Washbasins in bedrooms

[PaperPanama]

When I was a child we each had a washbasin in our bedroom. Several of my friends' families also had washbasins in the bedrooms. It wasn't unusual then. But you rarely see it nowadays, even in houses without multiple en suites. Why is this? They are very useful because they reduce the time each person stays in the family bathroom.

I had one too, but only because my bedroom used to be a bathroom. I loved it, meant it was mine and mine alone for brushing my teeth and having all my own lotions and potions. If I had money to buy and redo a house now, I'd add one to each bedroom!

I find it unusual and reminiscent of a bedsit x

I think it was popular in the 1920s and 30s. Growing up, the two main bedrooms had washbasins in our house only. A friend's had them in all rooms and no washbasin in the bathroom or toilet!

I think they lost their popularity when people started showering rather than having a morning or evening wash.

My parents house had a washbasin in the guest bedroom, but not in theirs, which was slightly odd.

They are still there and haven't altered anything.

It seems old fashioned and possibly even unhygienic to me. Plus the potential for leaks, dripping taps keeping you awake all night, drain smells?

Why even is that, I am sure when I was growing up our drains never smelled - ours seem to get it all the time and I periodically have to clear them out.

possibly even unhygienic I don't understand why a sink would be unhygienic

I had one in one of my childhood bedrooms, I really liked having a sink of my own where only I would clean my teeth and wash my face. It was just a sink in the corner of the room with a mirrores cupboard above. My grandparents had one bedroom with an en suite, a bathroom, and the other 2 bedrooms with sinks. The sinks were part of a built in unit, with countertop around the sink and cupboard below. When I stayed overnight there I liked being able to use my own sink and not feel like I was hogging the bathroom.

I’ve always seen it in older houses. Have stayed in relatives houses with them and always thought that I wished they’d put in a full en-suite!

When we bought our house every bedroom had a washbasin. One bedroom also had an electric shower.

I think it has fallen out of favour with the rise of the multiple ensuite.

It’s a hangover from the days when you only had a bath on Sundays.

Grew up in vicarages (so tended to be individually designed but with little architectural merit) - one from the 50s with two bedrooms with basins, and one from the 70s with one bedroom with a basin. I think the next vicarage from the 20s had 2 as well. Very handy to not queue for tooth brushing/face washing, but take up space in a small floorspace.

My DD had one in halls at uni and it was great! She really misses it now in a shared house. I think they are a good idea and not sure why they were ripped out.

Common in old Military housing.

It was great for guest rooms. We turned off the stopcock in our childrens bedrooms.

It would be fantastic in a teenagers bedroom!

The unhygenic thing was there wasnt always a sink in the toilet room....

I heard a story about them being used for a wee in an emergency. Honest, my friend told me this. I didn't ask about the possible gymnastics involved. 😊

DCs uni house has one in each room, really useful as although they share a bathroom a lot of face/teeth stuff doesn’t have to be carried back and forth

They took a lot of pressure off the shared bathroom in a world where en suites were still relatively unusual.

Carpet and sinks are not a good combination but mainly I think they just fell out of fashion. Stand alone shower cubicles in bedrooms were also a thing, a bit, but they were always a bit odd.

Common when people only had a weekly bath

I had a (vile) boyfriend as a teenager who had a sink in his bedroom and used to piss in it 🤢 So he certainly found it convenient.

Our 1930s house had washbasin in my sisters room and the main room. Thank god my sister had her own sink or I would never have had a look in with the main bathroom!

We have one in the guest bedroom (v old house). It's great, people really appreciate it. I make it all pretty with posho hand wash and aesthetically pleasing toothpaste. It's clean and shiny and doesn't smell so I don't think people piss in it.

we had two bedrooms with washbasins (old property) I wanted them gone but was persuaded to keep them for a while and 30 years later one of them remains and has proved very handy .The other had to be removed when my daughter decided to burn some paperwork in it not realising it was plastic and the whole thing would burn furiously.

It would be very practical for most families, especially during the teenage/young adult years, or if you have a family of four and only one bathroom! Less practical, I imagine, with small children if they were playing boats or something, and accidentally flooded their bedrooms...

It would be brilliant for brushing teeth or washing hands and faces in the morning. My brother used to spend FOREVER in the bathroom, and if he didn't look just-so, he'd start his entire regime again, so even an extra sink would have made life a lot easier for the rest of us!

Is it to do with the expense, or people thinking that they're unfashionable or hard to style, and pulling them out?

Why would it smell?

Yes, standalone showers in a bedroom are definitely weird. I never wanted to wash in one when I stayed where they had them. They always felt very temporary and flimsy. And what about dripping onto the carpet when you got out?

Terribly practical things imo. Several homes I was very familiar with growing up had them, old farmhouses all so somewhat old fashioned in their very nature, but I often think how handy they’d be now, for brushing teeth and wiping face first thing and last thing for the children, particularly.