#6 isn't two sinks - It's a single sink and a bathtub.

"toothpaste slobber"

Isn't that grounds for divorce in certain states?

I love the mismatched vanity mirrors! I wonder if I could talk my husband into that. I'm afraid it might be a little too cute/quirky for his tastes.

Two sinks seems like just twice as much to clean. Or do you only have to scrub your own sink? Actually, if that's the case... maybe two toilets would be more pertinent to cleaning duties.

You know, I've never been a fan of his n her sinks.... Meryl Streep sums it up nicely in "It's Complicated"... the other sink makes me feel lonely.

Plus, there are many better things to get separated than your sink... toilets being one, blankets another. Sinks seem kinda overkill.

I dream of having my own sink...
And furthermore, my own bathroom!

I love the fact that we do have two sinks. Often in the morning it's much easier to get ready, or at any time for that matter. Doesn't feel like an overkill at all.

How's a two-sink bathroom better than a one-sink bathroom unless it's for little children & there's a second bathroom? A two-sink bathroom's no substitute for a second bathroom, or for a bathroom & a powder room. My husband & I now have our first home with a second bathroom, & it's ended stress & arguments we had in our five or so previous homes. In future homes, I'd prefer to do without the current foyer/diningroom/office/guestroom/living room/hall than to do without the second bathroom!

The second sink is great if you've got a cat that insists on drinking out of the faucet.

I've never really seen two sinks in a bathroom except in the US. When we were looking for homes, our agent would always point two sinks as a great plus in home that had them. The one we bought does not have two sinks, and I don't feel like I'm missing something.
Like most others mentioned, having 2 bathrooms is so much more important.

I would love to have a double bowl sink. I just like the luxury. Means more storage space too. I wouldn't mind wiping more surface out, I have to clean anyway, two sinks wouldn't make too much difference.

I dream of the day where we can have double sinks...It's nearly impossible for two people to get out in the morning with just our tiny one. :/

http://www.abbeycatchat.com

Oh dear... What happened to arranging a schedule so that it fits two people leaving around the same time in the morning? What happened to getting up five minutes earlier if both are in a haste? I'd love to have a bathroom of my own, not a rented one, and would be happy with even one sink of my own. Sometimes it sounds like people on AT need a reality check.

I could not agree more with ninakk. So many houses, especially older ones, have only one bathroom, with one sink. My kids (teenagers) and I share one full bath (there's also a half bath that no one uses except in desperation) and we get by just fine, even though some mornings all three of us need to take showers and be out the door before 8. It is not hard to manage if people are respectful of the fact that others need to get in there too, and sometimes alter their preferred order of doing things to accommodate everyone else.

Another advantage of our two bathrooms is that they're both so small that they're no harder to maintain than one standard bathroom. I also find that separate blankets are better than sharing one blanket, as wendy-rae mentioned.

ninakk posted above that ”Sometimes it sounds like people on AT need a reality check." OK--near one end of the spectrum, there are Calcutta sidewalks and much of Haiti. Near the other end, there are palaces rarely experienced even as glossy magazine photos.

The people on AT are scattered along the middle of the spectrum. One person may reside in her favorite city, a second person may conceive & raise children, and a third person may avoid debt. Each of those people gives up something in order to achieve her or his primary goals. Even those who seem to have it all have regrets, frustrations, and limitations.

We have in common at least the assets of literacy, Internet access, homes whether by rent or by mortgage, the ability to improve them, and the choices of whether to appreciate and to use those assets. No one home can be best for every one since each of us has different experiences, perceptions, needs, and priorities. Sharing them is what keeps AT interesting. Is that the needed reality check?

@Miami's Elaine: Nobody (and I really mean nobody) *needs* several bathrooms and nobody *needs* multiple sinks. What the world *needs* however is a collective reality check right now. Ans also, happiness and pleasure are certainly not the same thing. The world needs to learn how to feel content from small things. People justify the strangest things by claiming a need, but consumerism is about to throw us all down the drain. Just because we find something covetable, doesn't mean we have to allow ourselves to walk into the first store and buy the thing. If a machine, dish washer for instance, is expected to have a long life span and to be a greener alternative than the lack of it, then go for it. But plain and simple greed is something I nowadays have a hard time justifying. I'm not even sorry if it doesn't match your world view. AT is a powerful place and it needs to take responsibility accordingly.

I agree with ninakk. If I can add...Small is good. Be happy with what you have and make the best of it. (Although a second bathroom is a good thing!)

To me it comes down to two things: first, the semantics of "need" versus "want"--as ninakk points out, no one NEEDS two sinks, three-car garages, 1000 square feet of living space per person, and so on. So often on this site profiled homeowners talk about how they NEEDED to have more, more, more as if their lives depended on it. Let's just call it what it is--want/desire/preference.

The second issue is individual choices versus collective responsibility. Clearly, that is where the greatest divide exists on this site. There are those who think, if someone wants to build a McMansion, why not? Who are we to judge? If they can afford to replace everything in their home with the latest top-of-the-line stuff, good for them! And there are others who are concerned about the strain on our natural and other resources that has arisen from that mentality. I don't want water diverted from the Great Lakes so that people in Arizona can have lush, green lawns and golf courses. I don't want us to engage in wars that risk lives and cost money we don't have, all to protect our addiction to foreign oil. And I don't want our landfills more clogged than they are with the detritus from home renovations that were done just because someone couldn't stand their almond-colored refrigerator and declassé laminate countertops.

In a house of two people, two SINKS do not double the water consumption. Two PEOPLE double the water consumption.

Some would say overpopulation is the greatest strain on our resources, but I'd be crucified if I ever proposed THAT theory around here...

