what's the alternative?

[mamagoose]

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Toilet-Paper.html

I've been stocking up for more than a year and realized we women use a lot! Especially since I get up 5-10 times during the night as well.

I just can't believe that a chemical concoction considered bad for the environment and assumably still in the end product, at least in trace amounts, can be good rubbed all over human orifices and *hemorrhoids* our entire lives. Is it taboo to talk about, because I sure can't find any info/studies on it?

In preparing for hard times, I've decided my washing machine is no more dangerous than the chemical concoction in tp and have cut wide strips of old bath towels to use for the number 1 business. I've been doing this for at least a year now and besides not having to haul out several 12 double roll packs from the store so often, maybe I'm being more healthy in the long run. (Still looking for a healthy laundry detergent.) I save a few days of use before washing them and it's worked out well. I think when it hit me that tp could be hazardous to my health was when I stumbled across organic cotton sanitaries for women at drugstore.com. If anyone knows of any studies on the hazards of tp I would like to read them.

Anyway, this is one way we women can easily prepare for a glut in our tp stash.

[Cyngbaeld]

http://www.mst.dk/NR/rdonlyres/BF6D8...23744/0/34.pdf

Be careful using a cloth wipe more than once as some people who are prone to bladder infections can have problems with that.

[texican]

Romans used sponges on a stick. When out in the wild, I use whatever's handy and softest... leaves, pine straw, moss.

Remember, if the world ends, the TP Will eventually run out. This won't be the end of the world, though. Trust me, things will work themselves out in the end, (pun sorta intended) whether theres tp around or not.

A reminder... don't flush any thing down the toilet that you might have to remove from the septic later on... not much fun, even if you know what you're doing. Go out in the woods, the garden, or best of all, the outhouse... 'exotic' tp variations won't hurt these 'non toilet' variations....

[Mrs. Jo]

Oh, gosh. If the tp ran out, we would just do do what we do for our babies. Cloth and beside the toilet would be a bucket of water with a lid. Bleach or borax, or baking soda in the bucket and there you go. Heck, they would probably get tossed right in with the babies diapers and be washed together.

If you wash by hand you will want to drain the water and use something like a plunger to squish out as much of the water as you can. Then put the diapers and wipes back in the bucket and rinse again, dump and drain. Then in that bucket pour lots of hot water and some soap and agitate as much as you can.

Dump, rinse, repeat. And then you may want to rinse once with some vinegar. Let them drain as much as they can by them selves then wring them out and put them in the sun to dry.

In the soap section on HT there is a thread about making you own laundry soap. I've been using this for about 5 months and it works really well. It works well on the babies diapers, too.

.

[tab]

There was a thread a year or so ago about tp and it got really long and funny! Quite a debate, we must have been bored. if you missed it you might find it by doing a search.

The chemicals make me wonder, too. Not just in the septic but what about the manufaturing of it? I guess I will look at the organic next co-op order.

[Farmerwilly2]

Originally Posted by texican

Romans used sponges on a stick.....

Yea, but they also hung people from crosses, burned them as torches and fed them to lions. I ain't rootin around my backside with no stick, sponge or not. That might be weekend entertainment on some of the coasts, but not this Willy, no way no how.

My first choice will be 'throw aways' take your pick. Wipe & Wash is really far down the radar.

[beaglebiz]

See!! I KNEW corncobs were out there somewhere!!
Ha!! off to tell the boys

[ihedrick]

I was remembering those huge pine cones someone had posted a picture of recently!

[SquashNut]

Originally Posted by mamagoose

http://www.madehow.com/Volume-6/Toilet-Paper.html

I've been stocking up for more than a year and realized we women use a lot! Especially since I get up 5-10 times during the night as well.

I just can't believe that a chemical concoction considered bad for the environment and assumably still in the end product, at least in trace amounts, can be good rubbed all over human orifices and *hemorrhoids* our entire lives. Is it taboo to talk about, because I sure can't find any info/studies on it?

In preparing for hard times, I've decided my washing machine is no more dangerous than the chemical concoction in tp and have cut wide strips of old bath towels to use for the number 1 business. I've been doing this for at least a year now and besides not having to haul out several 12 double roll packs from the store so often, maybe I'm being more healthy in the long run. (Still looking for a healthy laundry detergent.) I save a few days of use before washing them and it's worked out well. I think when it hit me that tp could be hazardous to my health was when I stumbled across organic cotton sanitaries for women at drugstore.com. If anyone knows of any studies on the hazards of tp I would like to read them.

