Ever live without indoor plumbing?

Yes indeed, in Ruskin, Florida. From ages 1-4. Had neither indoor plumbing or electricity, Then for a little over year after a house that had both was burned down, we had a sink and shower but no indoor toilet. Because that outhouse was a longer hike and in the midst of trees and high risk of snakes, we used a 'Chamber pot' at night.

When we visited my first in laws farm in Guyana ( i was 24) they had running water in kitchen sink but had to be heated on stove to have hot for washing dishes. That kitchen was a separate building connected to main house by open (roofed but no walls) walkway. MIL was shocked i.had no issues using the outhouse, washing clothes at tge outdoor well pump ir showing in the little outdoor stall, that got fed by a water tower that caught rainwater). Because they were almost on the equator every afternoon that water had been solar heated to aperfect temp.
 

Yes a couple of times. My grandparents bought 3 lots in our town, pitched a big tent and started building a house. A hole was dug and an outhouse erected. I was about 6 then. Grandpa had an accident and was confined to the tent while grandma and an uncle built the house. However no bathroom was built until later. When grandpa was allowed back in the sunlight he dug a cesspool, and the bathroom was built along with a dining room which also doubled as the laundry room and my bedroom. We lived there until the doctor told grandma she had o get off the cement floors or lose a leg. That was when she bought a tiny house with wood floors and a great big avocado tree out back.

Much later DH and I rented a house out of town and it had no bathroom, just the out house and a number three tub. We didn't stay there long.
 
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Alligatorob said:
Good story @mrstime it was a simpler day back then, but a harder one.

Not in BC, surely. Do avocados grow that far north?
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No not in BC, they do grow in Southern California where I was born and grew up. Had a husband who really wanted out of the city. So we ended up going to the Yukon, from there to BC where we became Canadian citizens.
 
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katlupe said:
Oh yeah, just 4 years ago, in fact. Pitcher pump out front for water. Heating water on wood or gas stoves. Pouring water into the bath tub (the drains worked). Washing laundry outside in big tubs. Sawdust toilet. No shower. Lived that way from 1999 until I left in 2018. I couldn't take it anymore. Not at this age.
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Yeah
6 of the last eight years off grid
Mountain cabin we built

zqXb3Cz.jpg

our back yard in winter.jpg

Loved the sun baths

tub time fin.jpg

I miss a lot of it....sometimes
But.....not enough to do it again
 
No connection to the sewer in the house I grew up in. Water from the bath and laundry flowed out to the gutter, producing a fascinating micro environment of grey green algae and tiny red worms.

We had a brick outhouse halfway down the backyard with a pan that was emptied weekly by the night cart men. Mum poured kersoene into it to stop it becoming the home of maggots. The layer of kero on the top stopped the flies from laying their eggs.

In case you think I was living off grid somewhere in the Outback, I must inform you that this was in Bankstown, a very large municipality within greater Sydney from 1946 to 1963. Shocking, even for that period.
 
In 1992, I was briefly homeless thanks to a bad marriage, lived in an '82 Blazer for most of a year. Managed to buy a rough 2 acres with nothing but trees and rocks to camp on, not even an outhouse. Got a job, managed to get county water line in, and a year later, a tiny mobile home. 10 years later, having fixed it up pretty decent, I sold it and bought this little farm. Hard work and determination, but yeah, I know how to live rough.
 
Only when camping.

It's interesting, to me, that people work hard to have a home with all the modern conveniences and then spend their free time sitting under a tree enjoying life without any of them.

I would find it difficult to get along without refrigeration.

It's amazing the skills and knowledge about day-to-day life that we've lost over the last half-century.

I suppose it has all been replaced by more relevant skills and knowledge. :unsure:
 
Alligatorob said:
I have to say I am impressed by how many have lived without plumbing and other modern niceties. I would not have guessed it.
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In winter of 1965-66, 19 yr old me was living on Lower East Side of Manhattan and doing clerical work at a mid town publishing firm. Wide age span of employees, at an office party some of the older workers got to talking about visiting grandparents in country when kids. How different the 'amenities' were from their urban homes. Probably because the big NYC sanitation workers strike was looming, had them thinking about that stuff.

Anyway i joined in mentioning that first house i remember that had no indoor plumbing or electricity. A guy about in late 50s turned, looked me up and down and stared at my face as if checking for previously unnoticed wrinkles, crows feet. Then he asked 'How old are you?". I replied "19, but you have to realize that there are still people, in mostly rural areas that still live without modern conveniences.". Cities are not all there is to our country."
 
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You won't have convenient access to water whenever you need to use the restroom, take a shower, wash the dishes, or do the laundry without a functioning plumbing system. If you don't have plumbing, you'll need to be able to carry buckets of water daily in and out of your house.
 
I remember living with my grandparents and the toilet bowl cracked for some reason, so we had to call the plumber to make an "emergency" call. Gramps and I could go out in the field and relieve ourselves, but Grandma was miserable for almost 4 hours or so until the plumber came and replaced the toilet. After that, Gramps had another toilet bowl and shower installed in the basement, which already had a concrete floor and a French drain. Having that second toilet came in handy several times after it was installed. No more waiting in the hallway to get into the bathroom.
 
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