when you wash your hands

do you turn off the taps with your sleeves

cos otherwise you're just getting poo or pee germs on your hands again

but even if you use your sleeves, the germs will probably spread anyway and end up in your mouth or something

sigh i hate germs

use elbows if it's one of those push-y faucets

also, u banned

How do you deal with the doorknob?

i carry a small box of surgical gloves in a holster on my hip

Oh that's funny. I turn around and stick it up my ass.

How do you deal with the doorknob?

if there's anyway to open the door without the doorknob, I go for it, otherwise, silently scoff to myself with the stupidity of bathroom door design

There is nothing you can touch in a public bathroom that I haven't already put my ass all over and then peed on. You germophobes are totally right, and bathrooms are the only places where your hands ever get dirty. Because of people like me.

All you really need to do when you wash your hands is to reduce your bacterial and viral loads to levels where your body can easily cope with them. Complete sterility is only really necessary for surgeons who are fossicking around in your innards.

Unless the place is particularly disgusting I turn off taps and open doors with my hands. If you start to think too much about this you'll just drive yourself nuts.

I'm a girl and I also sit not squat unless, of course, some squatting idiot before me has pissed all over the seat which is sadly often the case. There are way more germs inside the bowl than on the seat and you're more likely to come in contact with said germs from the splash back you get from squatting. Sitting is generally "cleaner". dealwithit.jpg

do you turn off the taps with your sleeves

You're supposed to turn off the taps with a paper towel. But, really, for anyone outside the healthcare or food industries, this level of caution isn't needed. Just wash your hands and things will be OK.

I sit, too. You can't catch anything off of a dry toilet seat.

Nope and what you can do by squatting is make a huge mess the next person has to deal with.

Oh, and lol Kenan.

Of course, you can also squat and not make a mess but from the number of times you go into the bathroom and find wet seats, it would seem to me that most ladies have horrible aim.

^^^

There are way more germs inside the bowl than on the seat

There are more germs on your hands than anywhere on your body, by a long way. If you don't want to get a cold during cold season, don;t touch your nose or mouth or eyes at all, all day long. Try it. It's not going to happen, right? So get used to it. Be a clean and tidy person, shower regularly, and accept that occasionally you're going to get sick.

(Oh, and while we're at it: You don't need antibacterial soap outside of the kitchen and the sickroom. The way soap works is that it washes the germs off of your hands, and regular soap works OK for most purposes.)

If you start to think too much about this you'll just drive yourself nuts.

E OTM

E. COLI OTM

Agree w/ both K and C. Don't even get me started on the antibac thing.

The one thing I am v cautious about in public bathrooms is not putting my bag on the floor because they've done studies about how women's handbags have a large amount of fecal matter/other germs on them from setting them on bathroom floors. I always hang it on the door hook and if there is no hook I keep it on my lap.

I use my wrist, knuckle, very small part of my pinky, or ring finger to turn turn off taps, dispense paper towel, and open doors. If the door opens outward, I use my foot.

If none of the options above are feasible, I use Kenan's asshole.

http://globalnerdy.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/3_stooges_syndrome.jpg

from having worked in a place with public restrooms, it is kind of alarming how many people have "issues"

like, it really takes some effort to have shit smeared on a wall

x-post So you're very cautious about germs in bathrooms but yet you'll pick up a wild and possibly rabid possum? Makes sense. ;p

I'm really not fussy about germs (haha - typed "germans"), but for me having just washed my hands is like having put on a freshly laundered shirt - I'm going to try to keep them fresh for a while.

xp - Hahahaa, not in a clean shirt, I won't! (Unless I'm wasted like I was in the 'possum-picking-up photo.)

having just washed my hands is like having put on a freshly laundered shirt - I'm going to try to keep them fresh for a while.

Bit I bet you go right back to your desk and put them on your keyboard without a thought.

When was the last time any of you washed your keyboard or mouse?

How do you deal with the doorknob?

Some rest stops along the Mass Pike have a little wedge dealie at the bottom of the door and a sign instructing folks to use said wedge to open the door with their foot to prevent the spread of germs. Kind of a neat idea in theory, but 1) it doesn't work, and 2) if someone enters while you're trying to exit with your foot, you could fuck yourself up.

Huh, I've never noticed those but I haven't been in a restroom on the Pike in a while either tbh.

This thread has been useful in that it taught me the word "fossicking," thanks Aimless.

When was the last time any of you washed your keyboard or mouse?

Last week, actually.

Kenan - not very recently, but I do splash them with alcohol-based hand sanitizer every once in a while. But the thing is, my keyboard and mouse don't connote shit and piss (esp. other people's) to me like the bathroom does.

In the shirt analogy: I would sit on the bus with my clean shirted back against the probably filthy bus seat, but I would wear a bib if I would be cautious if I were eating a salad in it.

I am selectively OCD. like even in a crowded subway train, I do my best to never hold on to subway polls with my hand - manage to latch on w/ my wrist or arm. nearly fall over on a pretty regular because of this. and if I do have to grab it for some reason, I always wash my hands later.

but I don't really care about bathrooms or work computers that tons of people have touched. and near and around my fridge right now there is so much food grossness going on that a real OCD person probably wouldn't even step foot in this room. I guess it's good to have one OCD thing and stick with it.

subway poles

I like that you all at least know you're delusional.

There are so many better things to think about than this, for real, ppl.