Has anyone used an alternative toilet in their living space?

[jwirr]

How bad is the smell in a small space? Do they depend on an electrical source. Where I live the electricity had been know to go off in the winter.

Tell me what you know.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Well, there's kitty litter.

But only my roommates use it; I don't.

[jwirr]

3. LOL. My tiny house has run into a little problem. The district

is trying to clean up our lake with a community sewer system around the lake. In the meantime they do not want anyone to go on the home sewer lines.

I am not sure why they will not let me do it as I could move directly into my daughters spare bedroom and not use any less water and sewer than I do now. But I want to know about the alternatives.

[Warpy]

2. Composting toilets need to be emptied pretty frequently

but they don't tend to stink up the joint if handled properly and with the cover down.

Losing power shouldn't matter as long as you keep a few pails of water around to flush with. I've melted snow on a woodstove for that purpose a time or two.

[jwirr]

4. Thank you. I will not be on a sewer line at all. So no flushing.

But I did ask about the smell.

[Warpy]

5. I've been to homes that had them

and together with the smell of the woodstove, cooking, and other things, the composting toilet wasn't noticeable. You knew it was there when you shut the door and lifted the lid, but it wasn't as bad as the usual outhouse.

ETA: One of my pottier grand aunts decided indoor plumbing was unsanitary, although she kept the tap in the kitchen. Her city in NY wouldn't allow her to dig an outhouse in the back yard, so she had a chemical toilet in the corner of a very stiff and fusty Queen Anne dining room (convenient!). I was four or five and fascinated by that thing until I had to go, and then it was "I'm not getting up on that thing!" My mother said we had to leave. I think she was grateful.

[jwirr]

6. That is good. One of the reasons I want my tiny house is so

that I can have my great grandchildren visit - maybe I should rethink this.

[Warpy]

7. Yeah, I'd love to downsize

but I look at my albatross, a 4 harness rug loom, and realize it's a single wide for me, that's as tiny as I can get. I've lived in one before and it was great except for the space rental with only a month-to-month lease. Had the building boom continued, they could have sold the land out from under me and I'd have been in deep doo doo.

[jwirr]

8. I have been technically homeless for about 10 years moving

in and out of family bedrooms - littler each time and getting rid of stuff along to way to have room. I am now down to the tiny house and this year my daughter and her husband have offered to let me put the house on their property. I consider myself very lucky. Have lived in a car twice in my life and that is enough. I am tired of upsetting families so that I can have a place to live.

So I am working on it.

[Warpy]

9. Been there, too, and learned an address is the most important thing to have

I've gone hungry to keep that address when my health has crashed again.

A very basic tiny house sounds ideal for you, a way to get back on your feet. Now they're trying to make them illegal.

[jwirr]

10. I read that the other day. I guess we are welcome under

their bridges?

[Warpy]

11. Only if you live in cardboard.

[jwirr]

12. Once in the Great Depression that was considered a good

way to survive - mostly now it is a crime. I remember in the 70s talking about surviving in America and discussing the fact that many of the ways our ancestors survived were now illegal. So we decided that would not work.

[rusty quoin]

13. I actually have a book somewhere about this I read in the early 2000s.

Maybe I will try to find it.

My take on it was there is nothing like flushing unless you live in a remote cabin or something.

There was a family I visited that had a working marsh, end of the line sewage treatment system. There was no smell and plenty of reeds and other plants...water lillies...dragonflies..animal life...a whole ecosystem.

They had a big barbecue, and it was great, until my friend and I watched a guy wash a corn cob in the marsh and eat it.

I guess my point is, scientifically I'm sure the guy was okay to wash his corn, but for most of us, we want our waste flushed. If we need to do alternative waste water systems, to save water, or composting toilets inside the house, the push back may be more than that of accepting solar energy, which I have been a fan of since the 70s.

[jwirr]

14. My problem is that our water safety agency is trying to clean

our lake which has been polluted for years with septic style sewage. They are going to put a sewage system clear around the lake to direct the waste away from the lake but they haven't even begun to work on it yet. I need something I can use in the mean time. Something like a chem toilet.

However, your suggestion about the alternative waste water system would at least allow a shower and a kitchen sink. Laundry would be at my daughters existing home.

Thank you for the insight.

[rusty quoin]

17. My dad too lives on a lake. Since we moved there in the mid 70s, sewage was always a problem.

As a teenager we dug in the dirt to divert a cesspool.

About a decade ago my dad had to buy some special expensive system. There is public water there but not waste.

I've always been pro environment, and my dad big time. For years he sent letters to Boston Globe. His concern was about jet skis and their 2 cycle engines polluting the lake.

When we moved there, there were sailboats and small engine fishing boats. We had a dock and the fish you could see through the clear water and catch...pike, bass.

I moved away, and when I would visit through the years, bigger boats were there, and those damn jet skis buzzing through everything including the reeds of safe havens of breeding grounds for fish.

I moved back for a bit and the lake was nothing like it was when we first moved there. There were no more reeds and no more fish.

I assume the combination of both sewage and motor boats killed the lake. I hope it comes back someday. It is an environmental disaster.

And your thought about cooking and shower wash water, called brown waste, if it goes to the ground or to plants, is fine. Soap can change the pH, but referring back to that book about wastewater I read over a decade ago, it's ecological to use it rather than waste it. Just try to keep veg in it and less animal.

[jwirr]

18. Thank you. I am hoping that the sewer system will be just

the first and that they will add a water system last. My guess is that most of the wells out here are also polluted.

Thank you for the added info.

[hermetic]

15. Well, you asked...

A few years back I had to deal with no working plumbing in my house for about 6 months (long story). I found small, white trash bags at Target that were about 5 cents each. They fit into a bucket upon which I placed a plastic toilet seat. Every morning I would do my "dooty" in there, then seal the bag up tightly and put it in the outside garbage. The bucket was then placed outside in the sun to air out.

As for peeing, I had a chamber pot or just went outside. This was in a wilderness area so I had lots of trees, bushes and privacy.

I looked into self-composting toilets but they were quite expensive. I had friends who had outhouses. You need to put a lot of lime in those.

If you have an outside water tap you can attach 100' of black hose and stretch it out in the sun. The water will get quite hot and I have showered, done dishes and laundry that way many times.

I wish you the best of luck with this new adventure, and it will be. But it CAN be done.

[jwirr]

16. Thank you - love that kitty in your post.