The Toilet Paper Holder: A Story for Father's Day

A few months ago, my husband, Dan, and I helped my brother and his family move into their new house. They moved to the same town where my dad and stepmother live. We spent the morning one weekend moving items into their new garage and house. We had just finished emptying the U-Haul when my dad handed me a toilet paper holder.

"Where does this go?" I asked my sister-in-law.

"That's not ours. Your dad has been trying to leave it in our house all morning," she said. "He probably grabbed it from their garage on accident when we were loading the truck."

(My brother and sister-in-law had stored some of their stuff in my parents' garage while waiting for their house to become available.)

I went back to my dad and told him what my sister-in-law had said.

"I know it's not theirs. I'm giving it to them," he said, "if they want it."

"Where did you get it?"

"From our garage. I just found it in there, and we already have one."

"Are you sure the person who bought it wants you to give it away?" I asked.

"Sure," he said. "No one is using it. I don't know where it came from."

I went back into the house and relayed the message to my sister-in-law.

"I think he's trying to get rid of it," I said.

Then we doubled over with laughter at the mental image of my dad wandering around, carrying the toilet paper holder through the front lawn and the house all morning.

My dad and Dan walked in and found us cracking up, the toilet paper holder still in my arms.

"It's a housewarming gift," my dad explained.

We laughed even harder.

"I'm surprised you don't want it," Dan said to me. "You're always setting extra rolls of toilet paper on the tank."

I stopped laughing. He was right. This holder would allow me to keep up to three extra rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom!

"Dad, can I have the toilet paper holder?" I asked

"Becky likes to be organized," Dan said with a smirk at my dad.

Now it was my dad's turn to laugh at me, "You take it back! This was a good gift after all!"

So . . . I own the toilet paper holder now. I can discreetly store up to three extra rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom.

I just hope whoever bought it in the first place doesn't read this and realize for the first time it's missing from their garage.

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