Those with only one bathroom... - Page 2

[caiesmommy]

There's me, dh, ds(2.5) and dd(9 weeks). We have one bathroom. Sometimes truthfully I think it would be nice to have a second, then I think about cleaning another and say forget that! My husbands cousin has a house w three( 2 full 1 half) and she HATES cleaning them. There'sno way I would have the patience. Dh worked for a housing company building brand new homes. And the majority had 4-5 bathrooms! ARE YOU KIDDING ME! I have better things to do then clean that many bathrooms!

[vm9799]

Originally Posted by Jodie

vicki~ Nice room.

thank you! lauren (my dd) loves it!

[vm9799]

Originally Posted by Angelorum

When I was 11 my family of 6 moved into a house with only one bathroom. I have two sisters on either side of me, and a younger brother. It really wasn't much of an issue (even when all three of us girls were teenagers!) but there were a couple things that helped things run smoothly

Everyone was cool having a pee while someone else in the family was in the shower, and vice versa. This meant you didn't lock the bathroom door during your shower, unless you wanted to have to get out dripping wet to unlock it for whoever was doing the potty dance on the other side of the door. We also had an opaque shower curtain.

My mom did keep her makeup in the bathroom, but she always did her hair in her bedroom, and all of us girls had mirrors and vanity/dresser tops to do our primping in our bedrooms. As I recall, I didn't feel like it was too big a deal to share the bathroom with mom while she was putting her face on.

If someone was sick and had a bedroom far away from the bathroom, they would get comfortably set up in the living room, which was next to the bathroom. More than one vomiting kid usually meant barf buckets, so no one puked on the floor while waiting for the bathroom.

My little brother went through a hyper modest phase, and wouldn't share with anyone for a while, but he never spent that much time in the bathroom anyway.

It really never seemed like a big deal to me, and now that my parents are close to being empty nesters in that house, it is nice to not have two bathrooms to clean.

you pretty much described my own childhood.....and some of what we do at our house now! it definitely wasn't/isn't a big deal......although there were only 2 of us girls. i will also add that it really helped us learn to "share space" with others. when we went off to college there was no issue in having to share a dorm room or a bathroom with a roommate and then after as well in apartments. i mean, we were already used to having someone barge in while in the shower, etc. lol! and this was especially helpful in dealing with a "live-in" situation with dh (when he wasn't my h yet).

[painefaria]

Currently we are a family of 4 with three adults and a wee one that is just learning. We have learned to kind of work around it. I think that it would be nice to have a half bath in our house but it is not necessary.

When I was in AmeriCorps*NCCC I lived in a house with 13 other adults and we had ONE bathroom. We worked it out, you know. I know that there were times that people REALLY had to go and they just went outside but most of the time we managed.

[kirstenb]

Originally Posted by Angelorum

When I was 11 my family of 6 moved into a house with only one bathroom. I have two sisters on either side of me, and a younger brother. It really wasn't much of an issue (even when all three of us girls were teenagers!) but there were a couple things that helped things run smoothly

Everyone was cool having a pee while someone else in the family was in the shower, and vice versa. This meant you didn't lock the bathroom door during your shower, unless you wanted to have to get out dripping wet to unlock it for whoever was doing the potty dance on the other side of the door. We also had an opaque shower curtain.

My mom did keep her makeup in the bathroom, but she always did her hair in her bedroom, and all of us girls had mirrors and vanity/dresser tops to do our primping in our bedrooms. As I recall, I didn't feel like it was too big a deal to share the bathroom with mom while she was putting her face on.

If someone was sick and had a bedroom far away from the bathroom, they would get comfortably set up in the living room, which was next to the bathroom. More than one vomiting kid usually meant barf buckets, so no one puked on the floor while waiting for the bathroom.

My little brother went through a hyper modest phase, and wouldn't share with anyone for a while, but he never spent that much time in the bathroom anyway.

It really never seemed like a big deal to me, and now that my parents are close to being empty nesters in that house, it is nice to not have two bathrooms to clean.

This sounds a lot like how I grew up as well. My parents added a half bath on the main floor when I was in middle school (the full bath was upstairs) but it was mainly used for when guests were over.

Right now we have a full bath upstairs and a half bath downstairs. The full bath is attached to our bedroom so I like that we have one downstairs for guests. I have never needed another shower. I hate cleaning bathrooms so the less there are, the better.

[LilMama23]

We have one bathroom for the three of us (DH, DD (3), & I) and a half-bath downstairs off the living room. It has definitely not been a problem for us at all, and I much prefer it this way - lots less cleaning to do!

[PatienceAndLove]

We usually had two full sized bathrooms- one for mom and dad, and one for lil sis and I.

We are in a one bed/one bath, and I do wish we had one more closet and a half-bath. Although I do adore having the tub/toilet behind the door, and the vanity/sink area separate.

When I get to build my dream house, that's what we are doing.

[Jodie]

I can't wait to see this house. The bathroom has been totally re-done.:
The kitchen is nice too.

