When You Really Need to Go in Portland: MizPee

Several weeks ago, the husband and I were walking around downtown Portland doing some shopping. We wanted to stop at a food stand for a quick lunch, but I had to go to the bathroom – and seeing as how it’s a little frowned upon to use the sidewalk as your own personal toilet, we ducked into a fashionable downtown department store to use the facilities before heading back out again for lunch. Thankfully the store wasn’t out of our way; but all the same, I wish MizPee had been available then.

MizPee is an ingenious service where you can use your cell phone to find out the nearest public toilet to your location. It’s available in several US cities, including Portland, and it’s completely free. MizPee comes to us from Yojo Mobile and is available via the internet, mobile phones, and soon via text messaging as well. From the MizPee website:

MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilets in your area. You can add and review toilets, get some cool deals in your area and challenge your knowledge of toilet trivia.

To use MizPee on your cell phone, you’ll go to the website via your mobile browser and plug in the street address where you are. The system then tells you not just what toilets are in the area, but which ones are in buildings that are actually open at the time you need to go. You can try it for yourself here. It’s genius, I tell you. And the logo’s adorable, too.

Cities which are currently served by MizPee include Atlanta, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, Los Angeles, Manhattan, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Oakland, Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Toronto, and Washington D.C. For more information check out the official MizPee website.