I was brought up to fix the loo roll to the holder in an underhand fashion. That is, with the free end closest to the wall, rather than in a furtive manner.
My current landlady attaches the roll either way around. Curiously, because she’s so laid back about it, I’m not bothered when it ends up the “wrong” way around, as there’s a fair chance it will even out in the long run.
I recently helped my future landlord gut and rebuild his bathroom. During preparations for the “topping out” ceremony, it came to light that he is a confirmed Overhander. Now, because he insists on it, I just know that when I move in, it will annoy the hell out of me.
When I was younger (so much younger than today) I often travelled by rail. There was always a glass screen between staff and customers, and objects effected the transition from one side to the other on a revolving tray which span through 180° at the flick of a lever. The tray would turn quite quickly, and fetch up with a “thunk” in the rest position.
I propose a toilet roll holder that incorporates this mechanism. On discovering that, once again, the roll has been mounted the wrong way by inconsiderate housemates, a push of the button will revolve the roll about an axis normal to the wall. One may then continue with one’s business in peace, free to enjoy one’s sojourn without the disruption of inharmonious feelings.-- egbert, Jul 11 2003 Another flippable style: http://www.shop4cla...roduct.asp?lid=1138If the central post pivots. [Amos Kito, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Baked http://www.delphion...fstv&OUT_FORMAT=pdfAs seen on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno [thumbwax, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004] Flip to the loo, my darling.-- phoenix, Jul 11 2003 Oi! Where's the flippin' loo roll?!-- DrCurry, Jul 11 2003 Roll-loo-etta, jaunty Roll-loo-etta, Roll-loo-etta je te flipperay! Je te flipperay around, je te flipperay around. Array around! Array around.
R-oooooll-loo-etta...-- k_sra, Jul 11 2003 Excellent, and easily bakeable. Can there be a left-handed version?-- angel, Jul 11 2003 Silly [angel]. Left-handed toilet paper? C'mon.-- phoenix, Jul 11 2003 <speechless>-- po, Jul 11 2003 on second thoughts though <g> I have what someone called mobile loo rolls. No 1 son habitually puts it out of reach. would that drive you crazy, eggy?
would be great if the loo worked like that and could be skewed off into a neat niche in the wall-- po, Jul 11 2003 Maybe if all you could see was a feed slot right in the middle of a roll cover, you wouldn't know if the paper was ascending or descending.-- FarmerJohn, Jul 11 2003 Another small step toward global peace. +-- lintkeeper2, Jul 11 2003 //free to enjoy one’s sojourn without the disruption of inharmonious feelings//
You can get cream for that.-- Nickynackynoo, Jul 11 2003 I've seen ones like Amos links to, that do pivot. Just whack the roll on one side, it swings around and falls down with the hanging sheet in the alternate position.
I do like FJ's approach - sort of a Schrodinger's toilet roll.
Btw, hanging off the front is the correct way. Down the back means that the sheet end is laying against the wall, and this is just wrong for more reasons than can be discussed here.-- waugsqueke, Jul 11 2003 Love this, but [egbert], if your sock drawer is disorganized, can you sleep at night?-- RayfordSteele, Jul 11 2003 I agree waugsqueke, I'm an ardent "overhander". Still, I must award a croissant.-- RoboBust, Jul 12 2003 Thanks for the link, Amos. Waugs, an integral part of the invention (which on reflection wasn't made clear enough) is the characteristic action of the ticket office mechanism. The innards would be so weighted to provide a satisfying flip-and-thunk, deliberately tuned to reinforce the "so, there!" aspect of righting a wrong with minimal effort. Any physical input on the part of the operator would, I feel, serve to encourage aggression, increase annoyance, and result in a vaguely unsatisfactory visit.
