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I recently posted on social media about my frustration with those automatic flushing toilets.
Some other tricks have come in.
1) Use a ballcap to put over the sensor.
2) Post-It Notes block it well.
3) Electrical tape does wonders.
For me without a purse or (often) a ballcap, I'm tempted to put a post-it notes or strips of electrical tape on a rarely used credit card. The only issue? Sometimes I go to go so badly that I don't have TIME to cover the darn sensor!
One thing I am NOT missing during this pandemic: those damn auto-flushing toilets. For germaphobes who can't be bothered to touch a lever in a bathroom, they are a boon. For people too forgetful to flush a stinky dooky despite having just spent ten minutes expelling said dooky, they are a boon. But for disabled people, they are a BLOODY NIGHTMARE.
For starters, the toilet will often flush while I am trying to get my pants off. And then when my bladder inevitably seizes up from the unnecessary flushing, I lean forward to help wake up my now shy bladder, which leads to MORE FLUSHING! Finally, I shift—FLUSH—reach down to grab and pull up my pants—FLUSH—and return to my wheelchair... FLUSH!
To prevent draining the equivalent of a Great Lake on bathroom runs, I've had to resort to stripping. Notice my shirt haphazardly draped over the sensor? Yup, I go full Putin in the stall. It prevents incessant flushing far better than sticking a little dab of TP over the sensor (which inevitably falls off). And I get that satisfaction of a lone, single flush when I remove said shirt with David Copperfield flourish!
Just one more thing: removing clothing from the sensor with the aforementioned David Copperfield flourish *could* backfire and result in an awkward conversation with your spouse as to why you have one really wet shirt sleeve, resulting in her giving you the crooked eyebrow when you explain that the sink counter was really, really wet, but then she points out that the sleeve is soaked all the way up to your shoulder and that it is physically impossible for one arm to get that drenched from a damp countertop, and then you have to fess up that the sleeve technically got dragged through the toilet, causing her to comment on the likely number of dookies that had been in said toilet prior to your cliff-diving shirt, and that you should probably get an Uber home. So maybe don't do the flourish.
Who else despises automatic flushing toilets?
For starters, the toilet will often flush while I am trying to get my pants off. And then when my bladder inevitably seizes up from the unnecessary flushing, I lean forward to help wake up my now shy bladder, which leads to MORE FLUSHING! Finally, I shift—FLUSH—reach down to grab and pull up my pants—FLUSH—and return to my wheelchair... FLUSH!
To prevent draining the equivalent of a Great Lake on bathroom runs, I've had to resort to stripping. Notice my shirt haphazardly draped over the sensor? Yup, I go full Putin in the stall. It prevents incessant flushing far better than sticking a little dab of TP over the sensor (which inevitably falls off). And I get that satisfaction of a lone, single flush when I remove said shirt with David Copperfield flourish!
Just one more thing: removing clothing from the sensor with the aforementioned David Copperfield flourish *could* backfire and result in an awkward conversation with your spouse as to why you have one really wet shirt sleeve, resulting in her giving you the crooked eyebrow when you explain that the sink counter was really, really wet, but then she points out that the sleeve is soaked all the way up to your shoulder and that it is physically impossible for one arm to get that drenched from a damp countertop, and then you have to fess up that the sleeve technically got dragged through the toilet, causing her to comment on the likely number of dookies that had been in said toilet prior to your cliff-diving shirt, and that you should probably get an Uber home. So maybe don't do the flourish.
Who else despises automatic flushing toilets?
1) Use a ballcap to put over the sensor.
2) Post-It Notes block it well.
3) Electrical tape does wonders.
For me without a purse or (often) a ballcap, I'm tempted to put a post-it notes or strips of electrical tape on a rarely used credit card. The only issue? Sometimes I go to go so badly that I don't have TIME to cover the darn sensor!