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Look!: How Not to Run Out of Toilet Paper

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This is certainly one way. With a blank wall and zero ideas for how else to use it — yup, it's one way. This "solution" — ostensibly for TP roll storage and the so-called shuffle of shame — is rife with potential for an OCD attack if the rolls don't diminish at the same rate. We might go positively nuts when one of the rolls ran out.

 
 

The project is a post on Instructables, a kind of open forum for DIY show-and-tell. The comments are the best, ranging from absurd to surprisingly practical. The more practical suggestions include offering an assortment of thicknesses and textures, or labeling the holders for each member of the household, who are then individually responsible for their own consumption and replenishment.

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Some observed that this would accommodate people with different arm lengths quite nicely. And still others conceived of a host of practical jokes, such as executing this project in a friend's bathroom while they're away, for a big surprise upon their return.

Images: Instructables user noahw

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    Comments (45)

    all on the roll the wrong way hahaha see past post

    posted by sweetheart on March 7th 2008 at 1:54pm
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    why???????????????????????????????

    posted by hdtex on March 7th 2008 at 1:57pm
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    i love multiples!

    posted by PlanItGirl on March 7th 2008 at 2:07pm
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    kind of tacky

    posted by twenty twenty-one on March 7th 2008 at 2:15pm
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    That is awesome! And cheap since it uses the very nice Ikea holders...

    posted by JG on March 7th 2008 at 2:16pm
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    I can just imagine a small boy taking them all out during a little target practice :-)

    posted by AlmostAD on March 7th 2008 at 2:19pm
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    That's just wrong

    posted by bepsf on March 7th 2008 at 2:20pm
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    Definite practical joke material! Though you'd have to be game for completely removing (and possibly respackling and painting) everything afterwards, at some point.

    posted by Steverino on March 7th 2008 at 2:41pm
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    I think it's a fun idea actually. I would have used more modern holders though, like chrome. Or it might look good if they were white, so you had white holders, white TP and white walls. That could look cool.

    posted by st@cy on March 7th 2008 at 2:50pm
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    Cats . . . Nooooooo.

    posted by xburb on March 7th 2008 at 3:15pm
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    I love it. And, from experience (on the toilet in the image), I can say it is great to look up and realize you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

    posted by ddmcdani on March 7th 2008 at 3:16pm
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    Perhaps you should position the photo as art and title it "colitis"?

    posted by I Love Upstate on March 7th 2008 at 3:30pm
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    I love it, hilarious!

    posted by mgn on March 7th 2008 at 4:20pm
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    lol!

    posted by Lizzykewl on March 7th 2008 at 4:47pm
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    All those rolls need the neat little folded hotel points!

    posted by kimg924 on March 7th 2008 at 4:47pm
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    The funniest thing I have seen all day.

    Practical solution for an octopus.

    posted by cityofparis on March 7th 2008 at 5:07pm
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    I just know I'd let them all go empty before I refilled any of them, and I'd still be sitting there without toilet paper.

    posted by Joan A. on March 7th 2008 at 5:31pm
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    my thoughts exactly, xburb. i don't think i'd have enough time to clean up that cat disaster!

    posted by stephanie in orlando on March 7th 2008 at 5:43pm
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    anyone else reminded of those Mummenschanz people?!?

    posted by urbangranolagirl on March 7th 2008 at 6:49pm
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    Echo-ing the sentiment on the cat thing...this is clearly a bad idea. But if there are no cats around, what's the harm? it certainly frees up precious bathroom closet space.

    posted by ehy2k on March 7th 2008 at 7:02pm
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    No. No. No.

    posted by petro on March 7th 2008 at 8:03pm
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    I can just imagine sitting on the toilet thinking, "Don't worry; be happy"! But seriously ... half the rolls would be dusty by the time you got to them, which is why folks keep them covered.

    posted by Jane on March 8th 2008 at 3:21am
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    I'm with PlanItGirl about loving multiples, and I agree with st@cy about how those particular holders don't quite make it graphically (at least for me).

