How did peasants use the bathroom?
Toilets. In villages or on manor estates the peasantry used a cesspit for their own waste, which might then be taken and spread on the fields as a fertiliser. In some cases a small hut provided some privacy and a wooden bench with a hole in it some comfort (as well as reducing the chances of falling into the cesspit).
Indeed, whether people used chamber pots, private toilets or public lavatories, excrements needed to go somewhere, and sewage was not an option. Waterways provided a convenient way of getting rid of waste. But, when privies were far away from a stream, their owners had to dig a cesspit to keep urine and faeces.
Designed mainly with function in mind, the medieval toilet was otherwise known as a garderobe or privy chamber and was often located on several floors of most castles and no bigger than the restroom of a modern-day coffee shop.
There weren't always toilets as we know them today. Before the invention of the loo humans used a hole in the ground, potties and chamber pots!
Kings and peasants alike washed up before and after meals. Most people ate with their hands—cutlery was rare and food was often consumed using stale bread called trenchers. Washing away the day's grime was necessary and a sign of respect for whoever was feeding you.
1) Personal hygiene:
In the Middle Ages, the peasants were reliant on water provided from wells that dotted the landscape. They practiced cleaning their hands before eating and washing themselves a couple of times per week, or more often if the need arose to rid themselves of smell.
In the Middle Ages toilets were simply pits in the ground with wooden seats over them. However, in the Middle Ages, monks built stone or wooden lavatories over rivers. At Portchester Castle in the 12th-century monks built stone chutes leading to the sea.
The First Toilets
The first flushing water closet dates back between 1500 and 1000 B.C. in Crete, where the people created sophisticated underground sewage and drainage systems. Additionally, Egyptians included bathrooms and other plumbing fixtures in their tombs.
Throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries, the use of public baths declined gradually in the west, and private spaces were favoured, thus laying the foundations for the bathroom, as it was to become, in the 20th century.
While wearing all that, a knight desperate for the toilet would have most likely needed the assistance of his squire to lift or remove the rear culet, so that he could squat down.
How did Indians go to the bathroom?
American Indians generally did their “business” in the most convenient place not far from their tipis. Indians dug latrines away from the tipis and fresh water. During the most brutal weather, these latrines would be placed close by. Human waste froze in the winter and didn't smell nearly as much as in the summer.
...
| Thomas Crapper | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Businessman, plumber |
| Spouse | Maria Green (1837–1902) |
| Parent | Charles Crapper |
Not much is known about how cavemen wiped their butts. But it stands to reason early humans used whatever was on hand. Leaves, sticks, moss, sand and water were common choices, depending on early humans' environment. Once we developed agriculture, we had options like hay and corn husks.
Toilet paper is used in Japan, even by those who own toilets with bidets and washlet functions (see below). In Japan, toilet paper is thrown directly into the toilet after use. However, please be sure to put just the toilet paper provided in the toilet.
Peasant women had many domestic responsibilities, including caring for children, preparing food, and tending livestock. During the busiest times of the year, such as the harvest, women often joined their husbands in the field to bring in the crops.
So yes, medieval people, even regular old peasants were pretty clean types of people. In fact, they were so clean that for them bathing constituted a leisure activity. So the average person would likely wash daily at home, but once a week or so they would treat themselves to a bath at the communal bath house.
Before soap, many people around the world used plain ol' water, with sand and mud as occasional exfoliants. Depending on where you lived and your financial status, you may have had access to different scented waters or oils that would be applied to your body and then wiped off to remove dirt and cover smell.
Peasant Clothing
The outer clothes were almost never laundered, but the linen underwear was regularly washed. The smell of wood smoke that permeated the clothing seemed to act as a deodorant. Peasant women spun wool into the threads that were woven into the cloth for these garments.
Typically speaking, people bathed once a week during the Middle Ages. Private baths were extremely rare - basically nobody had them - but public bathhouses were actually quite common. People who didn't have that or who couldn't afford to use one, still lived near a river.
The only thing you should ever flush down a toilet is human waste (urine and feces) and toilet paper. Here's what you shouldn't flush: Bags / wrappings and cardboard. Band-aids and bandage wrappers.
Why is a toilet called a toilet?
The word toilet is French in origin and is derived from the word 'toilette', which translates as 'dressing room', rather than today's meaning. Toilette itself has its roots in another word; 'toile', which means 'cloth'. This cloth would be draped over someone while their hair was being groomed.
The Sumerians in Mesopotamia built the oldest toilets known to date between 3,500 and 3,000 B.C. They consisted of deep pits lined with stacked ceramic tubes on which the user sat. The solid excreta remained in the container and liquid seeped out through holes in it. There was no flushing system.
bathroom (n.)
also bath-room, 1780, from bath + room (n.). Originally a room with apparatus for bathing (the only definition in "Century Dictionary," 1902); it came to be used 20c. in U.S. as a euphemism for a lavatory and often is noted as a word that confuses British travelers.
Fast forward to 1767, when the first patent for a shower was granted to William Feetham, a stove maker from Ludgate Hill in London. These early modern-day showers were powered by a hand pump and used less water than baths.
The oldest accountable daily ritual of bathing can be traced to the ancient Indians. They used elaborate practices for personal hygiene with three daily baths and washing. These are recorded in the works called grihya sutras which date back to 500 BCE and are in practice today in some communities.
A female urinal is a urinal designed for the female anatomy to allow for ease of use by women and girls. Different models enable urination in standing, semi-squatting, or squatting postures, but usually without direct bodily contact with the toilet.
