hooked toothbrush

I like brushing my teeth in the shower but don't like how the toothbrush always slips through my shower caddy and onto the floor, I also sometimes forget where I leave my toothbrush when I move it between the shower and the sink. I wanted a way to leave my toothbrush in the shower, not fall onto the bottom of the tub, and keep it within easy reach. The solution was simple, a hanging toothbrush that can be hooked onto the shower head, the shower curtain rod...just about anywhere! A hooked toothbrush!

I created a hooked handle for my toothbrush by heating a polypropylene toothbrush over an electric stove and bending it around a bottle neck. Making your own hooked toothbrush is easy!

Here's what you need:

tools: thick (leather) work gloves electric range / heating element large bowl of ice water

materials: Polypropylene toothbrush [NOT Styrene Acrylonitrile] mandrel or other solid cylindrical object

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Step 1: Toothbrush bending

small radius toothbrush handle bend:

1. turn heating element on high
2. prepare an ice bath using a large bowl filled 2/3 with water and fill with ice cubes, set aside
3. put on thick work gloves to protect your hands from the heat
4. when element is hot, slowly rotate toothbrush handle over element 
   DO NOT TOUCH TOOTHBRUSH TO ELEMENT
5. after about 20 seconds the toothbrush handle will become soft and pliable
6. wrap handle around mandrel to create desired hook shape, hold in place for 10 seconds
7. submerge hooked handle into ice bath and let sit for another 10 seconds
8. repeat steps 4-7 to refine the curve if required

Hang your toothbrush anywhere you think you might need it!

Comments

[annieannie]

I love the fact that you found a cool way to create a hook for a device, yourself. I would like everything I have with a hook fashion.. hehe We spend so much money in the marketing industry for simplistic things when we can do many things ourselves, which you have proven.. :)

[amandaggogo]

I'm really glad I'm not the only one in the world that brushes their teeth in the shower. I always get strange looks for that haha, is one of those things I didn't realize not everyone did until someone pointed it out to me.
Great instructable! This will be handy seeing as how I manage to drop/lose my toothbrush in the shower all too often.

[crazyg]

i bent the wrong end!
no really excellent idea, the beauty is the simplicity

[eXtremeSomething]

Nice, I hang mine over the toilet seat.

[SOFISINTOWN]

I love your instructables...

[Toga_Dan]

Not exactly a hook brush, but the angle makes cleaning grout etc easier.

[steve000]

Now this is a really good instructable. So many are for example "Hooked Toothbrush" Step 1 fire up your $3000 CNC machine..

Everyone should have an oven and it takes 2 mins to do and its reversible! very nice.

I think if you stretched the plastic you could also put in a little loop that could somehow hold your toothpaste.

[depotdevoid]

I already shave in the shower, adding one more ablution to my morning shower regimen wouldn't be a bad idea . . .

[WrshpMzshn]

Is the power cord on your shaver long enough to reach into the shower? :-}

[depotdevoid]

No way, it's steam powered!

[onrust]

simply brilliant

[stevet47]

I thought my wife was the only weirdo who brushed in the shower...
the idea still grosses me out, but good job with the instructable, great idea.

[abadfart]

i have started brushing in the shower due to a broken foot making it difficult to stand at the sink

[Bev Kirk]

I'm sorry to hear about your broken foot! Here in Alaska I've had a couple of friends who have used these neat wheeled walker-looking inventions, but the seat-part is narrow so that you put your knee (on down to injured foot/ankle) up on the seat and put yourself around sort of like a scooter. It's not tiring and you can gain a lot of time! If you don't have access to one of those, you could still use the sink more easily by resting your knee and leg on a chair.

Heal quickly!

[abadfart]

ya once the swelling and bruising in the right knee goes down. the foot was broken in a motorcycle accident. i get around on the crutches fairly easily but the right leg is pretty messed up.

[lnelson5]

How do you know if your toothbrush is polypropylene or styrene acrylonitrile? Are their packages marked? I've never noticed.

[sunshiine]

They all look so pretty! I tried to bend a tooth brush a week or so ago and mine broke. I will give this a try! Thanks for sharing Mike! Have a super day!
Sunshiine

[Pattymouth]

Mike, this is so cool! My husband would move out if I spit in the shower, but I want to make these because they're adorable! I'll just hang them off of a water glass next to the sink. I went to your blog - it's awesome & I'm gonna bookmark it maybe I can go into DOLLAR Store debt!

[gaanes]

Very cool, but my real problem is my razor. Its always falling off the rack and off pops the blades and I have to bend over in the shower and almost slip and that is just about impossible when my friend is in the shower with me anyway. So how can we do a hooked handle on a razor? And not a disposable, only real razors. Seems like something needs to be added.

