Check out my index page for the rest of this series.
Yesterday I talked about bedroom sharing and today I want to touch on bathroom sharing. As you can imagine our 800 square foot apartment only has one bathroom, which also seconds as an indoor pool.
The baby doesn’t use the toilet, but he does bathe so that makes 4.5 peeps sharing one bathroom. Most of my childhood was spent in a home where the 6 of us shared one bathroom and I never thought anything of it. My mom grew up in a family of 8 and they shared one bathroom. My mother in law grew up in a family of 8 as well and they didn’t even have a bathroom. They used an out house and warm water from the kitchen was used to fill a wash tub for bath time. Statistics form the U.S. Census bureau show that the average home had one bathroom all the way from the 1960’s to as late as 1991. Then it increased to one and a half bathrooms. The 2011 Survey showed that for the first time ever the median residence was found to have 2 or more bathrooms and that is still the average today.
I have nothing against having multiple bathrooms, but it’s not the necessity that most Americans see it as. These days so many of our modern day conveniences solve one problem while creating another.
Cars and elevators mean we have to make more of a conscious effort to exercise our bodies via gym memberships and exercise equipment.
Social networking and cell phones present a new struggle in being focused on the people that are in front of us live and in the flesh.
Families used to have to share a TV, a phone, and a bathroom, and now we have to go to counseling to figure out why our families are so disconnected.
Of course families in the 1950’s had problems too. I am not saying the good old days were perfect, but there are some aspects of simpler times that we can certainly learn from and apply to our lives today. That or we might as well watch our society go down the toilet! Just kidding.
How many bathrooms did you have in you childhood home? How many do you have now? I’d love to hear more perspectives.
I am loving this series of yours! I found you via Nester, of course. We moved to a 1400 sq foot house two years ago. Before that we were in 700 sq feet with our two kids. I loved the forced simplicity of it. I continue to love the size of our house because we use every square foot available to us, and it is all we need. And we have closet space now, which is a nice luxury.
We have 2.5 bathrooms now, for the 5 of us. It's more than we need but I certainly enjoy having more than one bathroom available to us. Like extra closet space, it feels like a luxury that I am enjoying to its fullest.
Growing up we 3.5 baths for 6 of us. I prefer what we have now, for cleaning purposes:)
We have 2.5 bathrooms, and I had 2 most of the time I was growing up. I mostly prefer 2 bathrooms (because of cleaning), but there are times when the extra 1/2 is convenient!
I'm catching up on your series 🙂 and may I say I ENVY your small space! This 1600 sqft, 3/2/2 house is a beautiful blessing but it's more space than Keith and I need. I'd love to downsize to a 2/1/1 townhome or something where we don't have to take care of a yard. I'm gradually purging belongings and making inexpensive home improvements, until we're in a better financial situation and can make updates that'll enable us to turn a profit when we sell it. Patience…
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Isn’t it just fantastic to not have to clean more than one bathroom 😀 😉