Toilet Paper Orientation | Hacker News Reader

Toilet Paper Orientation

en.wikipedia.org

67 pointspella73 comments

At least with TP orientation there are enough people who do it the "wrong" way (i.e. not the way your family did it when you were a kid) that you probably will have seen it done that way at a friend's house.

More interesting, I think, are questions about things that are done in private so you may have no idea that the way you do them is not universal.

Around 20 years ago, some gaming site had an advice column, and occasionally someone would write in with a question that had nothing to do with gaming. One such question was from someone who said he and a bunch of friends were sitting around talking about random things, and somehow the topic of which direction to wipe came up. Top to bottom or bottom to top.

The questioner said that all of his friends went one way, and he went the other, and now they all think he is a freak. He asked the columnist about this.

She asked around the office, and found that everyone there did it the way the questioner's friends did.

I asked my friends, and the majority matched that office but there were some who did it the other way.

Unlike TP orientation, it had never even occurred to me that anyone would pick the "wrong" direction.

That leads to the question of what other things that are normally done alone can be done in different ways, and am I doing those things in the best way?

For a while after that I seriously considered subscribing to one of those "voyeur cam" sites where they have one or more people living in a house (typically barely legal aged girls...) with 24/7 web cams in every room so subscribers can watch everything the residents do, not for the usual erotic reasons but simply to see if other people were doing private things better than me.

> That leads to the question of what other things that are normally done alone can be done in different ways, and am I doing those things in the best way?

There are people who first step into the shower, then turn it on.

Instead of turning on the water, waiting a bit and adjusting the temperature,† and then walking into a comfortable flow of water.

Many of the people in the first group supposedly like baths more. (This topic came up in some sub-thread on Reddit and and many reads had light bulb moments about how they've been doing things wrong for decades.)

† Sadly thermostat knobs are not that widespread.

We put a thermostat on the shower last year and it is brilliant. It solves this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XaHSBg7qcq4

What does this mean? Does it automatically adjust the flow of hot and cold water to arrive at the desired temperature?

Yes.

And it's able to do this before _any_ water comes out the shower head?

What sorcery is this?

https://www.screwfix.com/p/ideal-standard-alto-ecotherm-surf...

That this is even a question strongly suggests a male perspective. While it still matters to the effectiveness of the wipe, no female would ever advocate for back-to-front.

At least TP orientation is semi-public. Wait til you think about debate over how many TP sheets you should use and if you're a folder or a scruncher.

Some people stand up to wipe while others wipe while still sitting.

Odd, because the correct way to wipe is without direction

If it's a mess enough that you need to wipe with direction, get in the tub

>> the correct way to wipe is without direction

This doesn't make any sense; I'm supposed to blot?

Yes, to dry off after the bidet. Avoids hemorrhoids too

For practical reasons, it's under for me.

The roll doubles as a coffee cup holder. If it's spooled over, and I pull a sheet, the cup winds up on the floor.

If it's under, and I pull a sheet, the cup is restrained by the wall, no harm done.

I'm mildly concerned for your health

Where do you store your toothbrush?

Luckily, living now in a post soviet country, the "toilet room" is a separate room from the "shower room".

My toothbrush is safe.

On top of the toilet paper roll, obviously.

Silly question. For the toilet, you use the toilet brush. But honestly, I still prefer the paper.

Alton Brown and George Carlin agree that you should use the same brush in the interest of efficiency.

I don't grab my toothbrush after using the toilet.

I see, you're thinking of dirty hands. I was thinking of poop particles spraying when the toilet is flushed.

Always close the lid before flushing.

By my kitchen sink

I can't say I can recall ever bringing a coffee cup into a toilet area. Is this common enough to warrant further consideration?

I mean, I’ve people say that it just goes right through them... but I’d never thought to inquire about the latency...

I have a little step in my bathroom from when my kids couldn't reach the sink. Now it's a coffee table.

its a fairly common optimization to drink hot coffee first thing in the morning while sitting on the toilet seat.

I have mine over the toilet flush tank.

Also, Vim is the one true editor. Emacs is a necessary evil if you have cats or toddlers.

I’ll add to that and say that if you use Emacs instead of Vim you should probably feel deep existential despair about making such a blatantly incorrect choice

It's the other way around: I use Emacs specifically because I perpetually feel deep existential despair.

I always used to feel this way, but I watched an interesting talk on emacs and learned about EVIL mode and a bunch of other really cool features and now I feel like there probably are some really compelling arguments in favor of emacs, that is if I ever could commit to the requisite couple of years to actually learn it.

You do realize that the Control and Meta keys in emacs are not easily accessibly for felines, right?

Tabs instead of spaces! :)

> Some people hold strong opinions on the matter; advice columnist Ann Landers said that the subject was the most responded to (15,000 letters in 1986) and controversial issue in her column's history.

I guess that’s what people did before raging on Twitter.