[verity33]

www.sugru.com ;-)

[Ruth Bernstein]

Where is the toothpaste? You could take a nail, hold it with a locking plyer, heat it over the stove, pierce a hole through the screw cap from inside the cap to the outside on the top, take a 12" piece of nylon string, burn the end and make a knot larger than the hole, trim the end, take un-knotted end and slide it upward through the hole, make a loop large enough to slide over shower head with that free end and tie it off with an over hand knot, then screw the cap back into the toothpaste tube.
Voilla! You now have a hanging set for your dental health along with your bodily cleanliness!!!

[Ruth Bernstein]

Drill or melt a hole in the handle of your razor and loop a piece of string, fishing line or wire. Make an overhand knot and hang from handles or shower head.

[londobali]

Awesome idea!!
Thanks for sharing!!

[chrisayad]

How much extra water gets used when you brush and or shave in the shower instead of sink? Would be cool to figure out.

[woooshhhhh]

the toilet dispenses 1 gallon per flush. can't use any less water than that :)

[DeusXMachina]

None, if you use the time you'd normally use to wet your hair and let shampoo and conditioner soak, if you brush your teeth at the same time.

[ljacoby714]

Am I the only one who is troubled by the idea that brushing one's teeth in the shower uses about 7 gallons of water compared to the cup or two used in brushing them at the sink?

[Purple.Head.Rush]

It's not a waste of water if you're already in the shower, running the water and you brush your teeth while you're in there. I doubt he just uses the shower instead of the sink faucet, when he would otherwise not be using it. Also considering one generally uses 3 gallons in less than a minute of the sink being on, I really don't think you only use a cup of water to brush your teeth, if you are using the sink. Am I the only one who is troubled by the idea of people making up statistics that couldn't possibly be measured accurately?

[IamTheMomo]

No, you're not alone. That's a terrible waste, and who wants more expensive warm water for tooth brushing? Not I.

[eschneck]

7 gallons?! I think your numbers are WAY off. An entire 5 minute shower uses about 7-8 gallons. You're not brushing your teeth the entire time ... I also bet that your water is recycled anyways so you're not "wasting" it.

Besides, I'm not worried about what goes on in the privacy of other people's homes anyways.

[winniekate]

AMEN! ....finally! -- THANK YOU saying this

I was wondering if it was just me.
We are not running out of water, people. The sky is not falling, we are not destroying the planet. Read a book, and learn.

Billions of dollars spent to put fluoride a/k/a rat poison in our water. As far as I'm concerned, it can all go down the drain. All that biz is hypocritical, as I see it. Conserve! Endangered Planet!

This mindset is spoon fed to us by bureaucracies, who are the same people who run enormous garbage trucks, putting out all those fumes, using all that fuel, to make extra sweeps thru neighborhoods to get yard waste, recycles, then trash. Get your calculator out to figure the waste for that one! And most aren't allowed to burn it, so we have landfills that we also are supposed to feel guilty about it. hmm. Anyway, the list goes on. Just upsetting so many people are numb to this...maybe it's the water!:)

[ProfMuggs]

While we are not running out of water here, the overuse of water is a serious problem in a lot of places. Venice is sinking because of the overuse of groundwater. Florida has had enormous sinkholes open up because the water level in the Aquaphor has dropped. It is a real problem even if it is not visible in every area.

[calcs]

Most shower heads in the USA are mandated to have 2.0 to 2.5 gpm. Most faucet aerators are also at 2.5 to 2.0 gpm (that's if you have an aerator). So it's a wash in the amount of time and the amount of water that is wasted. Now if I want to get specific, I'll worry about the tub spouts leaking hot water. Tub spouts that are leaking are far more wasteful and the water isn't even hitting the person taking a shower, a complete waste.

[ProfMuggs]

Yes, if you run the faucet while you brush your teeth then a lot of water is also wasted. You can easily turn the faucet off while you brush. What everyone is pointing out is that shaving or brushing your teeth in the shower is an unnecessary use of the water that runs in the meantime.

[modern man]

Interesting idea, and I'm sure it's nice to get everything done at once, BUT, I'm concerned that this wastes a lot of water, especially if you shave in there!
Sorry to be a killjoy.

[haggismydear]

I turn the water off while shaving.

[kikiorg]

I've bent a toothbrush similarly for cleaning -- I bent the head at a 90 degree angle, like an L with the bristles facing down. It's great for getting into little spots like inside a jar. I used a candle -- and it did burn a tiny bit, but it was for cleaning so I wasn't going to put it in my mouth charred. :) The candle was necessary for the sharp angle bend.

[cecilomar]

I'm definitely making one for my next journey out to sea (United States Coast Guard). I'm not going to use it to brush my teeth, but to get the paint from under my fingernails, ha ha ha ha... Thank you!

[doo da do]

That is thinking out side of the box!!

[lime3D]

A heat gun will work as well.