Green your Toilet Paper - Over is Better!

Two points...
1 Not if you have cats who like to try to unroll it.
2. Someone has way too much time on their hands. Go plant something.

I was just about to agree with @Uncle Mike. I was taught, growing up, that if the cat paws at the roll, "sheet-over" will make a mess, whereas "sheet-under" will just do that thing like when the film projector gets to the end of the reel.
But...
I don't have children who could potentially make a mess, and my cat avoids the bathroom (that's where she gets baths, therefore it's evil), so I'm givin' this a shot.
I wouldn't have spent the time on it, but I guess it's good someone did.

Thank you. I knew I was right but - until now - could never prove it!

I've been vindicated!

Sadly my cats can unroll the toilet paper regardless of how it is hanging on the roll so we don't hang it up anymore. Smart cats, but sad owner who doesn't like having rolls of toilet paper on the back of the loo.

ulitimate green: not using toilet paper at all.

Now that's hardcore.

Back in the 80's when I was making a measly $3.15 an hour I used to count the squares of toilet paper to make them last longer and that works better than how you hang the roll.. Also folding it instead of scrunching it up is less wasteful.

We had to remove the toilet paper rolls in all the bathrooms as your Greater Swiss Mountain Dog just LOVES TP. He's three and still tried to get at it when a tiny bit hangs out of the drawer or under sink cabinet.

One handed is easy if you clasp the paper with your fingers and separate it from the roll with your thumb. Rumples the square, but rumpled works well...

You can also flatten your roll of toliet paper (not too much) so the center roll has a fold or a football shape to it. Then when you pull on it the paper will stop and rip instead of unrolling too much. This is great for kids and house guests! It works.

[I love this mod mjo]

Environmental concerns aside . . .

OVER is, and always was, the CORRECT way to do it. UNDER is, and always was, the WRONG way to do it.

This applies to paper towels on towel holders as well.

I greened my toilet paper by switching to cloth. ;) But before that, I solved the cat problem with a rubber band going around the roll. It's easy for a human to move it off to the side when you need to, and hard for a cat. I have heard that you can also use the middle section of a two-litre bottle if you want full claw-proof coverage, but this isn't something I needed to do.

JUSTICE !

Ah crap! (sorry, no pun intended)

My wife has been buggin me for years to put the toilet tissue on the holder, rolling over the top. Now she has another excuse!

Seriously though - if it saves paper, it's worth it! And I hope everyone's using bathroom tissue made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper!?

u guys can find an excuse for everything huh? teach your cat some discipline!

hmm a new and better reason! we were always told that young children would have "messy" hands and we would get "messy" walls from them trying to grab the TP hanging down against it. So OVER was a no brainer. We have cats but luckily for us they just arent interested in the TP.

My girlfriend uses an entire roll of TP per day, but only craps once every two days.

However, I use a roll about every 10 days, and I crap twice per day.

Women are so egregiously unsustainable.

"teach your cat some discipline!"

Bahahaha! Have you ever even met a cat?

My one handed action never fails. If you can't do it, you just need more practice.

That being said, over or under really doesn't matter. Unless you're a total dolt, you won't use more than you absolutely need, and how much you need depends entirely on how patient you are while doing your business and on your diet.

The real problem is not the crapping paper, but the wanking paper. People should just use towels already.

why not just pay attention to how much you need, and tear off that amount? the flaw in that diagram is that it shows a longer tail on the "under" method, which reduces paper waste by cats. you CAN tear off just 3 sheets using the under method exactly the same as you can with the over.

i suspect a bigger to do would be if crumple or fold is uses more paper, and will probably save more paper.

paper texture and absorbency probably has a lot to do with the number of sheets needed to clean up as well.

I work in a resort town and this is standard procedure for all the hotels. I don't know if there is a reason why the do it this way, but every housekeeper I talked to said the sheet always goes over the roll.

So, do you reverse the instructions if you are left handed??

My cat used to shred the roll, too, until I balanced a very small cup of water on the roll (an over the top roll, of course!). When he pulled, the cup dumped! .. didn't take long for ol' Boom to decide he had business elsewhere!

Jan!, Very Very Good, You disciplined your cat per Donato's advise!
I wish I had been as creative as that.