It looks like I will have to agree to disagree with you and others over the correct orientation, thus poignantly underlining the requirement for such a device.-- egbert, Jul 12 2003 To extend this idea to it's [half]-logical conclusion: These roll flippers will become mandatory in every bathrooom. Upon a user's entry in to the room, a scanner will read the implanted-at-birth (preferences determined and stored sometime thereafter) RFID tag. The user's preferences will be extracted from a massive central database. A servo controlled version of egbert's mechanism will silently flip the roll according to the user's preference. This will occur so rapidly that the user will not even suffer the affront of seeing the roll installed the wrong way.-- half, Jul 12 2003 it will need to gauge the 'give-a-rat's-assness' scale of 'importance-in-the-scheme-of-things' this is to the user in order to give the correct level of flip-and-thunk.-- po, Jul 12 2003 Po, po, po. Now see, there you go bringing the politics back in. I try to eliminate the disharmony in the universe by silently, invisibly flipping the roll. But, no, you just can't let it go. Sigh...the world is destined for eternal strife.-- half, Jul 12 2003 I am half-amazed at your deciphering my previous annotation at all.-- po, Jul 12 2003 Now the question is raised as to the proper direction in which the roll should be flipped.
Tell us, egbert, do you, yourself, flip to the left or do you flip to the right?-- Tiger Lily, Jul 12 2003 You post a picture to some other website. Then post a link to it here. You'll see a couple of links already posted on this idea in the section below the main idea text. Click the [link] link to build a link to your picture.-- half, Jul 13 2003 Why, thank you, Bliss.
<Aside to po> To be honest, in real life, I have a low rat's ass factor on this one, but I had the idea and it needed to be justified somehow.</Aside...>
Tiger Lily, clockwise in the northern hemisphere, widdershins in the south. Otherwise the Coriolis effect from the Earth's rotation may cause the last sheet to separate, double back on itself and put the tear lines out of synch.
UB, there's no need to shout, old chap. Have a cup of tea and regain your composure a little. Use of this device is not obligatory if you wish your dunny to be ruled with a rod of iron. That said, I do hope you're not advocating using starving children to flip toilet rolls manually? If so, why are they still starving when they are (presumably) on your ..er..pay-roll?-- egbert, Jul 13 2003 Dunny - an outside toilet, lavatory. (Australian Slang)-- PiledHigherandDeeper, Jul 14 2003 Underhanded, please, for the simple reason that overhanded does not always provide enough power to turn the roll without tearing too soon. And as for waugs and others (here, have some apostrophes, [ ' ' ] and do what you will with them) allusion that overhanded is more sanitary, I say HA. Overhanded requires the use of two hands to get the roll to actually rotate, forcing all kinds of scrambling to get the paper, so how's that more sanitary? (he asks, hoping not to get an answer, as this is getting too close to gross for discussion)-- oxen crossing, Jul 14 2003 There are times when apostrophes would mark their target like a bullseye yet foregoing them allows the "expressionist" an Adelbert Ames effect...-- Tiger Lily, Jul 14 2003 and foregoing them and pointing it out can be a useful tool to distract from the almost total lack of relevance of the overall comment-- oxen crossing, Jul 14 2003 In this we agree. Now, would this mean, "mr imagonna", that you are your own irrelevancy?-- Tiger Lily, Jul 14 2003 Nice use of quotes. I'd just say "I am irrelevant", and leave it at that. Or is it "I am irrelevant," and leave it at that? Pedant Shmedant.
But in the meantime, I think I figured out why the paper breaks more often if pulled off the top than the bottom (like anybody cares): the act of pulling off the bottom lifts the roll slightly (or just takes some of the weight), allowing it to turn more easily, while pulling off the top effectively adds weight to the roller, causing more drag.
And besides, no joke, Miss Manners says it should hang off the back. There.-- oxen crossing, Jul 14 2003 Boy, [FarmerJohn], is gonna have to redesign those "boxer shorts" again...
