Toilet rant that's not trans related

[Amortentia]

I'd like to have a moan about the recently refurbished toilets in my local shopping centre. They were clearly designed by an idiot who pees standing up.

The cubical was floor to ceiling doors and patrician but was so narrow I nearly had a panic attack from claustrophobia. You had to be nimble and unencumbered by bags/children/mobility or arthritis issues to open heavy, narrow door. There was a sanitary bin, it was like a weird rocket shaped contraption only a left handed, double jointed ninja could use.

Why? For the love of god has this happened. Are there no women employed in designing toilets? Can we make it mandatory that plans must be approved by women before a public toilet is built. Oh, and don't get me started on the sinks.

Patrician?

It’s be nice to have something specifically for left-handed people

Patrician?

😂 partition, that's what happens when you type from your phone without wearing reading glasses.

It absolutely does my head in that toilets are not designed for women with bags, musical instruments, suitcases, mobility impairments or even a bit of a "spare tyre". When travelling alone I have to leave luggage and my (expensive) instrument in the sink area and hope no one nicks them whilst I'm on the pot.

Especially the toilets where you have to squish yourself against the bowl and and paper dispenser and sanitary bin just to close the door, those are a nightmare.

Make the cubicle half-a-metre longer. Not wider, because then the door's wider and swings back further towards the bowl, but longer. That 50cm means I can take my carry-on bag and instrument into the cubicle with me. That 50cm means a mother can take her child in with her. That 50cm means someone with a walking stick has a chance of using the mainstream toilets and not having to find the radar key holder** for the venue.

In the majority of toilets, taking 50cm off the sink area and adding it to the cubicles will not make the sinks harder to use. It's so simple, but they don't do it because most architects are men. We need more female architects.

Could cubicle size become a @MNHQ campaign issue? It affects parents with small children.

** You can buy a radar key yourself if you or someone you travel with needs one, loads of disability charities sell them.

My dad invented and patented a new type of public loo. In the shape of a spiral with men's loos around the outside and twice as many loos for women going round into the middle.
No one wanted it
He sold the patent in the end but still hasn't been used.

I feel like these places are designed by the people who design passenger airplanes.

How do you use those bullet sized things? I felt so embarrassed having to come out and use the main bin in front of a huge queue of women .

I love the idea of a patrician toilet cubicle: slim, elegant, wearing a cashmere jumper and slightly looking down its nose at one while one takes a shit. 😂

My pet peeve in toilet design is when they put the loo roll dispenser on the wall behind the toilet. Seriously, why? Trying to twist round, grasping blindly for some loo roll. Have seen this in many more than one place!

Mine is when there was clearly no thought as to fitting the sanitary bin in during design, so it’s squished in so close to the loo seat that your thigh/butt is smooshed into it when you sit down. I don’t want to be in physical contact with a receptacle for used sanitary protection.

And no hooks. Put hooks in! I don’t want my bag/coat on the floor!

Can the FWR feminist think tank come up with a set of guidelines for public toilet please. We could gather evidence from architects and public spaces etc (and Babyshark’s Dad) and offer our guidelines free of charge as best practice for designers to refer to.

Our work toilets are newly refurbished and the sanitary bins don't even fit down the side of the toilets, they sort of sit where your knees are. It's ridiculous.

My biggest bugbear for public toilets is that there simply aren't enough women's toilets compared with men. Women's toilets are meant to accommodate all the women and all the children. And now it's 2019 they're meant to accommodate anyone who feels like they want to use them. So we queue for ten minutes whilst men can just walk in and be out again inside thirty seconds.

And yet, on that note, so many adult men claim that they need the loo so desperately that they can't possibly wait until they make it the toilet and they absolutely have to pee against the nearest tree. Funny how women, who are the ones who actually have difficulty accessing toilet facilities, don't feel the need to do that...

Nearest tree? Try the alleyway which is the only way in and out to my flat (and 9 others and a small church). Fucking disgusting and I say as such when I catch men in the act. Which is on a dispiritingly regular basis.

