The Eternal T.P. Question

[GardenerGal]

When I was visiting Nepal and India, I saw floor level units too. Didn't see them in Thailand, but probably because I did not go into private homes.
The "floor commodes" were squares of ceramic, with a hole in the middle (presumably leading to a hole in the ground) and two footprint-shaped depressions on either side of the hole so you could squat and aim accurately. I couldn't help but call them "Arthur Murray Toilets," after the American dance-school founder who devised a method of diagramming dance steps by using images of footprints that showed you where and how to place your feet.

Many other Asian countries still have them too, but usually in the poorer areas such as what you mention in Thailand. Japan has gradually replaced its "Arthur Murray" units with Western-style flush toilets.

This thread sure is running the gamut of "toilet humor."

If the mounting of the roll on the holder is an issue worthy of discussion, consider this.

The old way here, and it still is in poorer homes, doesn't involve using paper paper. The wc is a French style floor level affair with no incoming water supply. At the side of the wc is a larger vat of water. You use your left hand for cleaning and then flush the wc with water scooped in a plastic bowl from the vat. Left hand for the loo and right hand for eating was the rule, for those who remembered. That's one reason why a decline kind offers of meals as I pass certain local homes. Better homes, hotels, malls and the like have flush toilets. You may or may not get paper.

The modern norm here is the butt blaster and a raised Western style wc. A butt blaster is a jet with a trigger on the end of a water pipe. Any toilet over which I have influence has a butt blaster, paper and flush. In the car is a roll of paper in case I'm taken short away from home and can't find my preferred comforts.

The butt blaster may be new to you and you may frown at the thought of it. Thai people who use them think that the Western preference for paper is both amusing and unhygienic.

Toilet paper is readily available here and Thais use a lot. For what, you may ask? Here's a clue. One British supermarket chain sells the stuff as ' multi-purpose tissue'. Eat at any village home and there will be a roll or two on the table for use as a cheap alternative to napkins.

Here's one. Think of it as a hand held bidet and consider the freshening up opportunities:

 

[gryeyes]

Oh, yes, a cat in the home requires the roll to be placed with the flap in the back, for the above-stated reasons.

I had an artistic cat for a while - she created beautiful sculptures out of toilet paper rolls ON the holder. Subsequent cats are just players, not artistes.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Italian train station facilities are of the hole in the ground variety ( or the newly learned term "Arthur Murray Style"), and seemingly, all Italians have bad aim. This can be contrasted to the surgical suite cleanliness of Swiss train station facilities, but you must tip the attendant.

Here it goes over the top, and none of the cats bother it. The boys' bathroom, however, has the TP where ever the last kid put it down. I try to avoid the boys' bathroom.

 

[Lunachick]

Over not under...........that's all there is to it, since I'm the Queen of my castle. (plus, nobody else in my family knows how to add a new roll anyway..........)

 

[thaiturkey]

When I was visiting Nepal and India, I saw floor level units too. Didn't see them in Thailand, but probably because I did not go into private homes.
The "floor commodes" were squares of ceramic, with a hole in the middle (presumably leading to a hole in the ground) and two footprint-shaped depressions on either side of the hole so you could squat and aim accurately. I couldn't help but call them "Arthur Murray Toilets," after the American dance-school founder who devised a method of diagramming dance steps by using images of footprints that showed you where and how to place your feet.

Many other Asian countries still have them too, but usually in the poorer areas such as what you mention in Thailand. Japan has gradually replaced its "Arthur Murray" units with Western-style flush toilets.

This thread sure is running the gamut of "toilet humor."

They're the ones. A must to avoid.

Reverting to an earlier suggestion that butt guns waste water, I beg to disagree. Normal use requires no more than a glass full of water, a spit in the ocean compared with the deluge of the flush that follows. As for paper, I wonder how many trees we wipe ourselves with over a lifetime.

 

[Matthew3590]

If I used the water gun I would miss and spray the walls or my back. Then walking out embarrassingly as if I did not know how to use the bathroom properly.

 

[thaiturkey]

If I used the water gun I would miss and spray the walls or my back. Then walking out embarrassingly as if I did not know how to use the bathroom properly.

You wouldn't be the first or the last!

 

[Beekissed]

I think it was how you were brought up. When I was young we had an outhouse and the old holders that were just heavy wire which allowed the roll to rest against the wall. When the TP was behind the roll it would cause the paper to break off too short so we placed it over the roll. As time went on I couldn't bear for it to be placed behind the roll and I taught my kids the same thing..."...over the roll, over the roll, over the roll! How many times do I have to tell you?????"

My cat didn't mess with the TP but he sure liked to have that freshly filled toilet water after you flushed....would dip his paw in and drink it off his paw.

This is his "Don't watch me while I drink out of the toilet, Mom!" look.

 

[mandelyn]

Once I was visiting friends with my sister in law. Her and I both are "over" people. The house we were visiting, under people. I went to the bathroom, saw the roll under, clearly a mistake, and switched it to over.

Lady of the house, she goes, switches it back to under. My sister in law goes, switches it to over.

Lady of the house goes back, comes out seriously confused, wondering how the roll keeps getting put back to over. She comes out saying "Who the heck keeps changing the toilet paper?" We confessed to both having done it. Hilarious!

It was so funny that all 3 of us were OCD enough over it to have all changed it. I fought the urge after that.

In Germany they had pay bathrooms, with a turnstall, to be sure you paid.

 

[eenie114]

Then I must have been born the wrong gender, because I always hang it so the flap hangs over the roll.