5 Budget-Friendly Toilet Paper Storage Hacks You'll Wish You Knew Of Sooner

At the height (or perhaps depth) of pandemic-era shortages, hiding and storing toilet paper was a big deal. The concern back then was foiling marauding gangs of toilet paper thieves, but the urge to keep TP on the DL in the WC has gradually returned to a more moderate pursuit. Now one hides toilet paper in an effort to keep things tidy, and some of our best efforts are very good indeed. We shan't judge whether any particular application of ingenuity is worthwhile, only whether it is well-executed.

This is not exactly a new pastime. If you close your eyes and wander down the halls of your memory palace toward the downstairs half-bath, you might recall that it was once possible to find crocheted TP covers in the form of hats, cakes, girls in antebellum hoop skirts, and all manner of sea life, from jellyfish to octopi to squid. Some were shaped like nothing so much as toilet paper rolls, which rather seems to defeat the purpose – but at least doesn't combine the concepts of toilet and cake. This approach seems to have fallen out of favor to some extent, perhaps because of some disastrous activities by confused children. Our TP disguises have become more subtle, and the technologies we bring to bear are often more similar to construction than to knitting. But there's something for everyone, and we've found nifty ways of storing toilet paper that should appeal to anyone who can be bothered to have an opinion.

Convincing the world that you're not overly flush with TP seems to be the goal, and the most common way to get there from here is via freestanding toilet paper cabinets that are often little more than simple hampers, but can be as intricate as any other piece of furniture you're likely to squeeze between a toilet and vanity. These are often just towers, noticeably sized to hold toilet tissue rolls stacked one atop the next. As with the crocheted cakes, these aren't likely to fool anyone.

And really, this is the best approach. In the moments immediately after a TP roll reaches the end of its useful life, the last thing most people want is for a guest to be unable to find its replacement. There is obviously a case to be made for making TP storage look like TP storage. To that end, the classic Yamazaki Home toilet paper stocker, available from Amazon, has most of the features you'd want: It holds a lot of rolls and keeps them from view, but its contents are obvious with even the most casual inspection. If there's a downside, it's that it doesn't support jumbo rolls, those strange monstrosities born of TP math (you know, 12=36 and all that). Note that there's no built-in holder for the active roll, which is okay because there's not necessarily a connection between where your extras and your main toilet paper holder should be located.

You could certainly DIY your own version of the Yamazaki stocker if you are so inclined, or so dedicated to the jumbo roll. The choice is yours. But the rest of our storage hacks require a bit more in the hacking department. One approach that might be useful, especially if space is at a premium and you don't care about actually hiding your toilet paper overstock, is to reclaim some of the space within your walls by building shelves inset into the cavity between wall studs. The idea here is to cut away the drywall by (or near) your toilet and build a shelving unit that slides into the hole, holding a few rolls for those moments when the need arises. And it kind of blends in if you have white walls and don't use that pink IKEA toilet paper that was all the rage online.

There's nothing particularly onerous about the construction of an inset shelf and we've discussed the process for over-toilet or over-sink storage before. There are some caveats, however. However troublesome it is to run out of toilet paper, we assure you that cutting into a water line or electrical cable is even less convenient, and the insides of bathroom walls tend to be unusually dense with both. Cut carefully, and keep your shelf more than 48 inches from the floor to improve your odds of not accidentally creating a permanent and somewhat indelicate (especially if electrified) bidet.

Not all recesses are playtime. If you can't be bothered with the convenience of your guests, the most elegant solution is to hide your inset shelf by incorporating it into the wainscoting or some other rectangular-ish architectural feature of your bathroom walls. Create a door with hidden hinges and a push-to-open catch. This is what @thomasmaybespoke displayed on Instagram for a client's manor house. Truthfully, a manor house might be required for this rather Agatha Christie-like solution, for a couple of reasons. Obviously, you'll need the wainscoting with raised panels, or something similar. You'll also need interior walls with at least 2x6 framing to accommodate TP rolls, which tend to be around 4.5 inches in diameter. You could also create some space if the wall in question backs up to a closet or utility space by bumping the enclosure into the storage room.

Let all your bathroom design decisions be informed by Instagram commenters' reactions to this project. One observes that parents of young children should use this feature as a minibar. Another says that you can resolve the guest-in-need problem by writing instructions on the wall (though parents of young children might find that anything you write on a wall has too much competition for attention). Most are concerned about guests who can't find the backup TP. One solution would be to stencil a little angel by the catch and cryptically tell visitors to push the angel if they need anything. Also works for minibars.

Sometimes a product is so well-conceived and well-named that it's truly a shame to see it fail, and that seems to be the case with the Bottoms Spare Toilet Paper Holder. The idea is simple and brilliant: store TP on a vertical spindle high on the inside of your bathroom vanity door. This keeps it handy and out of the way. "It doesn't use space," the product's 2011 commercial tells us in embossed type, "It SAVES it!!" And indeed it would, if you could find the product. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to make your own using any wall-mounted paper towel holder that uses a rod or spindle to hold the roll, rather than gripping the ends. After making sure it fits, just attach it to the inside of your vanity door as high as you can.

The company suggests that mounting the product high, thereby requiring less bending over, is also great for those with accessibility concerns. That's probably true, as far as it goes. But the key benefit might be one they can't comfortably show in their promo video: It's relatively easy to grab a roll in the event you are in need and find yourself in a state of partial undress. Not fully buttoned up, one might say.

If we've learned anything from all the little wooden ducks, thinly disguised Q-Tip holders, crocheted squid, and decorated jars full of, well, anything, it's that people spend a disproportionate amount of their crafting effort focusing on the bathroom. You're in there for, what, six hours a day? Maybe eight hours max? Okay, ten? Why should more than half of your craft projects be focused on upcycling things to hold toothbrushes and hand towels? One very good reason is to gamify the toileting experience, a phrase which Google reports was, sadly, just invented by us. 

In any case, the object here is to turn TP rolls into the Os in a giant game of Tic Tac Toe.

Sure, you could merely play Tic Tac Toe by borrowing whatever the kids are writing on the walls with and turning any toilet-side surface into a sort of potty palimpsest. But this is a giant 25-by-25-inch 3D game mounted on the wall. Made of eight boards, 4-5 rolls of TP, and 4-5 Xs, it's a simple project and a fun bit of kitsch that everyone knows how to play. Whether anyone's up for a long-term asynchronous game of Toilet Tac Toe is another question... but even if not, it's a cute project for the right sort of bathroom.