#133 Feet on Seats (Restaurants)

Dining in a restaurant is supposed to be a nice experience which should be superior to that of your own home or someone else's. When I see someone sitting with their feet on seat(s) at restaurants, it is beyond me why they think that is appropriate behavior.

I recently dined for lunch in a chain restaurant which prides themselves on their burgers and unique drinks / beverages. While I was there, I actually saw TWO instances of this behavior, but I was only able to capture one of them due to my proximity to the offenders.

Consider all of the places that you walked through during the day just to get to this restaurant. You must have walked outside at some point, where people spit, birds and squirrels piss and shit, and dirt, dust, and pollen are everywhere (not to mention salt in the winter!).

You also probably used the restroom at some point during the morning, and whether it was private or public, I can assure you that the floor was not clean enough to eat from. Assuming you went to work that morning, you have the same types of under-shoe filth from everyone else at your place of employment, multiplied by the number of co-workers. Gross.

Also, do you have pets? Well if you do, you can't tell me that you think THEY are the sparkling embodiment of sanitary standards. They walk through their own piss (and sometimes shit) while they are doing their business (whether outside or inside) and they will also track their disgustingness anywhere that your feet touch the floor. Really makes you want to have that near your face while you're eating, huh?

Do you want people putting their shoes all over your furniture at your house? If this is acceptable to you, you probably shouldn't be dining out in the first place.

#130 Restroom Stall Spacing

Having to use a public restroom while at work is a reality for many people. It's bad enough that we have to do our private business in a not-very-private place, but if people paid more attention to stall spacing (or urinal spacing, if you're male) things would be slightly less uncomfortable.

From what I understand, men have a hard-and-fast rule about using public urinals: always leave at least a one-urinal buffer between yourself and the next guy. This is especially important for the first guy up to the urinal: he sets the spacing for all those that follow him while he's in there.

I really wish that women would follow this thinking. Here is a photo of a restroom that I was in today.

Twice today when I went into this restroom someone was in the #2 standard-sized stall. In order to create (what I consider) proper spacing, what she should have done was chosen either the #1 or #3 standard-sized stall, or the handicap stall. Since the toilet in the handicap stall is against the far wall, there is already a built-in buffer between the handicap stall and the #3 standard-sized stall, so one person could occupy each of those and still have decent spacing between them. This would allow a third person to use the restroom in the #1 stall, all while maintaining the comfort of adequate spacing.

Hearing other people urinate is not so much an issue, but hearing other people poop is just disgusting. The farther away from me that you are while you're doing it, the better. Everyone poops, but I really don't want to hear it or even think about other people doing it.

#117 Dirty Dishes in the Sink

I have previously mentioned that I'm currently in a less-than-stellar living environment, and that there are certain things that bother me in this situation that I really can't control or even change for the duration of my home remodel... because it's not my house and not my family and I have no right to say anything or change anything. However, that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to dislike it. In this case, dirty dishes piled up in the sink are bothering me.

Please note that the display in this post's photo is NOT located in my current dwelling, but this photo does represents the annoyance I am faced with every single day. The person responsible for the dirty dishes in the sink insists that everyone else contribute to this person's delinquency as it pertains to their laziness of appropriate dirty-dish-placement. For example, rather than place my dirty dishes in the dishwasher (which is either clean and has been waiting to be emptied all day, or dirty and has only a few items loaded), this person would rather I stack my dirty dishes in the sink so that they, at a later time, can do all of the rinsing and loading into the dishwasher because everything needs to fit "just so" in order to run the dishwasher the least amount of times necessary.

Additionally, because the dishes are piled so high in the sink, it is next to impossible to even use the faucet at all, let alone do something sanitary like wash one's hands.

And not only do they go to such an extent to run the dishwasher as little as possible, but they pre-wash everything before it goes into the dishwasher. I don't mean like just removing chunks of food and giving it a slight rinse... I mean they full-on wipe the dishes with a sponge with soap before loading everything into the machine.

Yesterday I went out of my way to make sure that I loaded the dishwasher (as "just so" as I could possibly fathom), ran it, emptied it, and re-loaded with the few dishes in the sink before going to bed, and then today when I came home there were dirty dishes in the sink rather than placed in the dishwasher to keep them from stinking up the kitchen or clogging up the sink.

Teabags. Used teabags. USED! In the sink!!! WHYYY?!???!??! THROW THEM AWAY!!!!!!!!!

#100 Hand-Dryer Height

I have previously blogged about handwashing, but I have not yet blogged about hand drying. It's not the act of hand drying (or lack of hand drying) that bothers me, but rather the location of the hand dryers in some public restrooms.

It is my opinion that a hand dryer of any sort, whether it be an electric warm-air dryer, or even a paper towel dispenser (either touch-free or manual, like the one pictured here), be located at or below the height of the sink. I recently had to use the restroom featured in this photo over the course of three days, and it annoyed me every time I used the restroom.

