Another great week of restroom hunting well-spent. Every time I add a new location to Where to Wee, I get this tremendous sense of well-being. It just feels great, and I’m not the only one, it looks like plenty of other Where to Wee users get satisfaction from adding their favorite places to relieve themselves too. It’s a strange sort of pleasure, sharing your restroom with the world, but it’s also about pride. Sometimes, you just want the show off the best restrooms around.

Occasionally, you stumble upon the coolest bathroom in the strangest places. One example that I saw recently, I was in a totally unassuming department store, when a short venture to the restroom revealed a hidden treasure. The washrooms were expansive, and littered with big, fake plants. Stalls lined the far wall, and an island of sinks in the middle made it seem almost romanesque. The soft pink tones and wallpaper were my first indicator that I had walked into the woman’s restroom, and after an embarrassing altercation with a female patron of the department store, I hurried into the men’s restroom. Needless to say, it was somewhat less breathtaking.

I hope I can see that bathroom again one day, I would have LOVED to take pictures of it. I’ll have to find a woman who is as passionate about restrooms as I am to go back in there and take some photos (I’ll post photos them here if I can). I would give anything to see that glorious restroom again.

Now, every time I see one of those skirted female outlines on a door, I imagine the blissfully decorated, spacious, and clean restroom of beautiful white porcelain and gold accents that must wait behind it. What other mysteries lie beyond those doors, I wonder. Hmmm.

Happy Monday everyone! I had a wonderful weekend of restroom seeking and reviewing. You know, it’s amazing what you can find in the bathroom if you just check it out. I like to know what color the stalls are. Maybe they’re green, orange, or blue, who knows? It’s awesome.

And did you ever notice how some places have hot-air hand dryers, while some have only paper towels. Sure, I can appreciate them both on their own, but it really bugs me when a restroom has hot-air dryers AND paper towels. I can never decide which to use. I just wind up staring at my options until my hands dry.

Another thing is the toilet seat. Who decides whether the seat is U-shaped or O-shaped? I’d like to know how they reached that decision. Personally, I prefer the unclosed U-shape toilet seat, but why not have one toilet with an O-shape and the other with a U-shape? Give people the option, you know. Then again, I get indecisive when presented with too many hand-drying options, so maybe the choice of toilet seat is a bad idea.

What kind of toilet seat do you prefer?

Hi everyone. I’m sorry I was away for so long. You probably thought I fell in, didn’t you! Well, not to worry, I had time to dry off.

Now that I’m back, you’re going to notice some changes coming to the website. I can’t say right now, but it’s going to be awesome! Also, don’t forget to follow Where to Wee on Twitter.

There have been rumours (hushed whisperings, really) of a chance to see Where to Wee on television. Due to the hushed, whispery nature of this announcement, more details will be forthcoming. Simply stay tuned to this space for more info.

To infinity and pee-ond!

Yes! Our contest Wee Here- Not There is starting today, and we’ve got lots of great prizes to give away, including a flight for two to anywhere in North America that Air Canada will take you! That, and we’re giving away a 16 GB iPhone 3GS every month until March. Pretty sweet, eh?

More details will be coming, so keep a watchful eye on this page!

On last Sunday’s episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, we learned a bit about what Seinfeld’s George Costanza’s been up to the past ten years: he made millions off of an iPhone app called iToilet but lost it all by giving his money to Bernie Madoff.

A lot of people on Twitter have been wondering when someone will invent something as brilliant as iToilet, an iPhone application that uses GPS to find toilets. Well, there's no wondering, because it's already been invented!

Though, out of all the Seinfeld characters, I would have thought Kramer would be the one to invent the iToilet. Oh well...

Mr. Bean in the toilet. Classic Mr.Bean, ho ho ho. 

 "For over 100 years we've been scrunching and folding toilet paper." 

I saw this months ago, but just saw it again. I could see this being useful if you were responsible for someone else's backside, but  for me a stick would just get in the way.

Advertising is unescapable these days, and it seems the tank of your local toilet has finally fallen to the almighty dollar.

WOW Toilet is a company that specializes in the residential and commercial need for pictures and advertisements to be displayed on toilets. The opening line for their residential Flash video puts everything into perspective: "Does your toilet look this boring?" Well, yes it does. It looks exactly like a device that does what it does should.

