Problems in the ladies' room

[TootsNYC]

This behavior is a great annoyance to me - I find it incredibly egregious.

How about a sign that says something like, "If you plan to hover, please lift the seat first so that it stays clean and dry for others."  Evil doodlemor can think of many things to post, but they are not within the realm of polite.

I agree.

I mean, really--men stand to urinate into toilets, right? In places where there aren't urinals.

And we expect them to *lift the seat* out of the way, right?

I want those signs to say, "When men stand to urinate, they lift the seat so it doesn't get pee splatters on the top. If you plan to not sit, please be a gentleman, and lift the seat."

As for the OP's situation, I'd vote for plain English on the sign. And put one in every stall.

"Recently we've discovered that someone is peeing on the seat. If you are someone who does not want to sit on the actual toilet seat, please lift it out of the way so that you do not splatter urine on it."

As for fragrance-free--what about rubbing alcohol or bleach? Are there bleach wipes you could make available?

[FauxFoodist]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

[lady_disdain]

The neighbors are web designers, so I posted the cutesy sign in the font I know makes web designer skin crawl (Comic Sans, if you're wondering), which is most appropriate in the cutesy option.  We'll see how this plays out.  If it fails, we'll try the clean and dry option.

Choosing to make the sign something that will annoy the other users is childish and passive aggressive. Handling this matter in a direct and professional way would have gone a lot further in having a cordial relationship with your neighbours.

[Shoo]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose? 

[Shoo]

The neighbors are web designers, so I posted the cutesy sign in the font I know makes web designer skin crawl (Comic Sans, if you're wondering), which is most appropriate in the cutesy option.  We'll see how this plays out.  If it fails, we'll try the clean and dry option.

Choosing to make the sign something that will annoy the other users is childish and passive aggressive. Handling this matter in a direct and professional way would have gone a lot further in having a cordial relationship with your neighbours.

I agree.  The cutesy sign was a mistake.  Professionalism would have been a better tactic.  I hope it works for you, but don't be surprised it if doesn't.

[VorFemme]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose? 

Almost forty years ago, when I was working in retail - we had a dotty old lady who would ask questions about a hair dryer (actually heard this from the sales lady "waiting" on her) while standing there in a growing puddle of yellow fluid....then walk off without a word about what she'd just done.  She didn't always mention that she'd decided not to get a hair dryer (or whatever it was that week) after all...just turn & walk off.

This would have been 1976 or so - it's been a LONG time.

[Otterpop]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose? 

Almost forty years ago, when I was working in retail - we had a dotty old lady who would ask questions about a hair dryer (actually heard this from the sales lady "waiting" on her) while standing there in a growing puddle of yellow fluid....then walk off without a word about what she'd just done.  She didn't always mention that she'd decided not to get a hair dryer (or whatever it was that week) after all...just turn & walk off.

This would have been 1976 or so - it's been a LONG time.

CRUD MONKEYS! to all of that

[FauxFoodist]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose?

She sure was.

[FauxFoodist]

Just today I was in the washroom of an office building, and inside was the sign, "Please clean up after yourself and leave this washroom tidy for others" or something to that effect. I was thinking how pathetic it is that this even needs to be said. Of COURSE I will leave the washroom as I found it; how hard is it? I've been quite capable of using a washroom since I was a toddler, so who ARE these people?

But I know this problem exists. The washroom of an office building I used to work in was usually clean until about 3 PM, but after 3 the middle stall was always disgusting. Always the same stall, always some time mid-afternoon. I wanted to do a stake-out some time and see who it was, but I was busy working.

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose? 

Almost forty years ago, when I was working in retail - we had a dotty old lady who would ask questions about a hair dryer (actually heard this from the sales lady "waiting" on her) while standing there in a growing puddle of yellow fluid....then walk off without a word about what she'd just done.  She didn't always mention that she'd decided not to get a hair dryer (or whatever it was that week) after all...just turn & walk off.

This would have been 1976 or so - it's been a LONG time.

Mine were within several months sometime during 1988-1992.

[TootsNYC]

20+ years ago, I used to work for a drug store.  Our restrooms were open to the public; we were in a nice area so most of our customers looked and acted like normal people.  However, there were 2-3 times that someone happened upon our women's restroom during our regular business hours and found it filthy (someone had gone in there and got her feces all over the inside of the stall, including all over the toilet and the stall walls, so I was told).