In this restroom, the paper towel dispenser is a good two to two and a half feet above the sink. When this situation occurs, after someone washes their hands they actually have to reach up to pull down the paper towel... which (let's not forget about gravity here) means that the excess water from their hands will run down the length of their forearm until the water can be removed via the paper towel. Also consider manually operating this dispenser: one has to pull the lever down several times in order to get their desired length of paper towel to dry their hands. The act of pulling the lever downward several times also exacerbates this problem. This problem can be avoided by operating the paper towel dispenser before handwashing begins, if it is thought of initially.

Why install these hand dryers so high on the wall? I suspect the person who installed this particular hand dryer was a tall male who found it much easier to install at eye-level instead of bending over or crouching down to install it at a lower height. Installing the dispenser at a lower height would also make replenshing the paper towel much easier as well!

#079 Replenishment - Hygiene Products

I have previously blogged about a similar situation regarding printer paper, but this time I have directed my topic to hygiene products.

Living with anyone can be challenging, whether it be a spouse or children or parents, but when any of those people are not "on the same page" as you when it comes to keeping the house stocked of the things you use frequently, it can be rather frustrating.

Take, for example, deodorant. You (hopefully!) wear it every day. You (hopefully!) want to wear it every day. So, when it starts to run out, perhaps you should either a) put it on a list to get at a later, but soon-upcoming date, or b) go out at your earliest convenient opportunity and get some more. The key is to NOT WAIT UNTIL YOU'RE COMPLETELY OUT. Personally I prefer option A because then you can do the shopping more efficiently (getting other things you need instead of making a special trip for one thing). Let's face it: you can't really "improvise" when it comes to deodorant.

Other examples of this irritating behavior can include the replenishment of toilet paper, contact solution, diapers, baby wipes, soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothpaste, and the list goes on.

I suppose waiting until you're completely out of something to buy more of it works for some people, and those people apparently can live without being presentable to the general public.

#076 Suds in the Sink

Have you ever gone to grab something out of the cabinet above the sink, only to accidentally drop it into the sink? That happens to me from time to time. What irritates me, however, is when there are suds in the sink that get all over whatever it is I dropped.

It occurs to me that if you are washing your hands and when you finish there are still suds in the sink, you either a) used entirely too much soap, and/or b) you didn't adequately finish rinsing the soap from your hands. Whichever the case, I think you should make sure all the suds are gone from the sink before you leave the area, and leave the sink as you found it: clean and neat.

Although, I suppose I should just be satisfied that people are actually washing their hands...

#062 Streaked Toilet Bowls

Although most females are far from it, (ladies) we owe it to ourselves to continue to portray the illusion that we are prim, proper, clean and tidy when it comes to our hygiene and of what goes in and comes out of our bodies.

Therefore, I have a simple message for you regarding restroom etiquette: look before you leave.

I have touched on this subject before, but this particular point just really offends and disgusts me.

There is nothing more off-putting to me when I walk into a restroom stall to do my business than seeing a toilet bowl streaked with shit from the previous woman. How is it that females, (most of which are) such beatiful creatures of nature, can leave behind something so vile and revolting? Behold Exhibit A and Exhibit B:

Are you disgusted? So am I! I don't want to see this every day, but I am forced to walk into this distasteful display of disrespect to others on a daily basis. This occurred in a public female restroom in an office building! These are only two examples of the several I come upon in a week. Ugh.

So remember: LOOK BEFORE YOU LEAVE. Flush again (and again) if necessary, or place a piece of toilet paper in the bowl if it doesn't go away so that the next person isn't subjected to your carelessness.

#061 Nail Clipping

Fingernails and toenails grow over time, and there's really no getting around that. In fact, according to Wikipedia, human fingernails grow 3 millimeters per month on average. Impressive! However, nail clipping in public simply is NOT acceptable.

Nail clipping is a form of personal hygiene; after all, the length of yours depends on your preference, much like the length of the hairs on your body. Why would you do something like this in public? Lately there seems to be quite a number of people clipping their nails near me, and it drives me completely insane.

First of all – it's kind of gross. Did you wash your hands before you clipped your nails? Did you sterilize, or even somewhat clean your nail clipper? Unlikely (for both).

Second of all, THAT SOUND….. ugh. The sharp snipping sound that it makes, which is only amplified in a larger room (such as an office space), is just absolutely excruciating. I could understand if perhaps you chipped a nail on something and you need to clip the rest of it off to smooth the end of it, but clipping all of your nails IN SUCCESSION should be something that is done in the privacy of your own home, or at very least in the restroom.

#050 Sick Days

I suppose I'm pretty fortunate that my company allows each of us to take sick days; some companies don’t have such a policy.

For those companies that DO have a policy allowing sick days, I truly wish more people would actually use them. It's annoying when people are coughing and hacking all day, but I can't stand it when people think they actually need to physically be AT WORK while they’re sick! When you’re sick and feel under the weather, you’re really not that productive anyway. Pair that with potentially getting everyone else sick, and that's just a recipe for disaster. Copy machines, door handles, telephones, coffee pots, drinking fountains: in an office environment people touch these things all day long. Office sickness is one of the major things that really makes me an advocate of proper handwashing.