I used to use 8 sheets, now I use 6. Fold in half, fold in thirds. Use twice per pull. Repeat if still feeling unclean. 6 sometimes, 12 most the time. Costco's has been a good staple for a while, solid, not flaky, good absorbency, hasn't failed me yet. Seems picky, but when you think about it, I've been doing this since ...well since always. Seems logical to me, and I've found I use less than others around me, and I still have a clean bottom.

Oh the silly things we do...

Over is wrong and I hate it when my boyfriend turns my paper around. And it's extremely easy to use the same amount of paper: get the one with the pre-ripped pieces. I use exactly 3 squares, and I can count no matter how the roll is positioned.

For the cat people - close the door to the bathroom and your cats wont unroll your roll if its over (the correct way). Sheesh! LOL

For all those who can't discipline their cats, but don't want the cat to waste the tp, there is a very simple solution. There is a easy barricade you can use every time, and it only takes a second. SHUT THE DOOR!.
Those of you who have kids and cats- well however stubborn your cat may be, the kids are easily trained.

Long long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Ann Landers answered this question. She explained that it was only correct to have the paper go OVER, since that way the pattern would show nicely. Since we all use patterned, highly perfumed, non-recycled, pretty paper to wipe our bums, this is the bestest answer.

[style is half the battle mjo]

Serious scientific solutions should examine all aspects of the problem, beginning with the problem: cleaning an orifice that is observably longer than wide. Hence, I offer two possible ways to save toilet paper (the ostensible goal):

a) Using a sharp, narrow serrated bread slicing knife, cut the roll in half, widthwise. The same isolation and absorbability can be achieved without wasting the two inches of paper that extend beyond the margins of the target zone. Twice the wipes per roll! And for those households whose domestic relations are in a turmoil over this issue, install one half to roll over, and one under. The competition to make one's personal choice last longer and validate their opinion will probably save more paper than ever. Bore a hole the size of the dispenser spindle in the top of a plastic one-quart yogurt lid to separate the two half-width rolls and prevent friction, although pulling one side should make the other side rewind, increasing tidiness and elimnating that attractive dangling dab.

b) Hang a solar shower or enema bag (the former may appeal more to the outdoorsy, environmental Treehugger type) next to the toilet. Voila! Pauper's bidet. And the cat will only play with that once, too.

Next question: Which is more efficient? Dabbing or wiping? My non-scientific initial opinion is to dab first to collect residual material, then wipe, rather than spreading it around initially, resulting in a larger area to be cleaned, which, imho, results in more paper waste than the over/under controversy.

Another suggestion: place a small footstool (no pun intended) in front of the toilet, to squat upon, thereby increasing the efficiency of emptying the bowels, and spreading the glutes wider to decrease contact area with external surfaces which must be cleaned.

Perhaps a toilet seat formed in two pieces, joined in the center by springs, then mounted on a sloping sub-seat, so that the anatomy is spread and opened for more efficient evacuation, without holding one's cheeks open, keeping one's hands free for creating toilet paper roses or reading.

If anyone is interested in this concept I will attempt to create a prototype, just as soon as I work out the bugs in my roll-cage with bicycle flag for dachsunds. Unfortunately introduction of my self-lowering toilet seat with LED lights to warn when it is deployed (as well as provide a target without turning on the overhead light, wasting electricity) has been delayed awaiting resolution of a frivolous lawsuit involving the accidental drowning of a dachsund seeking to quench its thirst. Who knows how many relationships can be saved with this simple device (and how much toilet paper can be saved by eliminating those cold wet plunges for unwary women)?

OVER is better for the sake of hygiene alone! Which do you feel more comfortable putting on your moist private parts: something that has just exited a clean roll, or something that has previously been clinging against a wall that hasn't been cleaned in how long?

This sounds just like the Ann Landers column of several years ago. The feud over the over and under lasted for months and both sides claimed that their mothers, brothers sisters or anyone else in their family worked in the hotel/motel industry and that the way the their relation was the correct and ONLY way to put the tp on the thing. Is this going to be another Ann Landers fight?

I would definitely have to agree that someone has too much time on their hands if this is what they're doing to conserve toilet paper. This might result in a 10% reduction in TP and maybe less than 1% reduction in household paper usage.

Too much time is spent looking for tiny incremental "small changes *you* can do to save the world" solutions, and not enough is spent on the big things that make a real difference. Getting rid of your computer's printer would be an excellent choice. This would make your natural human laziness work *for* the environment instead of against it, because it would ensure that you would have to go out of your way to get any printing done. In turn, this would make it so that only the things that really need to be printed, get printed.

