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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to not understand the current obsession with bathrooms?

138 replies

BadRuby · 04/02/2020 22:06

It seems like a lot of properties are shoehorning in an en suite or an extra toilet or shower room wherever they can.

I just saw a miniscule 2 bed flat with a family bathroom and a chunk taken out of the main bedroom for a shower en suite surely the space could have been better used for storage, or literally anything else? What need is there for 2 bathrooms in a 2 bedroom flat?

I've seen this a lot in new builds as well, and it's just bizarre!

OP posts:

Torchlightt · 05/02/2020 00:34

As long as you have 2 toilets, it's fine. I hate en suites too.

BritWifeinUSA · 05/02/2020 00:41

Why are people saying en suites smell? We have 2 bathrooms, 1 is FB suite and smells are never a problem. Our house was built this way. Over here in the US the houses tend to be bigger and our bedroom is massive with a big dressing room and then an en suite bathroom and I’ve never noticed any smells (and I don’t even have a dog because I’m iffy about smells). With proper design and ventilation it shouldn’t be smelly.

7Days · 05/02/2020 00:42

You dont need to clean bathrooms that aren't used, apart from a little light dusting.
10 bathrooms, 2 arses? What's the downside?

As long as they have windows. If they don't they are dirty dark little outhouses, except inside.
Fuck off, extractor fans.

Sorry if I offended anyone, not my intention. In my defence, you dont live my my stinky DH and ds so what would you know about life?

Itwasntme1 · 05/02/2020 00:43

My en-suite doesn’t smell and my house is quite small. Don’t understand the smell thing either. My bathroom doesn’t smell either.

CJsGoldfish · 05/02/2020 00:52

I wouldn't live in a house without an ensuite.
I don't want to share a bathroom/toilet with my 4 children. Nope.

Have never had an issue with smells in the bedroom, ever. Can anyone who actually has an ensuite confirm that they've had this issue?
Some kind of design flaw? I've never heard of anyone with an ensuite complain that it happens.

My own personal space to take as long as I like in the bathroom is bliss

Coyoacan · 05/02/2020 01:55

I agree, but I do think every home should have an extra toilet. My dd works as a dancer, so spends a good hour in the bathroom removing her makeup after work.

Bluerussian · 05/02/2020 03:33

I have a two bedroomed flat in Norfolk (which I will sell as soon as I can), second floor, it has an en suite shower and toilet to the master bedroom and then there is the 'family bathroom'. There's plenty of room in the flat, it isn't as if extra bits have been squeezed in to a small space.

Nice to have more than one bathroom if you have family or guests.

ColourMyDreams · 05/02/2020 05:47

When the kids were growing up, we just had one bathroom/loo.
For 13 of us.
Now the kids have left home, we have a bathroom upstairs, a shower room with a loo downstairs and an en suite. 😂

Bluerussian · 05/02/2020 06:13

That's progress for you, ColourMyDreams. I also grew up with one bathroom and we only had one in both our houses after husband and I married - mind you, we also only had one child so it worked.

That flat in Norfolk was used by husband because his firm was based there, I stayed there occasionally as has son and one or two other people but it's not needed now so will be sold.

What would have been considered a luxury in days gone by - eg en suite bathrooms and extra bathrooms, is now the norm.

Ginfordinner · 05/02/2020 06:38

DD's university halls are all en suite. Just as well as some of her flatmates are really skanky and leave the shared area a complete mess.

AgathaVanHelsing · 05/02/2020 06:44

I'd love a second loo, we only have one as it is and in the mornings there is already lots of frantic 'hurry up! I need to go!' situations and that will only get worse as the DC get older.

ColourMyDreams · 05/02/2020 06:53

@Bluerussian the kids laugh at me and their dad ( they're all adults and married themselves now ) in a nice way though, at his and hers loo's as they call them 😂
It was bliss when they were kids at school and I could use the loo without a queue.

PlumsGalore · 05/02/2020 06:57

I hate en suites too, especially in a small house. We put another shower room in downstairs in what started as a standard three bed semi, the shower is never used but I wouldn’t be without a second loo, there have been hundreds of times when two people needed to go at once.

longearedbat · 05/02/2020 06:59

We have got three loo's for 2 of us (en-suite, family bathroom, downstairs cloakroom). The one that is used most is the downstairs one, as once we come downstairs we tend not to go back up until bedtime. I think, as you get older, (we are retired) the thought of traipsing up and downstairs for every pee and poo is a bit tiresome, especially if you have bad knees and arthritis. It also seems to me that as I have got older I pee more, and with more urgency. I don't know how I would have managed without the downstairs one after I had knee surgery either. (You know your'e getting old when you hanker after a bungalow!)
We have separate bedrooms and bathrooms as well. I think it's partly how our relationship has lasted so long.

