Too many redundant bathrooms? Old houses had one! (floor, sink, showers)

[Racelady88]

Originally Posted by square peg

Closet space, on the other hand, seems to be more problematic. It's like the folks from a hundred years back didn't own more than a few garments and other assorted items which we would sure like to store properly today.

They used to use closet space as a means of figuring out your taxes. Less closet space = lower taxes. People used wooden wardrobes. Lots of the big older homes here have hidden closets behind the walls.

[j33]

Originally Posted by Evey

They used to use closet space as a means of figuring out your taxes. Less closet space = lower taxes.

So that explains why only one of the 9 apartments (all of which have been in building built in the late 1800's or early 1900's) I've rented in Chicago have had a closet in the bedroom (and that one was clearly built at a much later date).

[Cosmic]

Originally Posted by Evey

They used to use closet space as a means of figuring out your taxes. Less closet space = lower taxes. People used wooden wardrobes. Lots of the big older homes here have hidden closets behind the walls.

It probably varies depending on where you are. In the Boston area, you could not call a room a bedroom when selling a house unless it had a closet. Could be a broom sized closet but had to have one.

I think that is also right. In the old dazes they used free standing amwars (sp). Or just threw their spare rags in a pile.

It was also common for the very old houses to share one bigger closet in the hallway. Not every bedroom had a closet. In some cases only mom/pop had one. They also used the attics with a hanging rack.

[Ben Around]

I grew up in a family of 6 in a middle income neighborhood in upstate NY. Our 1920s 3-bedroom house (as well as those of our neighbors) had only one bathroom, and a tub but no shower. I don't remember ever feeling inconvenienced, even though one of us was my teenaged sister. However, I don't think I'd want to live in a house like that again (my wife & 2 kids now live in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath home).

[CandyApple]

Well, back in the day before I moved out on my own, later having a kiddo... I was in a three bedroom, three bath house, just us- a family of three. You'd be surprised how often ALL of us needed to use the bathroom all at once, and it wasn't becasue anyone was showering!

Now one bathroom... and the same thing happens! I'm never going to get my daughter toilet trained, unless she uses her potty in the living room when I'm "occupied"! (She did that once, actually! And she even stayed on the potty until I got out and said she could get off. Smart girl. It could have been disastrous!)

[Muggy]

While I applaud space-conservative living, living below your means, and avoiding excess, I wholly support having 15 toilets for every 2 adults; double if there are children involved.

Failure is not an option.

[ExNYC]

I grew up in an apartment in NY with three siblings. It had two BRs and one Bth. We didn't have too many fights over the bathroom, amazingly enough. When my husband and I lived in CT with three kids, we had 2.5 bths which was perfect. One for us, one for them, and one downstairs. Then we moved to a house in CA with five bedrooms and five bathrooms (one shared between two of the bedrooms). Know what? We all got used to having our own bathrooms and loved it. Kids each had their own, and a half-bath downstairs. It was great. Now we live in Oregon in a four bedroom house with three bathrooms. It's just fine.

[Yorkie_Mom]

Try living with two adults and ten kids. We only had two bathrooms, most of the time you were stuck waiting to get into one. Then once you were in, someone was banging on the door to get in.
It never worked out, I say if you have kids, we have one at home, only 12 years old, but she can sure hog the bathroom, so we could use two for sure, even though we only have one. I hope when we move it will be at least a 1.5 bathrooms, she will be a teenager soon!!!!

[Need_affordable_home]

so why did old houses only have one bathroom if its inconvinent unless you lived alone?

[Siouxlander]

Originally Posted by Need_affordable_home

Anyone notice that most houses in the early 1900s had just a single bathroom? Some of the very big ones may have 1.5 or 2 bathrooms, occasionally even 3! Houses today often have 3, 4, 5 or more bathrooms! The expensive luxury houses have so many bathrooms its ridiculous! They often have more bathrooms than bedrooms! Who needs a 6 bedroom house with 8 full bathrooms and 3 half bathrooms? Even our 4 bedroom house has 5 bathrooms(well it had 4 before dad added a 5th one only because HOA had stupid rules about adding another bedroom) We never use all the bathrooms at the same time! Our house really needs only 2 or 3 bathrooms!

Did people like sharing a bathroom in the past or was it expensive to make a bathroom? Most 3, 4, 5 bedroom houses long ago had just a single bathroom, in fact many of those with more than 1 bathroom were recent additions, they origionally had just one!

ROFL! I have a good friend who's an architect. He told me that many of his affluent clients must have some kind of urological disorder.

I think it's just a symbol of status. I have a four person household and we got by on one bathroom for many years, and now have 3. 2 is more than sufficient, unless of course one needs to use the bathroom every five minutes.

He and I agree that in a few years this trend is going to stop, and someone shopping for a house twenty years from now will be turned off by "trendy" things like redundant bathrooms, granite counters, etc. Granite counters are starting to make houses look dated and pretentious... same with the nine million bathrooms.