Several members have mentioned that their spouses would rather "hold it" than deign to use a toilet without a seat cover. I have never seen a toilet seat cover in Russia, in a store or on a toilet. So I am wondering if perhaps it is regional, like the farther east you go, the greater importance a toilet seat cover takes. So I would like to conduct an important anthropological study: please briefly describe a.) where your spouse/fiancee is from and b.) where or not he/she considers a toilet seat cover is a necessity.

st. petersburg, never heard of it.

My spouse and daughter are from Volgograd and they said that they did not use toilet seat covers on the toilet in their flat.

From my future wife in Kazan', "Seat cover? What is it? Never I see it."

My wife is from Kazan. I've spent a fair amount of time there. Total time in Russia, in various locations, is maybe 75 days. To be honest, I never noticed if the toilet seats have covers or not. I guess when I am in that little room, my mind is on something more biological.

Fiancee and her daughter also from Volgograd...never heard of it....

I am wondering if it is a Far East thing... perhaps a Korean import?

I will add one more thing... we spent a few days out in remote village near Rostov, and I wished to God that they DID have toilet seat covers!!

Don't know that it's a Far East thing, as I never saw any during my time in Vladivostok. Ditto in Vladimir.

It is a Far East thing.

More Chinese (and Japanese) than Korean. Most high-end Korean and Japanese toilets have now been upgraded to the "powerflush" which has warm water and a nice misty spray, plays music, etc. No seat cover needed because it's nice and warm already.

I spent two years in Korea and I never sat on a fabric toilet ring cover. (My wife spent a lot of time there too, and to my knowledge she never had one there.)

However, it seems all the girls in the Far East (Khabarovsk, Vladivostok, etc.) buy them when they take the train (or bus) to China to go shopping. Something about "it is necessary because *private parts* get sick from so cold ring. You want that my *$*%&# be frozen off?"

On the long taxi/bus trip from Moscow to Ivanovo, I frequently wished to God that the toilets had seats at all (for the few places along the way that didn't have gaping holes in the ground in place of toilets).

During my years in Ivanovo, I never saw seat covers in flats. And never saw seats in public places (including bathrooms in polyclinics - which you do NOT want me to describe) except for one little hole-in-the-wall restaurant that had a pristine, clean, white bathroom with a beautiful, water-filled, American style, "whoosh" toilet. Some days I'd go to get lunch at that restaurant just to spend time in that bathroom - arguably the best bathroom in the whole damned region.

On the bright side - now that Ira's here, she understands what I was complaining about for so long. In spite of having seen movies, she can't get over the general cleanliness here (hardly the cleanest place on Earth - which says a lot) - including our bathrooms, private and public.

Z

Never saw a seat cover. Someone should post an image.
Cities I visited with no seat covers - Moscow, Sochi, Tomsk, Kharkov (Ukraine), and Novosibirsk.

I agree with Satellite. Let's see some images of this mysterious toilet seat cover. I can also say I have never seen one in use in all of these places... Kazan', Volzhsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Al'met'evsk, Moscow, and Tallinn, Estonia.

I just asked my wife. She says in private houses, almost always - in public places, generally not. She also thinks this is a dumb conversation (:

Dumb conversation or not first thing my wife did on coming to the toilet in the apartment we lived in and shared a bathroom was to take a hand towel and precisely wrap the existing toilet seat. She is from Ekaterinburg. I am too scared of her to inquire why. Mysteriously, my toilet in our house doesn't have one. OK for the man to freeze it off but not my tender one. And who came from the cold? I did notice the toilet in my wife's apartment was quite different to the one we have here in the states, water in front. She bemoans the fact we can't get a Russian type toilet here. Well, the privations of life in the States rear their ugly head again.

Here's a link - http://www.amazon.com/Comfy-Covers-Resista...r/dp/B000E73MZO

Ours is way more "Asian" than that. (Even has a picture of a little "snow bear" on it.)

After several years of putting up with our two toilets not operating properly - I finally decided to fix them, I spent about $10 on two new flappers and installed them. Toilets work great. Wife thinks I'm a genius (:

i did that with all 3 of them here. never done it before, but now i feel like an expert
also swapped out a faucet in her bathroom, then the mixing valve in her shower clogged up, been working on redoing her shower as one of the tiles was leaking

You guys have his and hers toilets and showers?

Now that is genius! I usually knock one of her 6lb. bottles of soap or shampoo or whatever (there are like 12 bottles of stuff in there) onto my toes when I shower. It would be nice to shower without that kind of hazard present. I doubt I'd knock over my lone bottle of shower gel.

And to have a throne of my own..... priceless!

yeah, she has her own bathroom, i have my own bathroom, and the cats have the 3rd one (food, water, and kitty box)

I wish. I hate all that crap up in the bathroom. We have two bathrooms, yes. One is upstairs where are bedroom is, and is the "main" bathroom. The other is downstairs and is pretty much used as a toilet only. The only time the tub ever gets used is when we have a guest.

Agree 100%.

Z

Natasha has already stated we need some sort of corner shelving stand in the shower, so that she has someplace to keep her shower necessities. I feel your pain, Slim!

Do have a throne of my own, but have to share the shower. Always knock something or the other off. Oh well, I could be single.

I bought this nice big shower caddy thing that goes over the shower head and holds ALL the stuff.

She doesn't use it because it's too difficult to balance everything so it doesn't fall off and hit her feet. (Pretty tough to put 1/2 the big bottles on one side and 1/2 on the other.) So, we compromise by keeping it on the very small shelf on the side of the tub so it hits my feet.

My Alla must really be different. There is no yours and mine nor a truck load of body cleaning products. Here was our bathroom arrangement in Kazan' and she will be no different when she gets here...

• One bottle "good production" shampoo
• One bottle "good production" conditioner
• One bottle of coconut smell body wash
• One loofa

They all fit in the two corners where tub meets wall, no extra storage devices needed.

be careful with that, it can put strain on the showerhead pipe.

Especially when loaded with 22 kilos of personal products.

maybe time to get one of those that sticks on the wall before you get a hefty repair bill.

I've never had any luck with the stick on things. Even completely empty, they fall off the wall after a few days.

Yeah, the sticky things suck. (No pun intended.)

I've been removing things from the shower every week or so and by the end of the week they magically reappear. But, as long as we start with a clean slate, it's not so bad. We're only down to 8 things right now, and that's a lot more manageable. My toes are safer... for now.

i've had pretty good luck with the one i have in there - it's basically a soap dish on suction cups.
tomorrow is the day nessa's shower gets fixed by bathfitters and i get my shower/tub combo back.