Thoughts from the can

I find restroom sanitation to be flawed. You can put as many signs on the wall reminding people to wash their hands as you see fit, but it won't make people wash their hands. Those people that do not wash their hands are the ones that pose a problem to the overall sanitation of a restroom.

Everything in the restroom is automated except the one thing that can solve the problem. Why is the door not automated? This, of course, does not apply to those restrooms that don't have doors. The sink, soap, paper towels, and toilets are all automated now-a-days, but why not the door?

I am not a germaphobe, but I do like to keep my hands clean and I believe that washing my hands is not only the proper thing to do after using the restroom but it is also a good way to prevent sickness. I am well aware that as soon as you sanitize a surface germs will find their way from the air onto the surface thus making it unsanitized. However, these are not necessarily the germs that will pass on a cold from one person to another.

If you have 100 people pass through the restroom in one day and only one does not wash his/her hands, then those germs are put on the door handle, where the others will have to put their clean hands. If you eliminate the need to open the door then you eliminate the effects of that one person who does not wash up.

Put an automatic sliding door on the restroom, it only makes sense.

While on the topic of restrooms, how about a little restroom etiquette? I don't know where people learned it, but you are supposed to flush AFTER you do your business. Too many times have I been in the restroom and somebody came in and flushed first, used the toilet/yernal, then left. I don't care if you flush before you go, I do care if you flush when you are done though, that is just gross to leave that in there. Also, who decided it was a good idea to flush the toilet with your foot? The bottoms of your shoes are one of the most dirty and discussing places on your person, why would you raise your foot off of the floor and use it to depress the lever.

I don't know if this behavior goes on in women's rooms or not but I do know that after cleaning restrooms at a convention center for three years, men's restrooms smell worse than women's restrooms. However, the women's restrooms are much dirtier than men's restrooms.

Now that I have strayed from my original topic, I should probably return. I believe that it only makes sense to make the one thing in a restroom that everyone touches automatic.

I rest my case.