Are You Using The Loo Right?

Toilets can be germ ridden places and if enough care is not taken to adopt hygienic practices we can contribute to the spread of many types of disease. We are put off by messy, smelly restrooms, toilets or urinals and public ones are the main offenders. So, if you mess it, clean it.

Nobody likes to clean up someone else’s mess and so it makes sense for everyone to clean up after themselves throughout the day to maintain a high standard of hygiene and cleanliness.


Some office toilets too need to have a code of practice put in place for the health and welfare of the workers because the cleaners usually clean up only once - at the end of the day. Some people who are the first to turn up their noses in dirty, smelly toilets are themselves to blame for breaches of good toilet etiquette. Is this because of their ignorance, indifference or upbringing?

When next you use a restroom, urinal, or toilet, keep these in mind. Did you know going to the restroom to do your business could require so many rules?

• Top rule lean up your own mess.
• Be hygienic – ALWAYS.
• Respect the rights of others to privacy and cleanliness.

• Do not take reading material into the office toilet.

• Don’t peek under the doors. Knock if the stall (cubicle) appears to be occupied.
• Lock the cubicle (stall) door when you enter. You may embarrass someone.
• Guys, choose a spot at the urinal farthest from anyone already there or at one end if you are the first

• While at the urinal, never turn to look directly or sideways at anyone standing there. Especially, do not look in his direction any lower than his face.
• Stand close enough to the pan or urinal so you don’t dribble on the floor.

• Concentrate when you pee so you don’t wet the seat, walls or floor.
• Sit on the pan if you are unsteady on your feet.
• Ladies, sitting is compulsory (smile).
• Squat only on squatting toilets, pedestal toilets are for sitting on only.

• Avoid messing the toilet seat. If you do, clean up after yourself – properly.
• Remember to flush the toilet after use. Don’t leave it for someone else to clean up after you.
• The toilet brush is for cleaning the inside of the toilet bowl after you have used it. Check whether you need to use it.
• Ladies' handbags pick up lots of germs if taken into the toilet and placed on the toilet floor or handled by germ laden hands. Please, NEVER place them on dining tables or kitchen bench tops if they have been taken to the toilet.
• Sanitary napkins should not be flushed down the toilet but be wrapped and disposed of in the sanitary pad disposal unit.
• Don’t graffiti the toilet; it devalues your name and 'talent'.
• Leave the stall door ajar when you leave – to indicate that it is unoccupied.
• Wash your hands thoroughly after your business – whatever it is.
• Authorities, please post prominent signs saying - “ALWAYS wash your hands before leaving the toilet”.
• Don’t litter the place.
• Don’t dawdle in the toilet especially in the stalls.
• On your way out, for personal hygiene, use a paper towel to grip the door handle if possible - (because we will never train everyone to wash their hands) or elbow through when somebody opens it from outside. Public toilets without external doors are to be preferred for this reason; though there are not enough of them around.

In the home

• Consider the rest of the family and your guests.
• Always keep a spare roll of toilet paper in the toilet.

• Knock first if the toilet or bathroom appears to be occupied.
• Do not take reading material in.
• Don’t hog the toilet/bathroom, especially if there is only one.
• Use the exhaust fan so you don’t asphyxiate yourself or the next occupant.
• Good toilet etiquette is to leave the toilet seat AND the seat cover down when you leave the toilet. It’s neat for one thing, and prevents accidents for another.

• Don’t pee in the shower.
• Host, please provide your guests with any toiletries they might need such as soap, towel, toothpaste, toothbrush, facewash and so on.
• Toilet business is for doing. Not for talking about. Keep toilet sounds for the toilet. It’s not for demonstrating sound intensity in public or for talking about. TV and movie producers please take note. Keep it out of your script.
• Proper bush toilet etiquette requires observance of some basic rules to protect our fragile environment and ourselves.
• Use an approved chemical toilet pan and empty it properly at sites intended for this purpose.
• If the above is not available and you must attend to the call of nature select a site well away from lakes, waterholes, streams etc.
• Watch out for snakes, spiders and creepy crawlies. They have rights too.
• Take a small spade to dig a hole deep enough to completely cover waste matter including toilet paper.
• Do not allow used toilet paper to blow around in the bush.
• Guys when you pee in the bush, do it down wind.
• Babies disposable nappies must not be buried or left in the bush but taken away to be disposed of properly.?

Culled and edited. Images: Google