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Search Results for "toilet signs"

59 Awesome International Toilet Signs

This is pretty sweet. A gallery of 59 of some of the coolest international toilet signs you’ll ever see. Most of them did a pretty good job of conveying the differences between men and women, even if a little subtle at times. This is one of my (many) favorites – notice the bow in the lady’s hair!

Turkish Toilet Sign

See them all (via)

March 29, 2008   1 Comment

An Illustrated Exploration of Toilet Do’s and Don’ts

We have seen some awesome toilet signs here at the ICBE, but this most recent one is perhaps the most spectacular yet.

Blown away? I thought so, but let’s take the time to examine the sign closely.

Sitting on the toilet is okay. Well, I should certainly hope so! But at least we are off to a reasonable start.

No standing to pee. What?! Perhaps whoever runs the facility is getting sick of pee on the seat, but it seems a little much to ban the standing pee outright. With public toilets, you don’t want to contact the seat unless absolutely necessary, so standing ought to be allowed. That said, if you do pee on the seat for goodness sakes clean it up!

No vomiting in the toilet. Or perhaps No drinking from the toilet. In the first case it seems completely unfair to restrict people from vomiting in the toilet. Let’s face it, nobody really enjoys vomiting and if they are so ill they need to hurl into the potty, well they should be allowed to. Now the no drinking thing I’m behind 100%. Though I really question the sanity of anybody who needs a sign to remind them of this!

No squatting on the toilet. This is a reasonable rule. In some countries squat toilets are very common, but this is clearly a western toilet for which squatting is inappropriate. If you don’t want to contact the seat with your buttocks you need to place your feet on the ground and hover over the seat. A squat such as the one depicted here merely transfers germs and crap (perhaps even literal crap) from the soles of your shoes to the toilet seat.

No fishing in the toilet. I say let people fish. And if they catch any fish, I dare them to eat them!

No urinating like a dog at the urinal. Or perhaps No humping the urinal. In a curious twist, this last image appears to dictate urinal behavior and not toilet behavior. Either way you interpret the image, it seems to be speaking out against canine-based behavior, and is sound advice on both counts.

Thanks plus-k

May 16, 2010   1 Comment

Awesome Danish Toilet Sign

Alert reader Neil sent us a lovely picture of this fantastic toilet sign spotted near Korsor in Denmark:

Awesome Danish Toilet Sign

While I suppose it’s possible that in fact there are two signs pointing to two different things, I reject this hypothesis. The only reasonable explanation is that the Danes, upon going to the toilet, routinely end up in the water up to their shoulders.

Gross!

December 16, 2009   2 Comments

The Toilet is not a Garbage

In many bathrooms, there are at least two receptacles designed to remove certain kinds of waste. The toilet, and the garbage. Toilets are designed to remove #1, #2 and toilet paper. The garbage is for everything else.

Seems pretty straightforward, right? Well obviously not, as foreign objects (mostly feminine hygiene products by my estimation) clogging up toilets is a real problem in a lot of places. For example, Joy writes the following:

Hello – I am trying to find the right phrase, short but polite and to the point to illustrate the following, ‘Please use the bin provided for anything other than toilet tissue.’

In other words, I don’t want the patients who visit the loo in our dental clinic to toss feminine hygiene products, hand towels or any other kind of waste … apart from loo paper down the loo.

I see the line every where and now cannot come with it myself! Any clever, polite one-liners?

I’m honestly not a big fan of signs on the bathroom. Not so much that they are rude (which they may or may not be depending on wording), but I just don’t think they work. Trying to reach somebody at the point where they have garbage in their hand and are looking for a place to put it is too late. Nobody’s going to stop and read a sign, they’re just going to toss it in the closest thing that looks like it may or may not be an appropriate receptacle.

November 2, 2009   No Comments

Hanging the Toilet Paper

Unless you have one of those weird vertical toilet paper holders – and if you do, please accept my sympathy – there are precisely two ways to hang the toilet paper, over and under. While most people have a preference, there are merits to each.

Over

This is the way hotels do it, which leads many people to proclaim it is the correct way to hang toilet paper. It is arguably more aesthetically pleasing, but aesthetics are subjective, and some would disagree. It certainly displays more of the outside of the roll, so if you’ve invested in some fancy TP with pretty designs, you may prefer this method. That’s not however the real reason hotels hang the toilet paper this way. They do it so the housekeeper can fold over the end into that little triangle deal that signifies housekeeping has, at the very minimum, come into the bathroom and folded over the end of the toilet paper.

Under

This method is functionally superior, offering easier rolling up of excess paper, and easier tearing off of a strip from the roll – especially one handed. It also gives you a few extra inches to maneuver, which can be a real blessing in cramped quarters.

