Any time we point out having just one rest room it spawns a flurry of curiosity in our Instagram DMs about how we handle that with our four-person household. Though we’re undoubtedly not intrepid for having this setup in any method (so many households within the US & overseas dwell a beautiful life in a smaller dwelling with one rest room), and we even have an out of doors bathe that we are able to use virtually year-round (which undoubtedly takes the strain off of our single indoor rest room), there’s a shocking quantity of curiosity across the matter.
So we’re right here to interrupt down why it has labored so nicely for our household and what we’ve carried out to make it further environment friendly & straightforward to dwell with.
I do know some folks will learn this and assume “I might NEVER dwell that method!” or “I’ve ALWAYS lived that method, what’s the massive deal?” and the reality is that what’s proper for one household is certainly not all the time proper for one more. So this publish isn’t written to indicate there’s some “proper” variety of loos – it’s simply to fulfill the curiosity folks have expressed about how one rest room particularly works for our household.
Tip #1: Reside With One thing For A Sizzling Second To See How You *Actually* Really feel
We moved from a a lot bigger home that had three loos and anticipated to land right here and IMMEDIATELY need to add a second rest room…

… however by way of a complete yr of at-home studying the place we really examined the bounds of dwelling in a smaller dwelling just about 24/7, we didn’t really feel the one-bathroom squeeze. In any respect. Curveball, proper?
So we went forward and added a pool and even renovated our kitchen – all with out feeling even an inkling of need so as to add that second rest room we anticipated to want a lot.

It has now been practically three years of dwelling with one rest room, and thus far… zero plans to bear the price & mud of a reno so as to add a toilet.
Now when you transfer into a brand new home and it’s instantly clear you need a second rest room – don’t add a pool first. Ha! This primary level is simply that you simply’ll have the ability to inform loads about how your loved ones makes use of a house when you’re in there dwelling inside its partitions, and the must-have issues will naturally float to the highest of the record. In order that’s why we all the time advocate dwelling someplace earlier than making any massive reno selections (which we acknowledge shouldn’t be all the time attainable, however when you can, what you find yourself eager to sort out first or under no circumstances would possibly shock you).
Since we purchased our home in Feb of 2020 after which lockdowns occurred, we needed to make a number of reno selections from afar (like selecting a trex shade to redo the decks and a paint shade for the inside & exterior)…

… however as for precise main structure modifications, we basically made zero (we drywalled over a large doorway that we might simply reopen down the road, however aside from that, all of the rooms stayed the place they had been and we made the larger decisions once we landed).
Tip 2: Ask Your self If It’s An Precise Want or A Projected Future Want
This tip is mainly the subsequent logical step after the primary suggestion we outlined above. After you reside with one thing for a bit, and develop some concepts for what you need to renovate, it by no means hurts to ask your self if you wish to renovate one thing as a result of it’s an instantaneous want or a projected future want. As a result of boy oh boy is there a distinction between utilizing *future hypotheticals or guesses* about what you’ll want down the highway and addressing *precise wants* as they come up in your house.
We undoubtedly aren’t shy a few renovation (howdy, we’ve mounted up seven homes)… a few of which have been insanely giant initiatives…

…. and up to now we would have jumped so as to add a second rest room “as a result of sometime we’ll most likely need it though we don’t want one proper now… so let’s simply get forward of it.” However we’ve discovered that one of many worst reno strikes that may be made is to do a venture since you’ve PROJECTED what some future model of your self will probably want, solely to comprehend later that YOUR ACTUAL NEEDS aren’t being met in any respect when that future day comes.
Once we purchased the home, this deck was off of our bed room (that set of doorways led to the wall the place we now have our king-sized mattress).

After dwelling right here for a few yr (throughout which all 4 of us labored and digital schooled from dwelling, no much less!) the only rest room didn’t grow to be a sticking level. No fights. No line on the door. No issues in any respect.
Plus we realized a big bump-out in our bed room would really work as a second rest room if we wished so as to add one down the road. We additionally realized that the wall with the doorways that led out to that deck can be an superior place to place our mattress (we now have six different glass doorways that lead exterior on one other wall!).
Over time we thought-about a number of different choices for that porch and determined it could serve our household finest if we sealed off these two further doorways that led to the bed room and used the porch as a coated facet entryway into our kitchen (since we park our automotive on this facet of the home).

We even earned a mini “out of doors kitchen” with the addition of a storage sideboard for prepping and setting out meals + a grill + an out of doors desk.

Because of dwelling right here some time, closing off the door to the bed room and including one which results in the kitchen has been a GREAT determination (you may learn concerning the porch renovation right here). If we had requested our contractor to simply flip that porch into a toilet from afar throughout lockdowns, it undoubtedly would have robbed us of this setup that we now have now and LOVE.
So even when you’re assured that your loved ones will need a sure factor down the road… you would possibly find yourself with a greater plan if it’s in any respect attainable to attend till you really need one thing versus leaping the gun to “simply get forward of it and do it now.”
Another instance is that you simply would possibly add or renovate your children rest room once they’re tiny and nonetheless taking baths in your individual tub, solely to later notice that you simply want you had added a bigger double sink and a bathe as an alternative of a bathtub as a result of your children aren’t small anymore and don’t want it (and all the time used your tub once they had been tiny). Heck, you would possibly even find yourself transferring earlier than you get to that projected future second of needing one thing you paid so as to add!
Ready for that readability about what you *really need* (versus guessing what your loved ones will need sooner or later) is so helpful.

