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Which is Correct?

2005_1_19_tp.jpgAaargh. We just received a shocking dressing down on the homefront. We were told that we have not been putting the toilet paper in the holder the "right way." We were told that TP should fall out of the holder, "waterfalling" down the front and NOT lick up from the back. The photograph shows the "right" way. The other is "wrong." Before we cave in completely, we thought we would see if this was a generally held belief and we have just been in the dark.... What do you do in your apartment??? MGR

Comments (27)

It has nothing to do with correctness, really. It just works better for me to feed it over the top--it gets stuck less often, and also doesn't keep rolling down to the floor.

posted by Joan on 2005-01-20 10:34:10

The "correct" way is really around the bottom. However I have always liked over the top and it seems that everyone else enjoys it too. Psychologically I feel that going around the back makes it touch the wall, point towards the floor which makes me think of it on the floor, it's just a mess. So over the top, presenting itself to me, is what I prefer.

posted by sara a. on 2005-01-20 11:26:51

I always did it the "correct" way, spilling over in front, until a friend pointed out that he did it the other way, the "wrong" way, to keep his cats from unrolling it. I switched, and no longer have to reroll the toilet paper after my cats get bored from being left home alone too long.

posted by Mike on 2005-01-20 11:31:32

Knock on wood, my cats have been leaving the toilet paper alone. But if they suddenly flip out, I'm switching, no question.

posted by Joan on 2005-01-20 12:09:47

I used to feed from below. I found it to be more subtle that way. Over the top just screamed "Wipe Your Ass!". But it's easier to find the end from over the top. So I switched. Then I married a feed from below kind of guy. Can this marriage be saved????

This is the silliest poll yet.

posted by Lori on 2005-01-20 12:55:37

To take your Toilet paper aesthetic REALLY over the top, add a bit of 4-star-hotel flair & fold the end/edges up into a triangle, tucking the edges under.

posted by Hilary on 2005-01-20 13:08:59

Prior to this article, I think I had invested all of a 1/4 second of my life to pondering this question, which is to say it never occured to me to care or notice.

Damn you. Now whole seconds of my waking life will be devoted to the pondering of this.

Luckily, I'll be sitting there anyway with little else to do.

posted by Fred on 2005-01-20 13:54:24

so i s'pose that just putting the new roll on the back of the toilet while the empty cardboard tube stays on the holder for an extra few days is REALLY the wrong way, huh?

posted by blynne on 2005-01-20 14:29:50

I actually started to respond to this, but halfway through I realized how stupid this whole issue (not tissue) was!

posted by CR on 2005-01-20 19:15:06

I beg to differ. It is an issue AND an entertaining and pleasant diversion. I for one always switch the roll on the holder to face in the "correct" direction in any bathroom I am in. No matter if my bathroom or not. Type A? Most definately.

Possibly the best outcome of this poll will be a bunch of very happy spouses & significant others. The male readers will no longer be able to look at a TP roll the same way again, thus will perhaps always remember to replace the empty roll rather than just leaving the empty tube on the holder as is the habbit of the entire species as a whole.

Now if the AP boys would just do a poll on the universally reknown issue of leaving the toilet seat up, perhaps we could put all male/female bathroom sharing "issues" aside once & for all!

Apartment therapy..."Saving the world, one relationship at a time!"

posted by Hilary on 2005-01-20 20:05:48

I just wanted to let Hilary know that I too always switch the roll around if it isn't feeding over the top, wherever I'm at. I don't know if it is correct or not, but it makes me a lot happier!

posted by michele on 2005-01-21 10:51:14

Please don't use the phrase "lick up the back" in this context. ;)

posted by patrick on 2005-01-22 20:06:37

This is an issue of deep physical, emotional, and spiritual import. I will confine myself to the physical: it is harder to get the toilet paper to break off when it is feeding from over the top. (Harder for you, yet easier for the cats.) You may not notice the extra effort now, in the prime of your ass-wiping years, but these things add up and someday you will have to ask someone else to wipe your ass long before you are statistically due for that pleasure.

