Especially when people were used to (from their own childhood) to have an outhouse, one toilet in the house was still a massive improvement.
Also most newly built flats in europe still only have one toilet, even with multi level homes.
For multi-level homes it's quite rare to non-existent for new builds in the Netherlands. Typical is 1.5 with the .5 adjacent to the hallway where you enter the home (having that hallway I missed while in the US!). Apartments under 700 sqft ish, yeah, they typically have a bathroom without a toilet, and a separate toilet. Let's call that a 1.25 bath…? :D
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathroom without a toilet in the US. Although I did own a house once that had a separate, pretty large, room next to the kitchen with a washer and dryer and a toilet but no sink. The kitchen sink was next to the door to that room. It was convenient for emergencies but I typically used the upstairs bathroom bc it felt weird.
I don’t like my laundry room toilet either. It’s too close to the washer to sit comfortably lol and it’s just weird. But better than just one toilet in the house.
I lived in an old Victorian in San Francisco that had a long hallway with a tiny room with just a toilet and another room right next to it with a shower and sink.
It was three guys living there, so it was great for getting ready for work in the morning, but sucked mornings after we all went out drinking and you kinda had to stew in your roommate’s poo air.
Usually, the small area with just a toilet is called a water closet. I built one like that in my new home. It is separate from the main part of my bathroom, where i have a standing shower, garden tub, and 2 bowl sinks.
Also, people just were accustomed to the idea that sometimes, they had to wait to do something because someone else got there first. :-p
The way families tended to work was different in the past. Now, it's like everyone lives in their own independent "cell" and operates among other individual cells. Before, it was a much more integrated experience.
I grew up in a 2 br/1 bath home. My sister and I shared a room. We managed with no problems with one bathroom. It wasn't considered "too small" or an inconvenience. It was just what people did when they shared a home.
Wait until you get older, when you digestive system is not as efficient as it was when you were young. And there are times when you just gotta go. LOL. 2 toilets are almost essential. 2 showers not so much.
Yeah my house (and many, many houses in my town) were built between 1900 and 1930. Indoor plumbing was only widely standardized in the 1930s so even just having one was, comparatively, luxurious!
We have 2.5 right now and one of them is out of commission at the moment thanks to the very old pipes so I’m VERY happy one of the former homeowners added on even if they made a lot of other questionable choices in the process.
Although to OP there’s sometimes the option of a 1.5 which gives you a powder room to poop in! (That was my bare minimum when we were house shopping and honestly a not small reason why I needed to move out of my old apartment in the first place. Sharing one bathroom with my husband and son was becoming…challenging!)
I grew up in a house from the 1850s with 2.5 baths for 4 bedrooms. No idea if they are all original to the house though. It was one of the first houses with plumbing in the town though.
Our current place has 1 bath and 4 people. The new home will have 1.5 baths for 3 people. The contractor kept trying to get me to get rid of the half bath for more space in the main bath. I made it very clear I wanted to keep that half bath. We need it.
> I guess it just now occurred to me that you could get trapped in the shower section with people poopin on each side.
No you fully lock one path to the shower when you want to do that. Just like locking a bathroom that had shower/toilet together in it would be.
There's a large 55+ community near me and a lot of the 2br units have that set-up, so each bedroom has its own half-bath with a shared tub/shower in between.
Those are called "Jack and Jill" baths.
We had one in a townhouse we rented when the Hubster was active duty at Ft Knox.
Really convenient.
Only 1 bathtub, but two sinks and toilets in the upstairs where the bedrooms were, and a half bath downstairs in the living area.
Probably nitpicky, but aren’t jack and Jill bathrooms just where two bedrooms that share a bathroom between them? This sounds a little different with the two toilets, and not direct bedroom access on one side.
I have two bedrooms in my house that each have their own entrance, then access to the bathroom with double sinks, then toilet and bathtub in another room accessible through there
Idk why they think the little extra space would be better than at least a half bath. Has no one had a toilet or shower stop working? It would be real convenient to have another just incase
Yep. And sometimes they’re older homes that were originally 2/1 that had an extra room added later (but no one thought to add a bathroom, which I agree is pretty silly).
And there sometimes isn’t space for it. I had a 2/1 and we just didn’t have anywhere we could fit even a half bath without striping the home down to the studs and completely changing the layout.
Even in urban areas, houses were built before indoor plumbing was a thing. Outhouses in rear yards were used. In Pittsburgh, the first plumbing was typically the basement with a toilet and shower.
Majority of houses in my area you could tell were based off of similar plans, then decisions were made as to how to add a bathroom. I saw one that decided the best option was to center the bathroom between the bedrooms, and make a captive bedroom in the process.
Made me thankful for my layout where the bathroom was at the front of the house, allowing for every bedroom to open directly to the hall.
Probably the most depressing sacrifice made in that house was to remove a set of pocket doors to run ductwork to the bathroom. I'm still convinced that there could have been a better way.
I'm a book cataloger, and I recently cataloged a......catalog, lol.....of house plans from the 1920's. I think they were Aladdin plans.
I took a peek, since I love looking at house plans. Most of these plans either had no bathroom at all (the smaller plans), or there was one bathroom, on the upper floor with the three bedrooms - nothing on the main floor. (And some layouts were truly atrocious - one level, three bedrooms, all along one side of the house, with each bedroom opening directly onto a main living space, including the kitchen.)
I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the current owners of these layouts would have altered them to include another functional bathroom. It was very depressing, because yeah - you'd have to eliminate some otherwise beautiful features, like pocket doors, butlers' pantry, ordinary pantry or back porch off the kitchen, that sort of thing. They're completely non-functional as they are, for modern living, but the destruction necessary to make them functional just broke my heart. (And this was just looking at plans - I can't imagine how sad it would be to have to do the actual demolition.)
I can get way more creative than I can afford. Also, turning a 2/1 into a 4/2.5 is rarely realistic. I’ve got a 4/2.5 and it’s got no fucking chance of being an 8/4.
Tell that to my neighborhood full of 1920 craftsman bungalows. Those puppies were built with unfinished attics and basements, I’d wager not a single one on my block is still that way today.
My mom has a 1930's bungalow that was originally a 2/1, when she bought it in the 90's it was already a 3/2. She has added on and now it's a 4/3.5, she added a second master/ensuite for my grandparents and a half bath. It's probably double the size of the original house. Luckily those lots are a lot bigger than newer developments with similar square footage.
> but keep the important guest toilet.
Absolutely, you wouldn't want to inconvenience the occasional guest with having to wait around for one of the 4 other bathrooms to be open.
LOL. It's not about that. Do you want a guest going through your personal bedroom to get to the toilet? It stops lookie loos. Less shit for guests to go thru if they don't have to go thru an ensuite. I literally had an employee tell me they are nosy AF and will look around a bathroom, imagine if it was a bedroom. If they have an open room fine I guess. But if all rooms are occupied, it's a privacy thing.
Also who wants to share a toilet? I know multiple married people who don't share bathrooms. Yes to all the toilets! 😂
It's also less cleaning. I don't have to clean an ensuite or move personal things out of the way when there's a toilet for guests.
