apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

the first picture is not a soap dish, it's a place to hold a cup.

Um - That first pic isn't a soap dish. It's a toothbrush holder, and the center recess is for a cup (preferably plastic?) to use when rinsing your mouth.

As you said, one could use it as a candleholder (which I do in the guest bathroom) or possibly to hold a vase or a pump soap dispenser...
...or you could put the cup inside the hole and use that to hold the tube of toothpaste and the toothbrush and put the razor in one of the little toothbrush holes.

I think the basic Oral-B toothbrushes still fit (tho I use a Sonicare)

a bud vase

The one pictured is a cup holder, but candles are a great thing or pump soap dispensers.

You can hold them in place by using a little sticky adhesive, the kind used for holding candles in candle holders, it works great and doesn't mind getting wet.

I have found that the natural bristle brushes from Fushes or Swissco fit very well in the holders and they look very attractive to boot.

My soap dish holder is more of a cubby and it holds a simple kitchen timer. If I didn't set it for 15 minutes, I'd be in that shower forever! It's bad, but I totally lose track of time in there.

maybe a small vase/teacup with flowers?

or a shot glass ;)

If the holes for the toothbrushes are round and the right size, you can put test tubes in them and use them as bud vases. Flowers in the bathroom are always cheerful.

For candles, I would soften them a little and then set them into the dish. It's often the ridged or curved shape of the soap dish that makes candles tend to fall out. This works better with more expensive candles; cheap wax has a higher melting point.

I have a built in soap dish like this, but it's in the shower so I rarely think about it. I'm not loyal to any brand or type of soap, so if the soap fits I use it and if it's empty, it's no big deal.

Mine actually fit a small juice glass from crate & barrel perfectly. No tipping. And I was thrilled when I found out my preserve toothbrush fit the holder, as well. Seems as though a tealight candle could fit in pretty much all of the cup holders. Perfect for when you have company, too.

I actually have bought some wood to create a platform that will span across from the cup/toothbrush holder to the soap holder and hide the more unusable parts underneath, but I haven't made it yet to share a photo...

I have a glass that fits the cup holder. Unfortunately, it's an Eeyore cup leftover from years ago, and I still haven't found the right size cup to fit. The soap dish holds whatever remnant of hotel soap my husband is trying to use up, until we have guests over, at which point it gets thrown away because it just looks nasty.

I've got a small clear-glass vase in the soap holder, and my favorite perfume bottle in the cup portion of the toothbrush holder. They're set too high for me to be able to put flowers in the vase in without blocking the medicine cabinet door, so I filled it part-way with tiny sea shells.

Queenbee, I'm going to use your solution - I swear I fall asleep standing up in the shower!

I keep a shotglass in my cup holder. Most of the time it holds my contact lens case but occasionally I wash i out if I need to use it as a glass to rinse my mouth.

The soap dish near my sink in my current apartment is recessed and utterly useless for soap. I use it to hold hairclips and rings.

I have a piece of coral in the soap dish and one in the toothbrush holder. One piece is punctuated with a red glass bead.

I try not to draw attention to mine or further clutter the bathroom by putting anything permanent in mine.

A large seashell fits nicely on mine.

preserve toothbrushes slip right though ours - but i like keeping them inside the cabinet anyhow, ew to airborne particles. i've been wondering what else to do with it. a seashell is a great idea!

I've popped my tweezers and nail clippers in the toothbrush holes.

Might be cool with a very small plant, maybe one that hangs over the pot. The tricky part I'm sure would be finding something that fits the spot.

We use it as a candleholder

I have a small round dish that fits perfectly that i fill with fresh lavender.

I put a shot glass on mine, with q-tips in it. No use yet for the toothbrush holes.

My husband's razor hangs in the toothbrush holder. We have delightfully simple Muji soap and lotion dispensers on the soap holders.

The bathroom I have now has two soap dishes -- two!! Simple solution? After using a candle that was in a small glass jar, I cleaned it out and placed q-tips in mine. There went one dish. The other? A small glass votive holder holds my bobby pins. These items are in quick reach for busy/hectic mornings!