(Also, how do you get the cats to use paper?)

posted by amanda on 2005-01-25 23:57:34

My mom's boyfriend (whom I detest) insists on having the paper the wrong way. I take the pleasure of a petulant teenager to always switch his TP to the right way whenever I visit. Yes, it's dumb and immature but who dictates to guests how they want the TP on the holder!

posted by Alison on 2005-01-26 05:51:49

Actually, this has been a topic of some discussion 'round my house this year. I first heard of this strange rule my senior year in college when I was reprimanded for doing it wrong (from the bottom). I thought it was ludicrious at the time. Then, last summer, I read or heard that if Jennifer Aniston is in your house and you've done it wrong, /she will change it for you/! I mentioned this to my step mom, who is persnickety about such things, and she sheepishly said, she would probably do the same thing. Suffice it to say, some feel /very/ strongly about this issue.

posted by sm on 2005-01-28 13:40:50

my bf has re-trained me to place the tp so that it's over the top... but, truly, either way, as long as ya don't leave it empty for the next person!

posted by bd on 2005-02-01 09:38:46

The cats issue trumps all else! There's nothing worse than coming home to 50 ft of tp unrolled all over the bathroom. (OK, there are many things worse than this but in the context of this forum this ranks as the worst! Unless, of course, your cat has unrolled AND shredded the tp.)

Meow

posted by Chris on 2005-02-01 17:45:45

My mom and I have fought silently over this for years. I'm an "over the top" person and she is a "from the bottom person." When ever I go back home, I switch it without saying anything, and later she switches it back. I think one visit the TP was switched about 20 times.

posted by Chris B on 2005-02-01 22:10:13

Am surprised no one has mentioned the economy of doing it the "wrong way." Studies show potty goers are likely to use less paper when the roll licks up from the back. People tend to indulge when the paper flows "waterfalling down." Something to think about ...

posted by danica on 2005-02-03 23:04:11

I can't believe I'm posting about this...

Over the top (waterfall) is the only sanitary way to do it. Otherwise you are possibly touching paper that you may not use (meaning the person after you has to touch it)... and, it keeps your wall cleaner (and more sanitary).

posted by Rob on 2005-03-20 19:06:04

whats toilet paper?

posted by tom on 2005-05-03 11:56:01

No, no, no. The matter of correct toilet paper placement has been solved, a few years ago, in the Simpsons episode in which Marge and Homer are found to be bad parents and the Flanderses are made foster parents for the children. In cataloguing all the mistakes that Homer and Marge have made, one of the two agents says: "toilet paper left in incorrect overhand position."

The case rests, m'lud.

posted by Phil on 2005-06-13 02:52:01

My childhood newspaper ran Ann Landers. She addressed this topic occasionally in her column. It drew heated debate. The "answer" was that tp should cascade from the top, because if you bought printed tp, that way the decorative side would show. I don't know that they still make printed tp. I hope not.

posted by cornfrost on 2005-09-30 12:06:03

http://www.innocentcitizens.com/tp/

posted by edEx on 2005-10-11 17:29:24

for many years, i pulled from the bottom. until i noticed one day that many hotels and restaurants feed from the top. so i converted. and i even do the little triangular fold on the top like they do in hotels.

posted by heidiologies on 2005-12-26 18:48:51

Egad, this debate has raged on for decades. I HATE it when the paper comes forward over the top even though we've all heard the supposed rule about printed designs on the paper needing to face out. But when you pull the paper going over the top, it always runs away from you! Down the back, taking paper from the bottom allows more control. And I change rolls to go this way in other people's houses. What amazes me, though, is that after seven years of marriage, my husband still doesn't even notice which way it's going. Now, about that toilet seat...

posted by Diane on 2005-12-27 01:52:00

I have always done it the correct way but people always said it was wrong. So HA HA Im right.

posted by Keysha on 2006-07-13 20:10:23
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