So which is better? While the ICBE hangs its toilet paper under, our official position is that you should just do whatever your wife (or whoever) tells you to. Trust me on that one. And if you are single, why are you asking me? Hang it whichever damn way you please, until somebody you are trying to impress (or much, much bigger than you) tells you to hang it the other way.

January 15, 2008   Comments Off on Hanging the Toilet Paper

Great Signs at Waterloo Train Station

My new site du jour This Is Broken has the scoop on some less-than-useful signs about accessible toilet locations in London’s Waterloo train station. You find the signs only after you descend several flights of stairs in the first place.

Good thinking.

Check out the pictures here

February 8, 2007   No Comments

How Do Astronauts Poop In Space?

How do astronauts poop in space? The answer, as you might expect, is very carefully:

If the astronaut isn’t positioned correctly over the vacuum of the toilet, solid waste could get smeared on the toilet and the astronaut. In a worse-case scenario, some might escape and start floating around the space vehicle.

Floating space poop – fantastic! I’ve never really been one of those people who had a burning desire to visit space, and I really have to say that until NASA or whoever sorts out their shit (pun – clever!) and designs a decent space toilet, I don’t see my opinion changing anytime soon.

The Examiner goes into great detail in a two part series:

Part I
Part II

January 3, 2013   No Comments

Ad-Hoc Bathroom Signage

No, I’m not talking about those awesome bathroom signs that provide helpful information, I’m talking about the type you see in office bathrooms which inevitably arise out of somebody’s general disregard for common courtesy in the bathroom.

Turns out that even Mr. Instapaper Marco, who still consults for Tumblr, isn’t immune to them.

The Problem:
Somebody’s been throwing paper towels on the floor, presumably after using them to open the door.

Somebody’s Craptastic Solution:
A passive-aggressive note, attributed to “Management” (cough-bullshit-cough).

Marco’s Improvement:
An updated, and so far unnoticed by “Management”, sign.

The Real Solution:
Just put a garbage by the door already!

Read Marco’s take

Check out the awesome ad-hoc office signage Flickr group

September 23, 2010   2 Comments

Family Restrooms and Bathroom Phobias

A distressed reader recently sent the following email:

After searching your website, I was disappointed to find nothing on the topic of (I hate to even say it!) public Family Restrooms. These have been springing up in local department stores and malls recently. One only has to pass near the restroom area to find the signs emblazoned on the wall.

What on earth is a Family Restroom and what in the world can be going on in there?

To be honest, I haven’t seen a whole ton of these in my recent excursions. However, I’m fairly certain that the Family Restroom is a place where families with small children can go to take care of business like diaper changing, and perhaps even breastfeeding. There isn’t anything sinister about these places, and given the state of changing tables in regular bathrooms (crappy), I’d say they are a welcome addition to the public bathroom landscape.

Also, is there any real medical terminology to describe bathroom phobia (other than parauresis). I ask because every time I see the Family Bathroom sign, it causes me to have heart palpitations, minor sweating and a hurried gait.

Paruresis (for more information check out the link to the International Paruresis Association in the sidebar) relates more with an inability to go to the bathroom, rather than a direct fear of the bathroom itself. It doesn’t appear, based on me Googling for 5 minutes, that a bathroom phobia has any specific name. You simply have a bathroom phobia.

On another unrelated (I think) note, when I was quite young, the railway station in Kansas City featured toilets with spring-loaded seats that retracted upward toward the water tank. There was a horseshoe shaped depression in the face of the tank which was the very mate of the seat. When one had to use the toilet, it required pulling down the heavy tensioned seat. When one stood up, the seat rose quickly to fit in said depression, causing an eerie black light to appear haloed around and behind it.

When one is very, very young, but just beyond requiring assistance with bathroom duties, such an apparatus is both fascinating and terrifying. Fear of being snapped up or of being “burnt” by the strange blue light was all too real. Furthermore, one had to deposit a dime in a slot on the stall door in order to witness this technological wonder of the day. I’m sure I have some mental scarring in relation to using those toilets which may be related to my new fear of Family Restrooms.

Can you help?

Yikes! Well from the sound of things I’d have to agree, these train bathrooms may well have contributed to your current bathroom phobia. I’ve never heard of or seen such a thing, and am especially glad I never came across one when I was a child.

I wish I could help you conquer your fears, but I’m afraid that is beyond the scope of my abilities. It may be time to seek out the help of a mental health professional. Good luck!

April 16, 2008   3 Comments

Get your TP from a Mac SE

Got an old Mac lying around? You know, one of those classic, all-in-one designs? Do what this guy did, and turn it into the geekiest (and quite possibly largest) toilet paper dispenser possible!

Mac SE Toilet Paper Dispenser

Read (via)

March 10, 2008   No Comments