In my quest to encourage good, toilet-related hygiene, I have previously posted about splashback, the floor, and the age-old up versus down seat debate.

If you’ll recall from the previous entry on toilet seats, I talked about the dangers of a toilet seat being down. Well, if you are using a public toilet you must assume that the seat was down at some point. You can never be sure.

So how does one mitigate this risk? Well, luckily there are two options:

• For the stronger, more enduring types, the squat and drop method works (just remember that splashback will be amplified by this, so make sure you take necessary precautions.
• The second option is to construct a 2-ply protective layer. Multi-ply toilet paper means you could have up to 4 ply protecting you. Paper doesn’t protect you from liquid, so make sure you pre-wipe first! An octagon arrangement usually gives you the best balance between coverage and using as little paper as possible.

Note: between the splashback prevention and the protective layer, you may find yourself exceeding the capacity of the toilet’s draining system. It is recommended that you employ a multi-stage flushing approach to prevent blockage.