How to Change The Toilet Paper Roll

Anything that requires picking up of poop or cleaning areas that get nasty dirty is understandable, often invoking tears from She Who Must Not Be Named. Learning avoidance techniques is part of childhood. But I'm bound and determined to contribute to Independent Living Skills. So we're going to start with something easy, relatively clean, of benefit to all and one which will be a useful life long skill.

Trust me when I say a house of estrogen in various phases of evolution can burn through toilet paper like 6 packs of 3:2 beer in a frat house. Many's the time I'll be rubbing my eyes of sleep dust as I enter either bathroom to see that the toilet paper roll is out. Again. Maybe there's a new roll but it's just sitting there next to the toilet waiting to magically leap onto the dispenser. While this is far better than the alternative of NO TOILET PAPER ANYWHERE, I decided this would be a good place to start with a How To Tutorial.

HOW TO CHANGE THE TOILET PAPER ROLL

This first picture shows the frequent scene greeting me in my downstairs bathroom. Roll empty, new one just sitting on top of the too small and way too inefficient radiator. This is a picture I wish to eliminate.

Step 1. Take off old roll by depressing bar until it pops out because it's on a SPRING. Take off old roll.






Put new roll on. You can enter into debate about whether the paper should come from over or under (it was apparently a big debate when addressed by Ann Landers many years ago and continues to this day) but that's on you.


Insert new roll onto bar, reinsert into holder by depressing inside spring action and popping it back on.



Now we have a new roll. In this example, toilet paper is coming from underneath. I like to shake it up to allow for greatest flexibility and only getting into that rant rave mode when it matters.


You would THINK this would go without saying, but apparently the finale is THROW THE OLD ROLL AWAY OR BETTER YET, RECYCLE.

And there you have it. No tears, blood, sweat or stomping.

Getting Started

First off, some introductions. I'm Three Girls Mom, aka Rachel. Welcome to my new blog, an effort to document whether creating a "how to" tutorial will help in my quest to improve on the efforts of acquiring some help from the kids without sounding like a ranting, raving lunatic. Here's hoping it will help! Hard to say, given it's one of those middle of the night, bolt upright out of sleep sorts of ideas.




Here are my three girls.

Starting from the left, meet Callie, the middle child. Now 12 1/2 and about to enter 7th grade, the middle year of middle school.

Need I say more about the challenges of THAT set of middling qualities towards the efforts of helping out? Calgon, take me away.

Callie is sweet, quiet, mysterious, obsessive about her cat, The Beatles, Fan Fiction, Harry Potter's parents generation, writing and doing as much as possible to do as little as possible outside of her cerebral goings on. She dotes on little children and wishes to remain young forever. She is growing taller every day.



In the middle, my youngest, Sophie, now 10 1/2 and soon entering 5th grade, where in her elementary school she'll be top dog (and it will be, sob, my LAST year at the school where I've been a parent since before Sophie was born!). Now, learn about birth orders and being top dogs and early middle aged hormonal challenges of perimenopausal mothers and you'll have a good handle on where we're at with Sophie!

But seriously, Sophie is cheerful, loyal, bright, affectionate, relentlessly helpful, kind, loving, funny and confident. She draws others to her with her sophisticated ways. She should really be given her own show on reality TV on What Not To Wear for Kids By A Kid. She and I love to watch AMERICAN IDOL, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT and now SHARK TANK together and postulate on what we'd do if on those shows. Sophie still finds it cool to show me that she loves me IN FRONT OF OTHER PEOPLE.




Last daughter introduced but obviously somewhat most familiar to me because she is my first born, is Zena. Now 16 1/2 and going into her junior year of high school, Zena is doing everything within her rather sophisticated skill set so she can to be out and away and social with friends or shut in and left alone in her room when she deigns to be home. Her nearly burning out the motor of my dryer the other day was certainly one of the impetuses for coming up with a How To Tutorial. That being said, let me also say Zena is wicked smart, funny, loyal, dependable, a great friend, independent, responsible and self directed. I am often in awe of her ability to navigate through life so well at such a young age. I have to think I've done some things right!

So, in dedication, this blog and How To idea is born is because I adore my girls with all my heart. Because I know sometimes I can be a raging lunatic and that's really no fun for anyone. Because no one taught me back in my day many of the things I've learned to do for myself and kids. And because I hope it can be fun and helpful.