Yeah, I get that you don’t want to touch the germy bathroom door handle with your just-washed hands. But that makes tossing your paper towel on the floor okay…how? And this is hardly an isolated problem. To wit:
From Margi’s office in Green Bay, Wisconsin (just click the image to enlarge):
![[1st note] To whomever keeps throwing your papertowel on the floor after you use it, please place in trash as that is the appropriate thing to do. [2nd] People do this because it is NASTY to touch the filthy poop door-handle w/freshly washed hands (DUH!)...placing a trash can by the door is the appropriate thing to do! Poo hands spread disease! [3] Considering the majority of the paper towel in the can comes from those who wash their hands, I doubt that the door is covered in Poo. Unless, of course there could be people who waddle out of the stall to wipe w/paper towel & put it in the can...I guess I see your point. Anything is possible.](http://farm9.static.flickr.com/8446/7790431164_844da48d1e.jpg "[1st note] To whomever keeps throwing your papertowel on the floor after you use it, please place in trash as that is the appropriate thing to do. [2nd] People do this because it is NASTY to touch the filthy poop door-handle w/freshly washed hands (DUH!)...placing a trash can by the door is the appropriate thing to do! Poo hands spread disease! [3] Considering the majority of the paper towel in the can comes from those who wash their hands, I doubt that the door is covered in Poo. Unless, of course there could be people who waddle out of the stall to wipe w/paper towel & put it in the can...I guess I see your point. Anything is possible.")
From Edmonton, Alberta:
From Brittany’s office in Chicago:
From a hospital in Durham, North Carolina:
From Indianapolis:
And finally, from Eileen’s office in Cincinnati, Ohio…
related: Nobody likes electric hand dryers (except maybe those fancy Dyson ones)
154 responses so far ↓
#1
lala
There should be a trashcan next to the door. Period.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:18 pm rating: 54
#2
Rei
Seriously, people are so lazy they can’t just scoot the damn garbage can over instead of just leaving a mess and/or bitching? WTF? If it’s one of the ones attached to the wall, I get it, but I doubt *all* of these are attached to the walls.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:18 pm rating: 17
#3
Lisa
The last post-it writer on the first photo is a complete moron and missed the entire point!
I will admit it is one of my pet peeves when there is no trash can within striking distance of the door, but I would never resort to tossing my used paper towel on the floor in protest.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:19 pm rating: 40
#4
Walt
I don’t get those people. I do use a paper towel to open the door. But I will carry that paper towel until I find a trash can. It would never even cross my mind to toss it on the floor. WTF is wrong with you?!
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:19 pm rating: 110
#5
Lauri
I’m with you, Walt. Apparently only a few of us have had good parenting.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:23 pm rating: 22
#6
infanttyrone
Thesis…anti-thesis…synthesis.
Facilities manager in Cincinnati must have taken a course in Hegelian dialectics.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:23 pm rating: 10
#7
mary
relax… you cannot head off every germ… you need to let it go
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:24 pm rating: 66
#8
Amber
I brace my foot against the door after I’ve opened it, chuck the paper towel in the trash, and go. If there isn’t a trash bin near the door, I hold onto it until I get to one. I confess to being lazy, but even I’m not THAT lazy.
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:30 pm rating: 47
#9
Kim
There actually is a trashcan by the door in our washrooms. Guess where the paper towel still ends up…
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:31 pm rating: 23
#10
Leslie
Wasn’t there a study that said your computer keyboard more germy than a toilet seat? Just saying…
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:32 pm rating: 50
#11
oceankitten
i don’t bother using a paper towel to open the door…if it doesn’t kill me, it makes me stronger
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:35 pm rating: 61
#12
RubySun
I am disabled and often reeling after using the bathroom…. And I *still* have never thrown the paper towel I used to open the door, on the ground. This lackadaisical behaviour is inexplicable! INEXPLICABLE!
Aug 15, 2012 at 10:46 pm rating: 18
#13
catethulhu
If the garbage can isn’t next to the door, I just wad it up and carry it with me to throw away. Littering is never cool, and there are ways around it.
Aug 15, 2012 at 11:13 pm rating: 8
#14
Jimmah
Hey guess what?? That paper towel will NOT protect you from the germs you are afraid of. Paper has pours much bigger than most germs. This is why people in health care don’t wear paper gloves. You are just being silly and wasteful by using needless paper towels to feed your insecurity and naivete. You’re being an ass by tossing it on the floor, no matter what your excuse is.
