To wonder why MN hates en-suites?

[Greenbluestar]

Just curious 🤨

I was mystified by this as well. I think the issue is that most housing in the UK is old, and approximately none of it was built with en-suites, so most people have only ever encountered them in conversions. Hence the comments about them "taking away space" from the bedroom, when to me they have always been a completely separate room. People also seem hung up on the idea of having only one door between the bedroom and the toilet, when this is not necessarily true at all. (My first flat in the UK was an 80's built London studio, and there were two doors between toilet and main room, The majority of the bathroom was behind the first door, then there was a second door to the toilet. If it can be done in a flat that small, it can be done anywhere, if it matters to you. Another way to get two doors is to have a walk-through cupboard between the bedroom and the bathroom.)

TLDR: a lot of British people have never encountered a properly built, designed in at the outset en-suite, so are talking about a different thing than the rest of us are imagining.

Washbasins in bedrooms used to be a thing. Once viewed an Edwardian semi that had them. Also once rented a large house for a holiday that had three separate toilets, a family bathroom and either washbasins or shower cubicles in the bedrooms.

I wouldn’t even look at a place without an ensuite! I can’t understand the hate on here for them.

I love mine. It's the same size as the family bathroom and has a window in it. Never had any problems with poo smells or shower steam in the bedroom.

Appreciate some are poorly designed though. I looked around a new build before I bought here, and the en-suite was little more than a cupboard shoehorned into the bedroom.

Loved it when my children were little as it was my peaceful grown up relaxing place, rather than the main bathroom that was cluttered with bath toys, toddler toilet seat, plastic step etc.

it's instinctively uncomfortable to shit where you sleep. In nature animals generally find a toileting place away from the sleeping area.

I post this in every thread on this subject, but I heard of a man with an unmodernised house with outside toilet who regards people who have toilets in the same building that they cook and eat as disgusting.

I suppose you are just a slightly less extreme version of him.

Do you feel uncomfortable every time you stay in a hotel room? (I think they all have en-suites nowadays.)

It depends on the layout for me. New build houses in budget have them in, but the bedroom it's self is tiny.

We asked if we could use the space as a dressing room but they stated they have to build it with an ensuite. For us 3 toilets (downstairs, family and ensuite) is excessive when you cant fit a waldrobe in the master bedroom!

I don't mind an ensuite, but I'd rather have a bathroom accessible to all bedrooms.

For example, a lot of people suggested an ensuite when we wanted an upstairs shower room (our only bathroom was downstairs).

My thoughts were that it would leave the occupants of the other two bedrooms needing to still traipse downstairs at 4am for a wee, or walk through our bedroom.

We stole a bit of the third bedroom (bedrooms add a lit of value here so we couldn't afford to lose one as it would devalue the house; small 3rd bedrooms are common locally so our 6'6" x 9' one is actually not a bad size).

In theory a future owner could easily move the doir if they wanted an ensuite though. It would only save you about 4 steps as the door to the shower room is next to ours

We have a fantastic ensuite - I’ve never heard of ensuite dislike until mumsnet! I wonder if those people all also hate hotel rooms as they all have ensuites 😂

I’m not keen, but they are usually preferable to queuing up with strangers to use the bathroom down the landing as we used to.

I say usually because some of the en-suites in Asian hotels leave a lot to be desired…

I know someone with 5 toilets for 4 people. 4 showers. Is it really necessary?

I don't like them when they are shoehorned into new builds.

My parents had one but we had a large house & 2 separate bathrooms & a separate toilet just on the 2nd floor. The en-suite had its own window & both the en-suite & bedroom were very big.

@BigYellowHat

I like mine although DH isn’t allowed to dump in it as he stinks out the bedroom. I’m sure he’s had a couple of sneaky ones though 🤔

There’s no need for that at all. I am amazed so many people don’t have a box of matches in their bathrooms/loos/en-suites. Lighting a match and waving it around immediately burns off the ‘aromas’.

I love mine, I've had houses with an En suite for the past 30 years I wouldn't be without one,

I’ve had en-suites and not had them. Good ones are great, bad ones are horrible. It’s still another bog to clean though.

it's instinctively uncomfortable to shit where you sleep. In nature animals generally find a toileting place away from the sleeping area.

My parents en-suite toilet is further from their bed then my separate bathroom is from my bed because my house is much smaller.

I went to boarding school and we had wash basins in our bedrooms and big communal bathrooms with toilet cubicles, shower cubicles and a couple of bath cubicles and additional sinks (only year 7 and 8 - in current language, used to be first and second years - had big dorms seperated with wooden partitions, then 3rd to 5th years shared twin rooms and sixth form had individual rooms).