While I might be interested in having my portrait placed in the tank of a toilet, I think they've got something here with the commercial side of it. Whether you're going number one or number two, you really can't miss a large beer bottle staring you down in a toilet stall:

Oh, and they have a blog. And Twitter

I tweeted about this awhile back, but it's cool enough to post again. Here's a good description of the LooWatt from Inhabitant:

The LooWatt is a waterless toilet system that transforms human waste into a highly valued commodity – energy. The low-cost mechanical eco commode encourages people to trade in their waste for biofuel, creating an urban infrastructure that encourages proper waste disposal, cuts down on the spread of water-born illnesses, and provides a reliable source of energy (so long as you’re regular). Check out Dwell’s fantastic video (below) for an interview with designer Virginia Gardiner, and read on for more on the poop toilet!

Where to Wee is committed to making a difference in the world through partnerships that relate to our own goals.

That’s why Where to Wee is committed to donating $1 USD of every application downloaded to innovative and creative
charities.

Whether it’s raising awareness about how important proper sanitation is to preventing disease, or how medical problems
such as Crohn’s, Colitis, and IBS drastically affect the lives of millions, Where to Wee is working towards raising awareness (and funds) to support these important issues.

Cashmere, a Canadian toilet paper company, commissioned a group of fifteen fashion designers from around Canada to create some lovely dresses made out of Cashmere's limited addition pink toilet paper (well, they call it bathroom tissue- sounds much fancier). From Cashmere's website:

A unique celebration of style with substance, the world-leading White Cashmere Collection is crafted entirely in 100% pure, soft and luxurious sheets of Cashmere Bathroom Tissue, Canada’s best-selling brand. The Cashmere BT (bathroom tissue) Couture collection also heralds the return of limited-edition Pink Cashmere, a fund- and awareness-raiser for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, with twenty-five cents from the sale of every package of Pink going directly to the Foundation.

And here are some of the dresses- click here for more. This is a pretty cool concept to raise awareness for breast cancer and for the actual company- I hadn't even heard of Cashmere until now. Guess I should hit the toilet paper aisle of the grocery store more often...

(Photo credit: The 10 cent designer)

Canadians do a lot of things different. We pronounce our Us weird, we use the metric system, and we make celebrities out of men and women who throw heavy stones down a sheet of ice (Curling). 

Something many Americans might not know is that Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving almost a month and a half earlier than their neighbours to the south. Why? Let's ask Wikipedia:

The history of Thanksgiving in Canada goes back to an explorer, Martin Frobisher, who had been trying to find a northern passage to the Pacific Ocean. Frobisher's Thanksgiving was not for harvest but homecoming. He had safely returned from a search for the Northwest Passage, avoiding the later fate of Henry Hudson and Sir John Franklin. In the year 1578, he held a formal ceremony, in what is now the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, to give thanks for surviving the long journey. The feast was one of the first Thanksgiving celebrations by Europeans in North America. Frobisher was later knighted and had an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean in northern Canada named after him — Frobisher Bay.

So Martin Forbisher was the first European to celebrate Thanksgiving in North America? Cool. At least, I think that's cool.

Either way, we here at Where to Wee are going to have a great time eating turkey, stuffing, ham, perogies, cabbage rolls, and anything else we can think of. Oh, and pumpkin pie. Yum yum yum yum. I love pumpkin pie!

Bloggin' will be picking up next week, so keep check back for some new and improved musings. Seriously! 

Passion is important, no matter what you do in life. You should even be passionate about poop, if that’s your thing. It’s an important and daily function of our life, so why not be stoked about it, right?

Well, the folks at Number Two Guide have a large passion for poop. According to the About Us section, Number Two Guide is a “bible for all poo-worthy information, your priest when you have sh** to confess, and your sanctuary when the toilet bowl of life metaphorically, and quite literally, overflows.” If there’s one thing I like about toilet culture, it’s the plentiful amount of puns available.

The Number Two Guide’s most recent post, on European Toilets, was particularly interesting to me. While traveling in Poland I had a gross encounter with one of these toilets, which keeps your feces sitting on a porcelain ledge a few centimeters from your bum. It’s just awkward. The restroom was also the size of a closet, making the experience even more confusing. Anyway, read the post.

European Toilets: I get that it helps conserve water, but couldn't they lower the ledge?

Where to Wee is now avaliable in the iTunes App store! You can download it for $2.99, and zap! the world’s restrooms are at your fingertips! We’re also holding $1.00 of every download so we can give it to a charity- but more on that later.

Here’s the link to Where to Wee in the iTunes store.

Be sure to search and add restrooms on Where to Wee's website as well- see the search bar at the top? Try it out! Or click these fancy links: Find Restroom Add Restroom
 

And if you have any questions or comments before or after downloading Where to Wee, be sure to send us an email (info@wheretowee.com) or send us a tweet on Twitter: www.twitter.com/wheretowee.

Enjoy!