I use a bottle of Mrs. Meyers hand soap -- it fits the little groove in mine quite well.

I have the exact same tiles in my bathroom, but years and years of wear and tear have made them look kind of gross. Any cleaning suggestions? How can I get my now brownish-white tiles back to their original white? Bleach doesn't seem to work.

I use it for holding a tealight vase. I fill it up with individual wrapped mints for guests, they really enjoy that especially when I entertain.

Yeah, I have a votive candle (in a green holder) sitting in my cup holder. I like it.

i always think of re-purposing them to serve as wall brackets to attach a shelf to. i feel like some kind of "rubber cement" would prove to adhere well, be waterproof, as well as removable if you're renting and need to restore it back to original form.

i have the same problem with old tile towel rod brackets in my shower...i'm thinking of cementing shelves on top of them to serve as a shower shelf.

I purchased a 7-piece set of these vintage bathroom accessories on Ebay. I'd always assumed they were cemented in or something, they look and feel so permanent, but they're actually easy to remove. There is a back plate that you screw into the wall (two screws, one over the other, for stability). It's narrower at the top than at the bottom, and the right/left sides are bent forward (away from the wall) slightly.

The back of the soap dish has a cutout that allows you to slide the dish right onto the metal back plate. It fits snugly and is held simply by gravity. Then you just grout around your soap dish and you're done.

Here is a dish being sold on Ebay that gives a view of what I'm describing:

http://cgi.ebay.com/50s-Pink-Porcelain-Soap-Dish-RETRO_W0QQitemZ220471514619QQcmdZViewItemQQptZArchitectural_Garden?hash=item33552055fb&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14#ht_500wt_1036

So really, if you want to remove these from your bathroom, you should be dealing only with a couple of screw holes (the exception is the shower/bath soap holders that are recessed into the wall). And if you're lucky, the screw holes will be in the grout instead of the tile. :)

Why are you looking at this as a problem? I love these. Especially compared to the tacky stuff sold to be put onto a sink/vanity. Why wouldn't you want the tile utility onyour wall?

When I read something like this I can't help but think "if you don't like living in a city, go back to where you came from". No better way to brand yourself as a yokel than 1) to cross only at the corner when the light is green, or 2) complain about items of high utility in a city environment.

kushkush: No. As the post pointed out, many people don't use their soap dishes because they prefer liquid soap, and many people don't use built-in toothbrush holders because they don't fit most modern toothbrushes. But go ahead and feel superior to the "yokels" who don't like these things.

Ok, so didn't you guys also hear, always keep toothbrushes inside the medicine cabinet, as open toilets fluhed send a fine spary up to 6 feet, same for glasses, don't use for that purpose, I would use a candle!!!

kushkush--seriously? What an arrogant and unnecessary comment.

Oh kushkush, no faster way to brand yourself a hayseed than to lob a cowpaddy missile at other posters regarding such sacred objects as toothbrush holders. Get over yourself. There's nothing especially urbane about keeping soap in a lofted dish.

If you've got nice tiling then look hard for a small glass to fit and buy some of that slice-it-yourself soap from Whole Foods to cut a soap size to fit. I had these in an older house and basically used them as a decorative element. Children's toothbrushes fit.

If you have bad tiling then take the thing off if it bugs you. Hammer out several other strategic tiles to make this look intentional and fill in the holes with mosaic.

If you have 2 toothbrush/soap holders that are placed at the same height on the wall, one could place a board across them to make a shelf. You could then run a couple of bolts through the toothbrush holes to stabilize the shelf.

i don't have one of these, but i love the idea of putting a vase in it - then flowers, toothbrushes etc in the vase.

A stack of Dixie 3 oz. paper bathroom cups fits almost-perfectly in the cup holder. (If they're wobbly, put a small heavy traditional shot glass in upside-down first to support them).

We have two in each bathroom in our new apartment and I have been wondering about what to do with them. Thanks for all the ideas!

Emily