Yak About It > Yak Nation

June 14, 2010

The Johnie-Lift is a decorative toilet seat handle that installs instantly and provides a more sanitary and convenient way to raise and lower the seat, eliminating any direct contact. It is intended for all households, hotels, and hospitals, and any other common use bathrooms.

My Mother-In-Law is the proud parent of eight children, and, being a stay at home mother, she had to clean the two bathrooms in their house. She told my Father-In-Law that she found having to touch the toilet seat in order to raise it for cleaning was unsettling. Also, she said that all to often, the boys would not raise the seat when they needed to urinate because they did not want to touch it, which left a real mess, and when they did raise the seat, they would not lower it for the next person to use., so they invented the Johnie-Lift (including coining the name) in 1963.

They took their prototype (with retro packaging) to Sears and won approval for sale. However, they soon found out how much tooling (mold) was and had to shelve the idea. My Father-In-Law passed away soon after and nothing was done for many years.

Finally, after repeated requests by my Mother-In-Law, my wife and I decided to upgrade the design to be more decorative, and move forward with manufacturing. We turned our kitchen into a small prototype and mold (silicon) production area and after testing many adhesive tapes and different styles of handles, we made a final prototype.

I sent the prototype off to an organization in Florida for the final work on the prototype and had it scanned into an IGES/ STEPP file that was then used to create the steel four-cavity mold. My wife worked with a graphics person in Canada on the artwork for the packaging and we completed our first production run earlier this year.

Now the real difficult part is getting our product known.

Inventor: Paul Doyle

My Mother-In-Law is Marie Reardon. She is a homemaker and had eight children. She was born and raised in the Los Angeles area (San Pedro) and married Mr. James Reardon. They brought up their eight children in South Pasadena, California. Both of them worked on the idea of a toilet seat handle that would make it more convenient and sanitary for anyone who had a need to raise or lower the seat.

The Johnie-Lift was truly one of those “necessity is the mother of invention” products. If my Mother-In-Law did not have to clean two bathrooms that were used by eight children and two adults, it would not have happened.

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$2.95

Johnie-Lift

Brandon James says:
Jun 16, 2010 at 12:39 pm

Looks like a great idea. I can't understand why toilet seats don't have handles already on them! Doing the 'foot trick' is getting old. From the picture it looks like the handle attaches to the bottom of the seat with the shell sticking out. Maybe they … more could offer different styles (like a small football or baseball) - something the youngsters would like.

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Jay says:
Jun 15, 2010 at 9:24 pm

Just by looking at the front of the package I don't understand where it sticks to the seat. This may be a problem on retailers shelves.

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Kevin Crockett says:
Jun 15, 2010 at 10:36 am

Finally, something to help the wars at home about leaving the seat up! No one likes touching the seat, so this is certainly a better altenative. Hope the tape is strong and will last. Also, I wish these were in public bathrooms.

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Ted says:
Jun 14, 2010 at 4:22 pm

What the Johnie lift will not be just as dirty as the rest of the seat after someone takes a dump,wipes him self and with the same hand grabs johnie to lift the seat?

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Blade Oil™

Enhance razor blade performance while doubling the life of your blades.!

The act of shaving is not the leading cause of a dull blade. In fact, the 24 hours in between shaves do more damage to your razor blades than the shave itself. Exposure to air (oxidation) corrodes blades quickly, leading to a jagged edge and ultimately nicks and cuts.

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Works with all razor blades
No mess - applies directly to the blades
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One-year's supply

Shaving is no way to give blood!

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Inventor: Stan Ades

Prior to founding Pacific Shaving Company, I was a career-marketing executive for companies in sectors that included the music/entertainment industry, an artisan winery and a global drug distributor. (Yes, my career has literally gone from music to alcohol to drugs....)

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$9.99

Blade Oil

Jay says:
Jun 15, 2010 at 7:02 pm

I like the idea and now is the time to come out with a "green" product. Good work. I think I will try it.

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matt coiro says:
Jun 14, 2010 at 8:09 am

your idea looks pretty cool and makes sense. dull blades are painful and hard to avoid. but you should not discount other cool shavers you and others may not even know about. shavemate.com is cool for travel. and I am a huge fan of the haedblade.com hfu09 … more is my code:-) like the name of your product very much.

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