cleaning, and if he turned up an hour before the petrol station opened, who'd let him in?

The store where I work is one of a huge national chain and although we aren't open to customers 24/7, the shifts go round the clock - there is always someone working there, so whatever time a cleaner turns up, there'll be someone to let them in. The early morning crew start at 5 or even earlier (I've been there at 4.30 on occasion) And throughout the day, the toilets are cleaned every two hours and inspected on the hour in between. So many people using them, cleaning them is a bit like painting the Forth Bridge.

[mathnerd]

I get what you mean, about people being germaphobic. I believe keyboards have more germs (generally speaking) than a toilet seat.

Setting the way back machine to 1993 and my first year university biology lab...

One of the labs we did was to take cultures of 10 different places/items around campus. I don't remember every item my lab partner and I swabbed, but I do recall that two of the items were a table in the cafeteria and several surfaces in one of the more heavily used bathrooms (and we made sure that it hadn't just been cleaned.) Much to everybody's surprise, the petri dish that grew the least amount of bacteria was the bathroom toilet seat. The culture that grew the most? The cafeteria table. Everything else was somewhere in between those two.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I use antibac gel to clean my hands with as public loo soap makes my hands really dry and itchy. I wait til I've left the loo before doing so cuz guess what? The door of the loo is where all the germs are so once you've put your hands to the door, you've just undone any good washing your hands did.