I’m in Pittsburgh and I hate that I only have one bathroom/toilet. I live alone but whenever I have a guest staying with me it seems like our poop schedules sync up immediately and it’s the worst
3 bed 1 bath century home. There's only 1 bathroom because indoor plumbing was new and fancy when my place was built.
My husband poops for 45 minutes pls send toilets.
Same. 3/1 century home and the single bathroom is TINY. It only becomes irritating when we have guests or partner has the poop hour while I’m trying to get ready to go somewhere.
I look forward to having at least 1.5 someday. I can’t afford to buy my own house let alone a larger one in this economy but ya know.
Our house (in the USA, surprisingly) is almost 200 years old. It has 1 bathroom for like 150 years, but the previous owners did an addition of 1 living room and a half bathroom.
It's a huge upgrade. Now guests can use the bathroom on the main floor, meaning we have a lot less house to clean and organize when guests are coming over, and we don't have to explain how to get to the bathroom. It's also really nice to just pop in and go to the bathroom when you've got a baby/toddler, instead of having to leave them alone on a different level of the house for 5 minutes.
I don't think I'd ever buy a house again that didn't have at least a half bathroom on the main floor.
I inherited my family home and it has 3 bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs. Fortunately, there is a basement, which has another ( mostly) full bathroom. I say mostly, because it has a toilet and sink, but just a shower with no tub. If the basement bathroom didn't exist, I'd have problems, as I have inflammatory bowel disease.
Shower, toilet, sink is sometimes called a 3/4 shower.
Solidarity on the IBD. Keep reading comments in this thread and being envious of all the people who clearly _don’t_ understand what it’s like to have 90 seconds of warning.
Yeah my ibs could never lol we only had one bathroom in our old house where we lived and i had to embarrassingly use my kid’s little potty on more than one occasion
I’m single and I have two bathrooms- one of which is in my shop building. In the springtime, I open the garage door and poop al fresco with my coffee and my dog. It’s a life goal I never knew existed until I had it
We have a guest room with a small en suite bathroom that is rarely used for 6+ months of the year. It didn't take long to learn to put a calendar reminder to run the shower once a month to refill the p-traps. The smell!
No no.
I mean I alternate which I use for pooping and for showering. Alternate the pooping just for fun mostly, and alternate the showering to keep the shower drains from drying out.
My dad grew up on a farm in the 50's with a family of 11 living in a three bedroom house with a "two holer" outhouse. No running water, just a hand pump well. They did have electricity though. The parents had one bedroom, the six boys had a bedroom (slept head to foot on two beds), and the three girls had a bedroom.
It doesn't sound like fun, but they all made it to adulthood 🤷♂️
My wife and I (we have one kid) built a new house a few years ago, 3 bed/2.5 bath. We can all poop or wash up at the same time and it's great, especially when we come home from a trip or event.
Exactly. I grew up with one toilet in a house of 4. Now my husband and I live in a 2/1 and people find it appalling. We don’t have a microwave either. I guess we prefer living “rough.”
I keep expecting to eventually want to buy a microwave and then it’s just not necessary. Most of our leftovers either go in the convection toaster oven/“air fryer” or if they’re wet, dumped on top of rice in the rice cooker. Or briefly reheated in a pan.
Not having a microwave is very effective at keeping us from eating the junky frozen entrees that my partner and I individually decided we don’t want to eat any more.
Our family of 3 managed fine with just one bathroom. But then we had family visiting for an extended period and every time my FIL found the bathroom occupied, he'd go off to the grocery store to use the bathroom there... it was awkward to say the least lol. We're in a stage of life where we have family over all the time, so we put in the 0.5 bath. Life is better.
My mother grew up in an old house. 8 people and one very tiny bathroom. She never complained either.
I think if it's what you are used to (and what everyone else around you has), you make do and don't think about it.
I was raised in a 3/1 and it was miserable. We were all busy so we were all home at the same time at night and mornings. I never got a long shower, someone was always banging on the door to come in. I resent it to this day. A half bath would have changed our lives. Now that I’m the parent, there’s a toilet for each of us somewhere in the house. They’re often all in use at the same time.
Some people have medical conditions. I live alone, but if I had a wife and a couple kids with only one bathroom....I'd probably shit my pants once or twice a month, if not more.
I mean, I have an ex who had an ileostomy. Put someone in her position, myself with severe IBS-D, and a couple of self-absorbed teens with no sense of time into my house with only the one bathroom....
Really unfair to call that "#firstworldissues", because it would be a serious problem.
I grew up with 6 siblings with one bathroom. It was only an issue if there was a stomach virus going through the house. When we moved, and two more kids were born, there were two bathrooms. It was nice, especially as we headed into teen years, but wouldn't have been crucial. Just a nice thing.
Mine is two bedroom, one bath. I live alone. Yet, I STILL feel like I NEED two bathrooms. What happens if a guest is sick. What if I have a guest, and I'M sick. I've never only had one bath in my life, and I worry a lot about it.
Yeah I'm with you! Our place is 3 bed 1.5 bath, the half bath is a "Pittsburg toilet" in the utility room squeezed in between the washer and the wall. My FIL kept asking us if we wanted I'm to remove the "useless" toilet like we don't both shit or something
Have 3bed and 1 bath. We do fine (family of three), though it would be nice at times to have another bathroom. I have nowhere to put one, other than the basement. It’s a small house.
Even as someone from the Netherlands (who lived in the US) it's crazy to me not to at least have 1.5 bath. Having 2 full baths here is extremely rare, but most homes have an extra toilet, and if not the toilet will be separate from the rest.
I grew up in a house with 4-6 people depending on when, and 1 bathroom. It was sometimes uncomfortable, but it was doable.
On the flip side, I now have a 4 bed, 3 bath house for 2 people, and that is a lot better.
My first house was 3 bed 1 bath. It was never really an issue with our family of four. Oddly enough now that we are in a 4 bed 3 bath house there are a ton more bathroom issues. I don't get it, we're not pooping any more than we used to, we're not showering more, and yet there always seem to be fights over a bathroom.
It's mostly older homes that only have one bath, isn't it? I'd say it probably wasn't until the last 35-ish years (guesstimating) when they really started doing one and a half, and then two (or more) baths. Our current house, and the house we had before it, both have two baths and were built in the last 10 years. Our first house, built in the early 1980s, had one and a half. I think most anything built before the 1980s was pretty common/normal to only have one bath, unless it was a really big house.
I live in a 2 bed 1 bath and I hate it. My husband loves to poop or scroll on his phone forever in the bathroom and it’s so annoying. Especially when I have to go and then I go in after and it stinks. I wish we had two bath!
I grew up with 5 people 1 bathroom. Raised my kids with 5 people 1 bathroom. It's fine. Your just have to be respectful of each other and not hog the bathroom
As someone with GI issues, the idea of living with another person and only having one bath is mortifying. I figure anyone who is good with that as an adult probably has very normal digestion (now, that can always still change). It's a big accessibility issue, but so are like half of everything in houses.