[mommajb]

We have 2.5 baths. I would have no problem with only 1.5 for the 7 of us. Ds1 takes forever, usually when there are chores to be down. :

We have one upstairs with the older kids bedrooms. The tub is a slow drainer nad under the eaves so that I cannot even sit up straight in it. We never use it except for storing dirty laundry. Having a toilet upstairs is nice but but since I don't sleep up there I don't really care.

The main bath is downstairs back by the bedrooms. We all shower here, I always potty here.

The half bath is in the family room addition. It has no vent fan so I have asked people not to stink it up. It is near enough to the back door that it gets lots of use by 12 yo boys and the 3 yo girls, mine and others. Unfortunately this means it is quite dirty at the end of a summer day. It is the bathroom most of my guests use. As they are the mothers of said children I don't worry about the mess as long as I know it is water from the sprinkler and dirt from the yard.

[thewaggonerfamily]

We are a family of 8 and have always had one bathroom. Hopefully we will have 1 or 2 more by this summer. (Renovations! hooray!) Honestly its like the pp described. Occasionally someone is doing the potty dance while yelling at the one in the bathroom to hurry up. They only time it is a problem is when everyone or almost everyone has the pooping and puking stomach flu (Can't figure out which end to point at the toilet sort of deal.) And there are times with boys with poor aim that I would love my own bathroom. But mostly we make it work.

Its a huge old victorian house that didn't have plumbing when it was built, so we have plenty of room and are planning 1 or 2 baths and a MBR in a 20 x 25 walk in attic on the second floor after we move all our storage stuff up to the 3rd floor. The bigger issue is the bathroom is on the 1st floor and the bedrooms are on the second floor. It sucks to trot down to the bathroom 42 times a night when you are pregnant!

[UberMama]

We have one bathroom and are a family of five. Yes, it's less to clean but it also means I store some stuff in the hall closet that normally would go in the bathroom (hair dryer, for instance) due to lack of room. Also, there's been a few times where one of us has had tummy issues, and at least 1-2 other people are waiting to go to the bathroom. :/

I told DH, when we move again, I don't care if our house has 3 or 4 bedrooms but we need two bathrooms again. We used to have two bathrooms at our house before this, rarely used the second bathroom, but that's when all three kids were still dipes!

[Delicateflower]

We've had one bath/shower/toilet room. We would have been fine (even with visitors) if the toilet were in a separate room.

My ideal would be two toilets, two showers and one bath.

[lolar2]

Obviously, one CAN survive with only one bathroom. But it's really good to have a second toilet. I know in our house, I have Crohn's disease so I have symptoms that are the equivalent of moderate food poisoning several times a year. If we had only one toilet, we would have had a lot more carpet cleaning to do over the years.

[DisplacedYooper]

We have only one bathroom, and it's a tiny one, (about 5 x 8). We do fine, but we're not very modest either - if I need to brush my teeth while DH is making use of the toilet, so be it!

[MommyErin]

We have 2.5 baths for four people and they all get used FREQUENTLY. I grew up in a house with only one bath (and an extra toilet in the basement) for six people and I'll definitely take overkill any day.

In our current house, we have a half bath on the first floor which we use all day. We have two full baths on the second floor -- one for the kids and one in the Master Bedroom. If it came down to it, I could go to 1.5 bathrooms but I wouldn't want to go less than that.

It seems that it's not so much having one bathtub/shower but it's having space in one bathroom for four people's stuff. I guess one would be fine if it were a LARGE one.

[Jodie]

Thanks for all the replies.

We are moving forward on a house with one bathroom.
There is space to add another bath or 1/2 bath later on down the road.

The draw back to this house, which we can change later, is that it has carpet in the bedrooms and living areas. I don't look forward to DS having accidents on the carpet.

[annethcz]

We lived in a one bathroom house with 3 people (me, DH and DS). Usually it wasn't a problem. But it was HORRIBLE when we were sick. There were two instances in which it was a HUGE problem- once when we all got food poisoning, and again when we all had the stomach flu (vomiting/diarrhea). After those experiences, I prefer to live in a house with more than one toilet.

[mommathea]

We have 1 bathroom with a family of 6 - 1 still in diapers and 1 pt leaning. And I grew up in a family of 6 with 1 bathroom.
There are some lines at time, but it teaches patients but it is completely do able.
Sunday mornings were a little fun, but the kids take bath/showers in the evening leaving the shower to the parents inthe morning, OR with we were teens we had to get up and out of the shower by the time Mom and Dad got up to shower. We did hair and makeup in our rooms and not in front of the sink.

[at_the_hip]

we need more than one...

We couldn't go with less than 2 bathrooms. The girls share one, and dh and I share one, although to be honest he spends a lot more time in there than I do!!! LOL

That being said, the main reasons we couldn't go with one are that it would be difficult to get out of the house quickly since everyone potties first, but most importantly, when someone (or all) is sick, we really need at least two. I have to say having 3 would have helped a couple times. I don't know what it is about that Norwalk virus but we seem to get it every year or two and it is awful when everyone is sick at once.

[at_the_hip]

Ann - just saw your post and I have felt your pain!!!! I wonder why these stomach viruses are so much more common?