Well, do you?
What's the etiquette for public washrooms? Friends? Family? Parents? What if you have lo-flo? Do men and women follow the same protocol? Is it ideology, good practice or lunacy?
I have a lot of questions.
Issues Pages:
Regions:
Do you let it mellow?
Mon, 2011-05-23 00:02
#1
Catchfire
Do you let it mellow?
Mon, 2011-05-23 00:23
#2
We let it mellow.
But really it isn't that big an issue because most of the time I flush by scooping a bucket of water out of the tub.
Yes we prefer baths to showers, but the water stays in the tub for re-use. In the wintertime the residual heat helps keep the upstairs warm rather than heating the sewers, and in the summertime I often drain it through the eavestroughing and into the water barrel in the garden.
In public and at work - it depends on how I am feeling on that particular day.
Mon, 2011-05-23 15:50
#3
Catchfire
Wow, Winston, that is some serious conservation practice.
We have a shotty let-it-mellow policy in our household, that sometimes goes into hiatus. I never let it mellow in public places or at work, and only at friends' or family's if they adopt it too. However, my brother and sister-in-law do it wherever they go (she's into conservation, so I think there's a smattering of ideology in there too).
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:07
#4
Unflushed urine will crystalize and eventually clog a urinal.
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:11
#5
It's only because I used to live in a place where we hauled all our water, I have seen enough old cisterns in farm house basements, and greenhouses where the heat sink was a huge watering trough filled with rain water.
I read an article not too long ago about plumbing re-builds to maximize use of water - China was mentioned as a place where it is becoming the norm. One of the things that was discussed there was capturing urine, since the urea we dump down the sewers and into river systems is more of a problem than water overuse, because it is fertilizer, and contributes to algae blooms.
One solution - you might want to consider putting more than table scraps into your compost:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Using-Human-Urine-As-A-Liquid-Fertilizer&id=39...
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:14
#6
remind
Mellow,..
And are designing a grey water system and building it under the house next winter, for the gardens for next year.
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:20
#7
One of my first aha moments was when I went to Germany for the first time and noticed that every apartment block I went to had an attic where the tenants all hung their laundry. Using an electric dryer was about as icky an idea as wearing bathing suits into a sauna.
And that is in a relatively humid country. It makes far more sense in the prairies. Dry your clothes outside in the summer, and in the winter when the humidity is practically zero, hang your clothes down the basement. From my experience, sheets dry in about half an hour inside in the wintertime, and my houseplants thank me.
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:26
#8
remind
Hang everything winter and summer. Clothes last longer and it saves hydro. And actually water too as the house winter garden does not need so much water.
Mon, 2011-05-23 16:30
#9
@ remind
I know I couldn't do this in the city, but friends of mine had a honey pot toilet set up in their house with a stack to vent air, and they had a bucket of leaves and sawdust next to the toilet to throw in to mulch it up a bit. That room never smelled at all - ever.
I can see how it would be a bit of problem in the winter, when you don't want a pipe sucking warm air out of the house, but with a damping system I think it would work.
I made out fine with an outhouse and chamber pot when I lived in the country. One trick - a nice block of styrofoam over the seat so you don't freeze your ass - literally - in -30.
Last time I was in the Mountain Equipment Coop store in Winnipeg I noticed they had a similar, though much fancier composting toilet system.
Mon, 2011-05-23 17:30
#10
In our home we pretyt much always let it mellow unless we have guests. Outside world I tend not to but then most of the public washrooms seem to have the automatic sensors so I couldnt let it mellow even if I wanted to 
Mon, 2011-05-23 17:36
#11
Catchfire
Outside world I tend not to but then most of the public washrooms seem to have the automatic sensors so I couldnt let it mellow even if I wanted to
When mellowing is taken out of the hands of the people, dare we call it a democracy?
Mon, 2011-05-23 17:42
#12
Talk about taking the piss out of something 
Mon, 2011-05-23 19:07
#13
radiorahim
In a thread like this one I think this video from 1973 is appropriate
Mon, 2011-05-23 19:13
#14
Mon, 2011-05-23 21:24
#15
Urine trouble now...
Mon, 2011-05-23 23:49
#16
We immigrants were way ahead of our time. In fact, we used to define a WASP as someone who stepped out of the shower to take a leak.
Tue, 2011-05-24 00:09
#17
Hell I dont even do that in the bath
Tue, 2011-05-24 01:03
#18
@ Bacchus
Just think of it as ayurvedic therapy
Tue, 2011-05-24 01:36
#19
Wed, 2012-01-25 14:45
#20
Catchfire
People Can't Wait from shieldsfilms.com on Vimeo.
Why Portland's public toilets succeed where others fail.
[quote]For the residents of Portland, Ore., taking a whiz in a public toilet is not just a matter of necessity. It’s an act of civic pride.
That’s because the city is home to the Portland Loo, a unique, patented outdoor bathroom that inspires such worship in its fanbase you’d think that Steve Jobs himself had designed it. This adoration comes despite the fact that the 24-hour loo was built to be as inhospitable as possible. This toilet does not want to be loved, but in Portland, it is No. 1 (and, presumably, sometimes No. 2 as well).[/quote]