We love that with time and thought we gained an excellent purposeful kitchen porch AND we nonetheless have an ideal spot so as to add a second rest room when and if the necessity arises. Plus it feels nice to know that with this strategy, our solely job is to make our home work finest for us proper now (and never have the onus of projecting what some future model of our household goes to want in a while).

Keep in mind, we purchased this home *assuming* that having one rest room can be a giant drawback. So generally we’re simply as shocked as anybody else that it hasn’t been – and it reinforces that age-old lesson about what occurs while you assume. Plus, once we actually cease to consider the the explanation why one rest room works simply fantastic for us right here, it’s actually not that shocking or difficult, which brings us to tip #3…
Tip #3: We Already Have A Second Bathe
One massive issue that we identified within the very first paragraph of this publish is that we do have an additional bathe: our out of doors bathe. Whereas it’s definitely not the identical as having a full second rest room with a rest room/sink/bathe inside, having this alternate bathe area is a big assist. Practically year-round all of us choose to bathe out right here, except it’s raining or tremendous chilly.
It beats any indoor bathe I’ve ever used and it’s additionally an amazing possibility for rinsing down after a sweaty exercise or a messy day working within the yard since we don’t have to tug our dirty our bodies by way of the home. And clearly, it’s the MVP after we come again from the seaside and need to get the sand off as an alternative of monitoring it into the home.

Showering will be one of the vital time-consuming, bathroom-hogging actions there may be, so this offers me a spot to take a protracted, leisurely post-run bathe with out feeling rushed to unlock the toilet. In the meantime, Sherry prefers a night bathe on the market beneath the twinkle lights.
Although our out of doors bathe isn’t as fancy as some big ensuite bathe or tub may be in a elaborate dwelling, it checks the field of getting a particular “luxurious” feeling bathe expertise someplace in our home. Nothing beats the solar streaming down and all of the vegetation hanging round. Actually. Expertise an out of doors bathe when you by no means have, and it simply would possibly change your life.
Tip #4: Our Morning Schedules Don’t Overlap
One other massive motive one rest room works for our household is that our morning routines are fairly unfold out. Our youngsters go away for varsity an hour aside from one another, so one is barely awake by the point the opposite is leaving. And since Sherry and I each make money working from home, we push off our morning routines and monopolize the toilet after the youngsters are gone. Which means we by no means encounter these cliche TV household clusterforks the place everyone seems to be combating to get into the toilet on the similar time (Shameless involves thoughts for me).

Additionally, since our two children are 4 grades aside in class, they’ll probably by no means have the identical college schedule. So at the same time as they grow old and may have longer quantities of time within the rest room to prepare, we don’t foresee a time when any of us are arguing over the identical morning timeslot. However we are able to completely see how having children on the identical schedule might make issues extra of a good squeeze.
Tip #5: Youngsters’ Persona / Habits Can Make Or Break This
Our youngsters are at present 8 and 12, in order that they’ve but to succeed in ages which may stereotypically contain extra rest room “grooming” time. I’m drawing on my reminiscence of getting two older sisters in highschool on the similar time painstakingly curling their bangs within the mirror (this was the late ’80s in spite of everything). So though we’ll have an adolescent in two months, our family has but to expertise the total inflow of curling irons, hair gels, and physique sprays (yikes) that I recall from my youthful days. And even once we do, we’ve obtained a plan for that (look ahead to it, it’s our subsequent tip).

On the flip facet, our children are each sufficiently old that we don’t have, like, hourlong play-filled bathtimes at night time anymore, or toddlers tenting out in there whereas they’re potty coaching. There are nonetheless events when our youngest will get away the tub toys or refill the sink to play within the water with some color-changing toy or what-have-you, however that stuff will be interrupted if anybody else wants to make use of the toilet.
Tip #6: Grooming Occurs In Our Bedrooms
One other method we make certain one particular person isn’t hogging the toilet is by holding it for under, let’s say, “important” rest room actions. So you need to use it to bathe, brush tooth, and go to the toilet – however virtually every little thing else takes place in our respective bedrooms: doing hair, placing on make-up, making use of varied lotions and potions that hold us trying ageless like Paul Rudd, and so on.
This actually helps minimize down on anyone particular person overstaying their welcome within the rest room at any given time. Plus, it additionally signifies that our solely rest room storage (the self-importance pictured under) doesn’t overflow with everybody’s grooming provides like make-up, hair brushes, hair gel, and deodorant.

