Where is your toilet?



  • The wife and I were watching a big bang theory episode where Sheldon needed to use the toilet while Leonard was in the shower. It got us thinking: every house I've lived in and most houses I've been in has had separate toilet and bathroom (excluding ensuites) - is this configuration not common in the USA? We couldn't think of one American tv show or movie that depicted a separate toilet room. Or is it because you tend to live in apartments and there is limited room?



  •  At least in germany, this would be pretty uncommon, too. Which country do you live in, if you want to tell?



  • Sez Australia on his profile.

    Here in the US we have "full baths" (which is toilet/shower/sink/tub), and "half baths" (which is sink/toilet only). But it really all depends... smaller residences tend to have only a single full bath. (Older ones don't generally have a shower-- when I bought my 1927 house I had to add a shower.) Larger houses generally have a full bath, and a half bath in the master bedroom. Two story houses have a full bath on each floor, and possibly a half or full bath in the master bedroom.

    Note that these rules don't change with apartments: if you have a big apartment, you very well could have two full baths, or a full and a half bath.

    So yes, a lot of US houses have a "separate toilet room", if that's what you call a half bath. But ones that do, it's typically attached to a bedroom which limits access. My house doesn't, but it's from 1927, so.

    Considering the size of most sitcom houses, it should have at least two toilets. But everybody remembers as a kid having to wait for their brother to finish his shower, or sister to stop putting on makeup or gabbing on the phone, before you could take a dump. The common experience makes it recognizable to their viewers, which might explain why it's used on TV so often. (Even if your house had a half bath or a second full bath, you couldn't use it in your parents were in their bedroom.)


  • 🚽 Regular

    Funny, my girlfriend and I were talking just about this concept when watching some show that took place in Europe.

    From what she says, Europeans find separate "water closets" to be more sanitary. You get cleaned in the shower room, and you do your dirty business in the toilet room. I don't know if there have been any studies on the validity of this, but it makes sense.

    Now, especially in newer houses in the US, there is often a toilet adjacent to the rest of the bathroom, but separated by a door and even its own fan. I'm not sure if that "counts" by European standards, though.



  • At least for NW europe we have toilets in the bathroom, but also often a seperate toilet.
    Like a seperate toilet downstairs and a toilet in the bathroom upstairs.

    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Although i remember reading somewhere that USians find NW european toilets weird because we tend to have a 2 stage system.



  • @RHuckster said:

    From what she says, Europeans find separate "water closets" to be more sanitary. You get cleaned in the shower room, and you do your dirty business in the toilet room. I don't know if there have been any studies on the validity of this, but it makes sense.

    Yeah, but isn't the plumbing a nightmare? Plus you have twice the sinks. Either that or Europeans don't wash their hands after doing their business... ew, gross!

    @RHuckster said:

    Now, especially in newer houses in the US, there is often a toilet adjacent to the rest of the bathroom, but separated by a door and even its own fan. I'm not sure if that "counts" by European standards, though.

    True; also hotels generally have that. Still considered a single bathroom, though... but it does allow simultaneous pooping and showering.



  • @stratos said:

    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Squat toilets. Also found in Russia, much of Asia (Japan has something of a campaign to get rid of them, from my understanding.)

    And yeah, uck.


  • 🚽 Regular

    @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah, but isn't the plumbing a nightmare? Plus you have twice the sinks.
     

    It's not different than the half-baths in the states. The only difference is the room with the shower has no toilet, whereas the bathrooms in the states almost always has at least a toilet and a sink.

    Besides, you already often need to have at least one fork in the plumbing, with one going to the kitchen and the other going to the bathroom.


  • Garbage Person

     @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah, but isn't the plumbing a nightmare?
    Actually, American plumbing is pretty nightmarish, since you often have fixtures backing onto more than one wall that need to be plumbed. This can be avoided, but "interior design" people and residential architects tend not to give a shit about things like that. With the multi-room layout, you can more easily avoid having to plumb more than one wall by just putting the fixtures in both rooms against a common wall.



  • @RHuckster said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    Yeah, but isn't the plumbing a nightmare? Plus you have twice the sinks.
     

    It's not different than the half-baths in the states. The only difference is the room with the shower has no toilet, whereas the bathrooms in the states almost always has at least a toilet and a sink.

    Besides, you already often need to have at least one fork in the plumbing, with one going to the kitchen and the other going to the bathroom.

