To not want to have to cuddle a sanitary bin every time I use a public loo?

[Deucebumps]

Just that really.

Used the loos at Waterloo station, when it occurred to me that the thing I hate most about public toilets is that the bins in cubicles are so intrusive. I wouldn't say I have a particularly large arse but I find myself leaning sideways trying to avoid said arse making contact with the sanitary bin. Surely if they just made them shorter and deeper so it sat below the level of the toilet seat they could hold the same volume of waste?

So AIBU or does this annoy anyone else....

Picture of the offender this morning in case anyone has no idea what I'm on about!

YY to motorway service stations having overflowing bins in the changing rooms! And they always have the feeding room either in the same room or next to it so when you're feeding your baby all you can smell is poo. Why are they always enclosed rooms with no window?

A hook on the door is always good for coats and bags, especially in the winter. Perhaps something that isn't top of the list if you are the kind of person who stands up to pee.

I would happily wait a bit longer, to have a decent size cubical.

I object to paying to use toilets because I think the building/shop/service already makes money out of the customer, but if you have to pay they should bloody well be clean & have toilet paper!

To be fair, I think a lot of places don't have hooks anymore to help prevent theft. Lots of bags were being taken over the tops of doors (or even more grim, from under them). Some better toilets now have them on the side wall, but of course in many there just isn't the space.

the new motorway services at Gloucester (pig on sign think old spot!) as well as having turf roofs, has the most enormous loos. and a gloriously high tech no touch sanitary bin that looks like a cute Droid. trough sinks and no touch taps too. gets 10/10 from my public loo monitor. you'll want to stay awhile!

The designers should definitely be trying to use the toilets and both men and women. How hard is it for a man to pick up a bag and go into a toilet with a bin and try it out.

When we did the bathroom at home we mocked up the space with boxes, tape, paper and the real toilet and bath tap to work out the layout.

I've encountered the sitting against the bin problem on occasions, and my derriere is only size 10.

I had to start using disabled toilets from 5 months pregnant because I couldn't close the door around my (big) bump, and SPD made it difficult to straddle the toilet. I soon found the hand rails particularly useful anyway.

Hand dryers up at shoulder height is another annoyance. I know I'm short, but 5ft 2 is hardly extraordinary. Because most hand dryers don't have buttons now, young children can't activate them and use them independently- that is if they can stand the noise to begin with.

Isn't that a reason to have walls and doors without gaps? That, and the issue of privacy?

The position of the stupidly large loo roll holder always annoys me. They always put it on the wrong side so you open the door and have to contort yourself around the bloody thing to get in.

YANBU!! It's a bug bear of mine too!

The gym I go to has a sensor on the bin , so every time you use the loo it pops up , vom

I can see how it happens in old toilets that have had bins added later, but shouldn't be happening if cubicles are designed with a bin in mind.

YY - I hate all of this. The stupid flush sensor things are the worst, especially if you are actually trying to change a tampon, so you end up accidentally flushing the sodding toilet about 5 times while trying to contort yourself around bin/ loo roll dispenser and door.

I was performing this exact tussle in the toilet at the airport a couple of weeks ago and managed to drop my passport down the loo - fortunately it had just flushed and wasn't mid-flush as I have no idea what the protocol is for a lost passport AFTER you have gone through passport control.

I'm a female architect and often have to design toilets in public buildings.

Usually I am under pressure to fit a certain number of cubicles into a space (whether it's a new build or retrofit... either way it's always a challenge!), and comply with the British Standard ( BS 6465-1:2006 Sanitary installations. Code of practice for the design of sanitary facilities and scales of provision of sanitary and associated appliances if anyone's interested ). Unfortunately bins are sometimes an afterthought at a later design stage, and male architects often have no idea! :( Same goes for baby change facilities, although in the practice I work for there are a lot of fathers who are sensitive to design needs. Also often these standards are followed exactly rather than being a minimum (as with a lot of UK architecture, standards are seen as a target not as a minimum level) in order to keep costs down.

I usually try to design WC's with bins and baby change shown on drawings from the start (to make space allowances) however often projects reach construction or tender stage before these get specified and drawn (and often the client chooses the actual products not the designer).

Just wanted to let you all know that there are architects out there who are aware and trying to improve design!

The Building Regulations give minimum cubicle sizes and heights of fittings: Building Regulations Approved Documents Part M Volume 2 Buildings other than dwellings

Also toilet cubicle manufacturer's make systems to standard specific sizes, so often for ease an architect might choose this (ie. cheaper than a bespoke size).

My personal hate is having to pull open the exit door with my clean well washed hands knowing that many of the people who have gone before me are grubby skanks who haven't washed their hands. Thanks girls, nothing I like more than walking around with the remnants of your pee,poo and menstrual blood on my fingers until I can wash them again.

I think the flush sensors are great, I've never had one go off by mistake though, the ones I've used you have to put your hand to within an inch of them to activate them.

I also like gaps above and below the door, totally enclosed cubicles make me feel claustrophobic. I loop bag handles round the hook twice or put a coat over the bag to prevent theft.

YANBU, the toilet cubicles at my work are the same. It's so tight you have to sit sideways

Yes, Gloucester services are fabulous and their toilets should be made some sort of standard that other places have to try and reach!
You can get theft-proof hooks. I can't describe them but they are more like a large clip. I've seen them in the USA. Their public loos are generally awful and have gaps all around the doors that people can see through BUT they usually have small, wall-mounted sanitary bins that are emptied regularly and don't overflow.

I've seen pictures of the gaps round toilet doors in the USA. Why? They literally are inches wide

Some loos by me in a tourist area have recently had a revamp, much needed. They've included a pull down baby change station, brilliant. However, they've also introduced a turnstile gate and a 40p charge. You can't get in with a pushchair which means if I want to go to the loo as well I have to sit the baby on my lap as I go. They also installed one of those all in one hand washing and drying facilities (the hole in the wall types that do soap, then water, then air). I'm five foot three and struggle to reach it, children have no chance.

Yes they are ridiculous. They also flush automatically which terrifies me!

If I'm I'm one with a bin like that I kick it out of the way, pee, stand up and kick it back when I'm done.

My current bugbear is the hand dryer placed at the end of the baby changing table. It's bad enough trying to get the toddlers to lie on the changing tables as it is, seeing as they're such terrifying objects, but when the hand dryer keeps getting set off by a stray foot, starting another round of terrified screaming, it's enough to make me cry.

Me too. And the comment about bag hooks (I hang mine round my neck when this happens). Another pet hate is no lids to the loos. So when you flush, all the grotty particles fly around in the air. Yeach.