Anyway, this is one way we women can easily prepare for a glut in our tp stash.

You'll find that t-shirt material doesn't unravel like sheets do. Those nice soft bath robes you can get at the thrift store are nice to.

[soulsurvivor]

Spit shine does just refer to boots.... right?

[Colorado]

I can remember an old old ad for tp saying theirs was safe to use. My DIL was having a fuss as disposals were breaking out the baby. I am old and washed diapers for my kids. I washed hankies too. Husband went to V A hospital and came back had to have kleenex. Yes, I wore rubber gloves for laundry. As I kid we had out house and mom put in the old Wards catalog. Twice a year we used that and rest of time she did buy tp. Here I am on septic and I buy Scotts tp as says safe for the tanks. It goes to pieces good and fast. I use white and use to say color was not good for tank and you. I am not sure they make color tp now. I buy white tissues but it is getting high on that too. I use cloth napkins on table. I do not buy paper towels. As I cut mechanic rags for son the scrap I now save and use to mop up greasey pans in kitchen and toss. I have not gone back to useing hankies. I do have a batch. I could and use tissues only when bad cold.

[Elizabeth]

As has been pointed out already ANY manufactured tp or tp-substitute will eventually either run out, or be too expensive to buy.

Lots of natural substitutes which were used throughout the ages until very recently will still be available. I have heard that mullein leaves are particularly nice and very soft.

But, if you aren't ready to go au natural and are on a budget, try stocking up on old phone books. Can't speak as to the safety issue, but if the Sears/Monkey Wards catalogs were good for our recent ancestors, I'd guess a phone book would be good enough for our generation, especially in a pinch.
We haven't done this yet, but if it looks as if the SHTF is immenent, I would gather up all the phone books I could (in bulk, from the phone company), and store them in clean, dry, 55 gallon plastic drums. Could even become a really great barter item if you had enough of them, lol.

[tn_junk]

TP?
Ya'll actually use that stuff?

alan

[Laverne]

I found it amusing that when I Googled 'alternatives to toilet paper' there was 1,200,000 results.

[AngieM2]

Tp!!!

from about a year ago, TP the subject.

Angie

[rosiestreasures]

If you can sew, you can make your own cotton pads. If you google it, there are tons of free patterns out there.

[Colorado]

Phone books will not due for septic tanks. I personal doubt they flush down the lines very good in city. I know one lady on septic and family was having so much problems she told me she had a containor and TP went it that and she burned it. But where I am no burning of trash. Ag burning only certan months. And buy a burn permit. And over in another valley a guy had no burn ban and he did not want to haul to dump and pay he put burn barrel in his garage and he burnt down the garage doing it.

[unregistered29228]

Originally Posted by Jo@ LaudoDeumFa

If you wash by hand you will want to drain the water and use something like a plunger to squish out as much of the water as you can. Then put the diapers and wipes back in the bucket and rinse again, dump and drain. Then in that bucket pour lots of hot water and some soap and agitate as much as you can.

Dump, rinse, repeat. And then you may want to rinse once with some vinegar. Let them drain as much as they can by them selves then wring them out and put them in the sun to dry.

See, that's my problem with washing rags - lots and lots of water that we'd have to haul and heat and dispose of. I'd do that of course if we eventually ran out of TP, unless we used leaves, but we just had our septic tank pumped last month and there was no real accumulation of TP in there. I have plenty of space along the eaves in my attic to store TP, and I budget it in when I'm buying extra food and toiletries for storage.

[hsmom]

Originally Posted by rosiestreasures

If you can sew, you can make your own cotton pads. If you google it, there are tons of free patterns out there.

And the flannel "monthly" pads are *so* much more comfortable than the disposable kind! Not to mention cheaper, always on hand, can be made from old clothing so cost nothing but time, last for years, etc.

[MelanieV]

Originally Posted by hsmom

And the flannel "monthly" pads are *so* much more comfortable than the disposable kind! Not to mention cheaper, always on hand, can be made from old clothing so cost nothing but time, last for years, etc.

And for those same big red dots, a cup like the Diva cup or the keeper would be very helpful at reducing waste, being reusable and very discreet.