Say goodbye to the bathtub.

When was the last time you luxuriated in a bathtub instead of taking a shower?


It was likely at home or in a nice hotel. And it was a treat, right? Lying back in all that hot water, letting it envelop you, while you listened to soft music and maybe had candles burning?



Forget all that. The bathtub as a standard feature of homes and hotels is soon to be a thing of the past. Like full-service gas stations and telephone land lines, bathtubs are on their way out.


Why?

Because we're all in a hurry, for one. It's quicker to take a shower than a bath. It's also easier and more efficient. Water falls down on us from above, washing away dirt and extra hair. It all goes down the drain. (To be cleaned out later.) We step out and dry off, feeling refreshed.



It's also more cost-efficient. I can take a two-minute shower, with the water set on not that high, and get just as clean as I could if I used a lot more hot water in a tub filled to the brim.



Not to mention that when I step out of the shower, I'm probably cleaner than when I step out of a bathtub with the residue of soap and dirt still clinging to me. How do you get that stuff off?

A shower, of course.



A shower washes everything away. And it doesn't take more than a few minutes.


A bath, on the other hand, can go on for hours. At least until we're not only totally relaxed but getting kind of pruny -- our flesh wrinkling from all the moisture leeched out into the water.

That, of course, is the point. A bath is for relaxation. A shower is to get clean.

Do we lose something by eliminating bathtubs? Of course. We lose that time to ourselves, luxuriating in warm water, tuning out the world, if just for a while.

What do we gain? Expediency. In the shower and out in minutes, and totally clean.

Is the trade-off worth it? Depends on your schedule, your priorities, your lifestyle, etc. If you really need that hot soak at the end of the day, keep the tub. If you just want to get clean at the end of the day, or a workout, or to start a new day, opt for the shower.

But I'm here to tell you -- the prophet of doom, perhaps -- that it's likely going to get harder and harder to find a new home with more than one bathtub. They will survive for a while, as many home-buyers are older (the ones with money), but I'd be surprised if, someday in the near future, you'll buy a new home with three bathrooms in which each has a tub. Probably it will be one with, two without.

Likely to survive, at least for a while, are the fancy spa kinds of tubs, over-sized and with jets of hot water, but the old-fashioned tub, the one that you and I used to take a bath in when we were kids, is probably going away.

Ask your friends. How often do they take a bath? A real bath in a tub? And how often do they opt for a quick shower? If you could only have one, on any given day, which would it be?



I'd pick the shower, but that could be because I'm a guy. Most guys don't understand the need to lie down in soapy water and stay there for a long time. We're all for getting clean and getting on with things. If we have a woman in the tub, and she invites us into it, okay, we'll stay there a while, but that's mainly a daydream.



I would say that if you're looking for a new home, or building one, and if you really want a tub, or more than one, make it a priority. For some time to come, you'll find homes that have them, but eventually you may not. (I saw a new home recently that had showers off the master bedroom and the other bedrooms but no tub.) But if you're the one spending the money, insist on what you want. Just as you might demand a sun room or a big deck, make sure you have a bathtub. Just don't expect it to be standard equipment in twenty or thirty years.

I may be wrong about all this, of course, but in the meantime, who said you can't share a shower with someone you love? All that soaping each other while you're both wet and slick and warm and standing up. Lord, it can bring the best of us to our knees!