What Does Your Bathroom Say About You?

Advice from Peggy and Emily Post

Here are tips from Peggy Post on how to keep a great guest bathroom. And for some historical perspective, we've included an excerpt from Emily Post's original edition of Etiquette, the book that started it all.

Peggy Post's advice, circa 2008:

The Guest Bathroom
Getting a guest room and guest bathroom ready is one of my favorite things to do—it’s like wrapping a present for your guests. The best way to know how well equipped your guest bathroom is is to spend some time there as a guest yourself. There’s nothing like firsthand knowledge to tell you how the towels feel, how the soap smells, or whether there is a well-placed extra roll of toilet paper. Here is a list of basics that every guest bathroom should have, as well as a few extras that I like to add to make guests feel especially welcome:

In the Bathroom

• Fresh bath towels, face towels, washcloth, bath mat
• Fresh soap
• Glasses for brushing teeth and drinking water
• New roll of toilet paper in the dispenser and an unopened one in the cabinet
• Box of tissues

Nice Touches

• Shampoo, bath oil, bath power, and hand lotion on the washstand
• New toothbrush, just in case the guest has forgotten her own
• Headache and stomachache medicines in the guest bathroom medicine cabinet

Adapted from Emily Post’s Etiquette, 17th edition and "Excuse Me, But I Was Next…” by Peggy Post.

Emily Post's advice for housewives, circa 1922:

She should  occasionally go into the guest bathroom and draw the water in every fixture, to see there is no stoppage and that the hot water faucets are not seemingly jokes of the plumber. If a man is to occupy the bathroom, she must see that the hook for a razor trop is not missing, and that there is a mirror by which he can see to shave both at night and by daylight. Even though she can see to powder her nose, it would be safer to make her husband bathe and shave both a morning and an evening in each bathroom and then listen carefully to what he says about it!

Even though she has a perfect housemaid, it is not unwise occasionally to make sure herself that every detail has been attended to; that in every bathroom there are plenty of bath towels, face towels, a freshly laundered wash rag, bath mat, a new cakes of unscented bath soap in the bathtub soap rack, and a new cake of scented soap on the washstand.

It is not expected, but it is often very nice to find violet water, bath salts, listerine, talcum powder, almond or other hand or sunburn lotion, in decorated bottles on the washstand shelf; but to cover the dressing-table in the bedroom with brushes and an array of toilet articles is more of a nuisance than a comfort.

Adapted from Etiquette, by Emily Post.