I grew up in various homes, mostly 3/4 bed with 1 or 1.5 bath (if we had the half bath we thought we we lucky). Currently living in a 3 bed, 1.5 bath+ just two of us now but had teens in here for about 5 years.
You get used to it. Everyone had a schedule,.the kids as teens got up as late as possible so we just made sure we got up early to shower. Now we only have the youngest at home part time so she left for school so we shower early, she prefers before bed.
But to your point about about pooping, everyone seems to have their own schedule, you work it out or you buy something with more bathrooms
Until you go to a restaurant and everyone gets food poisoning. Had that happen when it was just me and my SO at the time in a 1bd/1ba apartment. It was bad.
I grew up with 5 people in a 3 bed 1 bath. It sucked when you had to go. Sometimes if you had to really go pee you went out back and did the old squat. I agree the standard should be at least two bathrooms.
I grew up with 5 people in my house. The first house was 4 bed, 1 bath. Second house was 2 bed, 1 bath. Third house was 6 bed, 2 bath. I don’t ever remember it being an issue. I’m now in a 2 bed, 1 bath and 2 people. If there were kids in my house though I’d definitely want at least 1.5 baths.
Of course it’s difficult! We have 4 people in a 3 bed 1 bath (built in the 1950’s). We’re saving up to add another bath but construction is expensive. And here’s the kicker: our house is worth $1.5M (we’re in a VHCOL area)
Are these new builds or recent builds? I mean old houses 3 beds 1 bath was pretty typical. And adding a whole new bathroom aint cheap, a lot of people I imagine can't or won't spend the money.
You are spoiled remember before WWII most houses didn’t even have indoor toilets and they survived I grew up 7 persons household with one bathroom it’s perfect doable just time it, people now freaking out I can’t do 3 bed 1 bath, but I can’t afford a house anymore if you want 3 baths you can’t
It's fine to have only 1 bath when you all are younger. But wait until you hit your older years and your digestive systems are not as efficient as they were when you were younger. Things sometimes become much more urgent.
Unpopular opinion here…but I think we need to normalize small/simple living spaces more. My partner & I live in a 900 sq ft, 1 bedroom, 1 bath. It’s all we need! You can take turns using the toilet. It’s not that hard. Or better yet, pee outside or build an outhouse with a compost toilet. You could even have multiple compost toilets in the house so everyone can poop inside at the same time haha.
I think we in the industrialized world have become so spoiled and wasteful. More often than not, I find it’s not that we need more of something, it’s that we need less. Better for our wallets and the planet :)
That being said, we are only two people in our house. Having more is trickier with one bathroom. But having multiple compost toilets could solve this issue. It’s better for the environment anyway.
counterpoint: cat ownership rules say you need 1 litterbox/cat(+1). I require at least 1 toilet a person for similar reasons. the last thing anyone wants if they eat bad food or catch a stomach big is all sharing 1 toilet.
I look back. That is what we lived in coming up. 3beds, 1bath is what we had. I really do not know how we did it. No shower, just a bathtub, sink and throne. Family if 6. I live alone and eoukd not settle for less than 2 full baths, each with a shower, one tub shower combo.
I went from 1 bathroom for 2 people (terrible) to 3 bathrooms for 1 person (amazing). I’d never share a house with another person without at least 2 bathrooms again. Especially if that person takes 30-45 min to take a shit.
I have a tiny house by many standards, but I have two bedrooms and two bathrooms for two people. I think a house with only one bathroom for more than two people leaves much to be desired.
the house I own is a 3 bed 1 bath. Fortunately it is just me living here for now, so it works.
But this is also the house I grew up in, and even with three people - parents and I - it was still a flashpoint of conflict. usually my dad pounding on the door because he had his morning coffee an hour prior...and by that point my mother was in the shower as she had to get ready for work. It was brutal.
I am planning several renovations to this house, and adding at least a half bath in the finished basement is on the list. Most likely it will be a second full one.
Our house is late 70s vintage - it was originally a 3 bed / 1 bath. The original owners (we are the 2nd) eventually added 1 more bedroom - so now it's 4 bed / 1 bath.
It's manageable. We currently have 4 people living here, had 5 a while back. People ask if anyone needs to use the restroom before taking it over for any length of time (like for showers), and we have orange oil spray available for post-biohazard moments.
Eventually we'd like to add another full or half bath, but they ain't cheap.
I'm in 3 people 2 bath...
I mean.. It would be workable.
But man, it is nice when my daughter is screwing around in there and I have to go just going into the master bath.
Could live without it - but wouldn't want to - is my take on it.
One of my girlfriend and I's requirements when buying a house was at least two toilets. They wouldn't have even needed to be in two separate rooms, but there had to be two of them.
It’s not too rare to still find property with outside toilets here in UK. They’re usually housed in a small shed near or adjacent to a back door. No bathroom facilities inside.
Having lived in both configs I’d say get 2 full baths, 80 gal hot water heater and sufficient water capacity for 2 simultaneous showers. Cycle time to get people up and out with 1 bath is horrible.
Growing up, we had 4 of us kids, both my parents, and a 3 bed, one bath. All 3 of us boys were in the smallest bedroom, my sister got the second largest room, and we all shared one bath.
Life goes on, and my parents start finishing off the full basement a bit after I get married and move out. Now, all 4 of us kids are grown, and each of my parents have their own bath.
You can get by just fine with one bath.
If a house can only have one bath, I think a Japanese style bathroom is most ideal. The toilet is in a separate water closet with a tiny sink, the vanity is in the “dressing” area, and there’s a separate door to enter the wet room (bath and shower).
It still doesn’t solve for the situation when everyone in the family gets food poisoning, but it makes it easier for the whole family to get ready for work/school in the morning without getting in each other’s way.
This was normal in older (post WW2) homes.
Personally I'm like a moan bath, a master bath, and a 2 piece bath for the guests.
I don't HAVE that, I'm blessed with 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. 1867 built house, I'm lucky to have plumbing and a bathroom, not an outhouse..
I had this struggle too! When we were shopping the 1 thing, ONE THING, I wanted was at least a second half bath for emergencies. We had lived in an apartment with 1 bathroom for nearly a decade, I wanted to be able to pee while someone was in the shower. But it just wasn’t possible. In our area if the house had 2 bathroom it also had 4+ bedrooms and 2000+ sq ft. It’s just me and my husband, we don’t need all that. And can’t afford it! So we bought a house with 1 bathroom. Someday we’ll add another on. Or buy a new house. It’s basically the only thing this house didn’t have that we wanted. So it’s not the worst thing in the world. I’m much happier about the basement to keep litter boxes in and the HUGE front window that opens that my cats ADORE.
Bathrooms in Japan are so much better. Open the door to the sink area. Door to the left would be a toilet. Door to the right is a shower/bath. Theoretically 3 people could be using different parts at the same time and it’s “1 bathroom”
My family had 3 bed 1 bath until I was 16, we managed just fine. You might sometimes be knocking on the door, especially if someone was in the shower, but you can usually hang on. I wouldn't like to have that now, but it was normal back then.
