Through a set of EXCEEDINGLY BORING circumstances (translation: please don’t make me type that much), we recently acquired a hefty stack of gift cards for a housecleaning service.
I’ve never had a housecleaning service, but I must say: FAN. YES.
Every other week our house is clean. Exceedingly clean. For a good 10 minutes or so. They empty out the toaster crumbs and make the bed and fold all our toilet paper and paper towel rolls into a V. That’s 10 whole minutes of hotel-room living, right there.
But.
Well.
You should probably know that the Internet and I have a long-standing feud re: toilet paper. The Internet has Opinions about toilet paper. I do not, except that it should be there and present and handy. But ever since I posted a perfectly innocent photo of my toilet paper (and what blogger hasn’t these days, right? Ladies? Don’t get me started!), I am regularly chastised for my improperly hung, underhand toilet paper.
I didn’t know! Nobody ever taught me these things! We didn’t have a maid, and actually had to clean the toilets with our bare hands, and yes, the toilets were out back in the snow, up a hill, right past the furnace that was powered solely by children’s tears. And shoes.
But.
Well.
I’m going to go ahead and admit that perhaps…yes. The Internet is correct, and I should pay more attention to the direction of my toilet paper.
It’s…it’s just a little bit heartbreaking, isn’t? They’re trying SO HARD to make me look like a fancy society lady, but…no.
October 1st, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Ooh, I love my maid service. They come in once every three weeks (there are only two of us). All I do any more is dishes and laundry. I have 2000 square feet to clean (including two and a “half” bathrooms) and they do a fantastic job. And they hand scrub all the lino and laminate flooring.
Did I mention I hate doing floors and dusting and so does he? They not only dust the mantle and the stand where all the knicknacks are, but they dust the knicknacks.
And really, who cares which way your toilet paper goes, so long as its folded into a nifty little triangle? Over, under, potato, potahto.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
Yes, overhand toilet paper is clearly superior to underhand. I keep having to tell my husband this…
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:09 am
OVERHAND! OVERHAND! Aieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:15 am
AHHHHH!!!!!
I can’t stand the underhand TP!!! Geez…shaking here. As it is, when I’m at other people’s homes, I actually flip their TP around if it is underhand…it’s a disease, really.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:16 am
I am finding this extremely funny. If I knew someone was crazy enough to “correct” the direction of my toilet paper, I would probably be tempted to mess with their toilet paper as a joke.
October 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
Club mom points anyone? (I just did the same thing, only Home Depot). The only GOOD thing about hanging the tp upside down is that babies can’t get it off the roll by banging on it. They actually have to pull it from the bottom.
So all along, you’ve just been “baby proofing”.
October 2nd, 2007 at 11:20 am
My oh so proper granny taught me that you underhand the TP if you do not plan to make the point fold every time. but I really dont care, its just habit. When I found out that my dear hubby has overhand issues(he admits changing other peoples too)…I make sure to underhand it everytime. Just for fun. “what was that honey? I did it again? oops so sorry”
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:13 pm
I had a houseguest (ok my brother who is my roomate had a houseguest) and he was definitely an odd guy. He was here for the weekend and actually left early because he was “homesick.”
Aaaanyway, he KEPT changing the direction of toilet paper from overhand to underhand! At least three times. That was SO the last straw- he was lucky he left.
WTF, people, WTF? You can agree to disagree but don’t mess w/someone else’s stuff! I mean, eew.
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
i won the underhand war at our house. everytime the hubby changed the roll, he made it overhand. eventually, he noticed that i did it the other way. frankly, the shock here is less that he changed his ways to suit me than it is that he ACTUALLY NOTICED i did it differently. what a guy!
October 2nd, 2007 at 2:58 pm
hahahaha
i seriously laughed out loud (at work)
that was great, Amy
“right past the furnace that was powered solely by children’s tears.”
October 2nd, 2007 at 6:10 pm
There are actually studies out there that you use less paper if you hang it underhand rather than over hand - so really, all this time, you were just being frugal!!
October 2nd, 2007 at 7:06 pm
I should have expected that picture at the end, but it still made me laugh out loud. This is my new argument whenever people try to tell me that underhand is better. Thank you, Amalah, for giving me the ammo I needed!
October 2nd, 2007 at 8:07 pm
I definitely don’t give toilet paper a thought other than the exact moment that I’m in the bathroom using it, unless I’m reading about it on the internet…then when I get to thinking about it, I can’t figure out what makes overhand superior to underhand. When it’s underhand, and you pull off a little too much, or a toddler pulls off fifty feet, all you have to do is swipe the roll a few times to roll it back up. What would be the benefit of overhand? Other than the folded point thing…which I just don’t get, even in a hotel.
October 3rd, 2007 at 1:23 am
I didn’t even know I cared that much, but that photo creeps me out. Like fingers on chalkboard. Turn it over for god’s sake! I can’t look at it any more!
lol
October 3rd, 2007 at 6:30 am
UNDERHAND UNDERHAND UNDERHAND. That’s just the way I roll. And yes, the little one pulls less when it’s underhand. And wasn’t there a Simpson’s episode waaaay back where child services took the Simpson kids and cited improper overhand toilet paper as one of the reasons? Huh? Huh? I don’t change it in other people’s homes, but I’ve had it changed in mine (by who? why do people DO this?) and I just change it right back.
October 3rd, 2007 at 7:39 am
OwOwOw! Make it stop! it hurts me on the inside to see TP haniging upside down!
October 3rd, 2007 at 11:17 am
I must get a life, I have had this damn picture on my mind all day, asking myself who could possible DO THAT? It has upset my whole sense of well being, it is so clearly UPSIDE DOWN. Please change it and take a picture so that I can see life is orderly and as it should be, this is so disturbing.
October 5th, 2007 at 7:58 am
I came here via Parent Hacks and they were right — your post is hilarious!
October 5th, 2007 at 9:30 am
Hmmm- I always thought there was a practical reason for hanging toilet paper over the top. The upside down toilet paper hang forces your fingers to rub against the wall when grabbing the toilet paper - eeewwwwww, think of all the dirty hands that have been there before.
October 5th, 2007 at 10:03 am
Wow. I just put the toilet paper on whichever way I happen to be holding it. Under or over, I’ve never really cared. Thanks to you and Parent Hacks for introducing me to this overlooked facet of my life - I think I’ll spend today developing a healthy toilet tissue issue! (No, really!)
October 5th, 2007 at 10:51 am
turn it over! that is just so wrong…
i am curious to know what circumstances result in a stack of cleaning service gift cards.
October 6th, 2007 at 7:21 pm
anyone who laments the direction of the roll, is just looking for something to complain about. If you are in the position to notice such a thing, don’t you have just enough time to kill to…..flip it over???
p.s. on the parenthack side of this…..underhand is much less likely to become a toy for your two year old
October 7th, 2007 at 7:49 pm
I have always hung my toilet paper overhand. Until Stewart. Stewart is a very adorable snowy white kitten who was starving to death at a horse barn. My youngest fell in love with his very white-with-pink-pigment little feline self and so he joined our household. Stewart is very happy now. Definitely no longer starving. And he is BAD. He LOVES to unroll the overhand toilet paper. So, after rolls and rolls of TP ended up on the floor in a shredded puddle, I have reluctantly made the switch to underhand. Hopefully one day he will forget the joys of toilet paper unrolling and I can again join the land of the overhand toilet paper.