Do you hate having toothpaste all over your sink or counters because your kids either put too much on their toothbrushes or because they can't handle the tube very well? I sure do! No matter how often I clean our bathroom, the sink and counters have toothpaste on them as soon as my kids brush their teeth.
I was tired of nagging them to clean it up or teaching them how to be more careful with the tube. And at 8 and 5 they are old enough to be brushing their teeth without me putting their toothpaste on their brushes {plus I just don't have time to be doing that!}. Oh, and I should mention, all 4 of us use one bathroom upstairs so it gets messy quickly and it's not a mess I can ignore because I see it...multiple times a day.
I wanted a solution but really, what options were there?
A few weeks back we went to the Canadian National Exhibition (the C.N.E. or the Ex as we usually call it around here) and one of the things we always do is go through the "At Home Pavillion". It's like a real live version of every infomercial or "As Seen On TV" demonstration you've ever seen. We love watching all the demonstrations!
And I'll admit we usually get suckered into purchasing at least one amazing product that will "change your life" :) Sometimes it makes a huge difference but often it's not as great once you've got it in your home (especially if you forget all the features that you were shown - sometimes we've actually watched the demos for products we've bought in previous years to remind ourselves how to use it!).
Usually our kids hate this building and beg us to hurry on to something more exciting. But for some reason this year they were quite intrigued by a lot of the products. Nothing like having 2 more people trying to convince us to buy something! It led to some good discussions on marketing and finances and how we don't need everything out there.
We have gotten better each year and we weren't really planning to buy anything this time. Until we saw it. The thing that will change our family's toothpaste usage forever! My son and I were quite intrigued but I walked away after the first demonstration (trying to stick with the plan to not buy anything). But my son kept bugging me. We circled back later with my hubby and daughter too. She also loved it. Hubby was not as impressed. We walked away again but both kids kept talking about it. Hubby reminded me of a few reasons why it may not be the best thing since sliced bread (I need him to help keep my perspective a lot of times!). But the kids were not relenting. We started thinking about ways it would help and in the end
So what is this fantastic product? Here's a picture...
I LOVE IT! You just stick your toothbrush in and push against a little lever and it dispenses toothpaste in small quantities without messing with the tube. No more toothpaste on the counters! And now my kids have less toothpaste on their brushes so they use it all while they're brushing and there's very little left in the sink (and what is there can easily be washed away). So no more blobs of toothpaste in the sink! Plus it hangs on the wall so it's one less thing on the counter.
Here's how it works inside for those of you who like to know that kind of stuff:
I don't know the status of this product in terms of patents. There's no real info on where it's manufactured and where you can get it. Guess you'll just have to go to some Home Shows or Fairs to get one. Or maybe it will be on TV infomercials soon.
{Update: A reader mentioned that she saw lots of these on Amazon. I checked it out and both Amazon.com and Amazon.ca have this one and other types of toothpaste dispensers. Just search "Toothpaste Dispenser" on Amazon and you'll find several options to choose from. Thanks for the tip Sue!}
The other reason I really wanted to purchase this toothpaste dispenser was that it also came with a toothbrush holder that hangs on the wall. I've never been really happy with how our toothbrushes are organized. Here's our previous system.
We have a typical toothbrush holder that came with our bathroom set but none of our toothbrushes actually fit in the holes so it's useless. {Why can't these two industries communicate with each other and either make skinnier handles on toothbrushes or make bigger holes in toothbrush holders?} Anyway, we've been using the cup from our set, but it gets kind of full with a tube of toothpaste and several brushes. And more often than not someone just leaves a toothbrush on the counter, making more of a mess.
Also, picture 3 clear plastic disposable cups with names written on them with a Sharpie sitting on the counter in the same areas. My hubby and kids use cups to rinse after they brush and we've experimented with various cups in the past. What we found worked best was disposable clear plastic cups. They each have their own and we write their names on them with a Sharpie. They use them for a couple weeks and then when they start to get kind of grungy looking we recycle them and get new ones. Not the most environmentally friendly solution and definitely not pretty in our bathroom. (I was embarrassed to even show them in the "before" picture but use your imagination!)
So, on to the "after" pictures. Here's what everything looks like now:
This holder is fantastic! Any size toothbrushes can hang there. All of ours fit nicely...even my spinbrush. I like it a lot better now... less stuff on the counter and much less mess!
Once we finish up a few more tubes of kids' toothpaste we'll switch the kids to whatever toothpaste we use. For now we have the kids' tube in the dispenser and ours on the counter.
Here's my daughter using the toothpaste dispenser.
It puts just a little bit of toothpaste on the brush without overflowing and making a mess!
{Sorry for the pinkish colour of the sink. There's no natural light in our bathroom and the flash reflected too much so this was the best I could do.}
I recently found the cute little coloured plastic cups that you saw above in the "after" pictures. They were 8 for $1 at the Dollar store.
They're non-porous which is great because one of the many types of plastic cups we originally tried absorbed too much of the toothpaste. And these are dishwasher safe so I can clean them as often as I want. Plus I have a spare for each person so I don't have to fit the washings in between brushings.
I'm really excited (in case you couldn't tell!) about all of this. No more mess (from toothpaste anway!). No more nagging (about toothpaste at least!). Less stuff on my bathroom counter. And it looks so much cuter! Can't beat all that.
How do you deal with kids and toothpaste? How do you organize your toothbrushes? And do you know why they make toothbrush holders with holes that are too small for a lot of the toothbrushes on the market?
Happy organizing!