Aug 15, 2012 at 11:24 pm rating: 43
#15
Anna
I am amazed at all the people who open the door with paper towels.
While I can see that some of you have immune disorders, I have to question whether you have considered that so many people don’t even wash their hands, or touch themselves at random, or worse. So for the purposes of someone for whom rogue germs are a question of a $10k hospital stay, the entire city is the equivalent of a public restroom.
I do not question your choice to open the door with a paper towel, but I do wonder what you do for all the other stuff you have to touch. Sorry if it sounds rude–I am genuinely curious.
Aug 15, 2012 at 11:25 pm rating: 51
#16
Jami
Folks, this is why waterless hand sanitizer exists. And don’t start with the whole “that just creates super germs” rant. Wash your hands, leave, use a tiny bit of sanitizer if door handles freak you out so much.
Just remember, the handles of the faucet you just turned on and off were handled by far more dirty, feces and urine tainted hands than that door handle.
Aug 15, 2012 at 11:58 pm rating: 24
#17
Colleen Martel
I am just glad they are washing their hands before they come back in and go to use the copier, touch the fridge, etc! Buy a handy grabber at Harbor Freight for $3 or put a can there by the door. I too have a immune disorder and wash my hands when I have touched anything outside my cubicle that is public use, especially the copier, microwave,etc
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:00 am rating: 3
#18
Melissa
*SIGH* if only we lived in Japan where ALL the doors are automatic and do not require any touching, this would not be an issue!
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:21 am rating: 13
#19
aliceblue
My work place has located those sanitizer dispensers right outside the restrooms to provide an option to opening doors with a towel. Every once in a while I encounter a ladies room where it’s possible to PUSH the door open, (using elbows or rump of course). Wonder why more can’t be that way?
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:23 am rating: 6
#20
bartotons
i cant believe i just read all these comments
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:24 am rating: 59
#21
kermit
I will never understand why places which have fancy bathrooms with those automatic water faucets won’t invest in a door sensor that automatically opens the door too.
If door censors are so darn expensive, if you have the space for it, it’s possible to build a bathroom layout that doesn’t require a door at all.
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:59 am rating: 8
#22
Rita
I don’t use a paper towel to open the door (except if the bathroom is _filthy_ like it gets at the pub sometimes)
However, clearly bathrooms are designed by men, the door should PUSH out instead of requiring people to touch the door to leave *sigh* poor design.
Aug 16, 2012 at 1:46 am rating: 2
#23
Kaz
So wait a minute, people turn on the tap with germy hands, wash them, turn the tap off again, thereby getting germs on their hands again anyway, and yet it’s the freaking door they’re worried about??
Aug 16, 2012 at 4:03 am rating: 14
#24
bitchy the dwarf
what about all of the germs on the OUTSIDE of the bathroom door? You know, the ones you touch BEFORE you go wiping your “sensitive” areas? Think of all of the people who only used that restroom to wash their hands- remnants of that germy dirt is still lingering on the outer door
Are all of you washing your hands before usung the toilet? Don’t forget the stall latch too- people have to touch that thing before they even do their business, and again when they’re done.
And how about all of those people who use the seat liners, but then leave them in place and don’t flush them? Sure, you’re scared of other people’s ass-germs, but it’s fine for you to leave yours right there on the seat?
Aug 16, 2012 at 4:53 am rating: 15
#25
misspiggy
So wait, this is a thing? The logic amazes me. Why aren’t all our offices, public transit systems and shops littered with paper towels, if so many people have legitimate concerns about touching germy doors? The same germs are on all the other surfaces touched by people who didn’t wash their hands after using the loo.
As hand sanitiser is only alcohol it doesn’t get rid of the nastiest bugs the way that soap and water does.
If you aren’t immunocompromised you probably just need to accept that your immune system will take up most of the slack. Or, how about this, try washing your hands before you eat?
Aug 16, 2012 at 6:03 am rating: 18
#26
Spencer
If you think you don’t get other people’s bodily waste on you every minute of every day from just being out in public, you’re fooling yourself (to say nothing of animals, insects, etc.). The bathroom doorhandle is one of the more obvious sources, but certainly not the only one! It’s called being alive. Welcome to the petri dish.
