This is a topic of great debate in my household, which should tell you all about my family, but here it is for the Dopers; when you take a swatch of toilet paper off the roll and prepare to wipe, do you fold it, or bunch it?
I bunch. I find a good bunch gives you good hand protection while giving the wad an uneven surface for maximum “pickup.” But to my amazement, many people claim that they find folding is a superior method.
Which are you?
I’m a buncher. For the life of me I can’t figure out how you’d be able to get a good wipe with folds. I’m with you on the hand protection bit.
To add some TMI to this topic…I also sit while wiping but stood for the first 20 years of my life. I also prefer the paper to come from the top of the roll. Add a decent book for good measure and I could be gone for hours.
Buncher, checking in. I’ve had this discussion with a folder, and it just didn’t make sense to me. I tried it out, and the paper unfolds, and presents a risk of unfolding onto your hand. Yech. Plus, all the fibers are aligned, so you run the risk of a tear. Yech. With a quality bunch, you can still rebunch it for another round, if that’s your desire.
KN, when you say that you sit down, does that mean that you reach from underneath, and do a back to front? If so, you’re weird!
Nope…it’s a reach behind, and front to back. Back to front would mean I’d have the potential to be dragging crap across my dangly bits. I’d rather not do that, BJ’s are rare as it is. 
What is folding? I just throw them in the drawer oh you are talking about tp. I bunch that too.
That’s what I thought it was going to be too…I’m compulsive so my underwear and my toilet paper are both folded. Well, for the tp I take a long piece and fold it back and forth in a hybrid folded bunch. A flat fold wouldn’t have the texture needed, as mentioned, and the large quantity I take and fold/bunch allows for the foldover-and-use-again option.
Folder checking in. How in the hell can you bunch? That is so freakin’ weird. I mean, isn’t there a danger of a loose bunch and your finger slipping all the way through or something?
Nah, that’s why you use a tighter bunch. An unbunched or slightly wrinkled top surface with a mushroom-cap shaped bunch backing things up works decently well.
Nah man…it’s an art form. I have a few of my TP bunches in galleries across the world. [sub]I sure hope they don’t find me. [/sub]
I was a buncher until around the age of 10, when my twin brother stepped out of the shower as I was beginning to wipe. I still remember the shame I felt when he vehemently ridiculed me and told me I should fold the tp. I’ve never been able to bunch since.
More information about dopers wiping asses than you can shake a stick at
FTR:
folder (reformed buncher)
sitting
through the legs
back to front.
Life long buncher. One bunch for the first swipe (to get the larger bits), then one touchup bunch.
I am a folder. Bunching seems dirty to me.
Is a buncher the same as a crumpler? 'Cause I’m a buncher – I like a good handful of the stuff. I once had a roommate who insisted 4 squares was enough to do the job. She was quite insistant that 4 squares per pass were all that was needed – and that I was never to use more than 4 squares per pass at any one time. Otherwise, she claimed, we went through too much paper.
My nickname for this person is “The Roommate from Hell”.
heh. i’m exactly the opposite. i bunch. folding is dirty. and i do it standing, reach behind, front to back between the legs.
Depends on the situation. I take medication that gives me the drizzlies a couple days a week. If things are feeling a bit sensitive, I don’t want any extra edges, so I fold. Otherwise, bunching’s the best.
Doesn’t it depend on the quality of the toilet paper?
I mean, if it’s institutional crap (no pun intended) then folding sets you up for failure – it’s so smooth and nonabsorbent that it’ll just slide right by. Ya gotta bunch that stuff.
But if it’s high-quality paper, thick, several ply, and quilted, then bunching is unnecessary. Fold it twice (to get 4 layers) and do the job.
Oh, and I rarely finish in two swipes. Roll out more paper and go for four or five swipes.
“Back to front”?! What the hell? How’s that work? yeek…
By the way, I bunch…
~Kittie
A wrapper here. How do you fold the tp? Unroll it, then fold it? You literally fold one section over another? seems tedious and time-consuming. I WRAP. I control the roll-off with my left hand on the roll and hold the end with my right,and wrap the tp around my fingers, take it off my fingers, grasp, wipe. With wrapping, I have several layers, but a smooth surface; and I can fold it over and wipe again. Seems like bunching would make it harder to control and yield only one wipe.
Well, short of setting up a webcam and showing you (I’d bet both of my arms that no one on earth wants to see that, BTW), I think you’re just going to have to use your imagination.