    Then what about the laundry? I have four separate rooms with water. Kitchen, laundry, toilet, bathroom. Granted, they are all along the back wall. I want to eventually work out how to install an ensuite in this house (what you guys appear to call a "half-bath attached to a bedroom") which will make it a fifth room. My parents did that to their house: it was actually detached from the house, like a fancy thunderbox dunny.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @stratos said:
    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Squat toilets. Also found in Russia, much of Asia (Japan has something of a campaign to get rid of them, from my understanding.)

    And yeah, uck.

    There were traditional toilets on the Shinkansen (bullet train)! I was in Japan in march 2009. I never had to use one, there are western toilets in all the hotels and inns we stayed at, but my wife used that type a few times.



  •  Last house I lived in where the toilet and the bath were in separate rooms, the one for the toilet was outside the house and had a crescent moon cutout in the door.


  • Garbage Person

    @blakeyrat said:

    @stratos said:
    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Squat toilets. Also found in Russia, much of Asia (Japan has something of a campaign to get rid of them, from my understanding.)

    And yeah, uck.

    Actually, squat toilets are more anatomically correct. There's a muscle that's supposed to help keep the poop in when you're sitting upright or standing, and the poop chute makes a bit of a bend. Both of these things get out of the way when you're squatting. In order to poop on a throne toilet, you have to use some abdominal muscles to prettymuch straight up overpower those two pieces of biology - potentially damaging them in the process. A particularly fierce poop under power like that is actually enough to do tearing damage.

    At any rate, you can achieve the benefits of a squat toilet on a standard throne toilet by lifting your knees. The closer you get them to your chest, the better. Use footstool, or something. All the biological benefits with none of the "if I don't pinch this off and aim very precisely, I'm going to get poo on my feet and/or shoes" squick.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    "full baths" (which is toilet/shower/sink/tub), and "half baths" (which is sink/toilet only).

    So the "half bath" doesn't even have [i]half[/i] a bath in it...?  WTF? 

    @blakeyrat said:

    But everybody remembers as a kid having to wait for their brother to finish his shower, or sister to stop putting on makeup or gabbing on the phone, before you could take a dump. The common experience makes it recognizable to their viewers, which might explain why it's used on TV so often.

    Plus (or hence) it's a comedy goldmine, with rich seams of visual gags, and nuggets such as: 

    - God uses our bathroom!

    - How do you know that?

    - Every morning my dad bangs on the door and yells "God, are you still in there?"

    Boom boom.



  • @Hatshepsut said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    But everybody remembers as a kid having to wait for their brother to finish his shower, or sister to stop putting on makeup or gabbing on the phone, before you could take a dump. The common experience makes it recognizable to their viewers, which might explain why it's used on TV so often.

    Plus (or hence) it's a comedy goldmine, with rich seams of visual gags, and nuggets such as: 

    My aunt had the best bathroom configuration: The shower and bath were in a separate room from the bathroom sink area (which had no door to the rest of the house) and of course the separate toilet room. No real chance for shower to fog up the mirror, plus three people could do toilet, teeth brush/makeup and bath/shower simultaneously.

    My family had an open door policy until I was a teenager. The shower screen was suitably frosted so that you couldn't see in, so if someone was taking a shower it wasn't that weird to wash your hands or replace a towel or something. So I don't recognise that experience! :-P



  • @stratos said:

    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france
    Sounds like you're stating these are common in France...

    But no, it's not. These types of very old toilets actually exist : if you search really well in remote places far away from towns, you'll find one or two, but it's very rare.



  •  ah, could be, it was just very common to find those toilets when going on vaction to france at campings and such.



  • @Weng said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @stratos said:
    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Squat toilets. Also found in Russia, much of Asia (Japan has something of a campaign to get rid of them, from my understanding.)

    And yeah, uck.

    Actually, squat toilets are more anatomically correct. There's a muscle that's supposed to help keep the poop in when you're sitting upright or standing, and the poop chute makes a bit of a bend. Both of these things get out of the way when you're squatting. In order to poop on a throne toilet, you have to use some abdominal muscles to prettymuch straight up overpower those two pieces of biology - potentially damaging them in the process. A particularly fierce poop under power like that is actually enough to do tearing damage.

    At any rate, you can achieve the benefits of a squat toilet on a standard throne toilet by lifting your knees. The closer you get them to your chest, the better. Use footstool, or something. All the biological benefits with none of the "if I don't pinch this off and aim very precisely, I'm going to get poo on my feet and/or shoes" squick.