Very often people in an office building will get sick from their kids, then bring the sickness to work and spread it all around there, then other people get sick and pretty soon entire families are sick and then practically entire towns. Now, I'm not saying to not have kids: let’s be reasonable here. I’m simply saying this: if you’re sick, STAY HOME. Although.... some people *shouldn't* have kids... but that's an entirely separate topic (stay tuned for THAT one!).

#045 Household Paper Towels

Paper towels are extremely useful in a variety of situations, but most often I prefer them at home for drying my hands after I wash them. And if you've been following my blog at all, you already know by now how I feel about handwashing...

This post is somewhat related to my Toilet Paper Dispensers post, but this post has more to do with the position of the next available towel than the position of the actual dispenser.

What good is the next available paper towel when it is not easily accessible? That is, if it is wrapped tightly around the roll and can't easily be ripped off? This is depicted in the first photo. Now, if my hands are wet and I reach for the next paper towel while it is in this position, I have to touch the roll to spin it so the next one falls down.... getting the rest of the roll and further sheets of paper towels wet and warped.

If the next towel were positioned such as shown in the second picture, I would only have to dirty one paper towel and, once my hands were clean and dry, I could pull down the next paper towel for the next person to easily grab. This is much more convenient and practical!

#018 Public Restrooms

There seems to be a certain code of conduct that people should adhere to when it comes to the use of public restrooms. Lately, though, it seems that people have either completely forgotten about such conduct or just simply don’t care anymore. Either way, I wish they *would* care enough to do a few simple things to clean up after themselves and make the restroom a cleaner place for everyone.


Toilet paper: Out? Refill it. On the floor? Pick it up! Don’t wait for someone else to do it – take some initiative and do it yourself.

Paper towels: PLEASE for the love of everything holy PLEASE make sure your used paper towel makes it in the trash can. Also, if you dripped water all over the counter, take your used paper towel and wipe up the counter before you throw it in the trash can… and if you MISS the trash can, bend over and pick it up! Don’t be lazy. Let’s face it, you could use the exercise. Oh, and refill it if it’s out.

Soap dispenser: Soap dispensers work wonderfully if they’re automatic, but if they’re manual sometimes they can leave a little soap behind that drips on the counter or into the sink. Either way, wipe up the excess or rinse it down the sink.

Toilet bowl: Everyone poops. It’s true! If you must do this, please take a look at what you leave behind – one flush may not have been enough. If you left some floaters behind, flush it again. If you streaked the bowl, at least place a few squares of toilet paper on top of the water to cover the streak so that the next person doesn’t see it immediately.

Toilet seat: Getting urine on the seat is flat out unacceptable. Men, you should be lifting the seat anyways, but wipe the edge of the bowl if you dribble. Women, check the seat for overspray before you flush. Not sure if you hit the seat/bowl? Take some toilet paper and wipe it anyways!

Air freshener: If an automatic air freshener is not available or is not adequate for the business which you are about to do, use a spray can both BEFORE AND AFTER you do #2. Hopefully that takes care of it such that the next person doesn't have to smell your nastiness. And if the bathroom has an exhaust fan, leave that on when you walk away.

Floor: Getting urine on the floor is also unacceptable. Wipe it up before you leave!


I really don’t see what is so difficult about doing the things listed above. I expect everyone to abide by these rules, but sadly most do not. If you lived with roommates, would they tolerate your behavior? Probably not. Think of it this way – you have several “roommates” when it comes to public restrooms: just make sure they’re all happy with the way you left it.

#005 Handwashing

I don't care if you "don't touch anything" when you wipe your girl parts. I don't care if you think your penis is "clean". I especially don't care if you think you don't get any bacteria on yourself when you wipe your rear end after going number two... YOU DO. You MUST wash your hands if you use the restroom.

It's pretty obvious that you didn't wash your hands if you go in to urinate and when you're walking out the toilet/urinal is still flushing. If you refuse to wash your hands, at least stay in there a little longer after you're done to make me think you actually did.

Also if you blow your nose, you really should wash your hands after that, too. The reason you're blowing your nose in the first place is to get rid of mucus that your body doesn't want. And if your body doesn't want it, I certainly don't want to touch it.

#003 Sticky Fuel Pumps

It's as if everyone that used the fuel pump before you hugged a tree trunk full of sap, spit on their hands, and then wiped their hands on their car prior to picking up the pump. In that order. How do these pumps get so sticky? I keep a small bottle of hand sanitizer in my car to attempt to get some of that disgusting stuff off my hands until I can properly wash my hands with soap and water.

And for that matter, why don't fuel stations make it part of their routine to empty the trash, refill the washer fluid, and wipe off the pumps? Surely the attendants don't want to get sick... so why subject your customers to touching filthy disgusting sticky pumps, then coming in and hand you paper money or a credit card? Gross.