Monday, April 07, 2008


I travel a lot, as you know. And now that you can only carry on 3 oz. of toothpaste, Colgate wants you to buy lots of little tubes of toothpaste.

Unless you can refill them yourself at home. Which is what I do. You are thinking, "Matt, that sounds cheap and unnecessary." To which I can only say, I am also cheap. And possibly unnecessary.

Here are some tips:

1) Despite your initial inclination, DO NOT blow into the little empty tube of toothpaste, thinking it will make it easier to get toothpaste into it. You will be able to "fill" the tube, but the air inside the tube will cause it to violently shoot out, like a volcano. I could explain to you why this happens, but I'm worried that you "don't have the math" to understand. Okay. I don't have the math either. Something about pressure and physics and such. Just trust me on this.

2) Push your tubes together.

3) SQUEEZE. I find that although I am a "flatten from the bottom" toothpaste user, that for this purpose, "Squish in the middle" works better.

4) DON'T try to fill your tube too full (i.e. as full as you would if you bought it new). This is a pointless exercise in frustration.

5) Screw the cap back on.

6) Remember that you can take more than one 3 oz. tube if you are a heavy toothpast user.

Feel free to write for more pointers if this isn't clear enough.


  1. that sounds unsanitary. but intriguing.

    by the way, i went home and told my parents i saw you at church. then they told me some more jokes from your sermon and they laughed and laughed. i wonder if they got "funny" confused with "funny looking" and thats why they said, "not really..." when i asked them if you were funny. thats means youre funny AND not funny looking! neat!

  2. How could I mock someone for being so environmentally conscious? Well, I'm assuming you re-fill travel toothpaste tubes to save countless numbers of the aforementioned travel toothpast tubes from clogging our landfills with their minty freshness. See, you're not cheap, you're ENVIRONMENTALLY CONSCIOUS! And that is sooooo hip right now.