Having been in Europe for a month I have come across a bizarre thing that I haven’t seen anywhere else: toilets with a two button flush mechanism. I couldn’t figure it out! One button tends to be smaller than the other button, and both buttons are typically side by side. I frankly assumed one button was for #1′s and the other for #2′s. It never seemed that simple, though.

Honestly, in my Paris hostel I saw the two button system again and genuinely thought that there must be some pretty blatant design flaw with the idea of a two button flush system. After the deed is done, which do you press? Presented with such confusion I always went for the bigger of the two buttons (occasionally trying out the smaller one). However, I noticed that when I pressed the smaller one, generally both buttons depressed (that’s the case in this London hostel). In such a case it seems like an aesthetic choice to split the buttons up — so clearly there’s a design issue!

I figured that in my last two days outside of Canada I’d google the matter and was quite surprised to learn that the button size corresponds to the amount of water used with the flush. Big problem with that logic: given the potential inconsistencies between flush mechanism designs, do you press the large button because it’s bigger (thus more important) or because it symbolizes more water? It’s ambiguous!