Aug 16, 2012 at 6:58 am rating: 29
#27
Miles
So, all those people who just touched the door with their “poo hands”? They don’t stop there. They then proceed to touch the copiers, the other doors, the fridge in the breakroom, the table in the conference room, everything in the supply closet, etc. Unless you use a paper towel all day, it is kind of a losing battle.
Aug 16, 2012 at 8:31 am rating: 15
#28
oi
We will eat junk food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We will keep all the door and windows completely closed, lest the fresh air comes in. We won’t vacuum until there is a visible layer of dirt. We don’t know what a mop is anymore. We will use the cell phone while we are doing the business and use the same phone while having lunch…
But no, NO! we won’t touch the door handle that is touched by people AFTER they wash their hands. Now that would be dirty and unhealthy.
Aug 16, 2012 at 9:17 am rating: 47
#29
Kwyjor
I wish I could set up a webcam of some sort to monitor the door of the men’s room in my office to catch the idiot who keeps doing this. (If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this site, it’s that writing a PAN is likely to only invite mockery.)
I think he justifies his behavior by trying to _leave_ the paper towel inside the door handle (which of course doesn’t work very well, since it tends to end up on the floor afterwards anyway). I further imagine that he thinks he is doing a kindly favor to the next person who has to exit what must surely be a den of unhygenic horrors, for surely any sane person would prefer to touch someone else’s crumpled paper towel rather than risk infection from the door handle?
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:17 am rating: 6
#30
Wait..what?
We had this self entitlement bitch who worked at my last corporate job (actually I think she still works there) who did this and thought nothing about throwing her paper towel on the floor. HR finally had to step in and say something to her after she kept ignoring her supervisor (me).
If you work in an office, you probably have a trash can at your desk. Use it.
If the public is using the bathrooms as well, put in a trash can for everyone to stumble over. They still won’t use it.
As for those that don’t wash their hands, we had a receptionist who was ALWAYS sick with stomach issues. She never washed her hands and would go straight to her desk and pull out a snack..Gee wonder why she was sick all the time.
Unless the bathroom is set up for 100% hands free washing and no entry/exit door, just skip the wash and use hand sanitizer at your desk..
People are pigs. When I worked at a Tyson Food Plant, every bathroom was swabbed on a regular basis for Ecoli, Samonella etc. The woman’s bathrooms were ALWAYS the nastiest and they were all set up as touch free washing. They simply didn’t wash their hands but touched a lot of stuff in the loo. including their dirty arses.
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:24 am rating: 4
#31
Camryn
Problem solved… automatic door handle disinfection. http://www.kctv5.com/story/19214291/kimberly-clark-professional-introduces-automatic-door-handle-disinfector-to-protect-against-germs-left-behind-by-others
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:52 am rating: 0
#32
redheadwglasses
I just solve this problem by not washing my hands after using the bathroom. Easy peasy! ; )~
Aug 16, 2012 at 11:26 am rating: 2
#33
SilentPsycho
I have to admit, I’m kind of stumped by this. Despite cleaning the toilets before we open to the public at work, I’m never really come across this paper towel throwing. I find them dropped in the cubicles occasionally, but never by the main door.
Everyone must be psychic enough then to realise that when I clean a toilet, I disinfect absolutely everything, including the door handles on both sides of the door.
Either that, or none of our visitors ever use a paper towel to open the door.
Aug 16, 2012 at 12:48 pm rating: 0
#34
Jolly
I guess if I’m ever setting up a bathroom layout, I will take the fact that there are apparently a ton of these nutjobs out there into consideration. It feels a bit sad to encourage neurotic people to keep using their MAGICAL GERM-DEFEATING PAPER TOWEL BARRIER to keep their body in what is, of course, it’s naturally, totally germ-free 100% sterile state, but if it means I don’t have to pay someone to pick up their filth or do it myself, then I guess it is probably worth cowing to their crap.
Aug 16, 2012 at 1:21 pm rating: 14
#35
ANkh
Suck on THAT, Rainforest!
Aug 16, 2012 at 3:39 pm rating: 8
#36
MH
They have a trash can between the two doors in my office. The way I figure it, those door handles are the cleanest thing in the whole damn office. So I *gasp* touch the handle with my bare hands. Guess what? I haven’t gotten sick in the five years I’ve worked there. Grow a set and use the hand dryer, it’s greener.
Aug 16, 2012 at 3:58 pm rating: 4
#37
Jaid
What, no mention of George Carlin and his spiel about surviving a childhood in New York City at the height of the polio blight?
