Toilet Paper

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Remember when you couldn’t buy toilet paper because everyone already bought it all? That was weird, wasn’t it?

This is not about that, but it sure was weird, so I mentioned it. I have been subbing at Lake Middle school lately and I recently found the staff bathrooms. I’ve been going there for years, but had no idea that there were staff bathrooms, much less where they were. (Substitute teaching is really weird when you think about it. You show up, they give you a folder with information about taking attendance, and then leave you alone with kids all day. There is never any information about where you might eat lunch – obviously at your desk, but every once in a while someone else uses your room and then you are just standing in the hall – or where to find the bathroom. Odd.)

Anyway, the staff bathrooms are awesome. They are in the office area and are very close to my classroom and are single person rooms and you don’t need a key to access them. They also have toilet paper holders that are mounted very close to the floor. The thing about school toilet paper is that it isn’t very strong, so trying to pull it is very challenging. I make it a game (I recently got a personal best of six squares before it tore. Woohoo!). I think the holder being very close to the floor makes it extra hard to pull the paper. It makes me wonder if it is installed to get you not to use excess toilet paper. You just plain give up after you get the minimum you think you need. I always wonder when I am in a public bathroom and the toilet paper is really in a weird spot/hard to get to if they put it there to save paper. Imagine Disney World. I wonder if they make it inconvenient so people use less. If they get everyone to use two fewer squares every time they use the toilet paper, they would save about eleventymillion sheets of toilet paper a year.

This is one of the things I think about. And not only when I am in the bathroom. I do a lot of thinking.