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The author assumes that if you don't bathe, you aren't clean. Um, there are OTHER ways of cleaning yourself. I've lived overseas and cleaned myself with a basin of water and a coconut husk. Europeans who didn't bathe would nevertheless make daily use of a pitcher of water, a basin, and a linen hand towel. That's an efficient use of water and doesn't require a separate room for bathing.
Bathing was seen as luxurious and self-indulgent because it usually meant going to public baths (which were also often used as houses of assignation). Or it required ownership of a tub, and servants to heat and carry water. The self-denying or efficient used a minimum of water in a basin.
See the Wikipedia article on washstand -- which is still biased by the delusion that you aren't clean unless you've submerged the whole body.