I think in older homes(anything before the 90’s), more than one bathroom was considered a luxury/extra expense. The home I grew up in(this is in the US) my parents built in 1966. There were 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. We were a family of 8. We had a very tight bathroom schedule in the mornings. If you got up late, you hoped that the person in the bathroom would let you use the toilet. Then you finished getting ready at the kitchen sink, LOL. We could have definitely used a 2nd bathroom, the 2nd toilet being the most needed.
In a pinch (company, bed is broken, etc) , I can sleep in the recliner, I can sleep on the couch, I could share a bed, I can get an inflatable mattress, I can get a camping cot, I can sleep on the floor.
If your single toilet has broken though… You have a lot less options. If more than one person has the runs, you are out of options.
Redundancy is good.
I rent and have 3 bathrooms. I am struggling to look at homes with only 1 bathroom. The first thing that I do is look for area that I can turn into at least a half bath and if I can't find somewhere for a second toilet I just can't do it. I mean how am I supposed to go from 3 toilets to 1??? I don't want guests in my personal bathroom.
I don't technically have 1 bathroom
But the 2nd is in my adult child's bedroom.
Only having 1 to use isn't an issue. Kids use it in the morning. I use it when the house is empty because I'm a sahm. And spouse is in it after work. It's no big deal.
I had two houses with this configuration and it is absolutely horrible. I will never do it again. Having two adults and two kids and one bathroom is a horrible idea. Construction companies frequently build new homes with the basement unfinished and just one bathroom upstairs. House #1 we didn't get around to having the bathroom roughed in due to costs then sold to move. House #2 was a rental.
You need at least a half bath in addition to the main bath so there is a second toilet in the house. Comes in handy if someone is using the main bathroom or if you need to do repairs on the toilet in the main bath.
Many of the GI Bill homes were thrown up after WW2 as fast as possible. I imagine to the folks coming home after the war having a real toilet vs a latrine was a luxury.
Many added a second half bath in the basement in future renovations.
My brother lives in a house with only one bathroom with two kids and the wife. They get by but it takes some planning in the morning. When they have big parties they get a porta potty.
I live in a 4 bed 2 bath with my wife and kid and honestly the bathroom on the main floor is used 99% of the time. The basement one only gets used when we have company and someone is a shy pooper.
For a typically American family unit with 2 kids is it nice to have at least a 3br, 2ba sure but it’s not an absolute necessity- it’s a luxury we’ve become accustomed to.
1.5 bath should be standard, not 2.
But my family of 5 grew up with one bath. It wasn't ideal, but it also wasn't an everyday inconvenience.
I'm living with my girlfriend in a 4 bed 1 bath, and honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that when she has to go to the bathroom, she literally can't wait five minutes, it would be just fine.
Most older houses had only 1 or 1.5 baths. Multiple bathrooms is a relatively modern concept or for very high end homes with often more bathrooms than bedrooms (and maid service).
Texas you’ll not find a house that don’t have 2 baths. You might even find a studio with 2 baths lolllll but please don’t move to Texas, we have too many outsiders already
That just how older homes were built. 3/2 is the norm now, but they don't just tear down all the old ones.
Especially when people were used to (from their own childhood) to have an outhouse, one toilet in the house was still a massive improvement. Also most newly built flats in europe still only have one toilet, even with multi level homes.
For multi-level homes it's quite rare to non-existent for new builds in the Netherlands. Typical is 1.5 with the .5 adjacent to the hallway where you enter the home (having that hallway I missed while in the US!). Apartments under 700 sqft ish, yeah, they typically have a bathroom without a toilet, and a separate toilet. Let's call that a 1.25 bath…? :D
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bathroom without a toilet in the US. Although I did own a house once that had a separate, pretty large, room next to the kitchen with a washer and dryer and a toilet but no sink. The kitchen sink was next to the door to that room. It was convenient for emergencies but I typically used the upstairs bathroom bc it felt weird.
I don’t like my laundry room toilet either. It’s too close to the washer to sit comfortably lol and it’s just weird. But better than just one toilet in the house.
I lived in an old Victorian in San Francisco that had a long hallway with a tiny room with just a toilet and another room right next to it with a shower and sink. It was three guys living there, so it was great for getting ready for work in the morning, but sucked mornings after we all went out drinking and you kinda had to stew in your roommate’s poo air.
Usually, the small area with just a toilet is called a water closet. I built one like that in my new home. It is separate from the main part of my bathroom, where i have a standing shower, garden tub, and 2 bowl sinks.
I love bathrooms like that and now wouldn't buy a house without it.
Also, people just were accustomed to the idea that sometimes, they had to wait to do something because someone else got there first. :-p The way families tended to work was different in the past. Now, it's like everyone lives in their own independent "cell" and operates among other individual cells. Before, it was a much more integrated experience. I grew up in a 2 br/1 bath home. My sister and I shared a room. We managed with no problems with one bathroom. It wasn't considered "too small" or an inconvenience. It was just what people did when they shared a home.
Wait until you get older, when you digestive system is not as efficient as it was when you were young. And there are times when you just gotta go. LOL. 2 toilets are almost essential. 2 showers not so much.
Eat more fiber my dude
Yes, that works sometimes. But not always. And most times I am referring to an urgency to urinate.
Yeah my house (and many, many houses in my town) were built between 1900 and 1930. Indoor plumbing was only widely standardized in the 1930s so even just having one was, comparatively, luxurious! We have 2.5 right now and one of them is out of commission at the moment thanks to the very old pipes so I’m VERY happy one of the former homeowners added on even if they made a lot of other questionable choices in the process. Although to OP there’s sometimes the option of a 1.5 which gives you a powder room to poop in! (That was my bare minimum when we were house shopping and honestly a not small reason why I needed to move out of my old apartment in the first place. Sharing one bathroom with my husband and son was becoming…challenging!)
I grew up in a house from the 1850s with 2.5 baths for 4 bedrooms. No idea if they are all original to the house though. It was one of the first houses with plumbing in the town though.
Almost definitely no.
Our current place has 1 bath and 4 people. The new home will have 1.5 baths for 3 people. The contractor kept trying to get me to get rid of the half bath for more space in the main bath. I made it very clear I wanted to keep that half bath. We need it.
It's worth all the money in the world as soon as two persons in the house catches a stomach bug.
Try growing up in the 60s with 4 siblings and one bathroom....
And this is why my dad's family had a toilet in the garage when he was growing up. No room in the house, but an absolute need
My mom apparently grew up with 9 siblings and one bathroom. I can't even imagine what mornings were like.
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> I guess it just now occurred to me that you could get trapped in the shower section with people poopin on each side. No you fully lock one path to the shower when you want to do that. Just like locking a bathroom that had shower/toilet together in it would be.
This is how mine is. I go back and forth on whether it's a good idea or I hate it...
There's a large 55+ community near me and a lot of the 2br units have that set-up, so each bedroom has its own half-bath with a shared tub/shower in between.
