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My sister's retirement complex are all one-bath, shower-only apartments, BUT, they have public bathrooms at the end of each hallway (with a tub!) and boy, does that come in handy when "needs" coincide!
That seems like a good solution in an apt. setting.
Now that I remember in college we rented a house that had 3 floors and 2 bathrooms. So although there were 6 bedrooms and therefore 6 people and 3 per bathroom, generally a bathroom was always available to use because working and class hours were different. So during any given time of the week only about 3-4 people were actually home at any given time.
Now that I remember in college we rented a house that had 3 floors and 2 bathrooms. So although there were 6 bedrooms and therefore 6 people and 3 per bathroom, generally a bathroom was always available to use because working and class hours were different. So during any given time of the week only about 3-4 people were actually home at any given time.
3 floors, 6 bedrooms, and 2 bathrooms? Wow, sounds like an old house, built back even the biggest homes had just one or two bathrooms. It may have been an immigrant tenement at one point, from the turn of the 20th century. That's when whole families slept in a single bedroom.
My college apartment was old too. It still had radiant heating, carved wooden doors, beautiful crown mouldings on the ceiling, and a window in the bathroom (a lifesaver after certain functions ). The bathroom sink was tiny, though.
... many large families had a single outhouse without running water. They probably would have found a house with a single indoor bathroom to be the height of luxury. People adapt to that they have and can afford. Your mother's reasoning as stated is rather strange but perhaps was her rationale for affording a house with one bathroom. "Oh, I prefer it this way."
This was our family. We rented a farm that had a huge house without running water and a two-holer outhouse. I was still a small child when we replaced the old windmill with an electric water pump and actually had running water into the house -- a single sink with cold water. Still no tub and shower, still no toilet, still no hot water heater.
We had a galvanized steel bathtub that was brought in every Saturday night and set in the dining room in front of the propane heater. Water was heated on the stove and with an electric portable water heater that got placed in the tub. "Don't touch the water until the heater is removed or you'll be electrocuted." One tub of water served all 6 of us. Saturday afternoon was hair shampooing time -- two water basins, one for washing, one for rinsing. Again, water was heated on the stove. Any other "bathing" was done outside, either in the creek, in a livestock water tank that we used as kids' pool, or with a garden hose.
About that stove and propane heater. We got those at about the same time as our "running water." A propane stove and heater were big deals. Before that Mom cooked everything on a wood stove, and all the heat came from that or from the big coal/wood/corncob furnace in the basement.
In 1958 we moved to town, into a new 1000 sq ft 3 bedroom, 1 bath home. It sat on an unfinished basement that also had a toilet, shower and laundry sink in a corner of it. We hung curtains around it for some privacy.
Our 6-member family had no problems getting by with 1 bathroom, although we did have the extra toilet in the basement for emergencies. I also showered in the basement most every night. Actually, few homes then had more than 1 bathroom on the main level and one in the basement.
The first home I bought (1972), built in 1970 on "snob hill" only had one bathroom plus a 1/2 bath in the basement. A few years later we built our dream home -- 2400 sq ft with two full baths on the main floor, another 1000 feet and one bath in the basement. That was like, WOW!
some people don't know they've lived! 2 bathrooms? over here we call that showing off!!
Hah. My friend's grandmother in the 70s/80s lived in an apartment in Glasgow in her later years after a lifetime of living in poverty. She still used a chamber pot, even though there was a bathroom in the apartment.
Oh Geez. You should see how people live in other western countries who are considered middle-class.
My parents both came from large families and lived in apartments with either an outhouse or had a bathroom down the hall for all of the tenants. They shared a bed with their siblings. I grew up in a 2 bedroom apartment, sharing a bedroom with siblings with one bathroom for all of us and yes, my mother worked. The kids took a shower/bath at night, my father would take a shower in the morning. We didn't wash our hair everyday. We didn't wake up 10 minutes before we had to leave the house and we ate full breakfasts at home before work and school. I still live in a house with only one bathroom as do others on my block with families of 5 or more with grandparents living there too.
If you watch old TV shows you can see that "Beaver and "Wally" took a bath before bedtime, as did "Dennis." In the Brady Bunch, 3 girls shared a bedroom and 3 boys shared another bedroom. Not every kid needs their own room.
When we started to get a little money, Mother would go to the beauty parlor once a week to get her hair set.
Never lived any place with a dishwasher. I don't even know how to use one. It's still pretty common here for apartments not to have dishwashers or washer/dryers.
I would say "times have changed," but no plenty of people here with families with 3 or more kids still only have one bathroom.
Grew up with one full bath upstairs and a half bath (no shower) downstairs with usually 5 people in the house. All showers or baths were taken at night and maybe every other day for some family members. We lived in a very cold climate and hot showers really dried out your skin.
My dad and brother shaved downstairs which helped - having that powder room was a luxury when many nice houses still had only one bathroom. DH and I bought our first home with 1 and 1/2 baths as we didn't have any hang ups over it. That was the way it was with almost all middle class families where I lived.
Now DH and I each have our own bathrooms and another for guests and I love it!
I don't know how they manage either. I'd love to have more than one bathroom and there's only two of us.
Hahah - me too!
Until my sister and I were teenagers there was only 1 bathroom. Times were simpler - it wasn't as common to take daily showers, for example. Also, my mom had a dressing table in their bedroom so she was doing her hair and makeup there which I'm sure helped.
Once you're a teenager though, all bets are off, especially with girls!
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). The bathroom sink was tiny, though.
