It has always seemed bizarre to me that we're supposed to shit next to where we brush our teeth. It's always seemed similarly bizarre that the tub - the place we relax, hang out, bathe our children and get clean - is inches away from a device that spends its existence coated in fecal coliform.
I've long admired Japanese bathing arrangements - the "bathroom" is a communal room where everybody gets clean and there's another "pooping room" somewhere else. But Americans just don't roll that way.
I'm buyin' Kira's book. I don't care what it takes.
PS. One of the subreddits I moderate is /r/foodforthought. Have done for like 5 years now. I notice there's a bunch of stuff that tends to drift from there to here. So I'm just gonna call it. Behold a new tag. Subscribe and use with reckless abandon.
My childhood bathroom was huge -- like, bedroom huge. It had room for a full couch (instead we had Arfican violets growing on a steamer trunk next to a boom box tuned to NPR). The sink was against a different wall than the toilet, separated by the claw-foot bath tub. I'd never thought abut this separation as useful, but hey...
Did I just write, "pee sticks and pee pockets?"It has always seemed bizarre to me that we're supposed to shit next to where we brush our teeth.
Perhaps this is a natural extension of our biology? We shit and piss out of the same, or very near our baby making, pleasure zones. Doesn't that seem odd? Hell, if we can stick our pee sticks in their pee pockets, we can wash our hands next to a toilet, right?
You did, and honestly this entire article raises questions I really don't want answers to.
I've been given to understand that the "brushing teeth by toilet" issue is centered upon the amount of bacteria/whatever that actually becomes airborne when the toilet is flushed. I thought quite seriously about this for a while, but then realized I'd never heard of someone who died from inadvertently brushing their teeth with a toilet-flush/waste-tainted toothbrush.
Except it isn't a "human" thing, it's an "american" thing.Before running water, washing up, bathing, and shitting happened in different places. Washing took place at a washstand in the bedroom, with a pitcher and a bowl; shitting happened in the outhouse or the chamber pot; bathing, when it occasionally happened, was often in a tub by the stove in the kitchen, where the hot water was. Nothing was fixed in one place (other than the outhouse) because nothing was connected to anything.
The bidet sounds really useful. The American Bathroom does sound really bizarre when you really think about it.
Maybe the streaks problem is also related to amount of fiber in the diet? Or improper wiping? I have to admit I generally don't have a problem with this, but compared to things I've read on the internet I think I'm a champion pooper. TMI P.S. Klein, don't forget that (admittedly hopefully more rarely) the toilet is also the designated receptacle for vomit. Yummmm! (Caught my cat drinking out of the dirty toilet this weekend. He's a potty-mouth.)
I tend to worry too much about these things which is why I have to reassure myself with these thoughts. Wrong comment. Whatever. I'm sure their intentions are good. And that they care a lot. And good for them for finding a way to make money by writing about toilets. Clearly I need to switch up my subject matter. I bet I could write really grammatically correct trash novels.
Reading this in a hotel bathroom designed to look elegant while foregoing a significant amount of functionality. Meta.
No bigs. I have moss in my bathroom and I didn't even have to plan it. Take that, modernism!
In the apartments build in the USSR the bathroom is divided between a little room with only the toilet and another with the bath/shower and sink. I always found it kinda mildly annoying whenever i was visiting because to wash your hands you have to change rooms. But I think (my guess, I don't really know) it was build that way because the apartments were meant for 3 people and you don't want to block access to the toilet if somebody's in the shower or vice-versa.
Here in Norway, all toilets are private rooms with floor to ceiling doors, some with sinks. American toilets by contrast have lots of airspace below and above the doors, presumably to discourage masturbation. When I was in South Korea earlier this year, my hotel toilet had a washing and drying feature built into the toilet. I was skeptical at first, but after using it for a week I want one in my house. A lot. Here's one for $600. I understand you can even buy them at Home Depot.
http://brondell.com/swash/swash-1000-bidet-seat.html