    I think that in the right bathroom, this could not just be fun and cute, but literally beautiful, which is a wild thought, itself.

    posted by Curtis on March 8th 2008 at 4:08am
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    Yup, new cat toy.

    posted by Trilobyte on March 8th 2008 at 5:47am
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    i have seen it before in much more elegant and artistic interpretation. clean lines, minimal chrome holders on the pale blue wall with paper slightly pulled down, which created breezy effect. as for this one - those holders just are awful as a single piece. multiples of them magnified how horrible they are. Also that installation idea looks better on the opposite wall of the toilet, proving artistic, not utilitarian concept.

    posted by Astrid Vladi on March 8th 2008 at 6:53am
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    Love the multiples. Cat toy for my three cats - my kids don't play with the toliet paper. (o.k. now that I've said that watch the games begin). There's nothing wrong with the wooden holders, they were probably just tryng to purchase multiles without going into debt. I guess another option would be to use colored tp on random holders -- you know, the pastels, yellow, pink and green. I just wished they'd put the toliet seat down then took the picture!

    posted by VickyA on March 8th 2008 at 9:06am
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    I have seen this in many a pub!

    posted by broccoli on March 8th 2008 at 11:13am
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    What a waste of valuable wall space. And the rolls are all backwards! AAARRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

    posted by GHB on March 8th 2008 at 1:56pm
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    I think some people miss the point...it's ART! I love it!

    posted by anapat on March 8th 2008 at 3:53pm
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    Would look best with different colored toilet paper on each.

    posted by fasdy on March 8th 2008 at 6:07pm
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    its a funny and whimsical idea. maybe the concept would land a little better if it was more artistically executed? either way, I like it.

    posted by marisajane on March 8th 2008 at 6:31pm
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    If your design choices are a form of self-expression then this tells the world that you take your @ss-wiping very seriously, which, I suppose, is pretty funny.

    posted by lightspeed on March 8th 2008 at 6:46pm
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    I've seen this at a bunch of loft parties and its even worse in person.

    posted by mskk on March 9th 2008 at 8:26am
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    My grandmother would die of delight. Of course, she grew up in the Depression when they wiped with produce wrappers, so obviously she grew to have a TP fetish. Excusable. I did NOT grow up in the Depression and I might just die of delight too. Love it.

    posted by That70sHeidi on March 9th 2008 at 5:30pm
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    am i the only one whose cat doesn't go for TP??

    (\__/)
    (='.'=)
    (")_(")

    posted by *heather leaf* on March 9th 2008 at 7:34pm
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    In my house, I think I'm the only one who will ever actually replace an empty roll of toilet paper. After they ran through the other eleven rolls, there would only be one roll on one dispenser, cause I'll be darned if I'm replacing all twelve.

    posted by Aldyth on March 10th 2008 at 3:59am
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    this is quite lovely just because the rolls are on correctly! LMAO i feel vindicated.

    posted by SD913 on March 10th 2008 at 5:30am
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    The thing that annoys me most about this is not how many rolls there are but that all of them are on the holders backwards! ARGH!! That really grinds my gears. I usually change the tissue roll in someone's house if it's on backwards...this would take me forever.

    posted by orangejuce on March 10th 2008 at 7:54am
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    P.S. My cat tried to go for the TP thing, ONCE. She won't touch it now. LOL.

    posted by orangejuce on March 10th 2008 at 7:57am
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    Wow, that's just... tacky. Maybe if they were nicer holders... or placed in a pattern (not just on a grid)...

    posted by gretchen on March 14th 2008 at 12:03pm
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    Actually, in the powder room, this might be fun. But I'd use all different kinds of holders in a wide range of styles. That way if you found one you really liked, you could add it to the display.

    posted by Fontessa on March 14th 2008 at 4:14pm
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    They're all facing the wrong direction.

    posted by charlenemcbride on June 18th 2008 at 7:24pm
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    It works for summer camp, maybe.

    posted by paperdollsforboys on June 19th 2008 at 1:58am
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    Actually, you tend to use less TP if you hang the rolls with the loose part in back. I read that in some weird household tip book once. As for this idea... kind of tacky but hilarious at the same time. With little kids at home, we can't even have one roll up. We have to stash it up on the counter. Yet another way we sacrifice in decorating for our kids.

    posted by WendyJ on September 22nd 2008 at 12:31pm
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    I love it!

    posted by mei-ling on September 24th 2009 at 1:12pm
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