Toothbrush Replacement: How Often Should You Change Your Toothbrush?

Today's decluttering mission is to declutter your family's old toothbrushes and replace them with new ones.


This mission is designed to be done while working on the Makeup & Toiletries Organization Challenge on the site, which is one of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenges.

How Often Should You Change Your Toothbrush?

According to the American Dental Association you should change your toothbrush every three to four months, or sooner if the bristles are frayed.

Therefore, although this mission will not take you much time you actually need to remember to do it more frequently than just once a year. In fact, it really should be done 3-4 times a year, at a minimum.

Ideas For How To Remember To Replace Old Toothbrushes Regularly

Here are a couple of ideas from readers for how they remember to change their toothbrushes regularly:

Amy explained that she changes her family's with every change of the season. These come regularly and in just about equal intervals, so this is a great idea!

Another reader, Sara does something similar, but uses the holidays for switching. She explained, "We get new toothbrushes every major holiday that involves candy. Halloween, Christmas, Easter and Independence Day. Plus we get new toothbrushes every cleaning at the dentist."

Guidelines For Decluttering Dental Supplies

While doing this mission don't forget to also go through your other dental supplies and declutter anything that you don't use, any empty tubes or packages of floss that need to be tossed, or stuff that has gotten too old.

Here's my article on expiration dates of toiletries and makeup which provides guidelines for when some of these dental supplies will become too old to use, and why this is actually important to pay attention to.

Below I've also got some ideas for what you can do with your old toothbrushes instead of trashing them, and also what to do with your toothbrushes between replacements to keep them clean!


Top photo courtesy of woodleywonderworks

Uses For Old Toothbrushes & Cleaning Your Toothbrushes Between Replacements

I know a lot of you don't like to just throw stuff into the landfill when decluttering, and I totally get that.

But toothbrushes don't last forever, and need to be replaced.

This doesn't mean though that once they are no longer good for cleaning your teeth that they are completely useless.

There are lots of cleaning uses for old toothbrushes, such as for scrubbing in small, hard to reach places, or for rubbing out stains from the laundry.

Here's a full list of uses for old toothbrushes I've collected on the Stain Removal 101 site (a sister site to this one).

Make sure you somehow mark your old toothbrushes in some manner, once they've been used for cleaning tasks, so they don't get confused with the ones your family is still putting in their mouths!

Further, even though the ADA suggests you can wait around three months between toothbrush replacements, I strongly urge you to at least clean your family's toothbrushes between those change outs.

That's because we put these items in our mouths daily in an attempt to clean our teeth. The cleaning implement we use should itself be clean! Here's instructions for how to clean your toothbrush.

Are You Ready To Declutter Your Home?

I hope this mission has inspired you to declutter your dental supplies in general, along with other things in your bathroom.

When you begin to declutter the feeling you get is contagious, so if you're loving the results you're getting I would encourage you to keep going.

I've got a whole series of 15 minute decluttering missions (eventually 365 of them!) that you can do.

Just pick and choose the ones you want to do, that will make a big impact in your home. But if you want someone else to tell you the order you can also grab the 15 minute daily decluttering mission calendars and follow along as we all get our homes clutter free together!

Top photo courtesy of meddygarnet

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Bathroom Clutter Hall Of Fame

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