# of children, # of bathrooms?

[Susan in TN]

In the next year, we will begin looking for a new house. So related to the sq/ft per person post, I'm wondering what you all would consider the bare minimum/ideal number of full bathrooms for 6 children/2 adults. Most homes in our price range have the typical 2.5 baths, with one being the master and probably not intended to share (although I wouldn't mind).

 

I'm just wondering how hard we should search for a home with 3 full baths. I know they're out there, but I'm not sure how high on the priority list that additional bath should be.

[Kathleen in VA]

There are 7 of us and we have 2 bathrooms. I sometimes wish there were at least a 1/2 bath when certain people can't wait:). I wouldn't go any lower than 2.5 if I were shopping for a new house - but if there 3 I wouldn't complain.

[Sasharowan]

We have 4 kids and 2 baths. Mostly my daughter uses mine for showers while the boys bath in the kids bath. Occasionally we run into traffic jams but for the most part, we do ok. Of course, the 2yo doesn't use the tiolet yet and I shower in the morning while most of the rest shower at night. Dh complains about not enough hot water some nights.

[elegantlion]

We have 2 baths for the 3 of us. I agree going for 2.5 minimum. 3 would be great, at least double sinks in the dc bath.

[ticklbee]

We have one bathroom for five of us. It's doable but Lord willing we will eventually put a 1/2 bath downstairs. It just makes life easier.

[Remudamom]

There are seven of us and four full bathrooms. That's when oldest is home for the summer, otherwise just six of us.

 

The two girls share the old master bedroom, and it has a built in dressing table with a sink, and then the toilet and tub are in the same room. It makes it easier with two girls, because if one is showering the other still has the use of the sink. I wish we had done the same thing upstairs, because it would be really handy for me too, to have a sink in a dressing table.

[newbie]

We have four, thats one each. My dd's like it very much. In old house they shared bath. Not good.

 

For six kids, if there are mix girl and boy, I would shoot for three. Can avoid future issues.

 

Jet

[Colleen]

We have two extremely small bathrooms (and only a shower stall) between the seven of us. My trouble is their locale. Ever dealt with a bathroom that opens directly on to a living room? Ahem. Talk about less than ideal.:001_huh: And then there's my lack of water pressure thanks to sharing pipes with a milking parlor and 160 cows. Ack. Beyond that, though...More elbow room in each bath would be great, but I simply can't fathom having one bath per person in a family, or three big baths or whatever is apparently considered the norm by today's American standards. I mean, you go in, you use the toilet, you go out. Or you go in, you shower, you go out. Don't need a whole heckuvva lotta room for that, and I'm all for folks learning to take turns.

[Quiver0f10]

Our last house had 1 full bath and 2- 1/4 baths, so we only had 1 shower/tub. This house has 2 full baths. It works for us.

[M&M]

I'm with you Colleen! There are seven of us (5 dc) living in a ONE BATHROOM house. I would be happy with a half bath so that the line isn't quite so long.

[Jennifer in MI]

We have 2 1/2 baths here. One is in the master bedroom which we've given to the boys. One is centrally located on the second floor.

 

The 1/2 bath is on the first floor.

 

This works well for us right now!

[Targhee]

we've got one for the 5 of us - though youngest dd is still in diapers. I wish we had another full bath, or at least a half. I will say though, we had a townhouse with 2 full and 2 half baths and I HATED cleaning all 4 bathrooms!!!

 

I imagine that as long as the kids had a mirror or dressing table to get ready at, 2.5 for the 8 of you may work. I am sure it will also depend on the layout (like you were saying - it's harder to share a master bath).

[Lisa in Jax]

We have three baths for five people and it's usually okay, but at bedtime or first thing in the morning, it can be a problem --- mainly b/c middle dd tends to linger in the bathroom and her brother has to rush.

 

My ideal would be to have 3.5 baths, so that one person can be using the toilet or brushing his teeth while another showers.

 

Lisa

[Tracey in TX]

We have 8 people in house: 4.5 baths.