    I find it quite worrying that I was thinking of posting something similar. Surely there aren't two people in every dozen or so on average who not only know these things, but are comfortable discussing them with strangers...

    Anyway, Indian toilets FTW:



  • @Hatshepsut said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    "full baths" (which is toilet/shower/sink/tub), and "half baths" (which is sink/toilet only).

    So the "half bath" doesn't even have half a bath in it...?  WTF?

    So wait, in your country, real estate agents pick sensible phrases to describe home features? Not things like "rambler" (1-story)?

    Anyway, it's short for half-bathroom. That doesn't make a lot more sense, though.



  • @Weng said:

    Actually, squat toilets are more anatomically correct. There's a muscle that's supposed to help keep the poop in when you're sitting upright or standing, and the poop chute makes a bit of a bend. Both of these things get out of the way when you're squatting. In order to poop on a throne toilet, you have to use some abdominal muscles to prettymuch straight up overpower those two pieces of biology - potentially damaging them in the process. A particularly fierce poop under power like that is actually enough to do tearing damage.

    At any rate, you can achieve the benefits of a squat toilet on a standard throne toilet by lifting your knees. The closer you get them to your chest, the better. Use footstool, or something. All the biological benefits with none of the "if I don't pinch this off and aim very precisely, I'm going to get poo on my feet and/or shoes" squick.

    Interesting indeed. That explains also why toilets for disabled people (about 10 centimeters higher than typical toilets), despite being obviously better for their dedicated purpose (helping disabled people, precisely), are a pain in the ass (no stupid poo-related joke intended here, sorry).

    In fact, it reminds me of a short, sad and pretty disgusting story.

    A friend of my father has a pharmacy (or whatever you call places with medicine and cosmetics to buy). One day an old woman with long gypsy-looking clothes entered the place, and asked for something without prescription nor money, trying to beg for it. When the pharmacist refused for the second or third time what she wanted, she paused and gave him a "mean look" right in the eyes during a few seconds as a sign of contrariety. Then she walked away. Then the man smelled something funny. Right where she was standing one minute earlier, there was just a human shit on the floor. (yes, first she pooed just while standing, and second we can assume she wasn't wearing anything under her dress...)


     


  • 🚽 Regular

    @toshir0 said:

    A friend of my father has a pharmacy (or whatever you call places with medicine and cosmetics to buy). One day an old woman with long gypsy-looking clothes entered the place, and asked for something without prescription nor money, trying to beg for it. When the pharmacist refused for the second or third time what she wanted, she paused and gave him a "mean look" right in the eyes during a few seconds as a sign of contrariety. Then she walked away. Then the man smelled something funny. Right where she was standing one minute earlier, there was just a human shit on the floor. (yes, first she pooed just while standing, and second we can assume she wasn't wearing anything under her dress...)
     

    Thanks, toshir0. You posted that when it's almost lunchtime in the Eastern US.



  •  @RHuckster said:

    Thanks, toshir0. You posted that when it's almost lunchtime in the Eastern US.
    You're very welcome. After all, isn't France the homeland of gastronomy ?



  • @blakeyrat said:

    Sez Australia on his profile.

    Here in the US we have "full baths" (which is toilet/shower/sink/tub), and "half baths" (which is sink/toilet only). But it really all depends... smaller residences tend to have only a single full bath. (Older ones don't generally have a shower-- when I bought my 1927 house I had to add a shower.) Larger houses generally have a full bath, and a half bath in the master bedroom. Two story houses have a full bath on each floor, and possibly a half or full bath in the master bedroom.

    Here in the North East US, the bathroom attached to the master bedroom is almost always the largest in the house.  2 1/2 baths is the standard suburban configuration - one private master bathroom attached to the master bedroom, usually with a large fancy tub and sometimes a separate shower - one full bath upstairs to service all of the other bedrooms - and one half bath downstairs for guests and daytime use.



  • Oh shit... I saw such shit happen in a tram. Also from an old woman in ragged clothes. About three countries to the northeast from France.

    Also, I just had dinner before reading that... excuse me for a BARF



  • @bannedfromcoding said:

    About three countries to the northeast from France.
    Poland ? Denmark ?

    @bannedfromcoding said:

    *BARF*
    Onomatopeas differ with cultures. Was it a... puke ?



  • @toshir0 said:

    @bannedfromcoding said:

    *BARF*
    Onomatopeas differ with cultures. Was it a... puke ?

     

    Other choices: a line of Iranian cleaning products....

    Or a gas station in Las Cruces, New Mexico....