Timmy Jeng over at www.techspoiled.com did a nice review on the Beta version of Where to Wee. Here, check it out:

Well, our beta testing is going strong- I know of at least one restroom in Beijing that's gotten a yay or nay, on top of the dozens more from our testers. Keep sending us feedback, and feel free to tell your friends about us, and add us as a friend on Twitter.

Peace out!

A few weeks ago I walked into Disney/Pixar’s Up with a full bladder and only one thought in my head: why couldn’t I have waited a week to see the movie, when RunPee.com’s iPhone application would be in my pocket? The movie’s delightful plots and subplots, coupled with its cute and ironic humor, was subdued by my need to go to the restroom. If only RunPee had been able to tell me which parts of the movie could be missed so I could stop thinking about how badly I needed to go to the restroom. Luckily though, RunPee's rocking the iPhone world now, and my bladder is feeling much better.

Starting off as a website providing the best times to go to the restroom during a movie, RunPee is now an iPhone app that’s getting attention everywhere. From the Associated Press (an article Where to Wee was mentioned in) to the LA Times, ABC News to The New York Times (as well as dozens of other news sources), RunPee is getting the attention it deserves. It’s a fun and useful app, and the folks at RunPee are just plain nice.

To find out more about RunPee check out their website and blog. As well, you can download the app here.

PS- We found our beta testers! Thanks to everyone who signed up- we’re looking forward to seeing Where to Wee hitting the streets.

Where to Wee is almost ready to launch in iPhone form, so we’re wanting to make sure our own restroom is in order before we take on the world's. Therefore, we need a few good folks to help make sure it's ready for official release.

If you’re interested in having a beta version of Where to Wee, we’d love to hear from you. We’re looking for about 50 people to provide us with honest and useful feedback, ranging from what you like (or don’t like), to which features are running smoothly and which could use a bit of fixing. Actually, anything that can help is appreciated.

Testers need an iPhone or iPod Touch running OS 3.0, a desire to some spend time in enclosed spaces, and the will to endure the sights and smells of restrooms.

Oh, and to make sure your hard work doesn’t go unappreciated, we’re giving all of our helpful beta testers a $30 iTunes gift card to spend as they see fit.

So, if you’d like to become a beta tester, send an email to info@wheretowee.com with the subject line “Beta Testing is for Me,” as well as a sentence or two on why you’re interested, and where you’re from.

Here's some screenshots of what we've been working on the past couple months. 

Launch Page

This is the launch page for Where to Wee. After figuring out what gender you are, you’ll open yourself to the world of restrooms (the good and the bad).

Restroom Map

Look at all those restrooms! The map (of our hometown, Winnipeg) shows restrooms in the area, while icons at the bottom (Handicap, Pay, Baby-changing station, Bidet, and Toilet seat cover) help make your search criteria specific. 

Rate Washroom

 No toilet paper? Soap lost its suds? Urinal not even attached to the wall? Well, here's your chance to make sure that restroom gets the rating it deserves. But don't forget: if the restroom really rocks your world, give it a nice rating!

“Air freshener,” wrote a Craigslist member in 2004, “is completely worthless.” The anonymous tipster, who felt it necessary to provide the giant classified website with an extensive guide to defecating in the houses of others, goes on the explain why:
“It tells me one thing, and one thing only: you like the smell of shit-covered flowers.”

While a bit blunt, his (or her?) point is well made: no one wants the sweet smell of lavender (or vanilla, or citrus, or any other good smell) to be associated with poop- it’s the equivalent of taking an angel and dragging it through the mud. It’s not right. We need to resist the urge to keep a bottle of “Pleasant Meadows” or “Fresh Wild Berry Blossom Zest” air freshener on top of our toilet tanks.

But what are the options, besides bearing the brutal smell? There are a few, from pooping deep in the bushes to not pooping at all (one of these I don’t recommend), but here are some that are probably your better options. Not that I’m an expert...

Nature Calls

This solution has been getting press from the likes of the Los Angeles Times, the New York Post, Nylon Men, and E!. From Ritual, a California-based maker of grooming products for men, Nature Calls is simple in its application: add two drops of the deodorizer into the toilet before getting down to business, and Nature Calls takes care of the rest. While I haven’t tried this (but would like to), the Los Angeles Times had this to say:

Frankly, it doesn't matter how it works; it could result in the death of a rain forest with each use.... I've since gifted tiny bottles to friends... and even furtively handed off one to a fellow wedding guest after an earnest discussion about such matters.

Could this be the missing link to eliminating toilet odor?

