We have a septic system for 5 bedrooms and our own well. Our B+B is 3 accommodations with a maximum occupancy of 6 people total. Here is what we have done for 25 years with no problems.
We have diverted all rain water from the roof to a dry well. All other waste water, including laundry, goes into the septic system, which we have pumped every year in the fall when our season ends.
There is a note in every bathroom alerting guests about the limits of the "country plumbing" and hang-up cards on the towel racks encouraging guests to hang towels to reuse. If they are staying 5-7 nights and they hang their wet towels, we allow the towels to stay on the towel rack to dry. There are always additional clean dry towels available in the bathroom if the towels are slow drying. If it is particularly humid and the towels are sopping wet I just collect them. As Seashanty says, nobody wants sour, damp towels.
We also have a note about our scarce fresh-water resources to encourage sensible use of tap/shower water. And we have upgraded the old water-hog toilets to new low-flo versions that work like a charm. Low flo shower heads are also a good idea.
We change bedding mid-stay for stays of 5 nights or more. Pillow cases get changed sooner if needed. For stays less than 5 nights I change the bed linens if they are soiled or if the weather is particularly humid. I do not tell guests anything about when I might change the linens because I like to have control of my schedule, not be held to a "promise"..
We have a sign in each bathroom - "if you want your towels changing put them in the shower" - people rarely do. We used to have the hotel signs with a lot of writing on them "saves the environment, too many towels washed destroying the world etc" but no one could be bothered to read that much - short but sweet on my custom signs works like a charm and saves me a fortune on laundry bills.
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Joey Camb said:
We have a sign in each bathroom - "if you want your towels changing put them in the shower" - people rarely do. We used to have the hotel signs with a lot of writing on them "saves the environment, too many towels washed destroying the world etc" but no one could be bothered to read that much - short but sweet on my custom signs works like a charm and saves me a fortune on laundry bills.
Whenever we stay at a hotel with those little save the environment signs I always write a review and comment how management says one thing and the housekeepers do something completely different.
This last stay the housekeeper threw the soap out everyday. What a waste. She also changed the tp roll everyday to the point we had 2 partial rolls and a full roll going all at once. She never took the partial rolls away, just stacked them on top of the full roll.
Sheets were changed everyday. Towels, too, even tho we hung them up. Each day there were different numbers of towels left for us to use.
She did, however, leave the cute signature wrapped soaps everyday so now I have a collection of those.
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