What were bathrooms like medieval times?

Answer 1

Bathrooms didn't exist, but they had outhouses in towns and peasants went in a chamberpot or a bucket, while in castles and rich houses, they would have these 'toilets' called garderobes where a little room, with a wooden seat with a hole in it, would be adjutted out from the outside wall of the castle a couple of stories up where the waste would fall down into either the moat or a cesspit where a gongfarmer would dig it up and put it somewhere (sometimes a chute was where the waste went down so it would fall in the expected place). Baths were taken in large wooden tubs with linen cloths laid in it to protect the bather from splinters. Baths were taken in the bedroom, but in some castles a room would be assigned for taking baths in. Townspeople took baths mostly in bath houses around town, but rich people took them at home. A sink was a basin of water. Toilet paper was either a rag or a handful of hay. Bathing was, for rich people once every two months, and for poor people probably three times a year. This is because water had to be hauled from a well and then heated in a cauldron over a fireplace, and in a castle the journey back and forth, down and up the stairs was tiring. Also wood had to be used to heat the water in bathhouses, so a lot went out of business for this. Most of society washed only the parts visible to the public, like the neck, arms, face, forehead, and ears with soap, the rest just doused with water. Bathhouses also were frowned upon because of public nudity, a thing against the Catholic Church, and they were also used as brothels for prostitution, a very sinful and bad thing in society. But cleanliness was kind of half and half in the Middle Ages, as some people took baths often, but some didn't. Peasants could just bathe in the river. And the dumping of chamberpots into the streets is a Roman practice, but people emptied them out into an open drain running down the street or in garbage pits emptied frequently. A lot of information can be surprising in the fact that you would usually think they were very stinky people, and it is not much of a touched subject, which makes it questionable.