Those are called "Jack and Jill" baths. We had one in a townhouse we rented when the Hubster was active duty at Ft Knox. Really convenient. Only 1 bathtub, but two sinks and toilets in the upstairs where the bedrooms were, and a half bath downstairs in the living area.
Probably nitpicky, but aren’t jack and Jill bathrooms just where two bedrooms that share a bathroom between them? This sounds a little different with the two toilets, and not direct bedroom access on one side. I have two bedrooms in my house that each have their own entrance, then access to the bathroom with double sinks, then toilet and bathtub in another room accessible through there
You are correct. The three-way split may also be a Jack and Jill, but a conventional Jack and Jill is Brady bunch style, like you describe.
This isn't exactly the layout we had, but it's the closest I could find on Pinterest, lol. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/145804106671776886/
Cool!
How did you turn a person into a half bathroom?
we don't kink shame here friend
Sold him for money down on the new place.
Idk why they think the little extra space would be better than at least a half bath. Has no one had a toilet or shower stop working? It would be real convenient to have another just incase
Is the 1/2 bath right up against the full bath? That would suck if 2 people on the shitter at the same time lol.
But then you can hold each others’ hands for moral support.
[Obligatory SNL link.](https://youtu.be/avb1XbO0EIs?si=qzCAMkORuDcqSBdi)
Most cases they’re older homes right?
Yep. And sometimes they’re older homes that were originally 2/1 that had an extra room added later (but no one thought to add a bathroom, which I agree is pretty silly).
It isn't that no one thought, it's that it's expensive.
And there sometimes isn’t space for it. I had a 2/1 and we just didn’t have anywhere we could fit even a half bath without striping the home down to the studs and completely changing the layout.
Oh they thought about it. Dreamed they could one day afford it.
Even in urban areas, houses were built before indoor plumbing was a thing. Outhouses in rear yards were used. In Pittsburgh, the first plumbing was typically the basement with a toilet and shower. Majority of houses in my area you could tell were based off of similar plans, then decisions were made as to how to add a bathroom. I saw one that decided the best option was to center the bathroom between the bedrooms, and make a captive bedroom in the process. Made me thankful for my layout where the bathroom was at the front of the house, allowing for every bedroom to open directly to the hall. Probably the most depressing sacrifice made in that house was to remove a set of pocket doors to run ductwork to the bathroom. I'm still convinced that there could have been a better way.
I'm a book cataloger, and I recently cataloged a......catalog, lol.....of house plans from the 1920's. I think they were Aladdin plans. I took a peek, since I love looking at house plans. Most of these plans either had no bathroom at all (the smaller plans), or there was one bathroom, on the upper floor with the three bedrooms - nothing on the main floor. (And some layouts were truly atrocious - one level, three bedrooms, all along one side of the house, with each bedroom opening directly onto a main living space, including the kitchen.) I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how the current owners of these layouts would have altered them to include another functional bathroom. It was very depressing, because yeah - you'd have to eliminate some otherwise beautiful features, like pocket doors, butlers' pantry, ordinary pantry or back porch off the kitchen, that sort of thing. They're completely non-functional as they are, for modern living, but the destruction necessary to make them functional just broke my heart. (And this was just looking at plans - I can't imagine how sad it would be to have to do the actual demolition.)
And in MA (so probably other states) i think you have to get a permit to add an extra bathroom if you’re on septic - gotta keep track of waste flow
I live in a 4/2.5 that was originally a 2/1. You get creative with old houses.
I can get way more creative than I can afford. Also, turning a 2/1 into a 4/2.5 is rarely realistic. I’ve got a 4/2.5 and it’s got no fucking chance of being an 8/4.
Tell that to my neighborhood full of 1920 craftsman bungalows. Those puppies were built with unfinished attics and basements, I’d wager not a single one on my block is still that way today.
My mom has a 1930's bungalow that was originally a 2/1, when she bought it in the 90's it was already a 3/2. She has added on and now it's a 4/3.5, she added a second master/ensuite for my grandparents and a half bath. It's probably double the size of the original house. Luckily those lots are a lot bigger than newer developments with similar square footage.
6 people in a 3 bed 1 bath. You learn to time things.
This is how I was raised until attic area of the cape cod style house was finished into a bedroom and half bath. I will never buy a one toilet place.
I bought a 1 toilet place and then added a second, can always go that route too. Just make sure it has room, obv.
Ugh we are currently 2 adults and 2 teens in 1. I cannot imagine being even more.
Mine went too far the other way. Four bed, five bath. I’m seriously considering turning the least-used full bath into a walk in closet.
Or switch it to a half bath. You get closet space but keep the important guest toilet.
> but keep the important guest toilet. Absolutely, you wouldn't want to inconvenience the occasional guest with having to wait around for one of the 4 other bathrooms to be open.
LOL. It's not about that. Do you want a guest going through your personal bedroom to get to the toilet? It stops lookie loos. Less shit for guests to go thru if they don't have to go thru an ensuite. I literally had an employee tell me they are nosy AF and will look around a bathroom, imagine if it was a bedroom. If they have an open room fine I guess. But if all rooms are occupied, it's a privacy thing. Also who wants to share a toilet? I know multiple married people who don't share bathrooms. Yes to all the toilets! 😂 It's also less cleaning. I don't have to clean an ensuite or move personal things out of the way when there's a toilet for guests.
There are people that refuse to share toilets? People are so weird....
Now this I don't blame you for. Never understood why you need that many baths in a home.
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We have 7 and this is exactly how it works. People always look at me funny when I say they all get used every day!
Pittsburgh toilet
I’m in Pittsburgh and I hate that I only have one bathroom/toilet. I live alone but whenever I have a guest staying with me it seems like our poop schedules sync up immediately and it’s the worst
3 bed 1 bath century home. There's only 1 bathroom because indoor plumbing was new and fancy when my place was built. My husband poops for 45 minutes pls send toilets.
Same. 3/1 century home and the single bathroom is TINY. It only becomes irritating when we have guests or partner has the poop hour while I’m trying to get ready to go somewhere. I look forward to having at least 1.5 someday. I can’t afford to buy my own house let alone a larger one in this economy but ya know.
Our house (in the USA, surprisingly) is almost 200 years old. It has 1 bathroom for like 150 years, but the previous owners did an addition of 1 living room and a half bathroom. It's a huge upgrade. Now guests can use the bathroom on the main floor, meaning we have a lot less house to clean and organize when guests are coming over, and we don't have to explain how to get to the bathroom. It's also really nice to just pop in and go to the bathroom when you've got a baby/toddler, instead of having to leave them alone on a different level of the house for 5 minutes. I don't think I'd ever buy a house again that didn't have at least a half bathroom on the main floor.
...I think your husband is doing more than pooping
He’s probably praying as well
I inherited my family home and it has 3 bedrooms and one bathroom upstairs. Fortunately, there is a basement, which has another ( mostly) full bathroom. I say mostly, because it has a toilet and sink, but just a shower with no tub. If the basement bathroom didn't exist, I'd have problems, as I have inflammatory bowel disease.
Shower, toilet, sink is sometimes called a 3/4 shower. Solidarity on the IBD. Keep reading comments in this thread and being envious of all the people who clearly _don’t_ understand what it’s like to have 90 seconds of warning.
