Possible reasons for an open portable toilet door during peak period

Portable toilets prove valuable in a variety of events and situations. These facilities could have an impact on the overall experience of attendees, participants and site workers. The toilet door is quite important even in a portable facility scenario. It helps establish privacy when we need to handle our business. You can also view the door as a campaigner and marshall of order.

Users can easily spot the lock or unlock indication in a portable facility to ascertain when to approach the mobile unit for a pee or poop. Alexander Graham Bell once stated, “when one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Funnily, this can be applied to public toilet queue situations where there are several portable units in use. 

Sometimes the people next in line could be so fixated on the closest facility that they fail to realise one adjacent has an open door and is available for use. Sometimes it could take a nudge or tap from people in the queue to notify you about the other open toilet doors.

An open toilet door could either make you breathe a sigh of relief or leave you displeased. Why could that be the case? On a positive note, it might indicate a good sign that the queue is fast-moving or a negative spin could indicate possible maintenance issues. Let’s quickly explore some of the possible reasons for an open toilet door. 

Reasons for an open portable toilet door:

Toilet doors are very important to our sanity especially when queueing to use a portable facility at an event like festivals or a triathlon. Let’s quickly look at some of the possible explanations for an open mobile toilet door.

1. Those in front of the queue have failed to spot the open door: We’ve earlier stated how people in front of the queue may be quite fixated on a particular unit and fail to notice an available facility or open door next to their choice washroom. You could view this as a form of tunnel vision that ignores everything else happening around.
2. The toilet is in a bad state: The intuition and sixth sense in us will naturally suspect a toilet with an open door and not in use even in the busiest of periods indicates something is amiss. This could be due to the poor sanitary state of the toilet. Maybe, it has not been emptied and steam cleaned very recently. Or maybe, someone not too long ago had emptied their bowels and left the entire unit in a deplorable state. 
3. Possible mechanical fault: A constant use of the facility could lead to wear and tear in some cases. A broken portable toilet lock or hinge could be a possible reason why the unit’s door is open. One would not say the facility has an open door policy but just a fault that requires an urgent look and repair. 
4. Unpleasant smell: When we handle our business we all tend to leave behind a variety of aromas. They could create an uncomfortable environment for the succeeding user. In the rare occasion of an unbearable odour, users or event organisers can easily keep the door of the respective unit to properly air out and effectively dispel any uninviting smell. 

These are some of the possible reasons for a portable toilet unit with an open door.