BATHROOM ACCESSORIES

We have had to make some adjustments to how toilet paper is provided in the bathrooms in our home.  This is not a new issue in this household.  I wrote a column about it a few years ago describing the dog's toilet paper fetish.  When the dog was younger, his desire to run around with a toilet paper roll in his mouth caused some minor renovations to be done on the bathroom.  I also admit that I have a toilet paper fetish.  When there are less than six rolls left in the house you would think there is a major crisis going to happen.  That is a rare occurrence as I am usually on top of monitoring the supply and restocking the stash of toilet paper.

Toilet paper is bought in bulk - either a 24 or 36 roll package.  A few rolls are kept in each of the bathroom cabinets while the rest is stored in the basement.  This Spring I noticed that the toilet paper and paper towels being stored in the basement were bearing marks of something trying to shred the packaging.  The packaging was being torn and the paper towels were starting to get shredded.  After dealing with throwing out some of the rolls, we purchased two large rubbermaid storage totes and one was used for storing paper towels and the second one for toilet paper.  I thought I fixed this one.  I outsmarted the invisible paper towel and toilet paper culprit.  Of course I knew who the culprit was.  He has four legs, has fur and weighs about 14 pounds or so.

The toilet paper fetish moved from the basement to the bathroom.  We would find shredded toilet paper on the floors of the bathrooms and a good part of the paper from the roll would be lying on the floor.  After this occurred a number of times, my patience was becoming limited.  The toilet paper came off of the holder and was placed on top of the toilet tank.  I now have a new decorative bathroom accessory that hangs on the wall and has no purpose.

The new bathroom accessory. 

That change didn't deter the culprit.  The shredding continued.  I had to make decorating changes.  The question was how to store the toilet paper roll in the bathroom and make it accessible to the user.

Rubbermaid has many uses.

Plastic containers are not just for storing food.  They have many uses.  This particular container is one I have had for years and it is round and nicely holds the roll.  I could't find a similar container for the other rolls in the other bathrooms when searching multiple stores.  Square containers are the norm these days so I bought square containers and have to squeeze the toilet paper roll into the container when using a new roll so that the lid can be snapped on.  After the roll gets used and smaller in width, the challenge disappears.  

I hope the culprit doesn't maintain this fetish for too long and bathroom life can return back to normal.

The culprit.