Apart from places like posh hotels, toilets everywhere else are absolutely shit. Even fancy restaurants will have abysmal toilets tucked away in a dingy corner of the building.

They are built as an afterthought with no consideration for design or the needs of the women who use them. It's about trying to tick a box using the least amount of space possible.

I have always hated using toilets outside of home because of this and try to avoid it unless I'm desperate. They are so dirty, poorly maintained, nowhere to hang your bags or coats, etc.
I'd totally support some sort of initiative to have better designed and bigger cubicles. Architects need to factor in proper toilet facilities, especially more toilets for women, when designing buildings.

Maybe some sort of award / rating to indicate it is well designed for women. Women actually spend quite a bit of money and businesses are keen to capture that. Shops and cafes and restaurants that have good ratings will attract more women to their premises. Businesses don't listen to women, but money talks and if we prefer to go to places that have good toilet facilities then that will at least make them realise they have to spend money and effort on these things and not treat it like an afterthought.

When our office was refurbished, the female staff (only 10% of total) lobbied hard for a dedicated ladies loo, an extra 20cm on the size of the cubicle, loo roll holder to the side, a mirror, new loo brush, a shelf and best of all, a number pad lock that only we know.

We keep it supplied with decent toiletries, sanpro and upgraded loo paper. Our female visitors love it.

.. that's what happens when you type from your phone without wearing reading glasses

I thought you'd stumbled upon some dead posh Latvia's! Sorry, lavvies!

Thanks for bringing up the topic of lavatory design. I have acquired a dodgy knee and suddenly find that the height of the toilet bowl itself is a problem. Some seats are so low, that while I am able to launch myself downwards to use the facility, getting up is a nightmare. I now know why "the old ladies stuck in the lavatory" song originated.

Hate narrow stalls, I had to leave and find different toilets a few months ago as I was heavily pregnant, on crutches, with a small child and bags. We couldn't fit. Total PITA.

My bugbear- why do chain coffee shops have such shit toilets, and so few of them?

Yes, Mumsnet campaign on this please!

Oh, the bullet sanitary bins! I had need of one a few months ago, and I think I broke it because I couldn't work out how to open it and I got extremely fucked off.

Several years ago our west of Scotland office moved into Glasgow. Toilets had the twisty knob to lock it (from the inside); floor to ceiling enclosed, too, great!

But a twisty knob to lock it doubling up as the pull open knob? Not a brilliant idea. Too much stress on the knob all the time. So I mentioned there should be a proper pull knob on it as well, also an accessibility issue (if someone had a hand impairment - and there was someone in that office having such). A knob appeared in both cubicles. But still too much stress had already been had on the twisty knob and a facilities person got stuck inside - after the office was mostly out already so she had to phone the managed front desk for rescue, and there was a maintenance person around coincidentally so she didn't have to spend all night in there!

Not a "women's loo" thing, but equally thoughtless.

Some seats are so low, that while I am able to launch myself downwards to use the facility, getting up is a nightmare.

I've seen toilets where the end cubicle has a grab rail on the solid wall. If toilets are too high, they can't be used by children, and I guarantee that any portable step placed in the cubicle will be stolen.

Now there's a Dragon's Den idea for somebody: a foldaway toilet step that anchors to the ground and fits around the pedestal.

I went to Amsterdam recently and the vast majority of toilets were long and thin cubicles, with the sanitary bin placed to the side but forward of the toilet bowl, and the door opened outwards. Much easier to use. The toilets in Singapore pretty much all have the type of sanitary bin where you just wave your hand over it and they open sesame, really helpful too.

While we're moaning about toilet design, could disabled loos please have full-height mirrors? Not all users of disabled loos are in wheelchairs.

I was once in a loo where the throne was placed off-centre. So my thigh was not shoved against the sanitary bin! Clearly designed by someone with a thought not just for women, but for women of all sizes.

I know this isn't trans related, and I really don't want to derail, but I was thinking the other day: if trans men are using men's loos, they're going to need to provide sanitary bins in there. Might this mean that men will finally be inconvenienced by loos in the same way women are, and they might actually give 4.2 seconds of thought to designing the fecking things so they're useable?!