When Is It a Really Good Idea to Clean the Bathroom?
Bathrooms have gradually become one of the most important rooms in our homes. Modern bathrooms were once a small, single space that people didn’t particularly want to spend a lot of time in, but now they’re luxurious and spacious, and they’re becoming more and more common. Although the basic modern standard is approximately two baths for every three bedrooms , we live in the age of ” toilet bloat ” and it is becoming increasingly common to have as many bathrooms as bedrooms, or even more. Fifty years ago, there was an average of two people per bathroom in the home; today it’s closer to one person per bathroom .
One of the reasons for this is the change in layout: once bathrooms next to the main bedrooms became common, people needed to add an additional bathroom for guests or other residents. Another factor is the value that a bathroom adds to a home : although the return on investment (ROI) for an added bathroom is just over 50%, real estate professionals will tell you over and over again that more bathrooms mean a higher sale price and more offers. when you decide to sell your home.
But the opposite can also be true, believe it or not. While adding a second bathroom or private bathroom to your home probably always makes sense (from a lifestyle and ROI standpoint), there are some scenarios where it actually makes more sense to remove the bathroom from your home.
Too many baths
You may not have the 16-to-9 bathroom-to-bedroom ratio of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, but you can still have too many bathrooms. While house hunters are generally excited to find multiple bathrooms in a home, there is actually a point where the number of bathrooms in your home can become a detriment rather than an advantage. Every bathroom in your home—whether it’s a bathtub, a hot tub, or a private luxury suite—represents a piece of cleaning, maintenance, and potential home water damage. Even bathrooms that aren’t used regularly need to be cleaned, and not only will you not like cleaning a bathroom you never use, but potential buyers won’t like the idea either.
If your home isn’t very large, placing additional bathrooms in that small space can also be counterproductive, as it simply emphasizes the small size of the space and can make the rooms appear too small. A third bath won’t do you much good if it’s the size of an airplane bathroom, and it might make the adjacent bedroom too small to fit a queen bed.
Inconvenient locations
If you’ve ever watched a TV show about people looking for a new home, you’ve probably seen several moments where people discover a bathroom in a strange location and react negatively. For example, if you have an additional bathroom next to the kitchen where guests will be using amenities three feet away from where they cook, this may be more of a disadvantage than a positive . Removing an inconveniently located bathroom can improve the ambience of your home and prevent an immediate bad impression.
Value elsewhere
Finally, if you have more bathrooms than you need, you may be able to get more use out of your home by removing the bathroom and turning it into something else that will increase the utility, comfort, and value of your home:
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This quaint powder room next to the kitchen could be better used as a pantry or making the tiny kitchen larger; According to a recent survey, 80% of first-time homebuyers consider a storage closet to be “necessary or desirable.”
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A half bath located near the entryway that no one ever uses (seriously, how many people are in such a rush that they have to run to the bathroom as soon as they enter?) might be better used as a walk-in closet.
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If you have more bathrooms than bedrooms, it might make sense to convert one of the baths into an additional bedroom. Extra bedrooms add a little more value to a home than bathrooms, so if your bathroom-to-bedroom ratio is a confusing number like 4-3, changing it to a more straightforward 3-4 makes a lot of sense.
The takeaway is simple: While it may seem counterintuitive, if you have more than enough bathrooms, getting rid of one could benefit you in terms of how much you’ll enjoy your home—and how much it’ll ultimately be worth.