Sharing a single bathroom in a crowded household

A French farmhouse & co-stewardship post

Note: For readers who are unfamiliar with the communal setup of our French farmhouse and want to learn more, there’s a overview at the end of this post.

Our <800 sqft residence in France is shared by 5 adults and 4 children. With so many people fully utilizing such a tight space, there simply has to be a certain baseline level of comfort between one another, otherwise everyday moments could become wildly stressful. 

A kid from one family will sometimes fling open a door behind which another family is getting dressed or trying to sleep.

Emotions are on display for all to witness.

We wash each other’s laundry, then hang everything out on the line in plain view.

Conversations and phone calls are inadvertently overheard.

Prescriptions are stashed in common spaces.

And the bathroom, which is awkwardly located off the end of the galley kitchen, is shared by every single one of us. 

Above: I took this photo a few days after we arrived at the tiny farmhouse for the first time ever, back in 2021. I snapped the image in wide angle, squishing myself against the bathroom + kitchen door frame in order to capture as much of the view as possible for our co-stewards, who were still back in the States. One day we hope to redo both of these rooms entirely, better utilizing the space and bringing out original details of the house that have been buried by the current setup.

When we discovered the property listing online back in 2020, only the single, full bathroom was included in the breakdown. Thankfully, upon receiving a private link with more comprehensive details, we discovered that there was also an unlisted half-bath (or “WC”) at the top of the stairs, wedged into the little hallway connecting the two bedrooms. While it’s only the size of an airplane lavatory — with a tiny wall mounted sink set between a lumpy, protruding section of the chimney and the compact toilet beneath the slanted ceiling — we rejoiced heartily over the existence of the bonus half-bath. We knew it would make logistics easier, especially with kids in the mix. 

Unfortunately, this summer — when all nine of us (plus three guests) were at the house — the toilet in the WC wasn’t working.

(Related post: Summer didn’t go quite as planned.)

To be honest, the situation wasn’t convenient, but it wasn’t awful. If we really needed the second toilet to function, there was a temporary fix that would’ve allowed us to make it operational for our stay. But given some ongoing water and electrical issues throughout the home, we decided to play it safe by not tinkering. In the end, it was simply easier to abide by some unspoken rules about the full bathroom and carry on. Luckily there were no problems, no emergencies and no grievances. 

Because several folks have asked about this topic, here are the unspoken rules that made sharing a single bathroom among 9 (and sometimes more) people work just fine.