When I was a kid, every house had a toothbrush holder. Usually a ceramic thing with a few holes to drop a toothbrush into. The brush was always handy-by, and it dried out quickly. But crud would accrue on the holder.
Then toothbrushes got fatter handles. At first, there was just a bump in the handle that meant the brush part was held above the ceramic part. “Hey, this is an improvement”, I thought. Then the whole handle got fat, and it’s very hard to jam most toothbrushes into the holder far enough to be held in place reliably. I have been shopping for toothbrushes mostly by handle-shape to get brushes that work.
But obviously, there’s a market for these hard-to-store toothbrushes. And I’m now re-doing a bathroom, and have found it extremely hard to even find a tooth-brush holder on the market. My contractor recommended a cup suspended by a ring on the wall. But if I’m going to leave my toothbrush in a cup (something I have to do at hotels) I don’t see any reason the cup can’t just sit on the countertop.
But I don’t like using a cup. You need a separate cup for each person, because ewww, I don’t want my dirty toothbrush to intermingle with my husband’s dirty toothbrush. (Yes, I know we already share those germs…) And it’s a pain to use the same cup for the brush as for drinking, because you need to remove the toothbrush for that. (like at a hotel.)
I eventually found something designed to contain modern fat toothbrushes, but it’s clearly a fringe product.
I also found some plastic things that contain just the brush part. But I would think they would prevent it from drying out, and the brush would get disgusting sooner and need to be replaced more often.
So what do people do with their toothbrushes these days?
I used to keep it in a mug on the edge of the bathroom sink.
But one time I stepped out of my shower and discovered my cat licking my toothbrush like it was a delicious lollipop. In that small moment, I came to two realizations: this probably wasn’t the first time and if I left my toothbrush there, it wasn’t going to be the last.
So from that point on, I keep my toothbrush on the top of my medicine cabinet. It’s mildly inconvenient, but it is worth the peace of mind.
Just lay them on a ceramic plate on the sink. They don’t really touch and, hopefully, you’ve rinsed and cleaned your brush after cleaning your mouth so it’s not really “dirty” anyway.
Because I am the only creature in the house that uses a toothbrush, I put it in a coffee cup. I do put a small plastic bag over the top of the brush. I started doing this when I saw a cockroach dancing in the area.
We put our toothbrushes in a toothbrush holder (“a ceramic thing with a few holes to drop a toothbrush into”). I haven’t noticed any recent issues with fatter toothbrushes or rarer toothbrush holders, but YMMV.
I just close the toilet lid before flushing. I assumed that was standard operating procedure. There really isn’t anything in my bathroom that I invite toilet spray to land on.
Don’t people rinse/wet their brushes before applying toothpaste anyway? I always hold mine under the water and give it a couple brushes of my thumb over the bristles to ‘flick’ them. Both to soften the brush and to get any errant cooties off before brushing.
In a toothbrush holder right by my master bathroom sink. A good distance away and around a right angle corner from the commode, to minimize aerosolized fecal bacilli. Pre-moistened before brushing, and I leave the water running as I brush because it’s a soothing sound (and because my well is essentially artesian; with my faucet off, the water I’d have used with it on flows out into Lake Michigan anyway).
Bathroom sink area has a cup-holder, which also has little slots for toothbrushes. As noted, the slots are too small. So I put a Solo cup in the cup-holder, and the toothbrush in the cup.
(I use an office-supply binder clip to pinch closed the loose end of the toothpaste tube.)
My master bathroom is actually two rooms, one with a toilet and tub, and the other with two sinks and a linen closet. So I have no concerns about aerosolized fecal bacteria. But I observe that they are bacteria that have already colonized my own gut, and I doubt they are particularly dangerous to me, so long as they stay in my digestive track or outside my skin.
At the moment I have no idea. My cat “borrowed” it yesterday. Can’t find it anywhere. Usually though, after I use it I rinse it throughly, dry it on a towel and put it in a vanity drawer.
