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Original poster

One bathroom for family of 3

16 replies

100greenbottles · 29/10/2015 13:59

Our son's 10 and we've always lived with just one bathroom, which has everything in it - no separate toilet, and shower's over the bath in the same room. But I'm beginning to wonder if this is going to be sustainable as we get into teen years - we tolerate each other's interruptions or quite often have the door open at the moment. It's a big room so I guess we could separate off the toilet. Has anyone else managed this? There isn't an obvious place to squeeze another toilet in.

OP posts:

Bearbehind · 29/10/2015 15:11

I definitely wouldn't separate off a toilet from a bathroom. It puts a lot of people off buying if that is the layout so a certainly wouldn't spend money on something that will decrease the appeal.

Having a sink separate from the loo means you either don't wash your hands or are back to square one.

Three people for one bathroom isnt really an issue.

DipsoHippo · 29/10/2015 15:15

When I grew up in 80s/90s most houses had one bathroom. Some had an extra "back toilet" but nobody had two bath/shower rooms. When I went to college we lived in houses/flats with 1 bathroom between 4 or more adults. Surely as he gets older it will be easy enough to say "I'm off for a bath, does anyone need the loo before I get in there?"

Original poster

100greenbottles · 29/10/2015 15:56

Well, that's a relief, since I don't want to change it at all- frankly having central heating is still a surprise to me, never mind more than one bathroom!

OP posts:

putcustardonit · 29/10/2015 16:00

More than one bathroom is a luxury not an essential.
I'd keep the bigger room. Teens have a lot of stuff.

Pipbin · 29/10/2015 16:03

DH grew up in a family of 6 with one bathroom.
Three people and one bathroom really isn't a biggie.

HirplesWithHaggis · 29/10/2015 16:08

When I was growing up, there were six of us in the family and one bathroom, no shower. At one point there were four teenagers ranging from 13-19, three girls and a boy - we managed fine.

But get a lock on the door.

Wuffleflump · 29/10/2015 16:08

I'm currently involved in a community self-build. It seems the developers are obsessed with extra bathrooms, and the people who are actually going to live in the houses would rather have the space for something else!

Bimblywibble · 29/10/2015 16:16

It's lovely to have a 2nd loo and/or shower but it's firmly in the 'nice to have' category. When I was a student there were 6 of us with one bathroom and a separate loo, and I don't recall it being a problem. We were quite structured, everyone who had to get out before lunchtime had a 15 min slot.

However I haven't shared a house with teenagers lately. I would think if it becomes a real issue, you deal with it then, rather than expecting it to be a problem IYSWIM.

One potential compromise is to put a sink into one or more of the bedrooms. It's very out of fashion now but it could ease the toothbrushing queue, and would mean people had the strip wash option if the bathroom was occupied.

Pipbin · 29/10/2015 16:19

After saying that about DH though, we have two of us and two loos. A second loo is a lovely plus.

And I will admit that all of us saying 'I was one of 15 and all we had was a hole in the ground', is a bit 'I had to walk 15 miles to school and 20 miles hime again 9 days a week'.

Bimblywibble · 29/10/2015 16:47

Agreed Pipbin. It was nice to move to a house with a 2nd loo. But I've always thought our last (single bathroomed) house was "enough", and all the extras in our current house are a bonus.

Qwebec · 29/10/2015 19:21

One is plenty if you are fine with it. I never lived ina house with more than one and even with multiple flatmates it was not a problem. There is only so much time you want to spend in one and just thinking of needing to clean extra loos depresses me.

Qwebec · 29/10/2015 19:22

p.s. mine is tiny and I'm quite happy to have less cleaning to do but YMMV

Spottyladybird · 29/10/2015 19:33

I used to have a house with three loos, most of the time there was only DH and I living there and it felt ridiculous, I'd have extra wardrobe space.

We moved to a bigger property with only one bathroom and it's great. Less to clean!

Bunbaker · 29/10/2015 20:40

I have IBS. I wouldn't even contemplate buying a house with just one loo. I also have a teenage DD, and a second bathroom keeps us sane.

pinechesterdrawers · 29/10/2015 20:56

For a family of three, id keep it all one room.

I grew up in a family of 5 with one toilet until we had an extension when i was 16. it was really tough with just one toilet!

We are are family of 4. We have two upstairs loos which is nice but i would prefer a downstairs guest toilet rather than x2 upstairs.

RaphaellaTheSpanishWaterDog · 29/10/2015 21:34

Our last house had four loos with just two of us living there. This was actually our decision (although one of the few things the wreck house did have when we bought it was an annex with d/s bathroom/loo) as we were thinking of future saleability as it was quite a large property with five/six bedrooms, ideally suited to large/extended family living. When we'd completed the refurb it had two shower rooms and one bathroom plus a loo-tility.

TBH, we only really ever used three of the loos and the new shower room we converted from the annex bathroom was used solely for cleaning our dogs

Our previous house to that also had four loos (two bathrooms) - this was when DS still lived at home and again I can testify that the second bathroom was only ever used by guests. Even when DS had friends sleeping over they all used the main family bathroom to shower etc.

Current house has two loos and only one bathroom, but that's set to change as we have two second floor bedrooms with no loo on that floor - just a basin which isn't much use when you need the loo at 3am! Our first floor loo is separate from the bathroom and has no basin - house (1850s) was extended in the 1920s and that's how it was laid out then - not ideal, but apart from adding a basin we won't change this layout.

DH is another that grew up in the 1970s with five siblings, so eight people in a three bed house with one bathroom and two loos.....they managed ok

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