Aug 16, 2012 at 5:49 pm rating: 1
#38
OHSue
Ok, not a germophobe, but I do use a paper towel to turn off the water and open the door. This is how we were taught to wash after patient care in the days before sanitizers. It’s a hold over from my nursing days. But I have sense enough to find a can to toss it in rather than throw it on the floor.
Aug 16, 2012 at 7:33 pm rating: 8
#39
juju-skittles
Not a germophobe. But I did get my daughter to stop chewing her nails by telling her about worms, and pointing out … well you probably know. She has beautiful nails now!
Aug 16, 2012 at 8:57 pm rating: 0
#40
kacky
What I have noticed about microphobes is that you are incredibly selfish. I have to wait out in the hallway with my disabled adult son while you complete your 45-minute OCD bathroom ritual in the one that’s supposed to be reserved for people like him. Then we have to run the wheelchair over your dirty paper towel that you throw on the floor outside. Then when we finally do get inside, we find that you have “hovered” above the seat and pissed all over it. I have to clean up a puddle of your disgusting pee, and I’m the one with an immune system disorder! You make more germs than you avoid.
Aug 16, 2012 at 9:56 pm rating: 16
#41
Misanthrope
Speaking as someone who was raised by a germophobe, they should all be fucking shot. Or at the very least barred from adopting (which is how this particular germophobe was inflicted on me).
If you’re white, you’re descended from the 2/3 of Europe that survived the Black Death. If you’re not white, you certainly have equally dire plagues in your own genetic history. Get the hell over yourself.
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:30 pm rating: 15
#42
shepd
I’d point a camera at the door and fire the lazy ass employee that litters in my company. There’s no excuse for that. If you’re going to be a flaming germophobe, you can still carry your trach to an appropriate receptacle.
Of course, I’d also want to make sure employees know there’s a camera pointed ONLY at the door (and why–wouldn’t want them thinking I’m going to punish them for too much toilet time!) and not them… And I’d want to check to see if this is legal (beats me… morally it should be as long as it doesn’t have a view of anything but the door).
Aug 16, 2012 at 10:59 pm rating: 0
#43
Poltergeist
Frankly, opening the door with a paper towel is pointless. Think of all the things you touch every day without a “barrier” of paper towel in between.
Aug 17, 2012 at 2:03 am rating: 2
#44
faryl
Instead of judging microphobes, people with OCD, or those who prefer to be cautious – shouldn’t all this venom be focused on inconsiderate slobs who think it’s ok to drop their used paper towels on the floor?
Just because one might fall into the first category, does not mean they fall into the second.
Signed,
OCD but considerate of others
Aug 17, 2012 at 4:12 am rating: 11
#45
faryl
(somewhat unrelated)
I think my favorite comment was on one of the picture’s flickr pages:
“who brings post-its into the lady’s room?”
Aug 17, 2012 at 4:14 am rating: 5
#46
Nope
I admit I use paper towels whenever I have to use a public or semi-public restroom. I’ve seen far too many people not wash their hands when using the restroom to realize that their piss/crap is smeared all over the door handle/knob and that is disgusting. Until you can force people to wash their hands I’ll keep using paper towels. And for those places that think they don’t have to provide paper towels, screw you. You contribute to making people ill, good job. And how hard is to put a freaking trash can by the door as well? And if it won’t fit there, put it just outside the bathroom then.
Aug 17, 2012 at 8:03 am rating: 1
#47
Chinchillazilla
I have never opened a bathroom door with a paper towel. I use my bare hands. And I have yet to die, or, indeed, be hospitalized for this filthy habit. Perhaps people should get over their irrational germophobia?
Aug 17, 2012 at 11:22 pm rating: 11
#48
Hmmm
Just think about this for a minute.
How often do the toilets at your work get cleaned? Every day I bet. And I’m willing wager that they wipe the door handle too.
Now think about your own house. How often do you clean your bathroom, couple of times a week may be? Probably more like one a week. And have you ever wiped the door handle? But thats ok, because you and your family wash your hands. However, do you put the lid down when you flush? Does everyone? No?
Well, every time you flush with the lid up tiny pieces of faecal matter get thrown up into the air. Some of them you will breath in, but most of them will land like dust over everything in your bathroom, including your toothbrush.
Now you and your family might know to close the lid, but do your guests?
So as you see everything is covered in poo and pee and the sooner some people stop being so damned precious the easier it will be for everyone.