Having lived in a house with 2 people and 2 sinks in the bathroom, vs those same 2 people with 1 sink, unless we were careful, we each tended to, at our respective sinks, slop around way longer than when there was one...and since the hot water heater was huger in the house with the 2 sinks, and so the "sinking" didn't interfere with the tubbing, definitely we used more hot water with 2 sinks...bills proved it, and we pulled way back.

so yes, 2 sinks doesn't equal double, but may contribute to more, and the materials to build, install, clean and dispose of the second, heat the water, etc.

I think, from stats I've seen, that the fewer number of people still are using most of the world's resources, but certainly overpopulated places feel the strain most...

I agree with both of the previous two posts. I wasn't suggesting that the problems I listed were the worst contributors to the global strain on resources--but they are the ones that tend to come up here. We are not seeing a lot of posts about the Octomom or the Duggars and the huge homes they have to support their gigantic families, or people in the developing world who can't afford to feed their many children. The issues that come up on AT are about how we as individual home owners or renters choose to live and what decisions (specifically, those at least loosely related to design or lifestyle habits) they make.

Funny how, when I mention "overpopulation", people automatically look FAR past the borders of the US. Or cite the gross exceptions of fertility clinics run amok.

I took "overpopulation" to mean population density/family size-ish and ran the numbers in my own USA county-- which is a bit sprawly suburb, so definitely not big city density.

The numbers worked out this way: with the exact same number of housing units in two neighborhoods: one with an average sqf of under 1000, with an average household size of 3.5 adults and 3 children, the other with an average sqf over 1800, average household size of 2 adults and 1 child, both the water usage per 1000 gallons and monthly kwh were almost double in the larger house/fewer people households for the six-month period I looked at.

I took "strain" to mean money mostly, and when I looked at the monthly energy cost for the larger houses/fewer people in relation to income/household, the percentage of monthly income used for energy was lower; so I figured the strain on the lower income households proportionately per month was higher, since those water and electric bills were more of a chunk each month.

"Strain" may be a bit of a squishy word to figure...so when I looked at the number of foreclosures in each neighborhood, they ran about the same...perhaps the "strain," at least purely financial, in that way is more equal, at least now!

But I still think in my little neck of the woods it is true to say that per capita, these particular less dense households are using more energy resources than these particular more dense households.

I think it's usually said (haven't verified :) that the same is true on the macro level.

My only point, I guess, was that you don't "need" 2.5 or 3.5 kids, whether you can "afford them" or not, any more than you "need" dual sinks in your own freakin' bathroom, even if you can afford them. Yet the fingers come a'pointin' when anything smacks of consumerism... or, even capitalism (on a site that deals with home design and decor!). Yet issues of resources are DIRECTLY linked to the numbers of people we have on EVERY side of the globe...

But population is a taboo subject to criticize in the US... *about* the US.

And plus, if a homeowner wants to expand one bathroom by upgrading to dual sinks to make it work for *them*, and NOT A) Tear down and start over, or B) Add a second or third bath, how is that POSSIBLY "irresponsible living"?

hmmmn, further OCD'ing on my local numbers...laundry. No way to check to see which lower income/lower sqf/higher density households are using the laundromats, therefore skewing the consumption numbers.

But clearly THAT'S another kind of strain ;) And for those of us who take the wet stuff home to airdry...which I see LOTS of...

OH, gotcha now on how you meant overpopulation in relation to the responsible living theme. Complicated psychologically/religiously/culturally/practically for so many women, but personally, agreed.

focusing on the smaller square footage issue, i would have loved to see a dual sink integrated into a nearly-single-sink-space with some more creative ledges/storage. i always wondered why dual sinks couldn't serve as transitional furniture--i.e., a dual sink which has the capacity for one or both to be covered to serve as extra counter space (think cutting board atop of a sink). i see nothing here extraordinary, especially deserving of a post. however, the distressed mis-matched mirrors are cute. instead of AT reposting the same stuff, please try a new and creative twist on creative space saving. giving smaller square footage the same attention as the larger spaces, presumptuously quoted as being everyone's ultimate dream/ultimate goal, would, i think, make readers happy. with that said, this post is a wasteland of uninteresting double sinks (on of which is a boring single sink with no significant or relevant design wow-factors).

*one* of which...

and the plywood and mixing bowls posing as a vanity and sink are not doing it for me...speaking of vanities, i would love to see a post of them alone...especially any awesome DYIs...and especially since they seem partially relevant to the folks who think sharing/organizing a space to get ready in is an issue...but please, enough with the cheapo, basic contractor stuff.

eatpreylove--

Thank you for not getting up in arms about my desire to discuss the topic(s) at hand (or make it seem like I was attacking you personally, in any way).

It doesn't always happen that way, but I wish it would. So thanks.

There are just 2 of us now but one sink is all we want in a bathroom. We'd rather not be bumping into each other at the same time even if there were 2 sinks. I also don't get 2 sinks in a small vanity top with no room to lay down anything. We'd rather have the counter space.

patrick (the other one)-- back atcha.

What's funny is that the conversation on this site gets way more interesting and challenging related to consumption/consumerism/choices than anything EVER seems to get on renest, and really seems to be the culture interrogating itself.

Everything over there seems crazy-priced or a not-yet-priced not-yet-in-production idea or....well, the energy/fashion tip (which may or may not be a "hack" :) of not washing one's jeans (the "good" ones, not the work ones) and instead, putting them in a plastic bag in the freezer. Which then was also supposed to be kind of a joke...

I still do look over there because the not-yet-in-production pieces are more like conceptual art than what I can find to look at anywhere else! If you've got a good tip for other online spaces for conceptual art, holla'

medusa12120: Agreed, although several of the later posts have been thought-provoking in their variety of perspective and refreshingly analytical style.