The answer we’ve been begging to know: Why are pubic bathroom doors so uncomfortably short?
Spare a square?
Using the stall in a public restroom is uncomfortable for numerous reasons. There’s the fear that someone will open the door while you are vulnerable. There’s the question of how clean the seats are and the constant worry that someone is lingering outside the door, impatiently waiting for you to finish.
There’s also the considerable fear of someone seeing you using the restroom because of the massive gap between the floor and the bottom of the door. It makes one wonder: why don’t more places have bathroom stalls with longer doors? Unfortunately, a popular TikTok user says they are made that way on purpose.
A TikTok user named MattyPStories shared the big 3 reasons why bathroom doors are so short in a viral TikTok that makes sense but is mildly infuriating.
"You’ve probably wondered at one point or another why bathroom doors don’t go all the way to the ground. But there are actually many logical reasons why they do this,” MattyP opens the video.
@mattypstories And now you know!🚽#bathroom#facts#themoreyouknow
Reason 1:Emergency concerns
MattyP says the gap in the bottom of the door makes it easier to notice if someone in the stall has had an emergency and needs help. If the door went all the way to the bottom, it’d be hard to notice if someone passed out in the stall. "First off, if there’s ever an emergency, it’d be pretty easy to see what happened and get the person some help,” he says in the video.
Reason 2:Easier to clean
Cleanliness is mission number one for the people who own the stall and it doesn’t take much for a bathroom to quickly become a disgusting mess and a public health hazard if it isn’t cleaned every few hours. So, they are designed to make getting a mop under the bathroom door easy, which means sacrificing some of your privacy. "Secondly, it makes it way easier to clean,” MattyP reveals. “Public bathrooms are used quite often, meaning that they need to be cleaned many times throughout the day, and having the space under the door makes it a lot easier.”
Reason 3:Price
This one should be mildly infuriating. "And finally, it’s a lot cheaper to buy a door that has part of it cut off than the full door itself,” MattyP admits.
One Point Partitions, a company that sells bathroom partitions, added a few more reasons why public bathroom doors don’t go all the way to the floor. A big one is that they are a deterrent to undesirable behavior. “Because people can partially see into a bathroom stall that has a gap at the bottom, this type of partition is a natural deterrent to undesirable behavior, such as someone spray painting the stall with graffiti,” the site reads.
The company adds that seeing people’s feet at the bottom of the door keeps the line moving because people know if a stall is vacant or open. Finally, everyone likes short doors when they are out of toilet paper. “If you’ve ever run out of toilet paper and had to ask the person in the stall next to you for a few squares, then you’re already familiar with one of the leading reasons for bathroom partitions not extending to the floor. If you’d run out of toilet paper in an enclosed stall, you may have been caught with your pants down, at least figurately!” the site reads.
So, when you’re stuck in a public bathroom, now you know why you want to leave there as soon as possible. But if you look on the bright side, that short door helps keep the bathroom clean and is there for you if your stall isn’t well-stocked. It’s probably better to sit in a clean stall with a short door than a dirty bathroom with one that goes floor-to-ceiling.