Aug 18, 2012 at 12:06 pm rating: 8
#49
Kimberly
This is up there with the aholes that use the paper seat cover and then leave it on the seat when they are done. Let me get this straight, you can’t put your ass down on the seat but the person who comes after your or the cleaning person should have to touch paper that your butt has been all over?
Aug 21, 2012 at 11:28 am rating: 5
#50
Trekkie Gal
And this issue is why all public restroom doors should open out. That way, the door can be pushed open with a hip or foot.
Aug 21, 2012 at 12:16 pm rating: 0
#51
GK_Sutto
What you are not taking into account is the lifespan of these germs. Yes, in all likelihood, I’ll encounter germs frequently throughout the day, but that doesn’t mean I want to. I KNOW the door handle was just touched by someone who was defecating in the stall and did not wash their hands. I KNOW the door handle is contaminated. I also know, that despite how hard I try not to, I will end up touching my face at some point throughout the day. Will I wash my hands between touching that handle and touching my face? Probably not, since the sink is in the bathroom, behind that handle. Using a paper towel just makes me feel better about the fact that my hands will touch my face at some point. It doesn’t hurt you, it doesn’t make me crazy, it just helps keep other people’s shit off my face.
Aug 21, 2012 at 9:25 pm rating: 2
#52
VZG
“Oh, man, there’s no trash bin within two feet of my person. Guess that means I can contribute to the germ accumulation in this room by dropping my trash everywhere!”
The people I’ve seen grab paper towels to open the door never even bother to look for a trash can, which is a shame, because at my workplace there’s one you HAVE to pass when you leave the bathroom; just because it’s not IN the bathroom, they just toss it all on the ground.
It’ll be so much fun when another customer slips on it, I’m sure. Yay for lawsuits!
Aug 22, 2012 at 2:51 am rating: 0
#53
Astonished
I had never encountered this problem before, until I started at my current workplace – the cleaner had a whinge to me and took the obvious route of trashcan by the door – no angry notes needed. Yay our cleaner!
Aug 22, 2012 at 7:49 pm rating: 0
#54
notolaf
You’re all just jealous because your parents didn’t love you enough to raise you on contaminated well water.
That’s right – When I was twelve, my parents bought a farm, unaware that the old hand-dug well and the old hand-dug septic tank were too close to each other. It was a real fun time until they figured it out and started putting clorox down the well periodically.
I NEVER get food poisoning, even when everyone else around me is groaning with it. Ever.
Constant low-grade exposure to germs is good for you. Really. Think people who live in Mexico get sick from the water?
Aug 24, 2012 at 12:10 am rating: 2
#55
E. Johnson
This is why I just carry a bottle of GermX (or equivalent) with me wherever I go. Every part of a bathroom is teeming with bacteria. Washing your hands only to turn the sink off (thus touching the handle that your unwashed hand had just touched) is counter-productive. Plus, most bathrooms don’t stock anti-bacterial hand soap and opt for the cheap lotion based kind.
Also, @notolaf: The people in Mexico don’t get sick from the water because their body is used to the bacteria in it, just as your body was used to the bacteria in your well water. Another source would cause you to get sick.
That doesn’t mean it’s good for you. In fact, it just displays your body’s amazing ability to contain infection and adapt itself to not need to expunge it. Your body assumes that you are smart enough to avoid bacteria, and thus because you’re drinking water teeming with poop microbes it does it assumes it’s the only source of water around and thus contains and adapts.
Even though the well at my childhood home was PROPERLY dug and away from sewage, it still had traces of bacteria from being in the ground. After I moved to the city, my body was finally able to cleanse itself of the bacteria.
To this day, now that my body doesn’t have that level of bacteria in it, I still can’t drink the water at my parents.
The fact that you rarely get food poisoning has little to do with the fact that your parents were dumb enough to not check out the water table and well status in an old farm house and more to do with the fact that 99 percent of food poisoning is actually a virus and not a bacteria (such as the flu).
Aug 24, 2012 at 7:45 am rating: 0
#56
Tanya
My real question is why do people who work in restaurants think it’s okay to wipe the chairs and then wipe the table with the same cloth? That’s just nasty. I don’t want whatever is on your butt or your kids dirty shoes all over the table I’m going to eat off.
Aug 30, 2012 at 11:14 pm rating: 1
#57
Susie
you are all mental. i can’t believe i just read so many posts on hand washing and paper towels.
Sep 6, 2012 at 9:11 pm rating: 0
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