How Do You Choose A Toilet Stall?

When I can't stand writing at home, I borrow a friend's nearby office. She is slowly retiring from her marketing business and has generously offered the space to me. Lovely office, but more to the point, the building has a large ladies bathroom (also a men's room and an 'non-identified gender' bathroom). There are six stalls, identical as far as I can tell, very standard, white subway tile, wooden doors.

So, how do you choose which stall to use? I think about these sorts of things. When the cleaners have been in, I look for the stall with the seat up because then it is fresh and my tush is the first one seated on that toilet on that day. But what do I do when 4:00 rolls around? Certainly, no stall is fresh. Does the one closest to the door get the most traffic? Or, do people, women in this case, avoid that one because they assume everyone else has been there? Is the furthest stall more private? Eh, not really. For no particular reason, I choose the third or fourth.

I asked my friend Janie who said that she looks for cleanliness, a door that locks, and privacy. Then I checked with my daughter Steph who said that when she was in grade school, she and her bestie Cara decided that the second stall was the one to use. Why? The answer has been lost in time. Today Steph likes the handicapped stall if no one needs it, and she tries to figure out the least popular spot because it might be cleanest.

After I wrote this post, but before I published it, I found a couple of studies about the topic. I was surprised to find out that other people, probably psychologists with too much time on their hands, think about this sort of stuff. Anyway, here is what I learned:

1. There is a 'centrality' preference meaning that people choose from the middle more often than from the ends. Yeah, that's what I was doing when I went into 2 or 3.

2. A real study exists. When a psychologist tracked toilet paper use (clever method since you can't use cameras and it is way better than sitting under the sinks or pretending to wash your hands for six hours while you count the patrons), he found that more toilet paper was used in the middle stalls, and the least amount of toilet paper was used at the ends. See, this is only the second post I've published and I've already made your life cleaner and safer.

This raises another serious question; whether to sit down on the toilet seat or hover, but not today.

I would really like to know how you make these decisions.

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In March, 2025, Not The Trip We Planned will be published by Koehler. For better or worse, I am featured in the novel.