All-gender restrooms are facilities that anyone can use regardless of gender. They benefit many people, including transgender and gender diverse individuals, people who require the assistance of a caregiver of a different gender, and parents with children of a different gender.
Regardless, from a germ standpoint, men's restrooms are by far the cleaner of the two.
However, even a King or a Queen needs to use the (Royal) Potty sometimes, so where did they use it? Within their own properties, there were rooms specifically for their own private use. The Close Stool or Privy was the Medieval and 16th-century versions of the modern toilet.
Chamber pots did not always have to sit below a commode. For ease of use, Victorian women could simply hold the chamber pot in their hands, rest a foot on the top of the chair, and hold the chamber pot underneath the skirts.
Did castles have toilets?
In the medieval period luxury castles were built with indoor toilets known as 'garderobes', and the waste dropped into a pit below.
If you're like most people, the answer is probably less than 24 hours ago. There's no official protocol for how often to shower, but folks around the world — in countries like India, the US, Spain, and Mexico — all bathe about once a day (either with soap or without), according to Euromonitor International.
The first modern flushable toilet was described in 1596 by Sir John Harington, an English courtier and the godson of Queen Elizabeth I. Harington's device called for a 2-foot-deep oval bowl waterproofed with pitch, resin and wax and fed by water from an upstairs cistern.
However, the honour of producing the first toilet goes either to the Scots (in a Neolithic settlement dating back to 3000 BC) or to the Greeks who constructed the Palace of Knossos (in 1700 BC) with large earthenware pans connected to a flushing water supply.
: a compartment or room with a toilet. Confronted with the cramped confines of a bathroom in a typical starter home—one of those spaces aptly described by the term water closet—homeowners may well entertain grand plans for expansion.
Wipe Your Butt From Front To Back
"There are far more bacteria in the rectal area; that's why you want to avoid dragging the toilet paper in the other direction toward your urethra. Bringing this bacteria up [towards the] front can contribute to a urinary tract infection," said Dr. Dweck.
For women, not wiping away all fecal matter can increase the risk of conditions such as: labial irritation. urinary tract infection (UTI) vaginitis.
What exactly are my best options when the toilet paper runs out? Flannel squares, bidet, spray bottle, socks, baby wipes, plant leaves, and snow are only a few of the possible options you may be using if you neglect to stock up on toilet paper.
Wipe backward from the perineum, toward and past the anus. “Wipe gently, and use additional toilet paper until the paper is clean and never scrub the skin around the perineum. If you cannot reach behind your back, reaching in between your legs from the front is fine as long as you wipe from front to back,” says Dr.
Allybocus Akbar writing in pubtexto.com, an open access journal, stated that water is considered more hygienic since all faeces and urine are washed off and leaves no bad smell in underwear; whereas wiping does leave residual smell, behind no matter how much one scrubs with toilet paper.
How did ancient Chinese wipe their bottoms?
In ancient China, the object used to wipe the buttocks was called a “toilet seat”, which was actually a “stirring stick”. Their actual names should be Malaka, cachou, or chugi. After excretion, the ancient people used sticks, wooden sticks, bamboo sticks, and other things to wipe the feces.
But they are common in rural areas and modest establishments like roadside dhabas. However, what is common is the use of water instead of toilet paper. Most of India still uses water to wash, rather than toilet paper — which is a very good thing.
"Sandpaper"-like toilet paper is still in use in some toilets in Russia and Eastern Europe. Yes, the soft stuff is available for general purchase. The gray-to-brownish Soviet-issue toilet paper is as bad as the stereotype - to varying degrees.
While Americans in particular are used to flushing their used toilet paper down the pipe, they must break that habit if they are traveling to Turkey, Greece, Beijing, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Bulgaria, Egypt and the Ukraine in particular. Restrooms will have special waste bins to place used toilet paper.
So yes, medieval people, even regular old peasants were pretty clean types of people. In fact, they were so clean that for them bathing constituted a leisure activity. So the average person would likely wash daily at home, but once a week or so they would treat themselves to a bath at the communal bath house.
In 1850s America, most people relied on privies and outhouses for their bathroom needs. But the Davis family of Natchez, Miss., had something few other Americans did: indoor hot-and-cold running water and an indoor toilet.
The oldest accountable daily ritual of bathing can be traced to the ancient Indians. They used elaborate practices for personal hygiene with three daily baths and washing. These are recorded in the works called grihya sutras which date back to 500 BCE and are in practice today in some communities.
Bathroom history stretches back further than you might imagine. Originally, bathrooms were not developed with hygiene in mind, and the first records for the use of baths date back as far as 3000 B.C. At this time, water had a strong religious value and was seen as a purifying element for both body and soul.
Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene. Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene.
Most medieval people probably were dirty, and perhaps even smelly, by our standards – however hard you try, it must be nearly impossible to make a cold, muddy river work as well as a power shower and a washing machine. But only a tiny number of medieval people were truly filthy. Even fewer actually wanted to be dirty.
How often did peasants wash their clothes?
When the fabric was thought to be washable, it appears that peasants washed their clothing every week at most. Linen was one fabric that was washed in water using lye; then it was laid in the sun on a rock or the grass to dry. (Clothespins are another modern invention.)
Sometimes it's just better and safer to go as a couple or in groups; it's simply a precaution. Of course, some women are just awkward or have an anxiety of being alone, in which case having a friend by their side is reassuring, even if it is in the toilet.
The Victorian Period (And Beyond)
From the 1890s to the early 1980s, people used sanitary belts, which basically were reusable pads that attached to a belt worn around the waist – and yes, they were as uncomfortable as they sound.