I guess management finally did do a stakeout to try to figure out which one of our customers kept doing it.  One day, one of our managers was recounting how he stopped the culprit.  Apparently, it was one of our elderly female customers who was a regular shopper; I think she was in her 70s at the youngest.  She was buying a Fleets enema then going into our restroom to use it.  The manager was alerted one day when she showed up and was buying one.  He planted himself in her path in front of the warehouse entrance she was going to go through to go towards the restroom.  He said to her, "Hi, you're not going back there."  Her response?  "It's not me."  He then looked at her quizzically and "innocently" asked her, "What's not you?  How would you know what I'm talking about?" and then just kept looking at her.  She said nothing and backed off.  It never happened again after that.

You mean she was doing it on purpose?

She sure was.

She may have needed the enema, and known that it would be hard to handle, and decided to have the mess be in the pharmacists' facility instead of hers.

[sleepy59]

We have two unisex cubicles at work, the staff is made up of about 28 women and 2 men.

We have had signs up in the cubicles for years about properly disposing of sanitary items.  We have just had some new signs added, one telling people not to place used hand towels in the sanitary disposal bins but in the rubbish bin provided and the other is about the state the cubicles are being left in.

Some days the two cubicles downstairs are such a mess by mid afternoon that the whole staff try to use the only cubicle upstairs which can be difficult.

It just seems ridiculous that we are having to tell a building full of adults how to leave the cubicle clean when they are finished. Having seen the mess I really don't want to see what their bathrooms at home might look like!

[siamesecat2965]

i would go with direct and not cutesy.

But i hate to say that my experience in life has been that there are those who keep the restrooms clean and have no need of a sign, and there are those who don't and all the signs in the world aren't going to help.

*I* don't get it. I don't understand how anyone over the age of 5 can walk away from a toilet without flushing. or why women leave all sorts of used parephenlia just out there in the open. or if they drip on the seat, to not wipe it off. i don't get it.

I don't either. The toilets in my building at work don't always get everything down with one flush. So i will wait, and if that's the case, flush again. It's really NOT that difficult. We also have small wastebaskets in each stall for disposal of "non-flushable" items. I can't tell you how many times someone just throws it in their, without wrapping it in tp, so you can see it, in plain view. Just disgusting. I often wonder how their bathrooms at home look!

[Pen^2]

i would go with direct and not cutesy.

But i hate to say that my experience in life has been that there are those who keep the restrooms clean and have no need of a sign, and there are those who don't and all the signs in the world aren't going to help.

*I* don't get it. I don't understand how anyone over the age of 5 can walk away from a toilet without flushing. or why women leave all sorts of used parephenlia just out there in the open. or if they drip on the seat, to not wipe it off. i don't get it.

Re the bolded: people who need to be told, "Oh by the way, urinating all over the floor isn't really acceptable. Not sure if you were aware of this bizarre social convention called hygiene," probably aren't going to be suddenly enlightened by a sign. But they might realise that someone is on to them and possibly put the effort into being vaguely hygienic so that it doesn't escalate to them getting personally caught somehow. That's really all you can hope for, sadly.

This whole thing is revolting, by the way. What kind of adult hasn't been potty trained yet? That's despicable. And we all have the odd explosive emergency, but what kind of disgustingly filthy troglodyte doesn't clean up after themselves?

[VorFemme]

i would go with direct and not cutesy.

But i hate to say that my experience in life has been that there are those who keep the restrooms clean and have no need of a sign, and there are those who don't and all the signs in the world aren't going to help.

*I* don't get it. I don't understand how anyone over the age of 5 can walk away from a toilet without flushing. or why women leave all sorts of used parephenlia just out there in the open. or if they drip on the seat, to not wipe it off. i don't get it.

Re the bolded: people who need to be told, "Oh by the way, urinating all over the floor isn't really acceptable. Not sure if you were aware of this bizarre social convention called hygiene," probably aren't going to be suddenly enlightened by a sign. But they might realise that someone is on to them and possibly put the effort into being vaguely hygienic so that it doesn't escalate to them getting personally caught somehow. That's really all you can hope for, sadly.

This whole thing is revolting, by the way. What kind of adult hasn't been potty trained yet? That's despicable. And we all have the odd explosive emergency, but what kind of disgustingly filthy troglodyte doesn't clean up after themselves?

Someone who grew up with a helicopter parent who did clean up after them.....?

[AnnaJ]

Adding that if you wish to squat on the toilet seat, clean it - your shoes are dirty and leave germs on the seat.  This seems to be a cultural thing based on the fact it occurs in waves at our college dependent on the makeup of each new freshman class.