Dear LPG,  

I have noticed a couple of articles written on the subject of our toilet habits on your pages recently, and today I would like to highlight one associated commodity which we would totally miss if there were not at least one in the smallest room of the home.   

The internet informs that the average family of 4 gets through about 30 rolls of toilet paper each month.  That means that, statistically, if we are not off our food and our bowels are performing adequately, each of us manages to unravel at least seven, even if we live alone.   

I have to admit that they come in handy for other things, too.  In spite of all the tissue boxes I have in various other rooms, I nearly always have a roll standing on my bedside table when I have a cold.   

Here is a question to ask yourselves?  What size pack do you buy?  I used to go for the 4-pack when shopping, but even though there is only one of me, and the odd visitor to cater for, these days, when I go in search of replenishment for my supply, I go for at least a 16 roll pack because, like everything else, buying in bulk makes economic sense whatever your preferred brand.   Talking of brands – have you noticed just how many brands there are on offer, and we all have our favourites?  I prefer the ones that smell of Aloe Vera myself, but softness is another consideration that needs deliberation.   

It is obvious that balancing how many you have the space to store at home, how many you can physically carry from the shop, and how long the fragrance in the fragranced ones will last, are equally as important as the price to the UK shopper, when choosing the size to go for.  
I remember when queueing up (often for over an hour) at my local supermarket during those pandemic years could leave you with nothing better to do.  Checking what was leaving the shop in the trolleys of the earlier shoppers became a bit of a pastime.  I know that I could not help but see the large packs of loo rolls leaving the shop, while I wondered if there would be any left by the time I got to the front of the queue.  

Shopping done, there is that by-product of the whole experience and another question to be asked:  what do you do with your middle bits? I am talking about the cardboard core which is left when all the soft tissue is gone.   

I have no doubt that the grandmas will be saving a few for their grandchildren to take to school for those art projects, but then again, mums and dads can usually collect all the art materials needed in that regard. I know that they are recyclable, but the sight of those little cardboard cylinders mixed with the other things in the dustbin can seem a little unfair because they become ‘used’ just by being left exposed when the actual tissue is done. Call me an anthropomorphist if you will, but I do find myself feeling quite sorry for them and wondering what else we can do apart from chucking them away.  

The internet has some really good ideas for things you can do with the humble toilet roll, and when it comes to buying presents, if you have no idea what to give your contemporaries because they, like you, seem to have everything anyway, there are quite a few toilet roll-generated ideas that might just fit the bill and be appreciated by those of us who are at a stage of life when how much you spend on a gift is perhaps less important than the thought and effort you put into its originality… 

UJ, Lewisham. 

 

 

UJ shares some of the toilet roll generated craft ideas she has discovered online…

 

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… and a few other ideas… 

 

 

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