An old rusty pipe & half a paper towel holder

I’m sure everyone has experienced a loose, falling off or broken toilet roll holder. When ours gave way recently in the kids toilet, I suggested to our 4 & 7-year-old about making our own.

I put a challenge to them and took them to the local recycled building materials place to see what goodies we could find to make one. They both had to pick something and then work out how they would go together. We walked through the aisles and looked at all the old tools, windows, pipes and door handles. I was quite impressed (and at times confused) at their ideas for how we could repurpose some of these items around our home and farm. With all these distractions and imaginative ideas flowing, I had to keep reminding them about our challenge at hand – toilet roll holder! My son was the first to find a rusty pipe with a great patina on it. It was great to see them bouncing ideas off each other and discuss how this could be the part where the toilet paper actually sits on. It wasn’t long after that, that my daughter found a lone bracket from a paper towel holder.

After paying $1 for these items, we went back home to create our own toilet roll holder. A couple of screws and glue and the cutting and filing of the pipe….vwahla…. we had a little creation that the kids will use daily and can feel a sense of “I made that” achievement. For such an insignificant mundane household item, it was great to see the kids problem solving, using their imaginations and sharing in the up-cycling journey.

Seed you soon!