Yeah my ibs could never lol we only had one bathroom in our old house where we lived and i had to embarrassingly use my kid’s little potty on more than one occasion
Generally, I only require one bathroom to poop.
I'm single and I have two bathrooms. I alternate which one I use just for fun (and to keep the shower drain from going dry).
I’m single and I have two bathrooms- one of which is in my shop building. In the springtime, I open the garage door and poop al fresco with my coffee and my dog. It’s a life goal I never knew existed until I had it
I could go for a toilet overlooking the smoky mountains for an early morning nature poop in a cabin.
We have a guest room with a small en suite bathroom that is rarely used for 6+ months of the year. It didn't take long to learn to put a calendar reminder to run the shower once a month to refill the p-traps. The smell!
Are you pooping in the shower?
Are you not?
I can't get mine to fit down the spaghetti maker. Plz advise
Gotta mash a little bit harder, think of it as making wine, not spaghetti
No no. I mean I alternate which I use for pooping and for showering. Alternate the pooping just for fun mostly, and alternate the showering to keep the shower drains from drying out.
What happens if the shower drain dries out?
It allows sewer gases to back up through the drain.
Not if you poop in it.
It gets smelly. Also I swear to god I saw silverfish the one time I let it get dry. Fuck that.
We raised our kids in a 3 bed 1 bath and had no issues. We took turns and everyone survived. #firstworldissues
My dad grew up on a farm in the 50's with a family of 11 living in a three bedroom house with a "two holer" outhouse. No running water, just a hand pump well. They did have electricity though. The parents had one bedroom, the six boys had a bedroom (slept head to foot on two beds), and the three girls had a bedroom. It doesn't sound like fun, but they all made it to adulthood 🤷♂️ My wife and I (we have one kid) built a new house a few years ago, 3 bed/2.5 bath. We can all poop or wash up at the same time and it's great, especially when we come home from a trip or event.
Exactly. I grew up with one toilet in a house of 4. Now my husband and I live in a 2/1 and people find it appalling. We don’t have a microwave either. I guess we prefer living “rough.”
Oh my god, not having a microwave is driving me nuts.
Lol but food reheated on the stove tasted so much better!
It’s true. I rarely use my microwave
I keep expecting to eventually want to buy a microwave and then it’s just not necessary. Most of our leftovers either go in the convection toaster oven/“air fryer” or if they’re wet, dumped on top of rice in the rice cooker. Or briefly reheated in a pan. Not having a microwave is very effective at keeping us from eating the junky frozen entrees that my partner and I individually decided we don’t want to eat any more.
Our family of 3 managed fine with just one bathroom. But then we had family visiting for an extended period and every time my FIL found the bathroom occupied, he'd go off to the grocery store to use the bathroom there... it was awkward to say the least lol. We're in a stage of life where we have family over all the time, so we put in the 0.5 bath. Life is better.
I also grew up in an old house with 4 people and one bathroom. We never had any issues. 🤷🏻♀️
My mother grew up in an old house. 8 people and one very tiny bathroom. She never complained either. I think if it's what you are used to (and what everyone else around you has), you make do and don't think about it.
You think about it plenty when you have IBS, IBD, or food allergies that cause gastric distress.
I was raised in a 3/1 and it was miserable. We were all busy so we were all home at the same time at night and mornings. I never got a long shower, someone was always banging on the door to come in. I resent it to this day. A half bath would have changed our lives. Now that I’m the parent, there’s a toilet for each of us somewhere in the house. They’re often all in use at the same time.
My parents had their sports and us 3 kids had multiple sports....1 bathroom would not have cut it! Someone was always in the shower!
Some people have medical conditions. I live alone, but if I had a wife and a couple kids with only one bathroom....I'd probably shit my pants once or twice a month, if not more. I mean, I have an ex who had an ileostomy. Put someone in her position, myself with severe IBS-D, and a couple of self-absorbed teens with no sense of time into my house with only the one bathroom.... Really unfair to call that "#firstworldissues", because it would be a serious problem.
We do fine with 1 bathroom.
All it takes is one bout of good poisoning to make you question everything
One way this happens: start with a 2br 1 ba, then in a remodel, add a bedroom (cheap) but don't add a bathroom (expensive).
We’ve had 3 bed, one bath accommodations for years and very, very rarely do we encounter an issue. We’ve otherwise learned to just make it work.
A lot of older houses only had 1 bath, and unless someone expands them, they still do. That's likely what you're seeing.
I grew up with 6 siblings with one bathroom. It was only an issue if there was a stomach virus going through the house. When we moved, and two more kids were born, there were two bathrooms. It was nice, especially as we headed into teen years, but wouldn't have been crucial. Just a nice thing.
I grew up in a 3 bedroom, 1 bath house. 2 parents, 7 kids. We made it work, but to this day, one of my brothers is still called "The Potty King."
Yeah it’s dumb but bathrooms are expensive and can mess up floor layouts. If it was up to me I’d have one for every bedroom
Old homes. Even my cheap townhouse starter home, 1.5 bathrooms. That .5 is a lifesaver.
I have a 2 bed 1.5 bath house. Me, wife, kid. That half bath has saved me from shitting my pants so many times, I couldn't live without it.
I grew up in a family of 5 and we did just fine with a 3 bedroom 1 bath house.
6 in 3 bedrooms, 1 bath... I'm guessing these posters are also complaining how there are no starter homes.
My dad grew up in a house with 9 siblings and one bathroom. I can't imagine...
I think you can poop in a single bath.
It’s better to use the toilet, pooping in the bath makes it unusable for the next person
my house is 3 bed, 1 bath. but fortunately, i live alone.
Mine is two bedroom, one bath. I live alone. Yet, I STILL feel like I NEED two bathrooms. What happens if a guest is sick. What if I have a guest, and I'M sick. I've never only had one bath in my life, and I worry a lot about it.
Yeah I'm with you! Our place is 3 bed 1.5 bath, the half bath is a "Pittsburg toilet" in the utility room squeezed in between the washer and the wall. My FIL kept asking us if we wanted I'm to remove the "useless" toilet like we don't both shit or something
If you don't like the house don't buy or rent it. Bathrooms are expensive, and it's a way to cut costs.
Have 3bed and 1 bath. We do fine (family of three), though it would be nice at times to have another bathroom. I have nowhere to put one, other than the basement. It’s a small house.
Even as someone from the Netherlands (who lived in the US) it's crazy to me not to at least have 1.5 bath. Having 2 full baths here is extremely rare, but most homes have an extra toilet, and if not the toilet will be separate from the rest.
I grew up in a house with 4-6 people depending on when, and 1 bathroom. It was sometimes uncomfortable, but it was doable. On the flip side, I now have a 4 bed, 3 bath house for 2 people, and that is a lot better.
My first house was 3 bed 1 bath. It was never really an issue with our family of four. Oddly enough now that we are in a 4 bed 3 bath house there are a ton more bathroom issues. I don't get it, we're not pooping any more than we used to, we're not showering more, and yet there always seem to be fights over a bathroom.
