Gym changing room etiquette

[MrsJigsaw]

Joined a gym a couple of months ago. I'm amazed at how many people just leave the locker door wide open after they've finished using it. Also how many people leave hair stuck to the shower cubicle walls.
Maybe it's just my gym, or does this happen at your gym too?
AIBU to find both these things irritating?!

OMG! They leave the locker doors open? That is the worst that is happening in your life right now? You must be devastated.

Oh dear, thought this was a safe place to have a lighthearted moan!
Hope you have a lovely day

I leave the locker door open so that people know it is free. Better that than checking every single (closed) door to eventually find an unlocked one..! Why is it such an issue to you?

Hair and nappies in the shower is grim. Don't mind locker doors open at all!

i don’t use lockers, but wouldn’t that be the right thing to do, so that people can see they’re empty? Why would you close it?

At my gym it's obvious which lockers are free, as there are no padlocks on them.

Yes, @MrsJigsaw, it really irritates me too. Along with people who leave their used towels on the floor or benches.

Obviously a lighthearted moan, but we are allowed to have them!

Nappies? Who mentioned nappies??!

I don’t see why the locker doors thing is a problem?

Regarding hair stuck to shower walls, most people probably don’t even notice they’ve left one hair behind before they get out of the shower, and it’s pretty much part and parcel of using shared facilities really.

I don’t have an issue with open lockers - airs them, allows you to spot free ones.

I think my gym
members are quite mannerly as they don’t leave used towels. The only thing I hate is the odd woman who uses spray deodorant. Yuck.

Yes, my gym is the same. You can tell which are in use as they have a padlock on them so no need to leave open to show they are empty!

Are you new here? AIBU has never been that.

The odd hair is fine, it's more about the clumps of hair. I get people possibly do this at home to save it blocking the drain, but i imagine at home they then put it in the bin or toilet. There are plenty of bins at the gym!

Oh FFS... apologies for posting in the wrong topic!

The lockers at my gym are the sort that need padlocks to lock too, but there’s a large number of gym users that leave stuff in lockers without locking them with a padlock.

It’s nice that it’s safe enough for people to feel comfortable doing that, but on the other hand it’s a right PITA opening and closing locker doors to find an empty one. I’ve had to go through over 3/4 of the lockers before on busy days.

So on the whole I don’t mind people leaving the empty locker doors slightly open because it saves me more aggravation than it causes me.

At my gym people either use padlocks to secure their lockers or they just fill the locker, close the door and hope for the best! So often I have to open lots to find an empty one - I’d rather they were left open but I guess some people would end up walking into them!

The showers are also kept really clean to be honest, it’s one of the many reasons I can justify the extortionate price, it’s very well maintained throughout the day.

I find people don't use the lockers in the changing room or the changing room at all very much at my gym, so it's usually in good order.

People use the communal lockers on the gym floor more often. Some do leave doors open or leave their clothes in without locking them - so you play lottery roulette for a short while to find an empty one at times! I do shut other doors if I see them open, just as it's a hazard.

Yes my gym uses padlocks too and so when lockers are left wide open I do think it’s due to laziness.

Luckily I haven’t experienced the hair because that’s grim!!!

In actual fact Im quite lucky at mine as it’s clean, gym and sauna access only so no children or nappies, no hair and people generally tidy up after themselves.

Ripped off new clothes Primark labels and crisp packets are my bug bears. Otherwise it's actually really clean.

Our locker doors close automatically so they never look messy.

Just alert the gym cleaning staff to the fact that the showers need cleaning, and accept that a locker left open to show that it's empty is only the most minor of inconveniences if it's blacking your access to your locker.

I don’t really see how leaving a locker door open causes problems for others. Unless you think you might bang your head on it I suppose.

A single hair or a few stuck to the wall are likely to be accidental, but maybe you’re talking about large masses which some of us manage to lose whenever we wash our hair. That happens to me, so I gather it all up as it falls out and stick it to the wall but then I take it with me when I leave the cubicle to put it in the bin. I would then usually rinse the wall down with the shower head.

It drives me totally insane that people put stuff in lockers, close the door but don't lock it, and wander off. Or, indeed, close empty lockers. You can have to open multiple clsoed lockers to find an empty one that you can actually put your stuff in. Grrr. (This is at work)

there are loads of people in my gym who don't use padlocks so just put their stuff in a locker but don't lock it. I agree it's helpful to leave the door open to see which ones are free.

Agree the hair thing is gross though, but tbh if that's the worst thing you've seen so far in your changing rooms you're lucky.

Just a selection of annoying things I've witnessed are:

people filming each other doing tiktoks

having private conversations (to each other and/or over the phone, including
giving out their credit card details) and then glaring at you for having the temerity to use the hairdryers so they can't be heard,

using the (small!) changing room floor to do their stretches (and, again, glaring at you when you step over them to get to your locker)

blow drying their pubes

bringing kids in outside of kid hours, including boys who are far too old to be in the women's changing rooms

saying 'yeah come in' to the male cleaning staff without checking with anyone else, including those in the showers.

And that's just the changing rooms, don't get me started on annoying gym/pool behaviour!

I’d say people who deliberately properly close empty lockers are annoying.

Takes ages to find one that’s free to use.

I’m at David Lloyd and it’s feral. People shit in the showers, Shave their fannies in the showers, dye their hair in the showers. It’s minging in there, the set up is that the water runs from the top shower through the other cubicles so if you are downstream you get other peoples hair dye, piss, pubes, soap suds over your feet. I haven’t been in the showers there for at least a year!

and they also use the lockers but don’t padlock them so I spend ages opening lockers which at first glance you’d think were empty to find it with stuff in. I swear one day I will throw my stuff in and lock it and then deny noticing it had stuff in it! 😆

What annoys me at my gym is going to a locker with a key in the door opening it thinking it's free and it's full of somebody's stuff.
Then all that's left are the piddly little ones right at the bottom that I struggle to get down to and hold bugger all.