The First Thing I Do When Moving Into a New Home (It’s My Mom’s Rule!)
When my husband and I moved into our first home, we made a list of projects to tackle immediately. They were things like cleaning the stove or setting up our home office —
easy-peasy things that’d make our daily lives easier and better while we got settled in. One of the more surprising things on the list was to replace all the toilet seats. Yes, all the toilet seats.
My mom had always taught me to change the toilet seats when moving into a new place of your own because it symbolizes newness, and of course, cleanliness. To her, no matter how clean the old toilet seat was, it was still “the old toilet seat,” so therefore, it should be changed. Her rule didn’t apply to rentals, so we were able to avoid it for years, but once we bought our own place, it was game on.
Shortly after moving in, my husband and I found ourselves at The Home Depot, picking up five of the same Kohler toilet seats as if they were candy bars. We watched a few YouTube video tutorials, put on a disposable mask and gloves, and got to work.
Disassembling the old toilet seat and installing the new one was surprisingly easy as far as home projects go. The trickiest thing was actually figuring out what toilet seat shape would match the toilet — when you’re short on sleep, all round things look like the same round shape. And it was elongated, if you’re wondering.
Once all the toilet seats were changed, I had to admit that the bathrooms felt newer, nicer, and fresher. Even though the old toilet seats looked clean and fine, there’s still something different about having brand-new ones. I sent a photo of one of the new toilet seats to my mom, and she immediately called asking if I also wanted to change the toilet to match the new seat. To that I say: Nope, absolutely not.
Moms might know best, but I draw the line at changing all the toilets! Seats, though? That’s a totally beginner-friendly project that I’d recommend to anyone.
Buy: KOHLER Stonewood Elongated Front Toilet Seat, $39.98