When growing up, I noticed that my sister would never actually change the toilet paper roll. She would leave the old cardboard roll there and put a new roll on top of it. I questioned her on it numerous times, but she always had some lame excuse like she didn’t have time or she forgot.
Fast forward to my ex-wife. Granted she did change the roll once-in-a-while, but most of the time the roll was left there similar to my sister. I had so many other issues with her that it made no sense to even bring it up.
My current girlfriend, I just discovered does the same thing. I plan on questioning her on it but still haven’t because I forget before I get the chance. I will eventually, but want to know if anyone else has this issue.
I would actually understand if someone simply forgot. But all three are acknowledging that the roll needs to be changed by putting the new one on top. The way my bathroom is now, my GF actually has to get a new roll from the closet outside of the bathroom. So she’s willing to leave the room, get the new roll and place it on top. She just doesn’t take the next simple step to making the change and discarding the old cardboard cylinder.
My husband does this too, and it drives me batty. Same thing – he’ll leave a new roll right on top, or on the bathroom counter. But he never changes it.
I was going to say something, but then I realize there are things I do too that must drive HIM batty – I never take out the garbage, even when it’s overflowing. I never dump out the drain catcher from the kitchen sink, even when it’s full of gross food.
depends when the new roll is placed on top. an observant pooper will notice short sheetage and before letting go of their burden, they will grab a new roll in preparation of poopage and place it on the soon to be expired toilet tissue dispenser. they will then dispense ample paper after each roll. after obtaining relief they are a bit light headed and forget.
Laziness would be a good reason, except that only one of the three women (my sister) is lazy in any way. My ex-wife and my GF are both hard working and actually do a lot of housework without being prompted. If anything, I need a bit more pushing that either of them. That’s why this is so confusing to me.
An ex-housemate had a variation on this one; she would never ever finish a roll- when it got to about 10 sheets left, she’d start a new one, but leave the old one on the holder, and the new one where we kept the spare.
I never did work out what her aversion to finishing up anything was, but she did the same with kitchen roll, ketchup, salt… leave the last bit, and open a new one, and keep the now open one in the store cupboard with the unopened stuff.
My husband and kids never change the roll. I have a weird habit of changing the roll when it only has a few sheets left. I put the roll with only a few sheets left near the new roll, to be used first. I have never, ever seen either my husband or kids use up the few remaining sheets on the old roll, they simply use the new one. I know this, yet I have the habit of doing it over and over and over.
I’ve come to the conclusion that people who do this think it’s some magic trick they can’t figure out. So they leave it to smarter people to do it for them.
I used to feel great resentment when I had to change the roll. The spares are kept in the cabinet under the bathroom sink, so it’s easy to reach for a new one. But some part of me really resented going into the bathroom for something necessary and being trapped into doing work that I hadn’t expected.
“I’m always the one who has to change it,” I’d find myself thinking, spitefully. “It isn’t fair.” And since I was female and the only others in the house were male, that was probably true. Guys just don’t use TP as often. Basic laws of chance.
I’m guessing that doing the job halfway was an expression of that resentment. I got stuck with this, but it isn’t fair and I’m not going to fully cooperate. Someone else can take it the rest of the way. Especially if I had been left with an empty roll or a nearly empty roll. I’m sorry, but leaving only two squares is leaving an empty roll.
What I finally did, to ease the irritation, is give myself a geas. I was required by some epic doom to immediately and completely change the roll every time it was empty on my watch. If I didn’t, I would find myself needing to use the bathroom out somewhere (theater, mall, grocery store) and after I’d hurried in THERE WOULD BE NO TOILET PAPER.
Of course if I did, then I could go confidently out into the world, knowing that toilets everywhere were waiting to accommodate me. This is, of course, a load of fetid dingo’s kidneys, but it was whimsical and took my mind off of the resentment long enough to let me establish the habit. Now I can change the roll immediately and quickly with no resentment. Even if I do change it more often than certain other people.
Since I don’t leave it halfway, others have stopped leaving it halfway as often. And I almost never find the whole roll gone. Some of that may be due to the rest of the household being farther from their teen years, now. But I like to think that the example has helped.
most people would jump to the aversion of touching the toilet paper holder rather than just the danging paper when using. i don’t think that’s the case. i think it is aversion to face the over or under issue.
I don’t keep the toilet paper roll on the bar. I leave it on the back of the toilet.
On a few occasions, I’ve had guests in my home and they do me the “favor” of putting the roll on the bar.
But it’s not really a favor. I don’t leave the roll on the back of my toilet because I’m forgetful or lazy. I leave if there because the bar is too close to the shower. If I put the roll of toilet paper on the bar it always ends up getting wet and I have it throw it out. So when people put the roll on the bar, I take it back off and put it back where it belongs.
You can walk into any home, and determine who it is that changes the roll. If the end of the roll hangs off the back, it’'s been changed by a woman. If the edge comes off the front, its the man who changed it. When my wife changes it, I have to take it off and turn it around and install it properly.
My husband and I are opposites when it come to which way the paper hangs (he’s crazy, of course) - the person who changes the roll gets to choose, so we never have unchanged paper in our house.
I have found that all too often the person who complains the loudest that “no one empties the trash” or “no one changes the tp roll” is the only person in the household who never performs said chore. In the case of the trash, it’s also frequently the person who filled it in the first place and is now waiting for someone else to empty it.
When I worked, the custodial staff would frequently remove a tissue roll when it was getting close to needing replacement, put a new roll in the dispenser, then balance the old roll on top of the new one or on the handicap grab bar. People would just use the new roll and let the partial one sit there. Maybe if they had two dispensers, this wouldn’t be an issue, but considering how weird some folks are, who knows??
When we remodeled our bathroom, we built a small cabinet into the wall next to the toilet to house the scrub brush, and it has a rod at the top to hold a spare roll of TP. So it’s really convenient if you run out… provided someone remembered to replace the spare roll (translation: Me)
One of the HFH would never put a new roll on. She’s leave a few sheets on the roll so the next person would have to change it.
So I started pulling a new roll out from the cabinet, used what I needed and put the roll back in the cabinet.
Extra work for me but she finally got the message and started changing the damn roll.
This can be dangerous. I used to have the compulsion if I used someones bathroom, to “fix” the roll (hanging it from the back). Then one day I somehow broke the holder of a friends, and did not know what to do.
As any normal woman would do, I just acted normal, and quickly took my leave.
Since then I have controlled my OCD in regards to tp rolls, and I do not have to be the fixer of the tp any longer.
