When we remodeled one of our bathrooms we decided to keep it in the style of the house… wainscotting, hex tiles on the floor, pedestal sink. A more modern interpretation, certainly, but not something that would look wildly out of place in a house over a century old.

One of the things that I excitedly purchase was a porcelain and chrome toothbrush holder. I remember one of them in my grandmother’s house and I loved how the toothbrushes hung there. A chrome rimmed glass sitting in the center. So I bought one for our bathroom.

It was only after it came, and it was installed, that I realized not one of our toothbrushes fit in the holes. I thought it was annoying, a fluke in the design of the holder I purchased, and really didn’t give it much more thought. The holder is in my children’s bathroom, not mine.

Then I read this article in the NY Times that talks about this exact annoying problem. Turns out I am not alone.

As problems go, bulked-up toothbrushes — the kind that make obsolete the old-fashioned built-in ceramic cup and toothbrush holders that persist in many homes and apartments like relics of a less sophisticated (but, one can’t help feel, more grounded) age — don’t rank high on the list of human scourges. But they probably have more direct impact on the quality of many people’s daily lives: one more petty annoyance to make them feel powerless, pawns in some hidden corporate marketing strategy.

Until I purchased the toothbrush holder, I never realized that all of our toothbrushes came in different shapes and sizes. The tooth brush holder that hangs on the bathroom wall is about as useful as the slot in the back of the medicine cabinet for the disposable razor blades.

Some manufacturers are coming on board and making holders that are fit a variety of sized handles. This one by Umbra is one of my favorite finds. It reminds me of indoor/outdoor carpeting gone wild. I mean that in a good way.

At $9.50 at Shop Fosters it is also very affordable. Now to free up valuable counter real estate to find it a home.

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 10th, 2008 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Bathroom Design, Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.