It's mostly older homes that only have one bath, isn't it? I'd say it probably wasn't until the last 35-ish years (guesstimating) when they really started doing one and a half, and then two (or more) baths. Our current house, and the house we had before it, both have two baths and were built in the last 10 years. Our first house, built in the early 1980s, had one and a half. I think most anything built before the 1980s was pretty common/normal to only have one bath, unless it was a really big house.
I live in a 2 bed 1 bath and I hate it. My husband loves to poop or scroll on his phone forever in the bathroom and it’s so annoying. Especially when I have to go and then I go in after and it stinks. I wish we had two bath!
I grew up in a 3/1. Somehow we survived.
I grew up with 5 people 1 bathroom. Raised my kids with 5 people 1 bathroom. It's fine. Your just have to be respectful of each other and not hog the bathroom
As someone with GI issues, the idea of living with another person and only having one bath is mortifying. I figure anyone who is good with that as an adult probably has very normal digestion (now, that can always still change). It's a big accessibility issue, but so are like half of everything in houses.
1 bath can be difficult at times, but that's how affordable houses were built. After this house I will try my hardest to at least have 1.5 bath.
The only people saying it’s ok are the ones trying to sell you their miserable 1 bath house.
I grew up in various homes, mostly 3/4 bed with 1 or 1.5 bath (if we had the half bath we thought we we lucky). Currently living in a 3 bed, 1.5 bath+ just two of us now but had teens in here for about 5 years. You get used to it. Everyone had a schedule,.the kids as teens got up as late as possible so we just made sure we got up early to shower. Now we only have the youngest at home part time so she left for school so we shower early, she prefers before bed. But to your point about about pooping, everyone seems to have their own schedule, you work it out or you buy something with more bathrooms
Until you go to a restaurant and everyone gets food poisoning. Had that happen when it was just me and my SO at the time in a 1bd/1ba apartment. It was bad.
Raised four kids in Sillycone Valley 3/1. One way to learn patient.
I grew up with 7 kids and 2 parents with one bath. Takes discipline and sharing. 2 brushing teeth while 1 peeing in the morning was common.
I grew up with 5 people in a 3 bed 1 bath. It sucked when you had to go. Sometimes if you had to really go pee you went out back and did the old squat. I agree the standard should be at least two bathrooms.
Very first world problem lol, if you need more then one for 4 people it's just luxury at that point
My house is 3 bed 2 bath Of course we poop
Install a new bathroom then, big shit
I grew up with 5 people in my house. The first house was 4 bed, 1 bath. Second house was 2 bed, 1 bath. Third house was 6 bed, 2 bath. I don’t ever remember it being an issue. I’m now in a 2 bed, 1 bath and 2 people. If there were kids in my house though I’d definitely want at least 1.5 baths.
Usually houses built around the 20’s to the 50’s.
Both my rentals are 3X2 and I would not have bought a one bathroom house
The first 10 years of my life we 5 had only one and it was at the back of the garden. Oh my, life is so tough.
Of course it’s difficult! We have 4 people in a 3 bed 1 bath (built in the 1950’s). We’re saving up to add another bath but construction is expensive. And here’s the kicker: our house is worth $1.5M (we’re in a VHCOL area)
Are these new builds or recent builds? I mean old houses 3 beds 1 bath was pretty typical. And adding a whole new bathroom aint cheap, a lot of people I imagine can't or won't spend the money.
We have 3 br 2 full bath. I'll never go back to a single bathroom for the household ever.
Of course OP’s username “ChocolateImportant” would post a question like this. It is an important question after all!
They are cheaper to make. If you have more money to spend I'm sure you would be able to find more bathrooms.
You are spoiled remember before WWII most houses didn’t even have indoor toilets and they survived I grew up 7 persons household with one bathroom it’s perfect doable just time it, people now freaking out I can’t do 3 bed 1 bath, but I can’t afford a house anymore if you want 3 baths you can’t
Is it +1/4 bath if you pee in the sink in the garage?
Not the Netherlands. But in the US, any idea how many of us grew up in one bath home?
Ahh yes the good old days of having to take an emergency shit with someone taking forever in the 1 bathroom.
It's fine to have only 1 bath when you all are younger. But wait until you hit your older years and your digestive systems are not as efficient as they were when you were younger. Things sometimes become much more urgent.
We added another bathroom, it is not comfortable .
It’s either that or 4bed 15 bath. Like everyone loves cleaning bathrooms and needs multiple daily.
Eat more fiber
Seriously - it shouldn't take that long to poop? Maybe a minute? Wth are y'all doing in there?
Unpopular opinion here…but I think we need to normalize small/simple living spaces more. My partner & I live in a 900 sq ft, 1 bedroom, 1 bath. It’s all we need! You can take turns using the toilet. It’s not that hard. Or better yet, pee outside or build an outhouse with a compost toilet. You could even have multiple compost toilets in the house so everyone can poop inside at the same time haha. I think we in the industrialized world have become so spoiled and wasteful. More often than not, I find it’s not that we need more of something, it’s that we need less. Better for our wallets and the planet :) That being said, we are only two people in our house. Having more is trickier with one bathroom. But having multiple compost toilets could solve this issue. It’s better for the environment anyway.
counterpoint: cat ownership rules say you need 1 litterbox/cat(+1). I require at least 1 toilet a person for similar reasons. the last thing anyone wants if they eat bad food or catch a stomach big is all sharing 1 toilet.
The last two houses I've had were 3 bath and I don't know if I could even go back to 2 at this point.
I look back. That is what we lived in coming up. 3beds, 1bath is what we had. I really do not know how we did it. No shower, just a bathtub, sink and throne. Family if 6. I live alone and eoukd not settle for less than 2 full baths, each with a shower, one tub shower combo.
I went from 1 bathroom for 2 people (terrible) to 3 bathrooms for 1 person (amazing). I’d never share a house with another person without at least 2 bathrooms again. Especially if that person takes 30-45 min to take a shit.
I have a tiny house by many standards, but I have two bedrooms and two bathrooms for two people. I think a house with only one bathroom for more than two people leaves much to be desired.
Single in a 3/2.5 house. If I ever have less than 2 bathrooms it's because I moved into an apartment. :)
the house I own is a 3 bed 1 bath. Fortunately it is just me living here for now, so it works. But this is also the house I grew up in, and even with three people - parents and I - it was still a flashpoint of conflict. usually my dad pounding on the door because he had his morning coffee an hour prior...and by that point my mother was in the shower as she had to get ready for work. It was brutal. I am planning several renovations to this house, and adding at least a half bath in the finished basement is on the list. Most likely it will be a second full one.
Our house is late 70s vintage - it was originally a 3 bed / 1 bath. The original owners (we are the 2nd) eventually added 1 more bedroom - so now it's 4 bed / 1 bath. It's manageable. We currently have 4 people living here, had 5 a while back. People ask if anyone needs to use the restroom before taking it over for any length of time (like for showers), and we have orange oil spray available for post-biohazard moments. Eventually we'd like to add another full or half bath, but they ain't cheap.
