I really, really hate bathroom doors that have small lock buttons that you press down on to lock the door. We have two of these in both of the bathrooms we have in our apartmentt. There is a bathroom upstairs in the hallway and a bathroom downstairs near the living room. To lock the doors, we have to press down on these tiny buttons that are next to the door handles. These buttons lock up the handles and prevent them from being turned, so just in case someone doesn't know you're using it, they'll know someone's in there, because the door is locked. The button is supposed to be unlocked when the handle is turned with the handle that is inside of the bathroom, yes, the lock only locks the handle that is outside of the bathroom. It should be fine, right? No problems, right?
Well, I just proved today that these tiny buttons are probably some of the worst, most poorly designed locks I have ever come across in my entire lifetime. I went up to use the downstairs bathroom like I always do, and I always make sure to lock the bathroom door while I am in there so no one acccidentally walks in. on my doing my business. Well, when I got out of the bathroom and turned the door handle, I assumed the lock button was released as I always did, and just turned off the light and closed the door and went about my day as usual. Well, I didn't realize it at the time, but the lock was stuck, it was jammed. It never actually was released, and when I closed the door, the lock was still registered and I closed the door after using the bathroom in our living room without knowing or realizing this.
Well, I truly didn't, until I had to go to the restroom again. I noticed that the door was not opening like it was supposed to, and I also knew that no one was in there, since the light was off and the door waa closed. The only way I would know someone was using it is if the door was closed but the light was on, so this made me very anxious and worried. And so, I tried everything to get this door open: I tried moving the lock using a knife, using the knife to pry the door open, even used a pair of scissors to try to unjam the button that was causing the door to be locked. No dice. Everything I tried was deemed as useless and I eventually assumed the door was going to be permanently locked so I went upstairs to use the bathroom instead and used the bathroom in the hallway. But I definitely couldn't stop stressing about this. A freaking button just caused the door to be locked for what I assumed was to be permanently. But, by God, I managed to open it eventually, and I am so thankful that I 'did' manage too.
Throughout the rest of the day, I was stressing about being scolded for making the bathroom in the living room useless. I even tired finding help online, but no luck still. There was nothing about this button being stuck online, it was only the button in the middle of the door handle that was being discussed. So, I tried one last thing to get this door open, and thank God we had it. I tried using our yellow flyswatter we bought not too long ago to try to pry open the door. I still wasn't having any better luck, the door wouldn't budge. And so, I tried pushing on the bottom of the door as well on top of using the flyswatter. Still nothing. And so, I tried one last thing, and that was to move the flyswatter around the location of big hole where the big metal piece would usually go. I struggled and struggled to get this open, tried every place. And, after struggling for what felt like an eternity, I found a sweet spot, and by God, I got the door open.
When I looked on the other side of the door handle, I noticed something that truly made me wanna facepalm so hard. The lock... was still active. It was pressed down, indicating the door was still technically 'locked'. It was stuck on the 'locked' state the entire time and I didn't even realize it. I truly was so annoyed when I made that discovery, but by God, I got the door open and the bathroom in the living room was finally rendered usuable again. And when I turned the handle again after a few minor inconsistencies, like magic, the lock released and the door was no longer in a locked state. And after I used the bathroom again, I had to test the door handle by opening and closing the door just to make sure it was actually unlocked. And it worked every time.
I hate those bathroom door locks that are just tiny buttons! There is a high chance that they can get stuck and make an entire bathroom inside a household or apartment useless unless you really work for it to get the door open again. These locks are seriously some of the most poorly designed pieces of equipment I have ever seen. Imagine if we moved out with the downstairs bathroom door locked. The next family that moved in would have not been able to even 'use' that bathroom and would only have one bathroom available to them! And there is one of those same stupid lock buttons on the bathroom upstairs in the hallway, too. Both bathrooms we have both have these horrible door locks! And the worst part is that this could've happened to the one upstairs as well. Imagine if it happened to both! We wouldn't 'have' a bathroom! So yeah, I am definitely never, ever going to use either of those locks again. They have failed me once, and they probably will again. I am just going to shut the door from now on with the light on and not lock the door, thank you.
Those tiny lock buttons on the bathroom doors we have are TRULY Asshole Design.