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Comment by robomartin | Hacker News Reader

It is interesting how the oddest topics sometimes make the HN front page.

I think the real question here isn't why bathroom doors open in or out. The question should be: Why aren't hand washing facilities just outside the bathroom?

Wouldn't you feel better if you actually saw the cook at the restaurant washing his hands when exiting the bathroom? Also, social pressure would probably cause more people to clean-up.

Just one of those "outside the box" thoughts.

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I've been to some fancy restaurants that had the sinks for washing your hands outside the bathrooms. Men and women shared the same sinks, so in theory the restaurant could have fewer sinks.

that's pretty common in india, both, as you say, because it saves overall floor space, and because it lets people who want to simply wash their hands not have to vie for space with people who are using the toilets.

It's noisy and means having more rooms with plumbing, tile floors, drains. It also means you have to take your soiled hands into public. And the bathroom will be dirtier.

if you have a manual misadventure and end up with poo on your finger, do you really want to be dancing out into public with it held out in front of you?

I guess it is better to have both. A sink inside and a sink outside.

I'm guessing the washrooms in your area don't have sanitary paper(toilet paper).

those can run out.

ALWAYS check before you sit down ;)

My other toilet PROTIP:

If you walk into a communal toilet cubicle, and the seat lid is down, ALWAYS do a bonus flush before lifting the lid.

Strongly disagree. One word: Blockage.

I don't mean that it's dripping with poo. I mean that you've wiped it with paper and it still needs a wash. In this case, you're not going to be using your hand normally, picking up your things or putting it in your pocket, are you?

I gotta ask. After you wipe you still have your smartphone in your hands don't you.

My guess would be that you can wash your hands when you first get into the bathroom. That is when your hands are the dirtiest.

Given what I've seen guys not do at a bathroom, I doubt social pressure would change their hygiene.

I've seen this suggested before as a way to stop the spread of disease in certain african countries. I don't think they went as far as suggesting public sinks, but rather communal sinks shared by the male and female toilets as they felt the social pressure from females would convince the males (who research showed were the source of the problem).

I'd say most bathrooms in China are designed this way. The only drawback I see is that the washing area is usually shared between men and women. I believe that can make some people uncomfortable especially if they are using the mirror to put on make up, fix their hair, etc.

At my workplace in China, the bathroom has no door at all - problem solved!

Seriously though, this is by far the best solution if you have the space. Just design your bathroom so that you have to round a corner (or place some other obstruction behind the doorway) to move bathroom users out of the line of sight. No outward-swinging door killing people, no outward-swinging door trapping people inside, no germs.

> design your bathroom so that you have to round a corner to move bathroom users out of the line of sight

At my workplace the bathrooms are designed liked this. Works absolutely wonderfully, impossible to see into the bathroom, convenient, no touching the same door handle that-guy-with-suspect-hygiene-practices-just-touched etc.

... and then about 6 months ago, they installed doors on these same bathrooms (without changing anything else). Even worse, they're sort of cheap-n-nasty sliding doors, which have a tendency to bind and get stuck closed!

I have no idea what prompted this, it's rather mystifying, that they do it now, given that it's an old building which has lasted like 60 years without the doors...

That sounds great, but I can see 2 problems:

1) smell 2) signalling that the bathroom is in use

So..I wipe, touch the door handle and then wash my hands?

Why would there have to be a door handle?

Wipe, wash hands, dry hands with paper towel, keep towel to grab door handle with, exit, discard outside.

Seen way too many disgusting people who don't wash their hands after going to the bathroom.

You're replying to a comment that is a reply to the idea of having the wash basin outside the door.

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