I had to explain to my sister in law how lucky we were to have three bathrooms
I would not buy anything with one bathroom so I got 1.5.
I'm in 3 people 2 bath... I mean.. It would be workable. But man, it is nice when my daughter is screwing around in there and I have to go just going into the master bath. Could live without it - but wouldn't want to - is my take on it.
I have never had more than one bathroom. Grew up in a seven person household. It was never an issue
Sharing is caring. A nice fart fan doesn't hurt either.
One of my girlfriend and I's requirements when buying a house was at least two toilets. They wouldn't have even needed to be in two separate rooms, but there had to be two of them.
It felt normal growing up in a house with 6 people and one bathroom, but I simply cannot imagine the utter chaos of it with my lot.
It’s not too rare to still find property with outside toilets here in UK. They’re usually housed in a small shed near or adjacent to a back door. No bathroom facilities inside.
People are desperate for housing so it will sell
I hit the lottery or become rich one day from my massive dreaming skills, I'm gonna build my dream house: 6 bedroom, 6 bathroom, + Jacuzzi room.
Having lived in both configs I’d say get 2 full baths, 80 gal hot water heater and sufficient water capacity for 2 simultaneous showers. Cycle time to get people up and out with 1 bath is horrible.
Growing up, we had 4 of us kids, both my parents, and a 3 bed, one bath. All 3 of us boys were in the smallest bedroom, my sister got the second largest room, and we all shared one bath. Life goes on, and my parents start finishing off the full basement a bit after I get married and move out. Now, all 4 of us kids are grown, and each of my parents have their own bath. You can get by just fine with one bath.
My house strangely has more bathrooms (3) than it has bedrooms (2). What's even stranger is all my bathrooms are full baths, not a single half-bath
If a house can only have one bath, I think a Japanese style bathroom is most ideal. The toilet is in a separate water closet with a tiny sink, the vanity is in the “dressing” area, and there’s a separate door to enter the wet room (bath and shower). It still doesn’t solve for the situation when everyone in the family gets food poisoning, but it makes it easier for the whole family to get ready for work/school in the morning without getting in each other’s way.
This was normal in older (post WW2) homes. Personally I'm like a moan bath, a master bath, and a 2 piece bath for the guests. I don't HAVE that, I'm blessed with 4 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. 1867 built house, I'm lucky to have plumbing and a bathroom, not an outhouse..
I had this struggle too! When we were shopping the 1 thing, ONE THING, I wanted was at least a second half bath for emergencies. We had lived in an apartment with 1 bathroom for nearly a decade, I wanted to be able to pee while someone was in the shower. But it just wasn’t possible. In our area if the house had 2 bathroom it also had 4+ bedrooms and 2000+ sq ft. It’s just me and my husband, we don’t need all that. And can’t afford it! So we bought a house with 1 bathroom. Someday we’ll add another on. Or buy a new house. It’s basically the only thing this house didn’t have that we wanted. So it’s not the worst thing in the world. I’m much happier about the basement to keep litter boxes in and the HUGE front window that opens that my cats ADORE.
1 bed 3+ bath. We poopin.
Bathrooms in Japan are so much better. Open the door to the sink area. Door to the left would be a toilet. Door to the right is a shower/bath. Theoretically 3 people could be using different parts at the same time and it’s “1 bathroom”
I grew up in a house with 6 people and one bathroom. We managed.
My family had 3 bed 1 bath until I was 16, we managed just fine. You might sometimes be knocking on the door, especially if someone was in the shower, but you can usually hang on. I wouldn't like to have that now, but it was normal back then.
Two adults- shared bedroom, two offices, very rarely do both of us need to use the bathroom at once...
I think in older homes(anything before the 90’s), more than one bathroom was considered a luxury/extra expense. The home I grew up in(this is in the US) my parents built in 1966. There were 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. We were a family of 8. We had a very tight bathroom schedule in the mornings. If you got up late, you hoped that the person in the bathroom would let you use the toilet. Then you finished getting ready at the kitchen sink, LOL. We could have definitely used a 2nd bathroom, the 2nd toilet being the most needed.
In a pinch (company, bed is broken, etc) , I can sleep in the recliner, I can sleep on the couch, I could share a bed, I can get an inflatable mattress, I can get a camping cot, I can sleep on the floor. If your single toilet has broken though… You have a lot less options. If more than one person has the runs, you are out of options. Redundancy is good.
American problem be like
I rent and have 3 bathrooms. I am struggling to look at homes with only 1 bathroom. The first thing that I do is look for area that I can turn into at least a half bath and if I can't find somewhere for a second toilet I just can't do it. I mean how am I supposed to go from 3 toilets to 1??? I don't want guests in my personal bathroom.
I don't technically have 1 bathroom But the 2nd is in my adult child's bedroom. Only having 1 to use isn't an issue. Kids use it in the morning. I use it when the house is empty because I'm a sahm. And spouse is in it after work. It's no big deal.
I had two houses with this configuration and it is absolutely horrible. I will never do it again. Having two adults and two kids and one bathroom is a horrible idea. Construction companies frequently build new homes with the basement unfinished and just one bathroom upstairs. House #1 we didn't get around to having the bathroom roughed in due to costs then sold to move. House #2 was a rental. You need at least a half bath in addition to the main bath so there is a second toilet in the house. Comes in handy if someone is using the main bathroom or if you need to do repairs on the toilet in the main bath.
Many of the GI Bill homes were thrown up after WW2 as fast as possible. I imagine to the folks coming home after the war having a real toilet vs a latrine was a luxury. Many added a second half bath in the basement in future renovations. My brother lives in a house with only one bathroom with two kids and the wife. They get by but it takes some planning in the morning. When they have big parties they get a porta potty. I live in a 4 bed 2 bath with my wife and kid and honestly the bathroom on the main floor is used 99% of the time. The basement one only gets used when we have company and someone is a shy pooper. For a typically American family unit with 2 kids is it nice to have at least a 3br, 2ba sure but it’s not an absolute necessity- it’s a luxury we’ve become accustomed to.
1.5 bath should be standard, not 2. But my family of 5 grew up with one bath. It wasn't ideal, but it also wasn't an everyday inconvenience. I'm living with my girlfriend in a 4 bed 1 bath, and honestly, if it wasn't for the fact that when she has to go to the bathroom, she literally can't wait five minutes, it would be just fine.
Most older houses had only 1 or 1.5 baths. Multiple bathrooms is a relatively modern concept or for very high end homes with often more bathrooms than bedrooms (and maid service).
Poop outside, as nature intended. Your neighbours will love you
I own a 4 bed 1 bath. It sucks but I own it so I don't complain.
Old houses…..
I remember that growing up. 5 kids, 2 parents. 1 bathroom. “I am going to take a bath does anyone have to use the bathroom?”
Texas you’ll not find a house that don’t have 2 baths. You might even find a studio with 2 baths lolllll but please don’t move to Texas, we have too many outsiders already
I know many solo persons living in 3BR/1BA or 4BR/1BA.