Our youngsters every have a mirror of their room and hold deodorant, hair stuff, a hair brush, and so on of their prime dresser drawer. And Sherry and I every have devoted a small part of our bed room closets to our “grooming” stuff. I even put in little mirrors inside our closet doorways so we are able to see what we’re doing.
For example, I hold a small tray of hair gel, deodorant, and beard cream in my closet proper by my garments, and I mounted a mirror proper contained in the door to make use of whereas I shortly prepare. It’s tremendous handy and since I’m not in anybody’s method, I can take so long as I would like.

Sherry has a pullout drawer subsequent to her in-door mirror together with her make-up and deodorant and hair stuff too. She has by no means been somebody to take quite a lot of minutes to prepare, so this setup has been working nicely for us for over a yr now (our daughter’s setup is extra like a conceit with a seat and a giant mirror in entrance of it). Sherry likes to remind me that everybody she knew in Jersey sat on the ground of their bedrooms and curled their hair, so not doing that stuff within the rest room isn’t that overseas of an idea.
I notice this may occasionally really feel like a downgrade when you’re used to having your individual devoted rest room sink or self-importance in your individual non-public rest room, however we solely had a pleasant double sink setup very briefly in our final home (under), so it was by no means one thing we had time to grow to be accustomed to.

You might keep in mind Sherry used to virtually solely do her make-up within the automotive on the way in which to wherever we had been going. Level being: it hasn’t been a giant adjustment to maintain these varieties of actions out of our solely rest room now.
Tip #7: We Talk (Okay, Possibly Over-Talk)
This may increasingly sound apparent, however a giant method we forestall fights over the toilet is to simply talk with each other. It’s as straightforward as “Hey, I’m about to take a bathe, does anyone want to make use of the toilet first?” Maybe this requires a stage of openness that some households won’t be comfy with – however for us, it simply comes with the territory of dwelling in a small home. Let’s name it bonding!

And sure, up to now three years we now have lived by way of norovirus and even salmonella! So there was loads of time for us to say “nope, this isn’t working” (we are inclined to have a 24-48 hour tiered occasion in terms of the household falling unwell with some abdomen bug). We’ve additionally cleaned our one rest room rather well after somebody obtained sick AND NOBODY ELSE GOT IT. Speak about a miracle…. which brings us to tip #8.
Tip #8: We Solely Have One Toilet To Clear
Generally we get requested if we now have any points having friends over with only one rest room. We’ve had as many as 15 folks in our home and haven’t had a problem. Folks would possibly go out and in all through the night time, however there isn’t a line of individuals all hopping from foot to foot, ready for it to open up with a panicked look on their faces. Very similar to a restaurant which may have only one rest room with a lock on the door, folks know what to do. All hell doesn’t break free at a bistro if somebody has to attend for the restroom (thank goodness).
And the beauty of us all sharing one rest room (and due to this fact solely having one rest room to wash) is that it doesn’t sit unattended for days or perhaps weeks. It doesn’t actually have a second to “get away from us” in the identical method that the lesser used/considered loos did once we entertained in our outdated home. Again then we’d have that panicked “is the upstairs corridor rest room clear?! I simply cleaned the powder room downstairs!” second.

We by no means have to fret concerning the children’ rest room getting out of hand as a result of we haven’t laid eyes on it for every week. And as an grownup who beforehand had 12 loos to keep up/repair/fear about (sure, our home had 3, the seaside home had 3 and the duplex had 6!) I can let you know that one rest room = the great life for us. Particularly with the bonus out of doors bathe – that actually does take the strain method off.
One Ultimate Thought
Our good friend Shavonda, whose household of 4 additionally lives in a small home with one rest room (and her children are teenagers!), chimed in on Instagram with a perspective I wished to finish with as a result of it summarizes a number of this dialogue. In her family, there’s an understanding that the toilet is a utility area. “You get in. You do what you gotta do, and also you get out,” as she put it. That’s an amazing abstract of how we really feel about it additionally, and that angle is a giant a part of what makes this work for our household.

I feel that mindset will be uncommon to some individuals who as an alternative take a look at their rest room as extra of a dream room/escape – particularly in America (as a result of loos have grow to be rather more than easy utility areas in numerous homes – they’re typically “luxurious, spa-like retreats designed for folks to unwind after a busy day”). However for us, this home and this location provide us so many different locations to “luxuriate” and unwind (our pool, the seaside, our sizzling tub, absorbing the celebs out by the hearth pit, our upstairs deck, even the out of doors bathe!) in order that trade-off has been so price it and so doable.

We’ve been very happy to relegate our rest room to a easy, utilitarian function. However we are able to additionally see how another person would possibly say “no method, I would like my very own rest room and an enormous soaker tub and that’s what retains me sane.” Completely. Agree 10000%. All of us have home perks which can be non-negotiables, and so they’re going to be totally different for each particular person & each household.
P.S. You’ll be able to see all the main points of our rest room earlier than & after proper right here on this renovation publish. And you’ll see the further fancy rest room renovation that we undertook proper earlier than we moved out of our final home right here (plus the funds breakdown for that reno).