    Or a Mog.  Half man, half dog.  He's his own best friend....


     


  • Garbage Person

    @intertravel said:

    I find it quite worrying that I was thinking of posting something similar. Surely there aren't two people in every dozen or so on average who not only know these things, but are comfortable discussing them with strangers...
    I think it was mentioned on Cracked recently, so the awareness numbers have certainly multiplied. However, I knew this long before - picked it up from some Indian med students.



  • @da Doctah said:

    Other choices
    ...like this one also*. Ugly.

     

    [COLOR=gray]( * scroll to the middle of the page for the "barf" part... )[/COLOR]



  •  Since we're all being so open about this, and it's a rather anonymous forum, here's something I've wondered about:  how in heck women can pee standing up.  I've heard that some teach themselves how, but I still don't see how they avoid....  wet legs to put it sort of politely.  As best I can figure it's like someone mentioned about the throne design and pooing, but I think the throne design isn't really that great for women to pee, either.  Not as bad as standing, but not as good as squatting.  The few times I've had to squat in a forest (camping), it's much more hygienic - body parts don't interrupt the flow.

    Thanks to the person who posted the pic of the Indian toilet.  It explains much about why they come to the US and try to stand on our toilets.  I bet they think we're quite acrobatic until someone clues them in. 



  • @toshir0 said:

    @bannedfromcoding said:

    About three countries to the northeast from France.
    Poland ? Denmark ?


    The one of those two that's less civilized.

    @da Doctah said:

    @toshir0 said:

    @bannedfromcoding said:

    BARF
    Onomatopeas differ with cultures. Was it a... puke ?

     

    Other choices: a line of Iranian cleaning products....

    Or a gas station in Las Cruces, New Mexico....

    Or a Mog.  Half man, half dog.  He's his own best friend....


     


    The first pic made me laugh. Also, I'm pretty sure that's Mawg, not Mog. After they rescued the princess in the beginning and escape, during the scene where Lone Starr and Vespa are arguing over the intercom, there's a hydrant (fireplug?) saying Mawg's Room on it; that is, unless my memory is misspelling it. ;)


  • ♿ (Parody)

    @toshir0 said:

    @stratos said:

    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france
    Sounds like you're stating these are common in France...

    But no, it's not. These types of very old toilets actually exist : if you search really well in remote places far away from towns, you'll find one or two, but it's very rare.


    I recall using a "squat toilet," which was really not much more than a hole in the floor in a cafe in Paris. That was 2004. Fortunately, I was just returning some beer I'd rented earlier, so no squatting was necessary.



  • @boomzilla said:

    @toshir0 said:

    @stratos said:

    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france
    Sounds like you're stating these are common in France...

    But no, it's not. These types of very old toilets actually exist : if you search really well in remote places far away from towns, you'll find one or two, but it's very rare.

    I recall using a "squat toilet," which was really not much more than a hole in the floor in a cafe in Paris. That was 2004. Fortunately, I was just returning some beer I'd rented earlier, so no squatting was necessary.
     

    I of course do not know where you live, but in the remote chance you are american you have to understand that here in europe all the big city centers tend to have old buildings, and while often even french and in rare occasions british people will replace antique parts of their establishment, there are those that hold religiously to the idea that if it isn't broken, you shouldn't fix it.  Holes in the ground seldomly break, presumably by the lack of moving parts, or any parts at all really.

     



  • @RHuckster said:

    From what she says, Europeans find separate "water closets" to be more sanitary. You get cleaned in the shower room, and you do your dirty business in the toilet room. I don't know if there have been any studies on the validity of this, but it makes sense.
     

    I heard (I think on TV*) that flushing a toilet with the seat up is potentially unhygienic as it causes a plume of water vapour (plus whatever was in the bowl) to be sent up.  This naturally will settle on whatever is in the room...  Whether or not there is sufficient nasty bacteria floating around to worry a healthy immune system is open to debate.



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    I heard (I think on TV*) that flushing a toilet with the seat up is potentially unhygienic as it causes a plume of water vapour (plus whatever was in the bowl) to be sent up.  This naturally will settle on whatever is in the room...  Whether or not there is sufficient nasty bacteria floating around to worry a healthy immune system is open to debate.

    Undoubtedly still 20 times cleaner than your cell phone.



  • @blakeyrat said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:
    I heard (I think on TV*) that flushing a toilet with the seat up is potentially unhygienic as it causes a plume of water vapour (plus whatever was in the bowl) to be sent up.  This naturally will settle on whatever is in the room...  Whether or not there is sufficient nasty bacteria floating around to worry a healthy immune system is open to debate.

