<p>How do you deal with them? Communal showers suck.</p>
<p>So do you...change in your room, wrap towel, shower, wrap towel, run back to room to change</p>
<p>or do you change in the shower and come back to the room fully clothed?</p>
<p>I am in a coed dorm btw but guys and girls are in separate wings of the dorm</p>
<p>I would change in the shower stall, but that depends on your preference. Some people would wear robes to and from the shower and change in their room. Others would use a towel and then change in their room.</p>
<p>For dorms with individual shower stalls, which are most typical, the appropriate process would be to disrobe in the shower, and then re-dress at the end. </p>
<p>For communal showers (i.e., a large enclosure with several shower-heads and no privacy barrier in between), you typically would enter the area clothed, disrobe and place your clothes on wall hooks or any countertop surface that might be available, shower, and then re-dress afterwards. But it depends on the facility, as well as your own personal preferences. Many prefer to wrap themselves in a towel before heading off to the shower, but it should also be reasonable to simply wear your clothes to the facility if there’s a suitable area to stow them while you shower.</p>
<p>I was a bit more conservative than most of the guys in my dorm during freshman year. I hated the communal showers at first, but I just got used to it. I would take a bag with a change of clothes, a towel, my lanyard with keys, and my shower stuff. I would go into the stall, undress and put a towel on, and then go take a shower. Afterwards, I would just get changed in the stall and finish getting ready. Pretty simple.</p>
<p>My roommate, on the other hand, would just undress and put a towel on in our dorm room. He would shower and come back to our room in his towel. Most of the guys in our dorm did this, so it was second nature. Sadly, everyone would leave their keys in their room and would be locked out in only their towels. One guy did this all the time and would be locked out for hours in his towel until the RA or his roommate got back! …Not fun.</p>
<p>Just find what you are comfortable doing. But, whatever you do, bring your keys and a shirt just in case you get locked out!!! lol</p>
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<p>PS: Make sure to have flip flops for the shower. There was a shower monster made from body hair and a mysterious goo who haunted our shower floor most of the year; the cleaning crew was too afraid to tame it! We had a couple guys that would walk in barefooted, which was disgusting!!!</p>
<p>Are there seriously showers with no separation? Eww. </p>
<p>Anyways, when I had a triple I would change in the shower since I was usually awake a couple of hours before either roommate. When I got a single I changed in my room. </p>
<p>Also dorm showers can have their perks. They’re usually cleaned daily which is a lot more than I can say for my apartment bathroom.</p>
<p>Fortunately, my communal bathroom are divided. There are 5(?) shower stalls and each stall has two section of curtains. Therefore, you walk in, draw your curtain and place down your stuff, undress, walk into the shower part and draw that curtain. I like this because it provides privacy. </p>
<p>When I finish my shower and am ready to go back to my dorm. I place my undergarments on and my robe. Then I walk back to my dorm.</p>
<p>I didn’t have to deal with communal showers during the school year due to living in a suite. I’m thankful for that; I hated the communal showers (and bathrooms in general) at orientation.</p>
<p>What I did at orientation was go to the bathroom in my robe with all my shower stuff, disrobe in the stall, take my shower, put underwear on, put my robe on over and walk back to the room with my stuff.</p>
<p>I believe my communal showers are also divided with 4 stalls and 2 bathtubs (and some sinks). I don’t know how I am going to go at it but I was basically planning taking a towel and boxer, go in my clothes and flip flop (I’ll be taking showers at night) and leave with just the towel wrapped around my boxer. I’ll be bringing a shower caddy (Like I could carry towels, body wash, scrub, soap box, and shampoo in two arms and still be able to open my door).
But of course I really don’t know how that will really work.</p>
<p>This post brought back some bad memories of my experience with communal showers. I absolutely hated them and I cannot understand why these were in place back then. I’m shock that these communal showers continue to this day. The floors were dirty and were just breeding grounds for fungus. And let me tell you how difficult it can be to treat a real bad case of foot fungus. If I had to do it all over again, I wouldn’t have chosen a school with them. Definitely do not walk into these showers bare footed.</p>
<p>If you’re an early riser, community showers are great. They’re cleaned every morning, and there’s no worrying about whether or not the roommates will wake up. On the other hand, for late risers, communal showers are among the least sanitary places in the universe.</p>
<p>@whenhen: I’m sure that don’t apply for all college. Beside I heard the clean it mid-day sometimes at my college.</p>
<p>@frugal:
I believe the reason for their existence is because it would take up more space (and water) to a bathroom in each dorm rooms. Especially these older building where there is no point in trying to rebuild the whole dang thing.
Did logic not dictate to wear some type of flip-flop in the dorm seeing how everyone today know to bring one?</p>
<p>guy, I just walk in in a towel with my stuff to shower, shower, walk back to my room and change in there. As do most guys, though some change in the shower.</p>
<p>girls, not as sure, but I saw more in bathrobes than in towels.</p>
<p>Definitely wear some shoes in the showers.</p>
<p>Oh, and every dorm I’ve seen at my school has individual shower stalls with a door, only place I’ve seen communal showers is in the gym.</p>
<p>… there seem to be some confusion here…
At my school there are individual shower but they call it a communal bathroom…</p>
<p>I changed in my robe and took my shower stuff to my showers which were the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen. So.much.hair that you could literrly make a wig into it!</p>
<p>Sometimes I would change there, sometimes I would wear a towel. It’s not a big deal. I loved communal showers- they were always clean and we didn’t have to do it :)</p>
<p>Yeah I think a distinction has to be made here. </p>
<p>It is rare for colleges to have truly communal showers anymore. By truly communal I mean the type you would see at a gym or a pool where its just one large room for everyone. </p>
<p>Mostly all colleges have private stalls that people simply have to share. </p>
<p>Most guys usually just go with a towel and girls seem to prefer robes. Some guys used robes too, it just wasn’t as common. </p>
<p>As for cleaning, I think most cleaning crews work traditional hours like an 8-4 or 9-5 so the bathrooms won’t get cleaned until midday. At my school bathrooms can be cleaned as late as 2pm depending on the cleaners routine. </p>
<p>I think that you should do whatever’s comfortable and you’ll probably notice other people that have the same style.</p>
<p>orion, I don’t feel with divided showers aren’t “truly” communal. The defference, I feel, lies within the words. Communal showers are where there are multiple shower heads in one room. A communal bathroom is where there are separated stalls all in one room. These meanings are generally used correctly. </p>
<p>
Lately, whenever my mom tells me to clean the shower, I always mention that I won’t have to do this for a long time in a few weeks.</p>
<p>The fire alarm went off once when I was in the shower. I would not want to be in the shower with nothing but a towel to cover myself in that event. I always changed in the shower. I kept my clothes in a cloth tote and hung them on a hook outside the shower, so I could grab the bag and pull it in with me when I was done showering. I usually just had pajama bottoms and a t shirt or something simple just to cover myself and would get dressed for real in my dorm.</p>
<p>Lol I’m not sure about hanging my stuffs on a hook… People do crazy things…</p>
<p>Well, at my school it was either that or walk out naked, there wasn’t an area to put your clothes down anywhere. I never had a problem.</p>