Anyone who has done their due diligence on tiny homes has more than likely read the Humanure Handbook, discovered the Lovable Loo, and probably given some time to the plastic throne (complete with sawdust!). Recently though on one of the many tiny house Facebook pages I saw something quite interesting. Someone had uploaded a photo of their current bathroom situation, which was nothing more than a porta potty. That’s right. Sitting just a few steps away from their beautiful tiny house on wheels was a a modern-day outhouse, also called a Port-a-John, Port-a-Jane, or Porta Loo (for you folks across the pond). She also mentioned that they have it serviced once every other week or so and that because she treated it like a bathroom it did not have any of the odor or filth reserved for porta potties at outdoor festivals, NASCAR meetings, tiny house celebrations, etc. That got me thinking.
When my wife and I lived in our 30′ tiny house on wheels, one reason it looked so large to people was because it had no interior walls. There were no established rooms. The floorplan was very fluid. We also didn’t have a bathroom indoors. Instead we built a full bathroom (toilet, shower stall, hot water heater, etc) about 13 steps away from our house. We called it the ‘Polynesian Shower Shack’ because I have always loved the idea of an outdoor shower and my wife knew them well after having lived in the Cook Islands. We employed the use of a sawdust toilet anyway so why not keep all of that out there as well. It just made sense. So combining that successful experiment (it got cold maybe 3 nights in 2 years and hot only during the mid-day sun of the summer) with the photo I saw on Facebook, I decided that if money were not a huge issue but bathroom luxury was, why limit it to the confines of your tiny house on wheels and why not enter a long term rent of something known as Restroom Royalty.
Imagine, if you will, being able to tow your bathroom anywhere you go and have the option of being hooked up or off-grid with it. That is the beauty of these towable restroom designs. They have water tanks like an RV but can also be hooked up to a garden spigot/hose and drained through a leech. Your bathroom would be furnished with a sink, a flushable commode, and a shower stall. That’s right. You could have the THOW of your dreams as well as a restroom with all the comforts of home in clean, private, and spacious [essentially] cargo trailers. Just imagine the amenities a long-term rental would provide you. And of course they would be provided because the one real downside to this arrangement would be that you couldn’t customize the bathroom. It would have to stay as it had been rented. It doesn’t sound bad at all though:
- Rugs and Pictures
- Flushing Porcelain Toilets
- Pedestal Sinks and Mirrors
- Hand Soap and Hand Towels
- Air Conditioning or Heat
- Low Level Outdoor Lighting
- Occupancy Light Indicator
I’m in! Figuratively, of course. But I’m in. The idea of a portable shower stall bathroom that is completely self-contained and operable using (2) 110 volt outlets or generator(s) for the lights, heat or air conditioner, and on-demand propane water heater, pulls just a maximum of 20 amps, can use water supplied by a spigot and garden hose or a 165 gallon on-board fresh water holding tank, has a 200 gallon waste holding tank (grey water from the showers can either flow directly into the waste holding tank or be diverted to a specific location on the ground), and can deliver up to 450 hot showers, is more than entertaining. It may very well be the next big thing to hit the tiny house market! Mint anyone?
By Andrew M. Odom for the [Tiny House Blog]
It’s early as I read this, so I may have missed something. Is the cargo trailer restroom something that already exists?
It seems like a clever idea.
Yes Diane. The restroom already exists.
Kinda reminds me of the trailers we used in Iraq for showers and toilets, only a whole lot nicer! This is an excellent idea that I would definitely support!!
great idea..very delux too. for people who do not have cell phones they should have a phone booth with a pay as you go cell phone in something as small as a port-a-jon.
Add a sauna and I’m in.
These tiny houses are so amazing they have such great features and information I want one so badly
I suggested this elsewhere. Design two separate trailers – the home and the bathroom – that can be connected or at least parked near one another. A toilet with shower could be towed weekly to a septic service. Water can be heated quickly with electricity, so the bathroom doesn’t need heating during winter. The only worry is drainage and freezing.
Some TH owners have commented on mold as an issue. If you take most of the water out of a home(shower, sink and toilet, leaving only the kitchen), you greatly reduce the problem.