This is probably a more random post than normal, but the UK has some weird toilet stuff and I just felt like blogging about it today. So... here are 4 random toilet related things on a Friday:
Space Saver Toilets
Let's talk about toilets. There are two weird things I have seen here in the UK. The first was highlighted by Elisabeth in her recent post - she discovered the weird british Toilet with Sink in the Top.
Now I don't know if this is uniquely British, but it always struck me as uniquely weird.
Bathrooms, Toilet Rooms, and Shower Rooms
The second weird toilet thing, and one of my least favourite house layouts in the UK (and also in Europe) is the separate toilet room from shower and sink room. It seemed fairly common here in the 50s, and we've toured many houses with this design. There will be one room with a bath/shower and sink, and then a small room with just a toilet.
I find this layout super weird because where am I supposed to wash my hands? Why is there a toilet with no sink? What if a kid wants a quick wee mid-bath?
I was lamenting this to Elisabeth who said she LOVED this layout because it means the bathroom isn't always taken up whenever anyone wants to do anything shower/toilet related. I could see her point. But I am still curious of the wider consensus - is this a brilliant house layout or a relic of the 50's?
Bathroom Lights and Plugs
It's apparently not safe to have plugs or switches in bathrooms in the UK. Every bathroom either has a pull cord light (not a switch) OR a light switch outside the room. And there are no real plugs, there are weird UK bathroom plugs, so you can't plug in a hair drier or straighteners or anything useful, except you can plug in a shaver and sometimes an electric toothbrush charger.
Dentists
OK, this is moving a bit away from toilets, but teeth brushing is a bathroom thing (right?). Anyways, I feel there is a common consensus internationally that british teeth are not the greatest / most aesthetically pleasing. I was surprised to learn that british people do not seem to be aware of this generalisation, and were somewhat offended when I may have mentioned it before.
I pay for a private dentist here, and had a hygienist visit last week (my first in a year... oops!). A cleaning takes 15 minutes. I am sure that it used to take longer in the states. It also cost £90 privately, which seems insanely expensive to me, especially for the quickness. The dentist appointment would be another £90 and is 5 minutes long.
I recently got on the wait list for a NHS dentist (so service would be a lot cheaper). The waitlist is somewhere between 2 and 3 years. We also signed up the kids and they apparently get a priority slot, which means they get a visit in October.
Are separate toilet rooms weird? Am I alone in thinking british people aren't known for their pearly whites? Do you have a switch or a plug in your bathroom? Would you put a sink in the back of your toilet?
Fifteen minutes for a cleaning! I don't want to brag or anything, but I have terrible gums and my cleanings last for TWO HOURS. Fifteen minutes barely does a tooth.
ReplyDeleteMy in-laws built their house in the 1980s with a separate room for the toilet and shower. I don't know how common it is, but I do see that setup here in the States on occasion. I've never seen a sink on the toilet and I hope I never do!
Yes about the toilet and sink - but they're never sink toilets! Why can't they add a sink!
DeleteI think maybe I had a particularly poor cleaning this time, but generally they are very short.
Sink toilets just seem so so odd to me too
I join you in the opinion that separate toilet rooms are weird. Sheesh if the toilet is going to be in a separate room at least make it a sink toilet!
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't rush out to get the sink toilet, but I don't entirely mind it.
You are not alone in your low opinion of British teeth. The rest of the world is with you.
Yes I've had a "do anything" plug in every bathroom that I've ever had, and I think that would be the hardest to give up if I were to live in the UK
It took me a while to figure out the pull-cord light at your mom's place! I was like: I SEE a light on the ceiling, there must be a switch to turn it on. And then I saw the cord and secretly worried it was like a fire alarm or an emergency line to the police (for real). I nervously pulled it and... tada, LIGHT.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the sink in the back of the toilet. No ideal about hygienic it might be, but wonderfully efficient.
A cleaning takes SO much longer back in Canada. An hour, I'd say? And we're supposed to go every 6 months (I only go once a year because we don't have private insurance and I'm cheap).
I also wonder if Britain has fluoride in the water? In Canada, or at least where we live, our drinking water is fortified with fluoride. Yes, there is definitely a reputation around British teeth. We have friends that moved to Canada from the UK and they had SO many issues with their teeth. Way more than any Canadian I knew. Which again makes me wonder about fluoride in the water?
I looked it up: Only England adds fluoride to public water supplies, covering about 10% of the population. Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland do not have artificial water fluoridation schemes
Oh interesting about the flouride! I remember reading once that scotland has the highest rate of toothless-ness in... okay i forgot the demographic comparison. But still, I don't want to have the highest rate of toothlessness in any place! There was definitely flouride in the water in the USA. I know so many people here who have had multiple root canals, missing teeth, etc. Whenever I got to the dentist (not often, because cheap) they always say "oh your teeth are amazing!" or something along that line, which I agree with maybe against the backdrop of people here? But my dental goal is to avoid ever losing a tooth or having a root canal so maybe I need to let the dentist here know I'm holding myself to a pretty high standard?
DeleteSomething to think about for when I eventually get off the dentist list in 3-4 years...
Sorry I forgot to explain the pull cord! I forget how odd it is for people who have never seen them before. When my mom moved into that house it had the weirdest light fitting which was also a heater and basically looked like a 100% fire risk. How can you have an exposed heater-light but not a switch... the mind boggles.
France also has the separate toilet “room” but often (usually?) accompanied by a small sink in there. Am without that without that it’s…. Yeah. Unless the door opens via a motion sensor or foot pedal?
ReplyDeleteThe first (only?) sink-on-top-of-toilet-tank I saw was at a hostel in San Francisco. It was a conservation/recycling thing.
ReplyDeleteThe bad British teeth is definitely a trope...a whole runner in Austin Powers, for example. But yeah, maybe an American thing.
That's curious about the plugs...
There are some homes with separate toulet rooms, and hotel/motel come to think of it. Not super common, and kinda weird. In our condo growing up one of the bathrooms had the sink outside flowing from the bedroom and then a separate room with a door thst had the shower and toilet.