    Undoubtedly still 20 times cleaner than your cell phone.

    Or your desk phone, desk, anything else if Dr Karl is to be believed

     http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/07/01/1143577.htm



  • @RTapeLoadingError said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @RTapeLoadingError said:
    I heard (I think on TV*) that flushing a toilet with the seat up is potentially unhygienic as it causes a plume of water vapour (plus whatever was in the bowl) to be sent up.  This naturally will settle on whatever is in the room...  Whether or not there is sufficient nasty bacteria floating around to worry a healthy immune system is open to debate.

    Undoubtedly still 20 times cleaner than your cell phone.

    Or your desk phone, desk, anything else if Dr Karl is to be believed

     http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2004/07/01/1143577.htm

    The author of this comic must read DailyWTF...



  • @Zemm said:

    The wife and I were watching a big bang theory episode where Sheldon needed to use the toilet while Leonard was in the shower. It got us thinking: every house I've lived in and most houses I've been in has had separate toilet and bathroom (excluding ensuites) - is this configuration not common in the USA? We couldn't think of one American tv show or movie that depicted a separate toilet room. Or is it because you tend to live in apartments and there is limited room?

    We have small flat, but toilet nad bathroom is separete, so we can use it seperately.



  • Hi,
    can u help you know that thing on the toilet what is it called ( it clean your butt)



  • A bidet?



  •  Best necro ever.



  • @dhromed said:

     Best necro ever.

    So we've established that raja is a level 99 threadomancer then?

     



  • Not sure.

    There may be level creep involved.



  • @raja said:

    Hi, can u help you know that thing on the toilet what is it called ( it clean your butt)
    1) threadomancy (as already mentionned)

    2) wild writing (though i can't personnaly laugh at it too loudly, being a foreigner myself)

    3) blatantly off-topic (though sort of topic-related)

     ...

    Are you trying to establish a record here ?



  • are we not all foreigner to each other? what country are you from?



  • @Nagesh said:

    what country are you from?
    Frogland.



  • @intertravel said:

    @Weng said:

    @blakeyrat said:

    @stratos said:
    What's freaky are the types of toilets you find in south europe like in france

    Squat toilets. Also found in Russia, much of Asia (Japan has something of a campaign to get rid of them, from my understanding.)

    And yeah, uck.

    Actually, squat toilets are more anatomically correct. There's a muscle that's supposed to help keep the poop in when you're sitting upright or standing, and the poop chute makes a bit of a bend. Both of these things get out of the way when you're squatting. In order to poop on a throne toilet, you have to use some abdominal muscles to prettymuch straight up overpower those two pieces of biology - potentially damaging them in the process. A particularly fierce poop under power like that is actually enough to do tearing damage.

    At any rate, you can achieve the benefits of a squat toilet on a standard throne toilet by lifting your knees. The closer you get them to your chest, the better. Use footstool, or something. All the biological benefits with none of the "if I don't pinch this off and aim very precisely, I'm going to get poo on my feet and/or shoes" squick.

    I find it quite worrying that I was thinking of posting something similar. Surely there aren't two people in every dozen or so on average who not only know these things, but are comfortable discussing them with strangers...

    Anyway, Indian toilets FTW:

    Lolz


  • @johnstephen said:

    Lolz

    You necro'd a year old thread to post that?



  • Well, here is one that's a fantastic WTF:

    http://www.kohler.com/numi/



  • @jetcitywoman said:

    Well, here is one that's a fantastic WTF:

    http://www.kohler.com/numi/

    Well, it seems like they've taken the Washetto (sp?) idea to a new level.

    Oh, what's a Washetto? It's what I'd call a "smart toilet". Heating on the rim, integrated washing functions so you don't even need to use toilet paper, the toilet itself will wash your bodily parts for you! Only seen in Japan, and then usually in homes/apartments. If you have to go to public bathrooms, get ready for the fugly squat toilet!



  •  I forgot to mention that in my opinion, the WTF wasn't the toilet design, so much as the marketing.  It's brilliantly, mind-blowingly WTF.  They put a TOILET in a glass-walled room next to the outdoor patio and overlooking the city.  Granted they're so high up that city folk probably only see a shadow up there in that house on the hill.  But imagine that dude having a party with all his friends over, and...  well, I bet nobody would expect that the entertainment would be watching Joe drop a deuce.


Log in to reply