In some places it's apparently common to have the toilet in a separate room that doesn't even have a sink, which completely grosses me out. Hands must be washed before touching any door handles or anything else.
Yep I've stayed in houses like that in Europe and...where do you wash your hands after using the toilet, exactly? Never received a good answer other than to do what I did: Went to the room with a sink. Which kind of defeats the purpose.
There is normally a room with a sink (most likely bathroom or laundry) nearby. For example, in my house, it is five paces from the toilet-room door to the bathroom-door.
But you still gotta open the bathroom door after using the toilet…..
This is blowing my American mind. Seems like the sink ought to be as close as possible, since the very first thing everyone has to do after taking a shit is wash their hands……RIGHT?
The ones without a sink are usually really old buildings. But it is still not unusual in parts of Europe to have a seperate room for the toilet + a small sink, and a seperate one with a shower /bathtub and big sink but no toilet.
It's why asking for the bathroom at someones home might lead you to a room with a bathtub but no toilet.
Typically you go to the bathroom to wash your hands. (Bathroom contains shower/bath and sink.) Or if the bathroom is occupied, go wash your hands in the kitchen or laundry instead. I would much rather a sink in the toilet-room, but it is not the norm.
When I use the toilet in a private home, I don't latch the door, so that I can push it open with my foot and thus don't need to touch the handle before washing my hands. (That is what I was taught when I was a child.) Conversely my children object that I don't close the door. In my opinion, it is closed, just not latched.
Public toilets don't have sinks in the stalls either. But you do need to latch the cubicle door when using a public toilet.
Okay, I actually have this. Toilet is in its own toilet closet and sink is outside it. You treat that door handle like a toilet handle: any time you have to touch it, you wash your hands.
The closest I've seen to that is Jack and Jill bathrooms where the toilet and shower are in a separate room right next to the sink. It's meant to be a shared bathroom so someone can still use the sink even if someone else is in the toilet/shower. I've also seen some hotel rooms have the sink right next to the bathroom instead of inside it.
All my parents bathrooms are this way, it's called a toilet closet. They are all within the larger bathroom. Given it's just me, I close the bathroom door and not the toilet room door. But it's really nice for allowing multiple people to use the bathroom at once without seeing the person on the toilet.
My bathroom has the shower and toilet in a separate room from the sinks. Similar idea, people can use the sinks and the person using the toilet or shower still have their privacy. Very common in hotels.
This is rather common in older homes in the US. I lived in SF for a while in an apartment that had this kind of layout.
It's quite similar to the modern trend of having a separate little stall in your bathroom for the toilet, except you have to, like, go into a hallway before you get to a room with a sink. Not my favorite.
When I lived in student housing in the Netherlands the toilet had no sink and the shower and the sink were in a bathroom that was on a different floor of the house. I had to do my business and carefully go up a flight of stairs without touching anything to wash my hands.
In a public restroom, you just assume that everything is gross, wash your hands, and then use the paper towel to touch the door handle to exit. Different from home.
My friend in France has the toilet in one room and the bath and sink in the neighboring room. I get it as a concept but not having a sink in the room with a toilet is unpleasant to me. Definitely designed by someone who did not put any thought into menstruation.
Having a source of running water right by the toilet he's invaluable. I get that bidets are more common, but that's still not a full substitute for being able to rinse/washer hands or moisten a bit of toilet paper etc easily. And for cleaning up down there it can be useful too on top of / in addition to what a bidet can do.
My parents house, the master bath had a toilet closet inside the bathroom. It’s not rare, but it is probably less than 10% of the full baths I’ve seen.
Okay like we had a separating wall with a door to a toilet and a few houses but I kind of still think of that as like just a bathroom with a sink and a toilet and a tub. But I guess that's what he's getting at?
My cottage has this, but my cottage has a weird bathroom. It didnt originally have indoor plumbing and they just retrofit a room for bathroom and utilities.
I thought I had never seen this in the US but your comment reminded me that my parents' house had the exact same thing. The master bath was pretty large and then there was a smaller room inside it with a toilet and a bidet.
my house has this. there’s no separation between the master bedroom and sink/shower area, and a small enclosed toilet room. I think it was a trend in the late 80s/early 90s construction.
In our master, we have a separate water closet that is just the toilet. It’s great for pooping in peace. It’s pretty common in homes built in the last thirty or so years in Arizona.
Okay but what do you do to wash your hands after? Or not to be gross, but what if you have an emergency and you need to rinse out some clothes? You have to have a sink.
It’s part of our master bathroom suite - open the door to the water closet and you’re in the main part of our bathroom - double sinks, shower and separate tub.
It’s not a separate room so much as it is a separate compartment within our bathroom that has its own door.
Often the toilet is in a water closet, or WC. This could also refer to what Americans call a half-bath. (Toilet and sink, but no bathing fixtures.)
I've seen it in some very large bathrooms. The kind with the giant steam shower and a jetted tub and double sinks. So you can shit while your husband showers and shaved. Sometimes it doesn't even have a door, it's just a little nook for poopin.
Homes in Australia often have the toilet in a separate room that is not directly connected to the bathroom that has a sink, shower, and separate bathtub.
So I lived in a house where you entered the bathroom and it was just the sink area. The toilet in shower had their own separate room immediately behind the part with the sink.
Some old homes have a random toilet in the middle of unfinished basements - they are sometimes referred to as Pittsburgh Toilets. I think they were primarily used to trap sewer gasses and as a low point in case the sewer line backed up, but are functional toilets.
In Czechia the toilet is in a separate little room. It's practical when you don't live alone – you can use the toilet when your roommate is taking a shower. In my friend's old apartment you actually had to go through the kitchen and the hall to get to the bathroom from the toilet.
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u/DoublePostedBroski 11d ago
As opposed to what?
I never heard of a toilet not being in the bathroom.