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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to think it's weird to have a toilet in your bedroom?

376 replies

FreyaFromTheFens · 28/01/2021 16:16

My neighbours have put their house on the market recently so I had a nosey online and saw that they have a toilet in the bedroom Grin. A bath, sink and loo but no screening or bifold doors for privacy.
Even if there wasn't anyone in the room while you used it it's bloody odd isn't it?
I don't get it. Have seen it quite often on escape to the country/grand designs etc...
If you have one why? Confused

OP posts:
Echobelly · 28/01/2021 22:19

I've seen baths/sinks/showers open plan in a room, but loos are always tucked away. I quite like open bath in like, a posh hotel room but it would suck to live with.

DH wanted to put open bath/sink into our room when we moved in and I mostly objected as we didn't have the money to do it nicely and if you're going to do it, it needs to be done really well. And honestly not something I'd want to live with full time.

And he wanted the bath to go into the bay window area. The bay window that looks onto the street. Oh, and to separate it off for the bedroom we could put in a half-height wall. Between the window and the rest of the room Confused Honestly, he's a really intelligent guy, but I don't know what he was thinking with that! Luckily I convinced him of all the reasons a closed off en-suite would be a better idea.

Fizbosshoes · 28/01/2021 22:20

@Wingedharpy 🤣🤣

*I have rarely seen toilets without a sink, if at all.

Why this assumption that a separate toilet must be without sink?*

Loads of older houses (when I was a kid - 1980s) had a separate toilet and then the bath and basin in the room next door. I've never understood it. Surely if you dont want to interrupt someone having a bath, have the bath in it's own room! After all you dont generally need a basin and a bath at the same time where you 100% do need a basin if you've just been to the toilet. This has annoyed me for literally decades and IMO is way more unhygienic than an ensuite bathroom with walls and door!!
I cant understand how an ensuite is more unhygienic than a regular bathroom? Ours is cleaned as often if not more often than the family bathroom.
I dont like hotel ensuites with extractor attached to the light. You go and brush your teeth and do last wee before going to bed (I know I know ... the horror of doing a wee within 25 metres of soneone!) And then have to listen to a noisy extractor for half an hour!

Original poster
FreyaFromTheFens · 28/01/2021 22:21

[quote nothingcomestonothing]OP I see your neighbour's house and raise you this one - toilet facing the bed and right by all the windows!

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/97658828[/quote]
Oh god it’s a thing. So. Fucking. Odd Confused

OP posts:
YouKnowItsTrue · 28/01/2021 22:26

.raise you this one - toilet facing the bed and right by all the windows!

Maybe it’s for the husband so he doesn’t have to get out of bed for a pee. Shoots from the bed so to speak.

Wingedharpy · 28/01/2021 22:40

Well, there's open plan....and then there's exhibitionism.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 28/01/2021 22:50

And he wanted the bath to go into the bay window area. The bay window that looks onto the street

I'm starting to wonder about your DH, Echobelly Grin

You're right that it needs to be done well if done at all though; somehow it wouldn't be the same with a £99 B&Q plastic bath and a couple of crappy taps ... oh, and a rubber duck floating in it

StanfordPines · 28/01/2021 23:05

I grew up in the country and just about everyone I knew lived in an ancient house which predated indoor plumbing.
It was not uncommon for friends to have sinks in their bedrooms as if you were installing plumbing in one room why not do the lot.

My last house the only bathroom was off the bedroom. I found the whiff of toilet off putting. Even though it was a really clean loo it still had that diluted bleach smell.

StoneofDestiny · 28/01/2021 23:26

OP - it's such a modern house - was this open plan toilet feature installed by the builders or the owners.

Cannot imagine buying a house with an open plan toilet. Don't even like the 'bath in the bedroom' feature that's springing up (all that steam and wet towels in a bedroom?).

A good en-suite is a separate room - accessible through a separate door.

BarcelonaFreddie · 28/01/2021 23:27

I don't get the hatred of en-suites... it's a fully separate room; usually with an opening window and an extractor.
Nobody is getting up in the night and taking a shit on your pillow.
Why all the drama?
So precious.

FamilyOfAliens · 28/01/2021 23:30

@BarcelonaFreddie

I don't get the hatred of en-suites... it's a fully separate room; usually with an opening window and an extractor. Nobody is getting up in the night and taking a shit on your pillow. Why all the drama? So precious.
You haven’t read the thread have you?
Rainbows89 · 28/01/2021 23:31

I love my en suite.

ohhhhhyes · 28/01/2021 23:33

@SnuggyBuggy

Given that I personally dislike en suites because I don't like the idea of shitting so close to where you sleep this would not appeal at all.
This is a bit strange. The toilet in our en suite is further away from our bed than the toilet in the main family bathroom is from some bedrooms in other homes
LegoPirateMonkey · 29/01/2021 05:46

I viewed a house with a toilet in the master bedroom. It wasn’t on the rightmove pictures or I wouldn’t have gone. I immediately assumed the sellers were perverts and left! It gave me the creeps. Another house had a huge, beautiful en suite with no door, toilet in a separate room. But if I want a bath, I want to lock the door! It’s not a family spectator event. I want to relax! I live in fear of booking a trendy hotel and arriving to discover this kind of arrangement. I wouldn’t even like it if I was travelling solo - you’d have to put up a Do Not Disturb sign every time you needed to use the toilet in case the cleaning staff walk in! I cannot understand why anyone would want an open plan toilet unless they are utterly depraved.

