In much of the Caribbean, plumbing can only handle urine and feces. Toilet paper is used, but goes into a trash can. You get used to it pretty quickly, and most places have a bathroom attendant, typically an elderly woman in a maid’s outfit. She sweeps up any sand, tidies up, and empties the trash can into her bag. I always tip her a couple bucks.
Note to self: When this coronavirus horseshit is over, feel free to activate hoarder/prepper tendencies. First item on list, TP.
Honestly, though? Aside from obvious consumables, my prepper mentality would be to stockpile alcohol (drinkable), chocolate, and coffee.
My son once asked me what my opinion was on saving silver. We’d been watching “Doomsday Preppers,” and some people were collecting silver coins, with a thought to eventually barter with the precious metal. I asked if his silver acquisitions were with this in mind. If you stockpile ANY metal as a prepper, the only one I can recommend is lead. Bullets.
He laughed, and insisted his collection was for investment purposes only.
My three stockpile items (alcohol, chocolate, and coffee) would be for my own comfort, mostly. But they also would be of astronomic value for barter purposes in any Doomsday scenario.
~VOW
Notice to the handtowel-plus-water folks of the buttwiping alternatives:
You gonna rinse those towels out before you launder them? Mommies used to rinse out loaded diapers in the toilet before disposable diapers became commonplace. One of the reasons disposables DID become popular is that people really aren’t too crazy with rinsing out diapers by hand. I bet they won’t like rinsing out those handtowels either.
Baby poop is different than adult poop, too. If you have people outside of your immediate family visiting your home, you will REALLY get squicked out rinsing out some neighbor’s poop from the handtowels!
Don’t want to rinse out the towels? Good luck with that. A home washing machine isn’t designed to handle chunks of anything. LINT can make some machines balk!
And think about it: water recirculates through the machine to wash the clothes. So you are potentially contaminating the entire machine, including the pump, with fecal matter.
Add more detergent and bleach? Today’s high efficiency machines will get clogged up if you use more than two tablespoons of detergent a load.
Detergents, fabric softeners, and add-in scents all work to give folks a sweet-smelling wash. But once you start laundering loads of poop towels, you will have a much bigger problem than “tattle tale grey.”
I’ll just keep anample supply of TP on hand.
~VOW
I don’t really consider us to be preppers, but due to having weathered emergency situations where supply lines were broken, we have learned what we need to be fairly comfortable during a disaster, so are already pretty well stocked up. We rotate our stock and replace as we use.
Our list of course includes things like kitty litter, alcohol, coffee, snacks (including plenty of good chocolate), unread paperback books for each of us and hobby supplies. The books are actually the hardest thing to keep in stock, we both know they are there, we both know that they are books we would enjoy and its honestly harder to keep my hands away from the “forbidden” books than the chocolate!
I’m in the Wuhan of North America and things are pretty scary here. I think the TP buying has more to do with anxiety than the TP itself. We don’t know anything about this virus. But we can DO something. We can buy TP like everyone else and feel a little more secure. I would’ve laughed at this a month ago, but I’m not laughing now. Coronavirus anxiety is real. I’ve got it.
Poor choice of words there. 
Then we have to go with the two claw hammers and gym socks method of personal hygiene.
MY POINT IS that sure, you get used to what you have to get used to, BUT** people are going to go out of their way to NOT have to get used to doing without TP.**
Nobody’s claiming I’m wrong about that, oddly enough.
Y’all are just saying people would find ways of dealing with not having it, which I completely agree with. And to some extent arguing that they’re not all that squicky, which may be true for you, but you’re not gonna convince most people of that, as long as they can still get TP. It really doesn’t matter if you convince me.
Lots of places now sell UHT milk. You do not need to refrigerate that until you open it. The expiration date is generally a year after production for unopened UHT milk.
Oh, no, choice of words intentional.
And this is kind of where I think, yeah, I should just buy up the stock and sell it to the squeamish folks on eBay for 4x profit or so. But I guess I’m not an asshole enough to do it. Still, come the fuck on, people.
After weeks of toilet paper panic buying – the whole aisle empty – , people here have gradually realized that there are other products in the store. Long life milk and sanitary pads are now sold out.
Eight hours running a cash register at a big box store today. Wow.
Numbers of customers was like the week before Christmas with prepping for a blizzard on top of it. Fortunately, most people were being polite and understanding.
We did get some hand sanitizer on the shelf early. I think it lasted a half an hour.
We ran out of toilet paper yesterday around 3-4 pm. We got an entire semi-truckload last night. As in, and entire semi-trailer of nothing but toilet paper. I left around 3:30 (end of my shift) but it looked like we were going to run out again tonight.
Yes, we have another truck on order.
Same for other stuff like rubbing alcohol, hand wipes, etc. If we’ve got it we put it on the shelf but it just doesn’t last long.
Lots of canned goods going out the door, too.
And we just happened to be having a sale on meats this week, so that’s going out the door, too.
Almost no clothes or shoes being bought, or hardware. It’s pretty much food, papergoods, and cold medicines.
I’m tired, aching, and have to do it again tomorrow.
Ultrapasteurized milk is common around here. You do have to refrigerate it, and it doesn’t last a year; but I’ve often seen it dated a month or more later than when it’s on the store shelves. (Though not always; if it’s not selling fast, stores seem to leave it there right up to the date, just like they do with the regular pasteurized milk.)
Sorry if I missed it elsewhere in this thread, but it seems that a not insignificant number of people fear quarantine on an individual building basis. Though even then, there has to be someone enforcing it who would likely get you toilet paper and food as needed…
With the clumping cat litter, it does have good endurance if the furless slaves are reasonably diligent about scooping. Did buy a couple more jugs, though. Also found myself fixating on ramen (which we do eat anyway), so several dozen in assorted flavors came home with me, along with a few minor impulse items (usually do find something worthwhile in Walmart’s “bakery made too much” section. This run, it was lemon cookies).
All three stores I visited had horrific lines (OK, so a fair amount of that was people stopping on the way home from work, like I did). Several linemates I chatted with (in different stores) were of the opinion that a lot of the panic hoarding is being heavily fueled by media hype to get those ratings. That’s my personal opinion. I really don’t think this would have caused any more grocery hysteria than any of the last few years’ terror bugs without all those reports about Venezuela-style bare shelves inciting more fear of not being able to lay hands on needs.
MIL lives in a stepped care facility. With at least one case diagnosed in that county, the facility is on lockdown with no visitors and only medical trips outside. Residents have been told to stock up and prepare for up to 30 days restricted to their apartments. **Mrs susan **is making a trip there tomorrow to buy and leave what essentials she can get at the back door for her mother to figure out how to get to her apartment, but they are not allowed even to touch hands.
The news showed a local Costco with register lines to the back of the store and lines in the parking lot to get in.:rolleyes:
I couldn’t figure out why a couple of roads were heavily trafficked until it dawned on me they led to a grocery store. I had planned on my weekly shopping but screw that.
I guess the governor’s directive to shut down large gatherings and all the schools made an impact.
My office is gearing up to work at home. The freight industry has been interesting with flights cancelled to China. Trans Atlantic flights should add to the entertainment. Maybe they’ll just fly freight to keep money flowing.
I have two big bottles of rubbing alcohol at home. I use it to clean my bong and glass pipes. When I read about it being in short supply, I shake my head and say, “fucking stoners”.
But seriously, people need rubbing alcohol for what?
DIY hand sanitizer. Mix with aloe vera gel.