[Melissa B]

4 children and 1 bathroom. I would like another bathroom or at least a half bath. I wouldn't want more than 2 bathrooms to clean though.

[Amy loves Bud]

Three full baths. We could do easily with two, but it is nice to know that there is a nice fresh bath when someone drops by unexpectedly!

[94txaggie]

There are 7 of us (with plans for another baby) sharing 2 bathrooms. Planning on building soon and planning on a minimum of 3 baths possibly 3.5. I only worry about keeping them all clean....have trouble with that with only 2!

[TraceyS/FL]

we have 3 - well, in CA it would be 2 3/4 - the 3rd just has a shower, but they don't do that here in FL.

 

The 3rd is in our guest/school/craft room, so it's nice for company to have their own (and my parents lived in that room for2 years), and we have a new sink to put in there for more craft clean up. Gee, maybe i should work on that project?

 

With the way our house is, 3 works best - and none of them are big. Sink, toilet & tub. As small as you can get really!

[mommylaw]

5 children, 3 full baths (tubs and showers) and 1 with just a toilet and sink.

[MicheleB]

6 people (4 kids, 2 adults) and one bathroom. We need another one, definitely. Just for "those times" when someone feels they can't possibly wait another second (which seems to be quite often lately, for some reason).

 

Not sure I'd want more than two, one upstairs and one downstairs. I agree with the not wanting to clean a bunch of bathrooms.

[jail warden]

There are 5 of us. Technically we have 3 full baths, but we can't use the tub in the guest bath so it's kinda only a half bath until we ever decide to fix it. We could easily live with 1 1/2 for now, but when the children get older I will be thankful that we have all 3!

[Kate CA]

There are 7 of us and we have 2 bathrooms.

 

This is us too. :)

[Elisabeth in IL]

I'm of the opinion that as long as there are 2 toilets in the house we are good to go. I grew up in a home with 5 kids and one bathroom. My guess is that it was approx. 1200 square feet. The thing that saved many a potty emergency is that my grandmother lived downstairs so we could borrow her potty if ours was unavailable.

[Farmgirl70]

There are 5 of us and 1 bathroom. The bright side? Only one to clean--I really dislike cleaning the bathroom, for some reason, and the kids don't seem to like that task either : ).

[5sweeties]

We currently have 3 bathrooms, and 7 people. Before we moved here, we had 2 bathrooms and 7 people. I like 3 better. The new house we are moving to this summer will have 4 bathrooms...one being the master, one specifically for a bedroom that our 2 oldest girls share, one being in the hall close to bedrooms, and one being a close to the entry. I absolutely do not think that 4 is necessary, or even desirable for a family our size, it just so happens that this is the way the new house is built. It seems a bit excessive to me, and the girls will definately be learning to clean their own bathroom!! Back in the day when we had 1-3 kids, 2 bathrooms was plenty. When we went to 4 kids, 2 seemed inadequate if you didn't like to wait (and we are not a patient bunch!). I really like 3 for the 7 of us. That is a nice number.

[HomeOnTheRanch]

We have 4, soon to be 5, kids and 2 1/2 baths. I think that is plenty for any size family, especially considering that we can only take one shower at a time due to water pressure. I can run bath water for the littles and bathe them while someone else is showering or someone can be in one bathroom getting ready to hop in the shower as soon as they get the signal that the other shower is off. The extra 1/2 bath is nice for when someone else needs to go when the other 2 are occupied.

 

If it gets too busy...we have acres and acres of trees!

:001_smile:

 

The first 4 houses we lived in we had 1 bathroom. In the 4th I potty-trained 2 kids. It was so nice when our next house had 2 bathrooms. I truly feel spoiled with the 2 1/2 we have now.

[LaMere Academy]

4 kids, 2 bathrooms and we do share our master bathroom on a regular basis. In ours we have a large tub and then a seperate shower, so at least 3 people can bathe at the same time if both bathrooms are being used, so that's helpful.

