If you’ve been to my studio, you have seen the terrifying “Joker” in our guest bathroom. I have had so many parents ask about it, and love the story that I thought I’d share!

 

My son, who is 3 1/2 years old has been “potty trained” for over a year. Translation: he makes it into the bathroom, and points his stream in the general direction of the toilet bowl. My first born was a girl, and I have a very tidy husband…so I was completely unprepared for the LAKES OF PEE on my bathroom floor when Rex started using the toilet on his own. I was seriously cleaning piss from places and trying to work out the physics required to get it there. The ceiling. Check. The walls. Check. HIS FACE. CHECK!! No joke. Insanity.

We spent a year trying things like cheerios in the toilet (fail! he just

got really excited about “chasing” the moving target and ended up making more of a mess…also, he ate them. GROSS.), sitting while peeing (another fail. he manages to pee under the lid, and onto the floor). I sort of just resolved to cleaning up the floor EVERY TIME HE PEED. He felt bad, I was grumpy, not good for anyone.

About 6 months ago, I was sitting with Rex in our craft room, and we were both working on independent art projects. I was working on a vinyl decal, and had an idea. I called him over and asked him “If you could pee on anything, what would it be?”. His response? “Joker. On fire!”. And so, with that, we cut out fire and joker out of vinyl and stuck him on the toilet. I didn’t actually think it would make a big difference, but it was fun anyway.

You guys. It solved all of our pee troubles. Immediately! I didn’t even have to tell him what to do. We put ONE decal on ONE toilet (we have three in the house) and he has not peed on the wall/floor/door/face since. Seriously. Not once. It got him to slow down, practice targeting the pee where it should go…and he is TRAINED! We still have Joker on the toilet, and joke about “pee smacking” him, and he has only lost one eyebrow in the 6 months he has spent in my toilet. He has lasted through numerous toilet cleanings (this toilet gets cleaned ALL THE TIME because it is our guest toilet, and I don’t want our guests knowing how repulsive we are.)

I have no idea if it will work for you, but it is totally worth trying. Its funny, fun, and gets everyone to smile. How could you go wrong? For this tutorial, Rex decided we should make a UNICORN pee target fo

r his bathroom. That’s right. His second favorite thing to pee on, UNICORNS.

Materials:

Vinyl (I used  631) You can get samples from most places that sell vinyl (on etsy, for example).

Scissors

Sharpie (for drawing details).

 

Steps:

Choose a design (or copy mine).  A few easy ideas: Flame, fly, X, a dot.

Cut out your pieces.

Layer pieces, starting with the color/shape on the bottom and sticking the next layer on top.

 

Clean your toilet. (I know, sorry…but just think of all the time you will save cleaning pee off the floor!!)

Turn off the water on the toilet (its that knob behind the toilet)

Flush toilet. If all the water does not drain from the toilet when you flush it, fill a bucket with water and quickly dump it in. The toilet will drain. Seems magic, I know. Here is a video, if you don’t believe me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihpVJMbpLXU

Dry the spot where your decal will go with a paper towel. Make sure it is super dry.

Stick on your decal. Press to secure.

 

Turn water back on. 

 

You MUST tell me if this works for you! I am crossing my fingers that it does. Might even work for husbands, although I can’t guarantee.  Send me photos, I’d love to see them!!