Let’s face it, good hygiene can sometimes be difficult to maintain while on the road. Never should this difficulty be confused with the need not to take care of things like bathing, brushing teeth and grooming hair. It is understandable that from time to time a driver may be forced to turn a small restroom sink into a washroom. Just remember that in doing this that you do not want to leave the evidence everywhere for the next person who walks in!
Of course literally crawling into a sink in a restroom would not make much sense, though I am sure there are those that have tried! In such a small area, it is obvious that a mess would be easily had in trying to do things such as shave or wash one’s hair. It is all too often that I walk into a men’s room to use the facilities and I have to endure a gauntlet of beard trimmings and left over toothpaste spit just to wash my hands. When you have to use the washroom at a warehouse ot truckstop for more than it was designed, be sure to clean up after yourself, as to try and not leave any evidence that you were there in the first place. Not that I am saying to go all “CSI” on the place and bleach the entire bathroom before you leave, but just have the common courtesy to make it nice for the next person coming in after you are done.
It is becoming quite a regular sight to see a sign such as the one pictured here in a lot of warehouses I go to. I tend to ask some of these customers what the reasoning is behind it and I usually get one of two answers. The less frequent of the two is the increased risk of vandalism from drivers, while the most frequent is that drivers leave their facilities a mess after they basically bathe in their sinks. A driver having to sleep outside of a shipper or consignee for an early pickup and needing to freshen up in the morning is completely understandable, but there is no excuse for being a pig and trashing anyone’s facilities. This type of behavior has a negative effect on the closing of facilities to drivers, but also ruins it for those of us out there that do the right thing and clean up after ourselves.
Be sure to be respectful of those places that allow drivers to still use their restrooms, since they are getting fewer and fewer as more of these signs go up. Clean up spilled toothpaste and shaving cream that gets away from you. If you have one of those cool beards (that I couldn’t grow if I tried) be sure you clean up after you trim it and wax that perfect handlebar mustache. Clean the mirror with some paper towels from the dispenser and in the process, help wipe away the slightly tarnished image that some of the “dirty birdies” out there have created in some of these customer’s places of business we have to go into. Remember that restrooms don't have an attendant like a truckstop shower that comes in after ever person uses it!