[Melinda TX]

4 kids, 2 adults, 2.5 baths

[DIY-DY]

In the next year, we will begin looking for a new house. So related to the sq/ft per person post, I'm wondering what you all would consider the bare minimum/ideal number of full bathrooms for 6 children/2 adults. Most homes in our price range have the typical 2.5 baths, with one being the master and probably not intended to share (although I wouldn't mind).

 

I'm just wondering how hard we should search for a home with 3 full baths. I know they're out there, but I'm not sure how high on the priority list that additional bath should be.

 

Currently, one bathroom. There are days I would give fully calcified body parts for just. one. more toilet.

 

We will eventually put the master bath (3/4 bath - toilet, sink, shower) back together and it will be functional. I will feel quite pampered at that point! :tongue_smilie: But I do think, honestly, that even w/o this current period of one-bathroom-ness, we'd be okey dokey with one full and one 3/4.

[Rhonda in TX]

We have 2.5 with 4 people, but the .5 only gets used when we don't want to bother going upstairs to use that one. If we had a one story, it would probably rarely get used.

 

I grew up in a family of 6 and we had 2 bathrooms. Another half bath would have been nice when everybody was trying to get ready to go somewhere at the same time, like church on Sunday morning. (especially when two of those somebodies were high school girls :001_smile:)

[RoughCollie]

2.5 bathrooms, 6 people.

 

One thing I wished I had when the kids were younger was a full bathroom (with a tub) downstairs.

[shell in SC]

I wish I could donate bathrooms! Now that DD has moved out we have 3 people and. . .this is almost embarrasing. . .3.5 baths and one of those has a double sink. It does come in handy when the out of town relatives come to stay. Our previous house had 2 baths and there were 4 of us (Sometimes 5).

 

shell

[Just Me]

My trouble is their locale. Ever dealt with a bathroom that opens directly on to a living room? Ahem. Talk about less than ideal.:001_huh:

 

I have BTDT - and it was awful. We have a friend that comes over most Sundays after church to spend the afternoon with us, and I HATED using the bathroom while he was there. Because both of our bathrooms opened to the common area at the living room! UGH!

 

But to answer the original question, we now have 2.5 bathrooms, and it seems to work fine. The only time we have trouble is on Sunday morning, when my oldest ds takes his 1/2 hour shower, and the other two can't get in to brush teeth and hair. They are always rushing to get their teeth done before running out the door. The 1/2 bath is rarely used, which is fine with me. I like to keep it "nice" (read "clean") for company.

[manylilblessings]

Our family has 5 kids (4 potty trained) and 4 full baths. One is on the main level. The kids have a jack and jill with two sinks (4 boys in one room, 1 girl in the other) and there's a guest area with a bedroom with its own bath. The master has a bath also. So, we have plenty.

 

That being said... there's always a line, because we live mostly on the main level, and they whine if they have to go upstairs to use the bathroom. Sigh. ;)

 

I'd say that 3 bathrooms would be very comfortable for 6 kids. The reason I love having more full baths isn't necessarily for potty, but for showering. It can take forever if they all have to go one at a time. So, we use two of the bathrooms upstairs, and everyone's done in 30 minutes at night. The three little ones get a bath, and the two older ones take turns with the shower in the guest room.

 

They don't really use the master bath. I like my toilet floor to be without pee and my bathtub to not have a ring. It makes me feel like a real grown-up. :lol:

[Tammyla]

Four here with two full baths upstairs and one powder room downstairs.

[Tess in the Burbs]

we are just two adults, two children. We have 2 full baths, 1 half bath.

 

And many times the 4th person has to hold it b/c all the others are full. the downstairs bath is always full when anyone else needs to go.

 

we are all just linked in some weird way to need to go potty at the same times!

[Marie in Oh]

and it seems like plenty. But, we do allow the older dc to shower in ours and then the littles take baths in the dc's bathroom. Our dc have a double sink in theirs which helps with getting ready. They aren't teens yet though, so I might be singing a different song when they get older.