The Shit Box

The Shit Box is a portable cardboard toilet that lets you take your bowel movements far, far away from any other human being. Now, its true function is for folks camping, going on road trips, surviving a weekend music festival, or heck, even fishing (just maybe not while fishing- unless you can multitask really well). But if you truly want to avoid disturbing people with the odors that find their way into the world with every washroom visit, doesn’t it make sense to cut through all the matches, candles, and deodorizers, and take your private business into the great unknown?

Best of all, each Shit Box comes with a duffle bag (for the long trek to No Man’s Land), “poo bags” to dispose of the remains, and tissues for the clean-up. Minimalism is a beautiful thing.

But whatever odor-killing option you choose, just remember one thing: wash your hands (and dry them too). There’s so many potentially deadly diseases floating around out there right now that it’s only polite. Not only that, but when people see you walk out of a restroom without washing your hands, they really do think less of you. And will no longer shake your hand. Both of which severely devalue your brand.

Soap’s pretty cool stuff. It gets rid of pesky germs that give us colds, and keeps us from smelling musky, which helps us maintain healthy and meaningful relationships. But did you know soap becomes even cooler when Where to Wee is on it?

It does! A company called Sweet Soaps was kind enough to make a bar of soap with our logo on it, 3-D and all (which is great, 'cause now we don't have to spend all that money on 3-D movies.) Check it out:

Sweet Soaps also makes funny soaps like “Elf Poop,” “Christmas Tree Poop,” and something called “Emoticon Cyber Soap,” which lets you rub your favorite Internet acronym all over your body. Here’s hoping  “ROFL” will be released soon.

Oh, and here's Sweet Soaps blog. 

When it comes to toilet paper, luxury should be the difference between my elementary school’s one-ply toilet paper policy and the three-ply comfort that’s hanging next to my toilet right now. Consider the short life of toilet paper: shelf, self, and sh- ...uuuhhh, you get it. As long as abrasion is kept to a minimum, a piece of toilet paper should be pretty simple. But in a world of double paned windows (how greedy!) there’s always something for those less than satisfied with the status quo.

If you want to wipe yourself in style, Renova, a European paper product company, makes sure every color of the rainbow can fly by the seat of your pants. Red, black, fuscia, blue, orange and green: there’s heaps of choice for whatever mood you’re in.

While almost $3.00 for a roll of toilet paper may seem like a grandiose amount, it certainly doesn’t look cheap (but I guess anything next to a plain roll of toilet paper wouldn’t):

Its features are pretty robust too:

• Very soft and absorbent 

• Individually wrapped 

• 3-ply base sheet
• 140 sheets in a single roll 

• 100% virgin pulp 

• Colorfast for its intended use

The last one, the colorfast part, is pretty important- who wants a colored bum? And according to one reviewer, this stuff lives up to its price-point:

“I will never use a commoner’s brand of toilet paper again! The silky feeling was one that I will experience again and again for the rest of my life.”

But if you want something a little more customized, check out Just Toilet Paper . The online toilet paper company can turn a roll of toilet paper into anything you want: advertising, monogrammed, designer; they even have a fleur-de-lis edition (for Quebec separatists and non-separatists alike). My favorite is the topical Bernie Madoff edition.

Still, if all of this seems too frilly for an act that is far from exquisite, there's always the option my Mom had to resort to as a child:

 Update: Check out Renova's blog. They also have some pretty rad design toilet paper that's worth checking out.

Everyone needs a restroom at some point in their lives: the young, the old and, as I recently discovered, the feline. It’s a necessity of life- Everybody Poops, the 1977 children’s book detailing the often-overlooked fact that people and animals of all ages defecate, is a reminder of the importance of restrooms. Without them, we’d be in a messy situation.

While all of humanity is equal in its need for a restroom, not all restrooms are equal in their desire to be clean, functional, and disease-free. So in a world where restrooms can range from the ungodly to the Mahatma Gandhi, there needs to be a way to find the right restroom at the right time. It’s the difference between throwing up because of too much ice cream, to throwing up because a toilet is clogged with horribly, horribly unspeakable objects.

That’s why Where to Wee was created. We know how important quality restrooms are, and we know there are lots of really cool ones (like ones that have Dyson Airblade handryers) and really bad ones (any stop on the bus route from Los Angeles to Phoenix- how can you use a toilet when it’s covered in a garbage bag?)

Restrooms have the ability to end a U.S Senator’s career, establish long-lasting romances (as well as short-lived ones), and spark a revelation that will change the course of history (Doc Brown’s discovery of the Flux Capacitor in 1985’s Back to the Future). They are rich in history, fragrances, and in people who are passionate about their peculiarities. At Where to Wee, we hope to bring a certain sophistication to this richness, achieving entertainment and informational value unsurpassed in the washroom world.

Keep coming back to Where to Wee. It only gets better.