Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask how you manage with one bathroom

259 replies

Intrepidintrovert · 02/09/2020 21:43

We have one bathroom in our house and it's getting pretty unbearable. I don't really know what to do! Are there ANY 'workarounds' that you've come up with? We categorically can't move for very specific reasons that are too outing to share but are 100% solid stone.

Every morning when I wake up I need a wee straight away, and inevitably my husband is in the bath. We have no shower. No way of installing a shower as it's a very old, pokey house and the ceiling is very low and sloping over the bath and there's no other room. I end up in discomfort (and unable to do anything to start my day as I need it too urgently to move about). Occasionally I go in and wee but hate invading my husband's privacy and since the bathroom is tiny, it's pretty weird to just sit next to him weeing. Even if you told me to get over myself (I know plenty of people don't mind weeing or pooing in front of their spouse), we have two children who are approaching teenagehood and whom definitely won't want to wee or poo in front of mum or dad while mum or dad is naked in the bath, or vice versa. Obviously right now it's not a problem when the kids are bathing or on the loo as they barely even shut the door but that will change.

To add to the fun I have IBS, which doesn't flare often but when it does I need to go urgently, and someone being in there can be quite distressing. We can't have visitors despite having a spare room as we can't manage any more people using the bathroom. It's a very old house, rented and no way they will put in another bathroom - we have tried to persuade them! There's also no way of dividing up the room and separating the loo from the bath as it's tiny and the bath is against the back wall, door would then be off my son's bedroom. The kids and I bath in the evening to space out the usage, but husband is a big sweaty fella (sorry!) so needs to bath in the morning before work.

Just typing this out has made me realise how shit it is, but other people must live like this too... don't they?

OP posts:
Thread gallery
7
CoralFish · 03/09/2020 11:18

Three shower curtain ideas:

  1. What @SlightlyJaded posted but with the addition of a hook on the wall (red splodge) and a loop or hole in the shower curtain so that you can pull it across the full bath and secure it (blue splodge).
  2. Ignore the sloped bit (see second picture)!!
  3. Shower rod with a bend like this one, but it's unavailable so that's not especially helpful: www.amazon.co.uk/Shower-Rods-SR-132-Sloped-Kit-Ceiling/dp/B01H7ILORA?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
To ask how you manage with one bathroom
To ask how you manage with one bathroom
cakewench · 03/09/2020 11:27

My sympathies, OP.

This sort of situation is why we will never 'fix' the 'old-fashioned' toilet upstairs. Many people who see the layout (WC separate from the bath/shower room) comment how it will be a lovely large bathroom when we knock the wall through. Hell no. There's no reason to make work for ourselves just to create a situation where we'd be worse off than we are right now.

ChetChet · 03/09/2020 11:32

The broken back door is such a fire hazard.
I'd install a toilet in your bedroom where you say youve a huge cupboard area. Install at your own cost and remove at your cost and deal with the landlord when the time comes at a later date.
He doesn't sound respectable or considerate and is there really any other way?

JamieLeeCurtains · 03/09/2020 13:08

@ChetChet is right, @Intrepidintrovert - that broken back door is a fire (escape) hazard and any local authority would take a very dim view of it, especially with children in the house. You need a route out of the house in case of a fire as well as the front door.

Have you at least got smoke alarms? A carbon monoxide detector? A boiler has safety certificate?

There are regulations about all this in privately rented priorities, and they're there for a reason.

Do you have damp, mould, other issues?

I feel quite worried about you now.

NotMeNoNo · 03/09/2020 13:09

If it's that old, is there an outside loo hiding in an outhouse?

toomuchpeppapig · 03/09/2020 13:20

Tell your husband to stop being so selfish and having such long baths in the morning. How long does it take to have a wash fgs?!

areyoubeingserviced · 03/09/2020 13:28

Op, I don’t know why your dh is in the bathroom for so long.
He can brush his teeth in the kitchen sink and then wash quickly ( within ten minutes)
If not, he can wash the night before.

shinynewapple2020 · 03/09/2020 15:03

@Intrepidintrovert

Here’s a diagram (my first ever mn diagram but sorry I can’t draw!) looking straight in at the bath which is against the back wall. Shows why the curtain may be tricky and also why the shower attachment is tricky as the taps are at the slope end so you’d have to crouch under the slope.

Ok shower curtain
Get a short pole and attach to ceiling along the side of the bath where the ceiling height is full height
Attach curtain to rail from the back so there is a section of the shower curtain flapping at the front of the back where there is no rail for it
Fold this over on the diagonal and nail to the sloping part of the ceiling coming down to the taps

Put a screen or certain across a corner of your spare room
Put a camping toilet or commode behind the screen
Anti bacterial hand wipes on a table or shelf next to it

netsybetsy · 03/09/2020 15:07

Just me and DH and DDog

We wake up DH goes for pee, takes dog out for 20 mins. I shower and dress. He comes back and showers. I feed DDog.

DDog goes to toilet outside. Throwing up usually occurs on carpeted areas of house Grin

New posts on this thread. Refresh page