I would second the desire for no doorknob entry into washrooms. I really don't worry much about the seat (if it's dry), because the parts touching the seat aren't that sensitive to germs (healthy skin is the best germ protector). Studies have shown that toilet seats have a fraction of the germs found in the average home kitchen, and virtually none of the "nasties" that people assume would be there. The biggest germ spreader is the hand.

What bugs me is when you wash and dry your hands and then grab a wet door handle Ewwww. So if the paper towels and trash are very close to the door, after I dry my hands I will take a fresh paper towel, open the door with it, hold the door open with my foot and throw the towel away before exiting. I tend to be more paranoid when I'm in a restaurant restroom, because I want clean hands if I'm going to be eating, but I also think we tend to be a little too paranoid about germs.

Ha! YES! That would be perfect.

Just to add, though, that charmin sells little paper protectors that are purse-sized and there is a sanitation spray for toliet seats that you can buy, it is called sani-gen. I carry both at all times. Along with purell, because I don't trust the soaps.

Okay, I am a bit o' a germ-a-phob, but, I don't think that it is excessive.

I hope you never eat at buffet-style restaurants. ;)

I always felt that you were exposing yourself to more by touching the toilet seat with your HANDS to put the paper on than with your butt. After all, all the ummm openings where germs can enter are safely away from the seat

I hate to think about the toddler thing. Try telling a toddler NOT to suck her thumb until she washes her hands. OY the germs that girl has gotten from thumb sucking

My SIL squats. Always. In her own home. Has since she was 12, she is now 30. On the other hand she has kick butt quads!

And can I say my pet peeve....is people who USE the paper things and LEAVE them on the seat. I dont want to touch your wet TP tyvm.

Okay, here's something I don't understand. I kind of get if you don't want to touch the doorknob of the restroom because of what might be on it, but what about the NEXT doorknob, or whatever the person with the germs touched AFTER that doorknob?

Or maybe I don't get why people don't want to touch doorknobs in bathrooms!!

I think cleanliness is important, but I sometimes think we worry too much about the wrong things.

Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I don't touch the seat to put on the cover. The whole point is not to have to. I have it gently flutter down. Sometimes it takes two tries, but it is entirely possible...... as the whole point is to avoid touching the seat at all.

Funny, just to compare, they did a study locally and the diaper changing tables in most public restrooms were very clean. Except the ones at the hospitals, they were filthy. Just goes to show, you never know!

Yeah, I don't touch the seat to put the paper on either, and I leave the center flap hanging down into the bowl so that when I flush, it flushes with it.

I've been to some restrooms where I've tried every available stall to find feces and every other imagainable smearing all over the toilet...sometimes in the floor. :( If I HAVE to go and can't hold it, I squat. But believe me, if it's bad enough that I feel a need to squat, I'm not touching it to clean up after myself or what's already there. It's disgusting enough that I needed to squat in the first place. Yuck.

OMG--I would totally pee my pants before the cover would have a chance to gently flutter down, even if I managed to get it right on the first try. :lol:

I was going to mention the plastic toilet seat covers, and other automatic things. I've been to a couple restaurants that had all of those. And one that had an automatic soap dispenser too. Ooooh, ahhhhh.

I would also like to mention -- this is where you can take pity, or remember not so fondly ;) (joking) -- that I live in residence for university and so I basically have been using public bathrooms for everything (showering too!) for 8 months. Bleh!! And they're disgusting and inhabited by messy, messy boys, and drunk people. There is something about people not having to clean up after themselves that makes them dispicably dirty.

When I was working for a big insurance company (cubicle world), I had a coworker who "collected," and told nasty bathroom stories. Apparently men at least in corporate public restrooms are much nastier than the women in general, but I could have told a few that would have held up against his worst.

Don't worry, I will tell only the cleanest here - for instance, how I was more than a little disturbed by a coworker who would use her cell phone while in the bathroom stall.

Men are definitely worse. I've had to clean public bathrooms(long ago and far away) and my college had the infinitely stupid idea to put the bathrooms alternating sides on alternating otherwise identical floors so I accidentally walked into the mens room and even before I saw the urinal, the odor hit me.

Ok. There should totally be a "Best Of" section on 3FC for threads like this. This has been one of the most enlightening online discussions I have ever seen.

Charlotte, I'm like you. Wet Ones and Purell abound! I hate having to wipe off a toilet seat more than anything in this world and I have turned into a manic handwasher (whenever I get home I go straight for the sink- hey, I take public transportation) and have gotten into the habit of not touching anything when I'm in a public restroom, unless I *know* how clean it is and that I'm the only one using it (like at my old job).

It amazes me how much people do not wash their hands, and even more so, how they pretend to wash their hands, but don't.

My best friend works in the medical field and I also have another friend with a PhD in epidemiology (statistics of disease.) I agree with both of them that toilet seat covers are pretty much useless and in my mind a waste of paper. I'm not trying to offend anyone, this is just my opinion.

Most diseases that would affect you in that area can only live in body fluids (I know, ewww, sorry.) In other words, most diseases die within seconds of hitting the air. If a toilet seat is moist, I take toilet paper, wipe it down, count for 30 seconds, and sit. I've never had any problems. From what I understand urine is sterile anyway, so the germs on the toilet seat must be coming from something else.

Honestly, I think you pick up more germs from flushing and from the bathroom door handle (I can't believe there are still people who don't wash their hands.)

I'm fairly obsessive about hand washing though. I make sure and wash for at least 20 seconds. I go through a lot of lotion with all the hand washing I do.

All that said, if using toilet seat covers makes you more comfortable and able to go, then use them. I think it all boils down to personal comfort level.

I went to the mall restroom one day and changed the baby, then used the bathroom, and yes...I washed. Or "warshed" as its commonly referred to here (and out of my hubby's earshot). :D

But what I DID note was that 7 other women came in that restroom. Only ONE of them washed when they finished. And no, the one that washed was NOT the employee OR the other woman who changed a poopy diaper. Ewwwwwww

I can't always get to a sink either so I carry sanitizer. For your sanitizer addicts, if you have a CVS in your area, they carry a sanitizer pen. It's like any ballpoint pen but it dispenses hand sanitizer. Fits neatly in a pocket. ;)