Sinks in bedrooms aren't really anything like ensuites though and tbh are a left over from when people didn't shower or bath every day - they're for brushing your teeth, washing hands and face and maybe doing a "stand up wash" (washing your arm pits with a flannel under your pyjamas if at boarding school... 🤢)

My view:

1. It reduces space in the bedroom (you have a door where you could have had storage space).
2. If one of you goes to the toilet in the middle of the night it is more likely to wake the other one up (and the sounds of someone weeing or pooing are gross).
3. If you go for a poo in the middle of the night you are going to open the door straight on to the bedroom. Yuk.
4. It's a bit selfish. We have 2 bathrooms upstairs - neither is en-suite although one could be made that way by blocking off the shower room door to the landing and creating a new entrance from the bedroom. However when there were 4 of us here it would have been impractical and meant that for example both kids would have been unable to use both bathrooms at the same time.
5. It's saying to guests they should fuck off out of your bathroom.

That's just my personal view. Other views are available. People are entitled to configure their house as they desire.

@etulosba

We have a fantastic ensuite - I’ve never heard of ensuite dislike until mumsnet! I wonder if those people all also hate hotel rooms as they all have ensuites 😂

I’m not keen, but they are usually preferable to queuing up with strangers to use the bathroom down the landing as we used to.

I say usually because some of the en-suites in Asian hotels leave a lot to be desired…

I was horrified when I stayed in a hotel in this country where the ensuite had a transparent wall. Fortunately I discovered there was a button to press that turned it opaque.

@BarbaraofSeville

adjacent to bedroom is a room where people piss and shit

What, like a bathroom?

Exactly - I find this attitude so weird! It's not like en suites = having a poo on the bed!

We don't have one now but we did have in a house we used to rent and me and DH used it more than the family bathroom

I have 4 of them currently (every bedroom has an en suite - it's a rental). I am not a fan. I don't like all the extra cleaning. And I don't like the kids having access to a bathroom in their room because they just mess about in it. I'm always finding random stuff hidden in weird places and dd sneaks up after bedtime to fill the sink with water and mix in all sorts of soaps and toothpaste in some soupy mess that I find in the morning. But mainly, I just don't like all the steam after a shower at night hanging around in bedrooms, as easier to create damp. We're moving next month into our new house, which only has an en suite in the guest room, which is great.

I lived alone for years so there was no point. I'd rather have that as a storage area. I already had an upstairs bathroom and downstairs loo.
Now my DS, Dil and i live together its essential.
None of us want to share a bathroom or kitchen with each other as we like to live separate lives on the whole.
We share for financial reasons, it gives us all a better quality of life.

Does it?

Like a pp said I don't mind them in other countries where houses are newer and bigger and they're designed into the build
I live in the UK and here as most houses are older, they tend to be added in later, with crap ventilation, too 'in the bedroom' etc
It's only my experience and I'm sure some people have lovely ones
The world would be boring if we all liked the same things, wouldn't it

@Greenbluestar

Just curious 🤨

MN doesn't hate en suites. Some MN posters don't like them. Some do.

MN is not a hive.

🐝

I wonder how many people who hate them only know them from relatively small houses / new builds where the en suite is cramped without a window; whereas those who quite like them have bigger houses with more space, windows etc and it actually makes sense to have.

I love ours, but it’s just like a proper bathroom next to the bedroom with a door between them rather than being a cupboard with a loo in it

@spongbob

-often no Windows, lacks ventilation. A fan isn't really as good as opening a window and getting fresh air -adjacent to bedroom is a room where people piss and shit

• waste of space, would rather have added bedroom area
• extra cleaning

-find it tacky, reminds me of a hotel

After living with an en-suite I will actively turn down any house/flat that has one even if great in other respects.

• Ours has a window that opens
• We have a door that closes between the bathroom and bedroom. No-one has a poo just before bed in our house, and the toilet is as far away from the bedroom as it can be
• Ours is in a gable that juts out and was purpose built when the house was built. It doesn't take up space in our bedroom
• Due to DH's health condition we need two bathrooms, so the extra cleaning isn't a problem. It doesn't take that long to keep a bathroom clean
• No it isn't tacky. I assume you never stay in hotels then. I wouldn't want a shared bathroom along the corridor if I was staying in a hotel. Those days are confined to the past.

I assume that ensuite haters have husbands or partners who have a massive shit with the door open just before going to bed. Or they are ridiculously overly fastidious. This just doesn't happen in our house.