BouncyTigger85 · 29/01/2021 05:57

I remember a house I saw for sale on here, that the top floor was a big open area at the top of the stairs and a single large bedroom. The bedroom had a sink, and the open area at the top of the stairs had a toilet, you could be on the toilet and anyone could come up the stairs and see you!
The estate agents creatively listed it as an en suite 🤨

swissmummy12345 · 29/01/2021 07:17

Toilets in bedrooms is rank.

Or they have never had to share a room with husband morning after curry/beer shits! Also very unhygienic feacal matter spread all over bedroom after a flush. Confused

LakieLady · 29/01/2021 07:25

@Fizbosshoes

Ensuits don't tend to have their own windows, and are tiny. One bathroom sized like a bedroom, with a proper window you can open. Extra toilet with a sink somewhere downstairs for when someone is having extra long bath.

Our ensuite has a window that opens, and extraction for steam from showers. We have a downstairs loo but our "family bathroom" is tiny - barely much bigger than the ensuite. My friend has a huge Victorian house and their ensuite is bigger than our family bathroom. jammy thing

I love big bathrooms. My first house had a huge bathroom, I had the washing machine plumbed in in there, because the kitchen was tiny. For a while, I had a small wicker sofa in there too, but the steam got to it and it went mouldy!
longwayoff · 29/01/2021 07:57

En suites are handy, I'm a fan. Are there any houses left which still have a loo off the kitchen? That's properly yuck. Ugh.

Bythemillpond · 29/01/2021 08:08

I also don’t get the hatred for en-suites. Mine is nowhere near my bed. I would imagine in a lot of houses you would have to walk less to get to the family bathroom than I do to my en-suite.

Fizbosshoes · 29/01/2021 08:12

@BarcelonaFreddieI don't get the hatred of en-suites... it's a fully separate room; usually with an opening window and an extractor.
Nobody is getting up in the night and taking a shit on your pillow.
Why all the drama?
🤣🤣🤣
...although once when DS was a toddler he did exactly that!Blush (it was his own pillow and his bedroom was opposite the main bathroom fwiw)

FamilyOfAliens · 29/01/2021 08:19

@Bythemillpond

I also don’t get the hatred for en-suites. Mine is nowhere near my bed. I would imagine in a lot of houses you would have to walk less to get to the family bathroom than I do to my en-suite.
When someone posted this exact thing upthread I asked why you need an en-suite if your actual bathroom is closer to your bedroom, but I didn’t get an answer.

Although someone did say they they don’t like sharing their bathroom with anyone else so I presumed that if they had a partner, they wouldn’t be allowed to use the en-suite, which adds a whole other layer of weirdness.

IrmaFayLear · 29/01/2021 08:38

I went to someone’s house for tea - well, it would have been 1983, I think! - and to my absolute astonishment their downstairs loo was behind a sliding door in the sitting room . It’s engraved on my memory as nothing was guaranteed to seal up one’s bladder than being waved to the loo behind the sofa. Weird people. The mum insisted on dressing siblings (not twins) identically when they were teenagers.

This was brought to mind as I saw a similar set-up on rightmove last week, with the loo in a sort of shed inside the conservatory. Imagine !

PegasusReturns · 29/01/2021 08:43

When someone posted this exact thing upthread I asked why you need an en-suite if your actual bathroom is closer to your bedroom, but I didn’t get an answer

I’m not the poster you asked but surely it’s a numbers game?! If you don’t have ensuites are you a very small family or do you all fight over the bathroom in the morning?

The ensuites in my house all have windows and none are within “3 or 4 feet” of the bed - WTF?! They’re an absolute life saver with two teens and two pre teens.

Greygreenblue · 29/01/2021 08:45

@JazzyGeoff

I wouldn't be able to use it, even with no one else there. My arse would get stage fright! My worst nightmares usually involve some kind of loo in full public view.
Now that you mention it I’ve had several really uncomfortable dreams about toilets with a public view, the worst being when I was already on it before realising the wall was glass... why do I dream about toilets!
FamilyOfAliens · 29/01/2021 08:46

I’m not the poster you asked but surely it’s a numbers game?! If you don’t have ensuites are you a very small family or do you all fight over the bathroom in the morning?

We all go to the bathroom at different times. It’s worked ok for nearly 30 years Grin

PeggyHill · 29/01/2021 09:14

I wouldn't really care about the privacy thing because my bedroom is already very private, but I would be concerned about damp and leaks and such. I always thought that baths, showers and toilets were best off in their own enclosed space to keep the rest of your house dry.

I can't even imagine how horrendous it would be to have an overflowing, clogged toilet in the corner of my bedroom.