Picture this: You’re sitting inside a cubicle in a public restroom. Next to you, there’s a sink. After you’ve finished your business, you wash your hands – makes sense, right? 

You grab the handle to open the door, and as you step outside, you see a line of sinks in front of you. Now it strikes you that the person who’s gone to the restroom before you, might not have washed their hands inside the cubicle, but by the sinks in front of you. So you wash your hands again and leave a little bit frustrated. Possibly.

You may never have experienced this train of thought in a public restroom, but I have – countless times. It’s one of those design pet peeves that frustrates me every once in a while, although I have the feeling that no one else notices it.

I’ve brought it up to a lot of people and reactions have been mixed: some get it and most don’t. I’ve been told I could just stick to always washing my hands outside the cubicle or opening the door with some paper tissue. Problem solved. And yes, I could just wash my hands outside the cubicle but… the point is that I find it annoying that I have to think about it!

Unfortunately, it’s not a possibility to just eliminate the sinks either inside or outside the cubicles. See, some people don’t go to the restroom to pee but just need to freshen up or wash their hands – if we move the sinks from the common area, they’ll just use the sinks in the cubicles forcing an unnecessary line.

It would make more sense to remove the sinks from the actual cubicles, but sometimes it might be nice to have the sink near the toilet. Without getting into details, I think we can all imagine a situation where a sink close by would be convenient.

”I’ve decided that instead of troubling myself with it at every encounter, I should learn to adapt and find my way of navigating this recurring restroom occurrence.”

So I don’t know what's the solution to this design frustration of mine, but I just know that it continues to bother me. And so, I’ve decided that instead of troubling myself with it at every encounter, I should learn to adapt and find my way of navigating this recurring restroom occurrence. Because sometimes, we need to stop bragging about being adaptable and instead just be it.

This might sound a bit controversial since we’re living in a world where there are definitely things we should not adapt to. We should never get accustomed to men of power taking away women’s fundamental rights or allowing world leaders to sleep in class while climate change is stealing our futures. But too often, we forget to adapt ourselves for the common good. To let our individualities speak loudly but in respect of our surroundings.

Quite a while ago, I read Marcus Aurelius’ ‘Meditations’ and although there are many thoughts and takeaways from this book, the one that stuck with me was this: the pursuit of truth and happiness should be true to the individual but always righteous and connected to the common good. We share a common nature and can work independently towards a common goal.

So, how does this relate to my frustration over a restroom design? Although I might feel rebellious and launch a pursuit for happiness through a global redesign of double sink restrooms, I understand and acknowledge that this isn't an issue for humans worldwide. That rallying against this would not serve our common good and would certainly take away from other important missions.

“I think we all could be a little better at accepting some aspects of human life. Sometimes voicing our beliefs online for our ego’s sake doesn’t do any good.”

I can rant about it with friends from time to time, but this is one of the things I just need to accept. And I think we all could be a little better at accepting some aspects of human life. Sometimes voicing our beliefs online for our ego’s sake doesn’t do any good. Maybe we don’t need to spoil other people's happiness by bringing up all the negative. And although it’s important to correct people when they’re condescending or insensitive to others, is it necessary to correct them when they make a grammatical error or forget a date in casual conversation?

With all this in mind, I think it’s easier to come to terms with the double-sink restrooms. They annoy me now and again, but fighting them will not help or benefit my community. And I’m at peace with that.