My husband and I flipped houses for a number of years, and we made some pretty wild discoveries when ripping apart old houses. Some of my favorite finds include a wad of old bills (many of which are actually fairly valuable now) hidden within a wall, and hundreds of old glass bottles from the Prohibition stashed underneath the floor of a house. But we have also come across a number of homes that feature the oddity I’m going to talk about today.

Old homes (I’m talking in the 100-year-old range) will sometimes still feature their original medicine cabinets in the bathrooms. On the back wall of the cabinet, you will sometimes see a small slit right there on the wall. You may have noticed this in your own home or in someone else’s home, but never knew what it was for.

source: Apartment Therapy/Tara Bellucci

Well, prior to the invention of stainless steel razor blades in the 1960s, men could only get one or two uses out of the old-school metal razor blades.

Rather than putting these used blades in the garbage can where children and others could accidentally handle them and hurt themselves, the shaver would remove the blade and stick it straight into this slot in the wall.

source: IS Architecture via WordPress/Life of Chestnut Street

The razor blades would just accumulate in the empty gap behind the wall. So if you’ve ever renovated an old home before and opened up a wall, only to find a pile of used razor blades behind it, this is why! Though this seems so peculiar to think about now, at the time, I can totally see why this design feature would be practical!

My husband and I have had our fair share of interesting discoveries while flipping houses, from hidden cash to old glass bottles. But one of the most intriguing things we have come across in old homes is the small slit found in some original medicine cabinets.

In homes that are around 100 years old, you may find these slits on the back wall of the medicine cabinet. So what were they used for? Before stainless steel razor blades were invented in the 1960s, men could only use the old-school metal blades for one or two shaves. Instead of disposing of these used blades in the garbage where they could pose a danger to children or others, the shaver would simply stick the blade into the slot in the wall.

Over time, these razor blades would accumulate in the empty space behind the wall, creating a hidden collection of used blades. If you’ve ever renovated an old home and found a pile of razor blades behind a wall, now you know why they were there!

While this practice may seem strange to us now, it was a practical solution at the time. It’s interesting to think about how something as simple as a small slot in the wall served an important purpose in households years ago. The history behind these hidden razor blades adds another layer of intrigue to the stories that old houses hold.

So, the next time you come across one of these slits in an old medicine cabinet, take a moment to appreciate the ingenuity of the past. It’s these small details that remind us of the ways in which everyday life has evolved over the years.