I would definitely have to agree that someone has too much time on their hands if this is what they're doing to conserve toilet paper. This might result in a 10% reduction in TP and maybe less than 1% reduction in household paper usage.

Too much time is spent looking for tiny incremental "small changes *you* can do to save the world" solutions, and not enough is spent on the big things that make a real difference. Getting rid of your computer's printer would be an excellent choice. This would make your natural human laziness work *for* the environment instead of against it, because it would ensure that you would have to go out of your way to get any printing done. In turn, this would make it so that only the things that really need to be printed, get printed.

I have managed large office buildings for a long time, and will tell you that the companies that clean office building rest rooms disagree with your "findings."

ABM, the largest commercial cleaning company will tell you that a roll of toilet paper lasts quite a bit longer if it goes "under" instead of "over." Check out the rest rooms where you work.

Hard to beat that practical experience! :-)

[I agree - I seriously want to get to the 'bottom' of this mjo]

Sorry Dwight, you need to go back to management school.

This is a sanitation / hygiene issue. Handbooks, manuals, case studies, etc. that deal with public facilities maintenance all teach paper goes on the "outside".
"Sheri", and a couple others got it right.

and yes, I used to be a janitor.

This is interesting. I sometimes wonder when i put a roll on, "is there a right direction?" now i know! cool thanks.

I was a bit surprised when I read this that it was only about how to hang the roll and not other options like TP made from recycled paper (which is what I do) or not using TP but using other options. I try to teach my kids to take less, only what you need, but we still go through more than we should; I cannot justify killing trees for this use, I find the Seventh Generation TP perfectly fine though I think my husband would like a puffier brand.

Um...well we've got a TP roller that is like a little cat, but the TP wouldn't stay on the "body" of the cat, so we have the roll slide over the cats tail, so that it stands upright. So would there be a proper way to place the TP roll upright? With the sheets going to the left? right? toward or away from you??

Um...well we've got a TP roller that is like a little cat, but the TP wouldn't stay on the "body" of the cat, so we have the roll slide over the cats tail, so that it stands upright. So would there be a proper way to place the TP roll upright? With the sheets going to the left? right? toward or away from you??

This has always been my preferred toilet paper hanging method--it's easier to find the end. Now, this just reinforces my preference!

This has always been my preferred toilet paper hanging method--it's easier to find the end. Now, this just reinforces my preference!

ok, how about something which can't be solved by simply looking at how much you're tearing off -- are bidets (such as Toto's Washlet) more or less environmentally friendly? It's easy to see plenty of pros and cons (pros: no or extremely reduced paper usage, only need to be purchased once and thus minimizes transportation and production ; cons: uses electricity, might have a more involved manufacturing process); but it's not as easy to really compare them to see which is more friendly in use (as in, purely paper and plastic usage on the TP side, and purely electric and water usage on the washlet side); let along when manufacturing and transport is taken into account.

the greenest toilet paper, is no toilet paper. visit Turkey and find out how surprisingly sanitary the left hand wash solution is.

I use three sheets of charmin ultra (i need reallgy soft tp for legitimate reasons and that seventh eneration stuff doesn't cut it). Over or under is of no matter, though i find under wastes less. It's harder to get the roll spinning. When you have tp wasters it's harder to get a lot if it's under...at least im my very small bathroom.

It's known that people who make more money are much more likely to have TP over vs under. It naturally follows that if your TP is over, then you will be better off, financially...

Alcohol-free baby wipes are the way to go. Use about 1, maybe 2 on a bad day, per trip to drop the kids off at the pool, if you know what i mean.

This is important to think about, we need to constantly analyze our own lives.

I prefer under because if the paper sticks to the roll (does this quite often with my cheap recycled brand) the Under method means you can blow on it to separate it (assuming it is within blowing reach).

Sounds silly, but let's face it, not everyone washes their hands before they start (and with kids there are more 'accidents' when wiping) so the bit they touch to get the stuck piece/s off may be the bit the next person has to use to wipe their ass with, or blow their nose with - eeuw. So I'll stick with under and only use what is required.

Today in an Italian paper I read an article about American producers refusing to make recycled toilet paper because it's not soft enough for US consumers. Only 2% of the tp in the US is recycled while in EU it's the 20%. Manufacturers say recycled fibers don't make soft paper.
Well, I always use recycled tp and it's soft enough! I'd advice anyone to try...