05/28/2026
We put in a corner toilet to save space in this small bathroom in our 1905 home!
Three years ago, I couldn't even use a bathroom without permission. Had to ask. Every single time. Now I have my own corner toilet in my own tiny bathroom in my own 500-square-foot apartment, and I'm ridiculously proud of it.
The bathroom was a closet. Literally. The previous owner used it for storage because "who needs a bathroom that small?" But when you're starting over at 46 with nothing but a suitcase and trauma, a closet with plumbing is luxury.
Spent weeks on renovation forums trying to figure out how to fit a toilet in 25 square feet. Regular toilets laughed at my measurements. Then someone on a Tedooo app home improvement group mentioned corner toilets. Never knew they existed.
The plumber thought I was crazy. "Lady, this is barely bigger than an airplane bathroom." But I'd lived in worse. I'd lived in fear. This tiny space? This was freedom.
Installation day, nothing fit right. The corner toilet hit the wall. The door wouldn't close. I sat on my kitchen floor crying, thinking maybe I really couldn't do anything right, just like he always said.
But then I remembered - I left him. I survived. I could figure out a toilet.
Adjusted the placement three times. Learned to cut tiles myself because I couldn't afford help. Found that floral painting at Goodwill for $3 - needed something beautiful to look at, something that was just mine. The shower curtain with monkeys? Makes me smile every morning because he would have hated it.
Posted the finished bathroom on Tedooo where I'd started selling my crafts to pay rent. The comments flooded in. "Genius use of space!" "So cozy!" One woman messaged privately: "I'm leaving next month. Seeing your bathroom gives me hope."
That corner toilet isn't just plumbing. It's proof that you can rebuild from nothing. That a closet can become a sanctuary. That freedom sometimes looks like choosing your own shower curtain and never having to ask permission again.
Every morning, I sit on my corner toilet in my tiny bathroom and feel like a queen. Because this space is mine. All mine. And that's everything.