Toilet Paper kept outside the restroom?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

My little brother is currently living in Germany (for work). He is working three weeks straight, then taking 10 days off and repeating this cycle for two years. During his 10 days off he and his wife are exploring Europe.

He recently was in the Czech Republic, and sent me a picture showing toilet paper outside of the restroom doors. I guess you grab some on your way in. “Toilet Paper Here” was written in dozens of different languages.

Is this a European thing (never been there)? A Czech thing? A fluke?

Am I right in assuming that it is done to stop vandalism and make it possible to refill without entering?

2

I’ve been to several Western European countries including Germany and never saw that. But, I didn’t see every public restroom, so YMMV.

3

Never seen that in my travels in west europe.

4

Wow. Color me surprised. I assumed it was a Europe/Czech thing.

5

When I was in China there was a bathroom where they were selling toilet paper near the door. Otherwise it was BYOTP.

6

I’ve only seen this in places where the bathroom is also the shower.

7

I’ve seen it in places where you have to pay a little bit of change to use the restroom, but there was a person who gave it to you when you paid.

8

Jeez, and I thought that it was annoying that the bathroom in my apartment has the light switch outside.

9

I had a very irritating encounter with a toilet paper lady in Malta. I was on crutches at the time due to a recently broken leg. Dying for a pee I struggled down the steps to find the tp lady engrossed in painting little figurines. As I had tissue in my bag I went straight into the loo rather than doing the want-a-wee-wee dance on crutches whilst waiting for her to take a break from her second job and dole out a few squares of paper. I then left without paying pursued by irate swearing.

10

In the house we lived in when I was younger, we had that too. To be fair though, the bathroom was created by tearing out the wall of the two bedroom closets as there wasn’t even a bathroom in the house before we moved in, just an outhouse. The little old lady that lived there used that outhouse until the day we bought the property.

11

In a lot of Asian countries you bring your own toilet paper. I’ve gotten into the habit of carrying a traveller’s roll in my bag even stateside just in case. (Traveller’s rolls are just tightly wound TP without the paper tube.)

12

I saw plenty of restrooms in Moscow that had no paper at all (paper, water, soap: pick two out of three) but never paper outside the restroom.