Toilet paper cozies for hipster-wannabes?

March 27, 2007 5:29 AM

Our cats have discovered the joy of shredding toilet paper. Is there a cool and stylish toilet-paper cozy that can be a solution?

My condo is decorated with black-granite-and-steel furniture and abstract art, so the standard frilly knitted cozy with a puff-ball on top wouldn't quite match. Is there something hip and ironic that serves as a toilet-paper cozy (sort of the way Alessi makes funky toilet brushes) that one can purchase? I like this knitted "sushi roll" cozy as a compromise, but it's an arts-and-crafts project rather than something for sale.

(Yes, we can just close the bathroom door, which may just be the answer, though these are cats that have figured out how to open doors if they're so inclined.)

posted by commander_cool to Home & Garden (15 answers total)

If they like shredding and are already doing it in that area, any kind of cloth or knitted cozy is going to be toast within days. How about something like a stainless steel flour canister? That would be ironic, go with the decor and be impervious to cats.
posted by DU at 5:37 AM on March 27, 2007

I was thinking stainless too - and there are definitely stainless steel toilet paper covers. Froogle has a bunch - here's one example.
posted by cobaltnine at 5:40 AM on March 27, 2007

Oh, wait, if you want pre-made craft items, etsy's the place to go.

Even for toilet paper covers. (On the other hand, I wouldn't put something knit near a shred-prone cat, but that's just me.)
posted by cobaltnine at 5:46 AM on March 27, 2007

When I had cats that enjoyed shredding toilet paper, I found the easiest thing to do was to simply put the roll on a shelf over the toilet instead of on the holder. Obviously, it's less convenient for the humans that way, but not so much so that it's not worth it to keep the roll unshredded.
posted by cerebus19 at 6:28 AM on March 27, 2007

Mousetraps are the best kitty behavior-deterrent known to Man. If people who use the bathroom aren't scared of them, then cock one and place it so that feline interference will make it fall off and *SNAP* at the feet of said kitty. It should only take once or twice and you'll be free of that for a long time.
posted by cmiller at 6:44 AM on March 27, 2007

My bathroom is slate and chrome, one of my cats is a chewer. This is what I was looking for when I bought one similar to this (not tuliped at the top though). She chews the top edges on every roll through the slats. I thought about purchasing fabric and making a liner for the metal model, but I may just break down and buy the fully covered model.
posted by blackkar at 6:55 AM on March 27, 2007

Mousetraps are the best kitty behavior-deterrent known to Man . . . .

Our cat creates a similar mess, and someone in our house tried this very same solution, right next to the toilet, just three weeks ago. I can testify that the effect is dramatic. Only . . . ever since, I can't count to number 2, and I'm getting desperate.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 7:06 AM on March 27, 2007

I'm not sure this is exactly what you're looking for, but I think it would match your description of your decorating style okay:

Robot Toilet Paper Holder
posted by lastyearsfad at 8:57 AM on March 27, 2007

Are they shredding it with their claws? If so, is offering them something else to shred an option? Shredded toilet paper is one thing, shredded wallpaper/sofa/doorframe/etc is another.
posted by Solomon at 10:53 AM on March 27, 2007

If *unrolling* is the problem, get this stainless steel tp holder with a lid. Looks good, and worked great for me.

It's really cute to watch a kitten trot out of the bathroom with one end of the tp in her mouth and the other end streaming off the roll. Once.
posted by LordSludge at 1:39 PM on March 27, 2007

What about the Racken toilet roll holder from IKEA? http://snipurl.com/1dwud
posted by iviken at 1:48 PM on March 27, 2007

Clyde, your last sentence intrigues and confuses me.
posted by cmiller at 2:01 PM on March 27, 2007

My cats love to shred toilet paper too, but I discovered that they only shred it when it is horizontal, on a wall-mounted dispenser. I guess it just looks and feels too much like a scratching post that way. Now we just sit the roll vertically on a surface and they completely ignore it. The other option is to get one of those wall-mounted holders with the metal flap, like LordSludge linked to.
posted by Joh at 3:03 PM on March 27, 2007

cmiller,

I meant only that the shock of the mousetrap's snap seems to closed certain other passages, and no amount of fiber or flax is its equal. Three waddling weeks later, the cat is undeterred, a yellow fog that rubs its claws upon the three-plies.
posted by Clyde Mnestra at 4:46 PM on March 27, 2007

Don't know about the OP, but while the Robot tp holders won't match our decorating style at all, I still want one. . .
posted by FlyingMonkey at 5:18 AM on March 28, 2007