The word bathroom is defined as, "a room containing a bathtub or shower, and usually a sink and toilet." Considering that it has a significant impact on my day to day hygiene, it hardly seems a wonder that whenever I am travelling and wherever I am travelling to, one of my central considerations is the availability of this facility.
Over the years, very few bathrooms have actually met my approval. They are either too small, too dirty, too ugly or too boring. A bathroom needs space, personality, air and grooming! Think about it. The bathroom is your sanctuary and in truth one of the most personal spaces you will ever have.
It therefore never fails to irritate me, when I see housing with bathrooms the size of a peanut. I'm sure everyone can relate to the tremendous annoyance when you are trying to walk into the bathroom and the door practically opens into the loo? For those of you who are as peevish as me, this means that unless you are wearing clothes that are as tight as your skin, you have to ensure you are clinging onto everything on you, aiming to ensure that nothing is touching the bathroom doors, loo or the floor (try this with a shawl,stole or a saree!) Eventually, you manage to squeeze into the bathroom, close the door and do your business. You then proceed to wash your hands in the sink that is barely inches away from the loo and breathe thankfully as you leave this nightmarish room.
Then, you have the bathrooms that are very much like the ones mentioned above, with an added twist - welcome, shower area! Kudos to architects and builders who manage to accomplish this; an extra round of applause for those who think of taking into consideration a raised platform, partition or shower cubicle. This way there is no chance of shower water draining all over the bathroom floor. One only needs to manage to get past the obstacle course (door, loo and sink) and reached the shower, then proceed to grapple on how to keep your towel dry, actually move around enough to clean your entire body and get out of the shower without tainting yourself by touching sink, loo or door. But yes, YAY! We have a partitioned shower.
It gets worse when the partition is just a dreamed up apparition! You have had a long tiring day, forget about taking a shower, how about just washing your feet? You open the dreaded bathroom door and voila! Someone has been to the room already ....and taken a shower, and not bothered to clean up. Now all you have to deal with is a stream of water - possibly carrying grime and definitely sprawling with germs ... that you need to walk through to clean your aching feet, which is pointless at this point, if you mean to walk back and out of the bathroom. Let's not even get to the point where you would want to utilise the loo!
To be fair, I have seen and used (sadly) small bathrooms that are extremely clean and have enough ventilation to keep things sane. Thank goodness (and cleanliness) for the owners of small bathrooms who care enough to keep things clean. Because, there are bathrooms of all sizes and shapes that are worse than any of the above mentioned - unclean, shoddy, messy, stinky, dark and gloomy!
And it is these purposefully ugly bathrooms that annoy me the most. We spend a good deal of time in bathrooms. One should want to be in there and not be aiming to rush in for a quick water beating and rush out. A good bathroom needs to be AIRY, FRESH, SPACIOUS, ORGANISED (Cabinets and wall shelves go a long way here!) SUPER CLEAN, and BRIGHT (don't forget to keep those mirrors sparkling, so you can dance in front of them dressed, undressed or somewhere in between). The bathroom is the most important room in your house/living space and should be a place you enjoy spending plenty of time in. So go on, spend extra time, effort and yes, money on your bathroom! If not, don't bother inviting me over!
Here are a few links with pictures of what I would consider nice bathrooms:
For those with smaller bathrooms, look at the awesome bathrooms here:
And use the simple tips and ideas found here:
