Bathrooms

I work in an office--cubicles and everything. However, that office is actually a former classroom. Working in a building that is also used for classes (there are two classrooms on the same floor as my office) has quite a few drawbacks. For one, there are constantly loud students hovering outside our office door.

By far, however, the worst side effect to having students in our building is the bathroom usage.

There is one bathroom on each floor of the building. There's a basement, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor and each has their own bathroom. The basement bathroom is a little sketchy. The 1st floor bathroom is used by all the people who come to go on tours through our office. The 3rd floor bathroom is a bit small. Therefore, EVERYONE in our office uses our bathroom. That was most obvious during the summer.

Now, however, there are students in and out of our bathrooms all day long. I know I, personally, prefer to use a bathroom that is clean. With that many people in and out all day, it is impossible to keep it clean.

On top of the cleanliness factor, there are a lot of people in this world that don't seem to understand two concepts of public bathroom usage--not talking on the phone and washing your hands when you're done. I can't even count the number of times I've heard people talking on their phone while using the bathroom. I can't bring myself to get noisy (which is what DH has suggested I do), but do I make sure to flush the toilet while they're on the phone so the other person is painfully aware of where they have chosen to have the conversation.

The worst part is the hand-washing, though. I may be overly clean with my hands, but I also am trying really hard not to get sick. I wash my hands with soap for 1-2 minutes--at least. I would say 3 of 5 people that leave the restroom while I'm in there don't wash their hands. 1 of the remaining 2 only splash a bit of water on their hands. And then they all go and touch the door handle . Ick.

So my co-worker and I have started turning on the water, washing our hands, getting the paper towel using our elbows, then using the paper towel to turn off the water and also using it to open the door. I get a lot of strange looks when walking out of the bathroom holding a paper towel, but it makes me feel a bit cleaner, so oh well--call me neurotic, go ahead :)