As I understand, part of the problem is many/most women don’t want to sit on the seats, and do something referred to as “hovering”. And I speculate that many women don’t want to touch themselves in the act. Which combine to form a peculiar kind of self-reinforcing strategy; since women won’t sit down, their toilets are messier. Since their toilets are messier, they don’t want to sit down.
But garbage was another problem. There were trash cans installed on the wall of each stall, and yet trash would still be discarded on the floor. That’s not really a fair comparison, though, since men don’t have such trash to dispose of in the stalls, and outside the stalls the cleanliness levels were approximately the same.
(Incidentally, restrooms aren’t that bad to clean, even at their worst. My worst stories as a custodian involve trash cans left too long in the sun or vomit (vomit, if not cleaned immediately, has a propensity to multiply rapidly, particularly when it’s in a line/queue). The worst story I’ve ever heard involved a trash can being used as an emergency restroom, though. Sometimes even quadruple bagging isn’t enough.)
#2 also affects toilets. I worked as a janitor at a pool once. I was struck by the difference in cleaning men and women’s bathrooms+locker-rooms: the women’s bathroom was usually a low grade of appalling, with all sorts of garbage and hints of body fluids etc, but relatively consistent from day to day; the men’s bathroom, on the other hand, was usually pretty clean and easy to handle—except that every once a week or month, you would walk in and there would be something truly appalling like feces smeared all over a toilet. And then we would have to spend half an hour cleaning it up, bleaching it thoroughly (we used those same toilets, after all...), and mopping everything up.
As I understand, part of the problem is many/most women don’t want to sit on the seats, and do something referred to as “hovering”. And I speculate that many women don’t want to touch themselves in the act. Which combine to form a peculiar kind of self-reinforcing strategy; since women won’t sit down, their toilets are messier. Since their toilets are messier, they don’t want to sit down.
But garbage was another problem. There were trash cans installed on the wall of each stall, and yet trash would still be discarded on the floor. That’s not really a fair comparison, though, since men don’t have such trash to dispose of in the stalls, and outside the stalls the cleanliness levels were approximately the same.
(Incidentally, restrooms aren’t that bad to clean, even at their worst. My worst stories as a custodian involve trash cans left too long in the sun or vomit (vomit, if not cleaned immediately, has a propensity to multiply rapidly, particularly when it’s in a line/queue). The worst story I’ve ever heard involved a trash can being used as an emergency restroom, though. Sometimes even quadruple bagging isn’t enough.)
Since we are trading stories… I’ve seen guys use urinals for #2, because all the stalls with toilets were occupied and the nature wouldn’t wait.
#2 also affects toilets. I worked as a janitor at a pool once. I was struck by the difference in cleaning men and women’s bathrooms+locker-rooms: the women’s bathroom was usually a low grade of appalling, with all sorts of garbage and hints of body fluids etc, but relatively consistent from day to day; the men’s bathroom, on the other hand, was usually pretty clean and easy to handle—except that every once a week or month, you would walk in and there would be something truly appalling like feces smeared all over a toilet. And then we would have to spend half an hour cleaning it up, bleaching it thoroughly (we used those same toilets, after all...), and mopping everything up.
My first thought was “How do you smear—Never mind, I’m actually happier not knowing that.”
That’s what industrial-grade misuse of caustic cleaning chemicals was invented for!