ClientQueen · 05/02/2020 07:01

2 bedroom apartment, 2 bathrooms in mine. One main, one en suite. It's not even laid out so you could share the flat really

AuntieMarys · 05/02/2020 07:02

We have 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. There are 2 of us.

Snuffkindle · 05/02/2020 07:09

We've got a 3 bed semi with a bathroom upstairs and a downstairs loo. Having 2 toilets is really good. I was never bothered about en suites but would love one now the kids are teenagers and are in there for hours!

Onescaredmuma · 05/02/2020 07:11

Having moved from a 2 toilet house to a one bathroom bungalow it's a nightmare. As soon as I sit on the toilet I can guarantee one of my kids needs to go. Or DH will be in the shower and ill have an IBS attack I hate only having one bathroom! Although there are 5 of us living here but DS still in Nappies he likes to follow me into the bathroom anyway so it's not like I'd get any privacy even if we had a bathroom each

HugeAckmansWife · 05/02/2020 07:16

I don't think it matters if there's 15 toilets so long as it's not been done at the expense of storage or space. Saw a new build once, master bedroom had a small double, bedside cabinet and chest of drawers. No wardrobe or space for one but had an en suite. Plus normal bathroom and downstairs loo. Nowhere for ironing board, hoover, coats, shoes. Ridiculous.

Carnabie · 05/02/2020 07:20

When we moved into our house every bedroom had an en-suite- literally just a cupboard built into the room with shower/sink/loo. Knocked them all out as part of the renovations and we now have one bathroom, one shower room, and a downstairs loo. Plumbers told me I was mad and I should at least keep the ones in my room, teenage dds room, and the spare room but I’m so glad I didn’t, they were such a bad design and waste of space and cleaning the three we have is more than enough work! All the loos and sinks get used but the extra shower only really when we have guests so could have done without that too.

BeyondMyWits · 05/02/2020 07:31

We have one loo in the one bathroom for the 4 of us. And have done for 27 years. (well the girls are 17 and 19 now). You learn to share and not be selfish. We all get ready in the morning, first to go out=first dibs.

I look at some of these posts and think I live in a different world. And as for the extra loo in case you all have the runs together - that has never happened in our house.

OhTheRoses · 05/02/2020 07:31

It depends on the house, size of the bedrooms, whether there are windows. The SW London Townhouse I renovated was built with 4 beds, 4 bathrooms and 2 addl wcs and it worked beautifully but was built to a high spec with good extractors/windows etc and bedrooms were amply sized.

Our larger Victorian house had 6 beds and three baths with a downstairs wc and required an extn and nicking a room to facilitate.

Our present house was built with 6 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 wcs in 1927. When we bought it the master had a heath robinesque en-suite added. Again it took a full renovation with extn to create three additional good bathrooms which are expected nowadays in a large house.

We all use different bathrooms.

I cant really see the point in a two bed house or flat of less than 1000sq ft. I'd have thought twowere sufficient in a small 4 bed house tbh.

CatteStreet · 05/02/2020 07:35

'One bathroom is [...] backwards'

Good Lord, we've lost all sense of proportion. How many millions, if not billions of people across the world is it without access to even a shared loo?

It's nice to have more than one bathroom, but that's all. I do think that people are beginning to lose a sense of the boundary between nice and essential. We are a family of five with one bathroom (it's very large so people can be in there at the same time, has two sinks and the shower and bath are separate, so all that does make life easier, but it's still one bathroom) and we don't sense much of the 'Victorian hovel' about our lives.

QueenOfTheAndals · 05/02/2020 07:42

One bathroom is like no mixer taps and no showers in places, backwards AF.

WTAF? I agree re the mixer taps and shower (see also carpeted bathrooms - ugh) but if you have a small flat then one bathroom might be all you need! Or indeed all you can afford for a lot of people.

BorneoBabe · 05/02/2020 07:46

It's absolute aimed at the flatshare market. If you look on spareroom.co.uk, you'll often see prospective tenants specifically requesting their own bathroom.

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