# Great Toilet Paper Debate **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 8, 2006, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003 "2006-01-08T10:28:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/41 "2006-01-10T04:01:49Z")
> [@](#): > > It doesn’t matter, does it? It’s just toilet paper. I’m shocked in a Claude Rains kinda way. It’s.just.toilet.paper. Have you no appreciation for the teeth gnashing through history over a subject so close to home? Before The Toilet Paper Wars it was Why Side of the Corn Husk do you Wipe Your Arse argument? which ran at the same time of What Section of Montgomery Wards Catalog do you use First? Before that, well, lets just say, Left or Right Hand and leave it at that, shall we? ---
**Author:** ![Mint\_Julep](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bc79bd/32.png) [@Mint\_Julep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mint_Julep)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/42 "2006-01-10T17:31:35Z")
Im a chick and it drives me bananas when people put the role on wrong. I think it should always flap over the top of the roll. That behind the roll dispense is an abomination. And I have a cat 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/43 "2006-01-10T18:04:51Z")
The fuzzy black land shark who lives in my house has no interest in toilet paper, so I am free to install the roll correctly, with the tongue over the top hanging down in front, as God and my ass intended. ---
**Author:** ![Euthanasiast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Euthanasiast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euthanasiast)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/44 "2006-01-10T18:31:07Z")
I don’t use toilet paper. I find it simply doesn’t do the job (especially for men) well enough for me. I started using Cottonelle moist wipes and have never looked back. I still keep toilet paper in the house, but I certainly don’t use it! It’s for the guests who simply must have it. I have never understood how anyone could consider this an acceptable means of cleaning their backside. Bunch of barbarians… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/45 "2006-01-10T18:31:36Z")
Really, if it is hung to where it goes up against the wall, you will bop the ends of your fingers reaching for it late at night when you are drunk/sleepy… It needs to go over and out. Not under and behind. Come on! ---
**Author:** ![Honey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honey/32/5074_2.png) [@Honey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Honey)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/46 "2006-01-10T18:38:10Z")
> [@jrfranchi](#): > > The space effieicent way is to have the go towards the wall and thus unroll from the bottom not the top. It would take a complete lack of Feng Shui to have the paper come from the top. 😉 > > In addition if you have a cat thatlikes to play with TP, it should never be left to roll off the top. > > Jim I’m a woman and I agree this is the correct way. ---
**Author:** ![Redwing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/dfb087/32.png) [@Redwing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Redwing)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/47 "2006-01-10T18:47:42Z")
I was unaware that asswipe had a “correct” position outside of certain institutional enviroments. I seek enlightenment: what advantages does the “correct” way have over the “incorrect”? I tend to find that if roll has been replaced on the dispenser we’re doing well. ---
**Author:** ![Rebo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rebo/32/13005_2.png) [@Rebo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rebo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/48 "2006-01-10T18:48:52Z")
> [@Euthanasiast](#): > > I don’t use toilet paper. I find it simply doesn’t do the job (especially for men) well enough for me. I started using Cottonelle moist wipes and have never looked back. I still keep toilet paper in the house, but I certainly don’t use it! It’s for the guests who simply must have it. I have never understood how anyone could consider this an acceptable means of cleaning their backside. > > Bunch of barbarians… 😉 Charmin wipes are better. Softer and more easily flushed. But I use them in tandem with toilet paper, which must be hung from over the top. I am a woman, and we don’t have cats. And my husband agrees that that is how toilet paper should be installed. It was funny when we were dating, that so many of our idiosyncrasies meshed. We just had to get married! ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/49 "2006-01-10T18:54:41Z")
I’m a woman and I think it should go over the top, unless you have cat/toddler issues, which I don’t. My husband puts it on the backward way. I guess that’s just the way he was raised. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/50 "2006-01-10T19:09:02Z")
I’m a woman who always puts the TP in the correct way: so that the loose end hangs over the top, in front, not against the wall or holder. Why is this correct? Because (women especially, pay attention!) if the TP touches the wall or dispenser, it may pick up nasty things which one can then transmit to one’s private areas. Worse for women, because: the (excuse me if you’re squeamish and/or juvenile) vaginal area is easily infected by contaminants. I’ve suffered many a UTI (urinary tract infection) simply because I was in a hurry and practiced “sloppy wiping” - even a very small amount of fecal material is enough to cause E. coli to make its way up the tract & cause problems. Not so much an issue for men, but they ought to comply out of thoughtfulness for any women they share the loo with. I’ve known more men than women that put the TP in the wrong way. I’m having difficulty imagining these apparently boorish and obviously hygiene-impaired women that **Cynical Gabe** describes. _shudder_ ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003/51 "2006-01-10T20:00:03Z")
I hang my toilet paper the overhand, or correct, way. Mr. Neville doesn’t seem to care which way he hangs it, so I sometimes fix it when he gets it wrong. The Neville kitties shred the toilet paper with their claws and teeth (none of that sissy unrolling for them), so I drape a hand towel over the roll to keep them from getting at it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-toilet-paper-debate/339003.md?page=2)