Like many of you I’m sure, one of the times I don’t want to deal with bad design in any way, shape, or form is when I’m using the bathroom. I want – nay, need – everything to function properly and with no muss or fuss.
Touchless faucets are on my hit list because they sometimes just don’t work. And touchless soap dispensers might require multiple frenzied hand shaking sessions in order to get the right amount of soap out. But one thing that should never, ever have its design changed is the toilet paper holder.
It’s simple really: two posts and a miniature tension rod to hold the roll between the posts (optional in public restrooms.) That’s it. Bliss, even if you load the roll upside-down.
When we moved into our house earlier this year we noticed something peculiar: our TP holder only had one post and a roll was placed on the holder as if a glove was going on a hand. It just slipped on. Sure, the rod was a little larger at the end to prevent falling TP rolls, but it ended up not working very well. On more than one occasion the roll simply fell off altogether. Again, this is just about the last thing I want to think about when I’m in the bathroom.
Worse than that, our particular TP holder had a unique misfeature: the house’s prior owners didn’t mount it very well. So as a bonus the whole thing would sometimes fall so the tension rod was at a 30 or 45 degree angle, pointing down. Which meant that the TP roll was on the floor. Which is useless.
This past weekend I removed that crappy TP holder and installed a proper two-post model and, Pingers, it’s one less thing to worry about. But I admit it was hard to find a good two-post holder; many “designer” models are the simple hand-in-glove model. What a waste.
TP holders are things that don’t need improving. We can stop now. (Well, except for that built-in iPod dock… that was pretty cool.)
Posted in Toilets