[mr immagonna], glad to know, relieved actually, that we(')re playing the same game. ;b-- Tiger Lily, Jul 14 2003 // Overhanded requires the use of two hands to get the roll to actually rotate //
No it doesn't. I now understand why you prefer it underneath, because clearly you don't know how to operate an over-top roll.-- waugsqueke, Jul 14 2003 Gotta go with waugs here. Perhaps your loo-roll is rusty: how can it be more difficult to tear the perforations in one direction than another?-- snarfyguy, Jul 14 2003 snarfy, please see my last anno, right after the [(like anybody cares)]. I now add that it is more difficult to get the roll to move, not impossible, not even all that hard; but frequently enough to annoy me, I break the paper holding only one sheet when hanging off the front (HOTF). However, when HOTB, I never prematurely tear the paper.-- oxen crossing, Jul 15 2003 In Spain, they have like a little "pole" which stands vertically on the ground in the loo and can hold four at a time. Can't believe I'm taking the time to write about this...still, beats working.-- git, Jul 15 2003 'Fraid the paper must come over the top, otherwise I can't fold in the end corners and display that nice point that I learned about in hotels.-- FarmerJohn, Jul 15 2003 I'm a confirmed overhander, but while I was cat-sitting for a friend (I owed her a big-time favor, I hate cats), I learned to go the underhand method. The cat loved playing with the roll, leaving piles of paper on the floor. The underhand method, however, only frustrated the cat by keeping the paper neatly wrapped up on the roll.-- Freefall, Jul 15 2003 That doesn't make any sense. The paper is equally capable of being kept neatly on the roll with either method.-- waugsqueke, Jul 15 2003 It makes sense if the cat was pawing at the roll and not at dangling paper. Reaching up from below and pulling down on the front of the roll, the cat would cause the "OTT" roll to unroll, whereas the "underhand" roll would stay wound. Sheesh, I understand few of the things that are said around here and this has to be one of those few?-- half, Jul 15 2003 *whistles appreciatively* 42.-- vendetta, Jul 16 2003 Wait a minute, folks. I'd like a little more info here about that leaf thing mentioned in the summary. What exactly does one do with this leaf? And what happens when you turn it over? I'm confused.-- Canuck, Jul 18 2003 I can't believe how much analysis has gone into which way round to mount the roll.-- FloridaManatee, Jul 18 2003 I must agree [FM], particularly as there is only *one* way as per [UB]'s second anno.-- gnomethang, Jul 18 2003 I fail to see the relevance. Guess its just being pedant... To come to a compromise, why not forget underhand and overhand and go for sidehand?
So that the rod sticks horizontally out of the wall? Just flip the roll over the rod and let the paper dangle to the left or the right.
My cat just likes to rip open the complete spare rolls. This gives a nice patterns of holes in the roll.-- spekkie, Jul 18 2003 I'll see [Freefall]'s observation on cats and raise it by a toddler. While a cat may just go for the loose end and pull, a toddler almost always applies a downward swat to the front of the roll itself. Once again, an underhanded roll stays neatly rolled while an overhanded roll becomes a pile on the floor. That fact alone is sufficient reason to prefer underhandedness in any environment likely to be occupied by a toddler.
When neither pets nor toddlers are present, the roll goes on whichever way I happened to pick it up, as the rat's-ass factor is essentially zero. (How many rats use paper anyway?)-- BigBrother, Jul 18 2003 For all who have ANY rat's ass factor in this discussion (other than amusment value) "Charter [or appropriate local institution for the mentally troubled] can help." I'm sure there exist drugs that can cure your OCD and let you get on with life with out going on a killing spree because of your toliet paper frustrations.-- althyr, Jul 18 2003 If you have a centrally fixed toilet and foot stand, then the entire bathroom could rotate 180 degrees to change the toilet paper orientation. The sink could be weighted on the bottom and allowed to pivot so that it remains upright.-- waugsqueke, Jul 18 2003 Silly waugs. The personal library (hah!) would fall on the floor. Er...ceiling.-- egbert, Jul 19 2003 <blinks>[sommbodystopme]</blinks>-- gnomethang, Jul 20 2003 Why not get loo roll manufacturers to make random loo rolls, the winding is varied.The first ten revolutions of the loo roll bring it off in an out-ie type fashion; then suddenly it appears the loo roll has been flipped. The manufacturer switched the winding process in the middle of manufacture, the loo roll is now an in-ie...but wait, another few turns flips it's back to an out-ie...-- silverstormer, Jul 20 2003 Could you draw me a diagram of that, Mr Escher?-- egbert, Jul 20 2003 Do I look like [FJ]'s and [Bristolz] love child?.....Don't answer that.-- silverstormer, Jul 20 2003 shirley the common printed bog-roll clears up the (t)issue of whether over- or under-handed is the correct way to hang the roll?
the printed variety (avec dolphins, flowers and the like) only looks right when hung overhanded, allowing, pointy-folded-ness, and distance from the wall...-- seedy em, Sep 24 2003 random, halfbakery