A Multiple-User Guest Bathroom For Everyone Is Challenging!
A multiple-user guest bathroom should be easy to maintain, available to anyone at any time. Practice may be a different reality, especially if your guest bathroom is also a bathroom that family members use every day.
If you’re creating a new guest bathroom, or remodeling an existing family bathroom, here are some tips to make it a multiple-user guest bathroom:
- Design the bathroom for function, comfort, and safety
- Choose easy-to-clean wall and floor surfaces (porcelain tile is wonderful, especially large rectangular tiles for walls and wainscot)
- Use minimum-size non-contrasting epoxy grout joints (the grout will never need sealing, and will stay clean)
- Opt for neutral colors (the guest bathroom doesn’t have to be boring!)
- Select chrome or nickel lavatory and tub/shower plumbing and accessories
- Keep window treatments simple (a top-down/bottom-up pleated shade lets light in and hides a window that needs washing)
- If possible, get a wall-hung lavatory sink, or a pedestal sink
- Have a linen closet in or near the bathroom, so towels can be changed quickly
- Train family members to pick up after themselves every day, and assign someone to thoroughly clean the bathroom every week (it’s much easier to do this when there’s a new, fresh bathroom!)
- Install a good exhaust fan to minimize moisture that can lead to mold and mildew
Clients were wary about their two teenage sons’ buy-off for keeping their bathroom presentable for guests. Fortunately, the bathroom was large enough for two lavatory sinks and storage cabinets, and a hamper. The parents used sibling rivalry to their advantage: whoever kept his area the cleanest, and used the hamper most frequently, got special privileges in exchange for his effort. What helped the boys to keep the solid-surface countertop clean was specific storage for their personal-care products, including two medicine cabinets. Two outlets were placed in the back wall under each lavatory, so blow dryers, rechargeable shavers and toothbrushes could be hidden, but conveniently available. The boys later complained that guests didn’t keep the bathroom clean for them!
Your family dynamics may not work like the family with two teenage sons. It does help, however, to have everyone in the family involved in the design process. If you’re a family of D-I-Yers, your kids will have pride in their efforts to create a multiple-user guest bathroom, and this may inspire them to keep the bathroom clean and presentable for everyone! At least, one can hope . . .
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