They Shrunk the Toilet Paper!

There are certain things in life that you don’t really think about until someone changes them.

Toilet paper is one of those things.

I’m old enough to remember when a sheet of toilet paper was actually a decent-sized piece of paper. Apparently, I’m also old enough that I now measure toilet paper and have opinions about it.

I’m not sure when I first noticed it, but over the years toilet paper rolls have been getting narrower. At first I thought I was imagining it. Then I started paying attention.

I wasn’t imagining it.

For years, a typical sheet of toilet paper was about 4½ inches wide. Today, many brands have narrowed their sheets considerably. This isn’t exactly breaking news. Consumer reporters were writing about shrinking toilet paper more than a decade ago.

But apparently I care about this more than the average person.

Then I Found the Holy Grail

On a recent trip, Pat and I stayed at a VRBO. At some point during our stay, I noticed something unusual in the bathroom.

The toilet paper was wide.

Not “Mega.” Not “Ultra.” Not “Super Mega Family Roll with 47 regular rolls squeezed onto one cardboard tube.”

It was just good old-fashioned wide toilet paper.

I was astonished.

Actually, I was thrilled, which probably says something about where I am in life.

There was no packaging around, so I couldn’t figure out what brand it was. I finally reached out to the owner of the VRBO and asked her.

She laughed.

Apparently, I wasn’t the first guest who had asked about her toilet paper.

That’s when I knew I wasn’t alone.

Somewhere out there are other people quietly wondering what happened to full-width toilet paper.

Costco, You Have My Attention

It turns out the answer was Kirkland Signature from Costco.

And yes, I checked.

Costco lists its Kirkland Signature bath tissue sheets at 4.5 inches wide by 4 inches long. They actually advertise them as “Wide Sheets.”

Finally, somebody understands me.

I’ve looked around at the stores near home and haven’t found toilet paper that gives me that same full 4½-inch width. So I now order Kirkland toilet paper online.

My family finds this amusing.

I do not.

Okay, maybe I do a little.

There Is Hope for the Wide-Sheet Crowd

After discovering the Kirkland toilet paper, I started looking to see whether anyone else still makes the wider sheets.

I asked Pat if she had ever noticed the difference in width. Her answer was basically no. For her, it’s all about softness. Apparently, she has more important standards for toilet paper than carrying a ruler into the bathroom.

Since Pat has been recovering from knee surgery, I’ve been doing most of the shopping. That has given me plenty of opportunity to investigate the toilet paper aisles in the stores we normally shop.

And I haven’t found the wider stuff.

At least around us, the shelves seem to be filled with the narrower rolls. That had me thinking Costco might be one of the few places left where you could still buy a full-width sheet.

Turns out I was wrong.

There is hope for those of us who appreciate a wider piece of toilet paper.

Charmin and Cottonelle, among others, sell specific products with wider sheets. I found several choices available online, including through Amazon. The trick is that you have to pay attention to the actual sheet dimensions.

Words like Mega, Ultra and Super usually tell you something about how much paper is on the roll. They don’t necessarily tell you how wide the paper is.

So apparently full-width toilet paper hasn’t disappeared.

It has just become something you have to shop for.

Which brings up another question: Why am I putting this much effort into buying toilet paper?

Because, strangely enough, I think we’re using less of it.

Are We Actually Using Less?

Here’s the part that surprised me.

I think we use less toilet paper with the wider sheets.

I can’t prove it. I haven’t conducted a controlled scientific study of the Anderson household’s toilet-paper consumption, and I don’t intend to start keeping a bathroom spreadsheet.

But both Pat and I seem to use fewer sheets of the wider paper.

Think about it. If the sheet isn’t wide enough, what’s the natural response?

You use more of it.

Maybe I’m imagining the savings. Maybe I’m not. But it makes me wonder how much manufacturers actually accomplished by shaving a half-inch off the width of every sheet.

They give us less paper per sheet, but do we just compensate by pulling more sheets off the roll?

But What About the RV?

Since this is an RV site, there is one other question that has to be addressed.

Can we use this wider toilet paper in the RV?

We do.

We’ve been using the Kirkland toilet paper in our fifth wheel and haven’t had any problems with it in the black tank. I’m not particularly concerned about whether the package says “RV toilet paper.” In our experience, how you manage your black tank is far more important than the name on the toilet paper package.

The biggest thing is water.

When you flush, use enough water. After dumping the black tank, put water back into it rather than leaving it dry. When it’s time to dump, having plenty of liquid in the tank helps carry everything out.

Problems can develop when people try to conserve too much water and allow a pile of solids and paper to build up in the tank. No toilet paper, regardless of what it says on the package, is going to make up for poor black-tank practices.

There are plenty of opinions about toilet paper in the RV world, and I’m not going to tell anyone they have to use the same stuff we do. I’m simply telling you what works for us.

And apparently I’m now enough of a toilet-paper connoisseur that I’m not willing to give up my 4½-inch sheets just because we’re camping.

Yes, Toilet Paper Really Did Shrink

The funny part is that this isn’t just an old guy complaining that things aren’t made the way they used to be.

They really aren’t.

A 4½ × 4½-inch sheet was once common. Over the years, manufacturers reduced one dimension and then, in some cases, the other. Consumer reporters have been documenting shrinking toilet-paper sheets for years.

It’s one example of what we now call shrinkflation: rather than making a price increase as obvious, a manufacturer can reduce the amount of product you’re getting. Toilet paper certainly isn’t the only product where we’ve seen it.

I understand that manufacturers deal with rising costs just like everyone else.

But I’m drawing my line at the toilet-paper holder.

I have rediscovered the 4½-inch-wide sheet, and I’m not going back willingly.

So if you happen to see a delivery truck pull up to our house carrying a suspiciously large box of toilet paper, you now know why.

And apparently I’m not the only one.

The VRBO owner has the emails to prove it.