My hubby and I lived in separate cities for nearly a year, after he was laid off and got his old job back a thousand miles away, but was hoping to find another job at our first location. So it was, at first, just me and my daughter, and then just me after she moved out. We had three bathrooms in the house, all of which would get used, but even so toilet paper rolls would only have to be changed maybe once every couple of weeks.
Now I’m back in the same house with Papa T. And I immediately noticed something that I guess had never really struck me before: The toilet paper rolls in the bathroom he primarily uses disappear about four or five times as fast as they would with just me. And then I realized that when my son was at home, the toilet paper in the bathroom he used would also disappear about four or five times as fast as in the bathroom I’d use.
You’d think that since women use toilet paper every time we use a bathroom, peeing or pooping, we’d use more toilet paper. But no, it’s the men who use up so much more. Why is that? Without Papa T. around, I did not have one single toilet clog for the entire year that I can recall; yet with him around, we have a clog, on average, at least once a month, which I’m convinced is from him using too much toilet paper.
This leads me to two questions:
Why is it that the men in my life use so much more toilet paper than the women? and
How do I tell Papa T. that if he stops using so much toilet paper, the toilet won’t get clogged all the time, without freaking him out that I’m paying attention to such a strange detail of his life?
Well, it’s not like you have to powder the whole thing, is it? I think our assholes are about the same size.
If it helps any, I’ve noticed exactly the same thing here. And yet somehow it’s their underwear I’m always cleaning brown smears out of, as well. So they can’t be either thorough or efficient. I don’t know what they’re doing with it.
I just came out and said it: “Hey! We’re going broke on T.P.! No one is allowed to use more than the length of their arm, mmm’kay?”
With his innards, I don’t dare mess with his fiber content. Long story, won’t bore you with it, but he could be the subject of TMI posts for both a diarrhea or a constipation thread, sometimes at the same time. :eek:
We’ve got the same situation in our house and my wife too has noticed, commenting on how fast the TP disappears. No way I’m gonna let her in on how often I clog the shitter. Maybe it wouldn’t happen so often if whenever I reach back there there’s not so much TP in my hand that it looks like I’m wearing a catcher’s mitt.
Maybe men are more free-wheeling with toilet paper while women treat each square as a precious commodity. I mean what’s with having all of those almost-finished rolls around? Just in case?
I remember one time I was in a backcountry hut on an overnight x-country ski trip with maybe four or five women and it was night and I just had to go. Couldn’t wait any longer. So I took the toilet paper out of the baggie it was in and headed toward the door. Well I would have made it to the door had every woman in the hut not practically tackled me because I was carrying the precious out the door without it’s polyethylene protection. The guys in the hut didn’t bat an eye.
Plus maybe men poop more often than the women in their lives. I know I do.
IME, what clogs toilets isn’t how much paper you use. (Unless you use a good portion of a roll each time, but here’s hoping you don’t.) It’s the combination of poop and a moderate amount of paper that clogs the drain.
You poop, then flush, then wipe however much you need to, then flush again, and you’ll almost never clog a toilet. You may use more water that way, but better that than an overflowing toilet.
My WAG on the OP’s difference between her and her husband’s use of TP is based on an inherent difference between the genders: which sex is more likely to fold the TP before wiping, and which sex is more likely to just grab a big wad of it? And which uses up more TP, ya think?
There are tricks to counter thoughtless overusage of TP, without having to comment on such essentially private matters.
The simplest is to stand on the roll before hanging it in the toilet. That way, the roll is more oblong then round, so it “rolls” less easily, and the paper is more likely to tear after just two or three sheets.
There are also dispensers on the market that press against the roll, and so also only give one or two sheets at a time.
Could it be that men generally have hairier asses? It seems like it would take alot more toilet paper to clean feces out of hair than it would to wipe off a relatively hairless area of skin, yes?
Not that I make a habit of getting feces in my hair, mind you.
Is the mister a beer drinker? As most of us can attest, beer give us a good case of the shits. If he’s going a lot more often than someone who abstains, he’s going to be using a lot more TP.
Nope, he’s a nondrinker. Had massive digestive problems for years due to chronic ulcer disease; finally was tested for and took ridiculously expensive meds to wipe out those nasty little ulcer bacteria, and is much better off these days. But, of course, “much better” is a relative thing. His innards just don’t work like a normal person’s do. He can suffer from diarrhea and constipation at the same time, and at one point did the whole flush-yourself-out-for-a-colonoscopy thing and still ended up half plugged up. :eek:
So generally speaking, I try to stay as far away from his bathroom issues as possible. Except when I go to pee in the toilet, with my modest 3-4 squares of TP, and the damn thing clogs on me because of who knows what he’s flushed down there. Oh, and when I have to buy a new crate of TP every month or so.
A) I don’t know. I have to say when I moved in with my SO it was definately me who caused the spike in the TP usage. What with “that time of the month” and all. I would have thought it was usually women. But I do have one theory: ass hair. Men have hairier asses and it must take more to get that clean…might explain skidmarks too.
B) Well gee…I seem to be in the minority here but I’d think if your married to someone it’s all about noticing the strange details in their lives. So just go ahead and tell him. Ok maybe not that his ass is too hairy but just about your concerns that the toilet’s getting backed up.
Or just go out and buy some of that TP they make for septic tanks that dissolves better.
I actually have talked to him a couple of times about how often the toilet gets clogged. He immediately got all defensive about his need for copious quantities of toilet paper, before I ever mentioned the words.
So I think he knows why it’s happening, he just doesn’t realize that the obvious solution is to use less toilet paper.
It’s a disconnect that I’m at a loss how to get through to him on. Since I’ve already circled the issue sufficiently that even he, Mr. Logical, should be able to see cause/effect.