There is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity for some brave Silicon Valley startup to conquer the Holy Grail of TP delivery: the "double-pull roll" -- the ability to pull TP down from the front or the back of the roll. Add in automatic paw-detection, and you're golden.

They said landing on the moon was impossible, too.

I've showed my wife the patent, but it usually leads to me sleeping on the couch. not worth beleaguering the point.

I can’t believe this is even a discussion. Over makes it definitely easier for dexterous one handed operation — for both toilet paper and paper towel rolls.

While we’re in the mood, I’ll have a side of Emacs, and tabs with that. Thank you very much, anything else?

And the bike shed has to be blue.

I was with you until the tabs thing. What is wrong with you!

For me a more important issue is where the holder is mounted. I've walked through some builders new homes and some of them had very spacious bathrooms with no place to put the TP holder. Like glass on one side and open space or tile on the other. Even if you opt for stick-on holder some of these places don't have a good location for it. Ditto for laundry rooms with no place to hang clothes.

Free-standing TP holders are a thing. Might be what's intended for those.

"Toilet paper hung in improper overhand fashion" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQod276-7Mo

I used to feel pretty strongly that "overhand" was correct, but that was when I was younger and thought I was right about everything and had the charming affect of correcting people's grammar unsolicited.

I often wondered whether the writer of that Simpsons joke took a stab at trolling, which is to say they were saying the "Popular" way was incorrect. I know someone who hangs it underhand specifically because they consider it to be contrarian.

Having cats is a good reason to hang it underhand, else they'll unspool the entire thing. I recently adopted a dog who thinks it's hilarious to grab the entire roll off the spindle and run away with it, so now we have to keep it hidden away in the cupboard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I dont understand why the size of bathroom isn't taken into consideration for this important debate.

I've been in small bathrooms where your knees are basically touching the wall, under makes sense because it isn't hanging out. Other American super sized bathrooms you have to reach to get the paper it makes sense to be over.

“Over is generally the intended direction of viewing for the manufacturer's branding, so patterned toilet paper looks better this way”

“Over won … percent of the vote“

So, correlation, but also causation? If so, in what direction?

I also see a business opportunity for selling “over” and “under” patterned toilet paper rolls.

Also, “By more than 4 to 1, older folks prefer to have their toilet paper dispense over the front.” hints at this being different for younger folks. Clearly, more research is needed. If age affects preference, do people change opinion when they get older, is this just a matter of teenagers rebelling against their parents, did they _teach_ people the one true way to do this half a century ago, or what?

If you’re looking for a research subject for your Ig Nobel prize, look no further.

I never paid any attention at all, just put it on there however I happened to be holding the roll at the time. That was until I moved into this house that has an air vent that will completely unravel all the toilet paper if I use the under orientation.

I submitted this same page 6 years ago [0]. It's interesting how different the comments are this go around.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7371501

P.S. Can anyone tell why my submission doesn't show up in the "past" search results for this?

I often find when I use people's toilets that I need to fix the toilet roll to the correct orientation.

Over. Funny enough, I gave some serious thought to it to make my subconscious preference explicit and I believe this is about he direction of force application to tear the sheet.

See, with "over" it is straight down and cardboard roll on a (usually) thinner holder is already hanging on the axle under gravity and provides immediate resistance so the tear is immediate.

With "under", application of force will move the roll forward and then - at best - there is some latency time before tearing force is fully applied. At worst, the roll starts spinning.

This is why you apply a tearing force in a direction parallel with the axle.

Recommended watching that goes with this [1] - 100 humans Season 1 last episode on Netflix

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11917628/?ref_=ttep_ep8

Looking at various patents, TP is supposed to feed over, paper towels are supposed to feed under.

Pulling the paper from the side of the wall is like taking off your shoes by grabbing the sole.

Under is unambiguously correct if you have a cat.

Under places the end close to the wall and other potential sources of contamination when you reach for it. Over is the one true way of the TP. This under crap is perpetuated by interior decorators who think hiding functionality is a virtue.

Over is certainly preferred, but if you have a cat (or a toddler), under is a necessary evil.

This works on toddlers for about a week until they figure out how to unravel it the other direction.

My kitten still unrolled a bunch just by pulling the loose sheet.

Mine will just take large bites out of the roll.

if I had created the internet, it would have been primarily for the purpose of enabling global discourse on this subject

If you live somewhere with forced air heating, over often has the benefit of helpfully lifting up the flap for easy grasping.

How about Pyramid on the top of the toilet bowl?

Seriously, whichever way it goes on is the way it is at our home.

I personally describe this to my wife as, "We like beards, not mullets."

The real unasked question: do you sit or stand when you wipe?

Toilet paper is gross, civilized people use bidet or wet wipes.

Not sure if just being odd but please don't use wet wipes. They are terrible for plumbing and wider disposal (they're designed for bins, not waterways)

Finally a topic worth of HN.

Come on, hackers use the three shells!

sh, bash and zsh?

ksh

first post - OVER is for humans, UNDER is for prisoners

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