# How do you wipe? \[poll\]

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-wipe-poll/692138>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [July 1, 2014, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-wipe-poll/692138 "2014-07-01T21:37:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-wipe-poll/692138/62 "2014-07-07T01:51:26Z")

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> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> It could be that the new toilet is one of the “low flow” toilets required by code these days. Lots of people complain about them not being adequate. CA requires that toilets use no more than 1.28 gallons per flush.

No, it isn’t that. It’s weird, and I can’t describe it, but it has to do with the geometry of the bowl. Stuff that, in my old jakes, went into the water, here, in this new crapper, pile up on the back side of the bowl, above the water level.

(This is one of the grottiest threads I’ve ever read on the SDMB!)

Oh, also, I paid a little more attention the last few days: I’m a sitter and a stander! I give 'er four or five good wipes sitting, but then stand and follow up with one or two final wipes. The first ones get dropped unseen, but, yep, I peer at the last one or two, to make sure a proper level of cleansing has been attained.

Anyone wanna talk about popping pimples? :eek:

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**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\
**Post date:** [July 20, 2014, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-wipe-poll/692138/63 "2014-07-20T03:55:41Z")

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> [@Ferret\_Herder](#):
>
> It’s worth noting that in front to back, women actually start rather further forward than the anus. Which is why women are taught to wipe front to back, lest we get infections in various places.

I was thinking about this today… I figure my confusion comes from my mother never ever using the terms front or back when I was little enough to be toilet training. Instead, I was taught you wipe your bottom _upwards_. In action it’s the same as front to back, but honestly, I was an adult before I figured out that people who were saying to wipe front to back weren’t suggesting you need to worry about wiping up pee before wiping up poop.

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