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What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

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Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#31
post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

I just use sink at home. Being tall has its benefits. When I come around to buying my own apartment I will definitely get a bidet.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#32
post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

I just use sink at home. Being tall has its benefits. When I come around to buying my own apartment I will definitely get a bidet.

[deleted]

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#34
post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

How do you dry?

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#35
post #3

I read that many asian people don't even use it and simply wash themselves with a showerhead instead. Maybe we should just do it like that?

I guess most Muslims use them as well because washing with water is commanded in Islam. In case there was no water, Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) would command his followers to use pebbles. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_toilet_etiquette Coming to India, I have been to a lot of toilets in different places and it's hard to find the ones _with_ a toilet roll. The only place I remember I couldn't find a hand shower w…

*While on the toilet, one must remain silent. Talking, answering greetings or greeting others is strongly discouraged.[4]

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#36
post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

I just use sink at home. Being tall has its benefits. When I come around to buying my own apartment I will definitely get a bidet.

You might want to use a "bidet shower" if you don’t have a standalone bidet: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidet_shower.

It connects to your water faucet or your toilet tank so you don’t spread germs in the sink. On Amazon they start at $ 10.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#37
post #24

When I moved to Argentina, it took me a while to get used to bidets. But now that I'm used to them, I never use toilet paper voluntarily. It leaves your butt still dirty! As someone said, if you got poop on your arm, maybe while changing a diaper, would you wipe it off with a piece of paper and consider it clean? No, not if you're from the mainstream of any developed country. You would use water, soap, and maybe more…

Well said. Whenever I bring this up to friends, they seem weirded out by bidets, sometimes even grossed out. How can it be grosser than trying to smear poop off with a paper towel!?

I was (surprisingly, to me) mocked by friends/family when I purchased a bidet seat a few years ago. Over the period of a few months, most went from teasing to shy curiosity to buying one for their own home. A victory for cleanliness!

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the result of free markets. Centralized economic planning is simply unable to deal with the complexity.

Yeah, we certainly can't produce toilet paper unless 50% of the population is in poverty.

Freer markets means less poverty though.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#39
I once heard a claim that toilet paper is more addictive than heroin.

There might be something to that. I've heard that people occasionally quit using heroin. I only know one family that even has a retrofitted toilet seat with bidet function. That scalds your bung if you try to use it, because they have their water heater set to 99 degrees C. (It might not actually be that high, but they're certainly safe from Legionnaire's Disease.)

So toilet paper reigns there still.

Re: What Did Ancient Romans Do Without Toilet Paper?

#40
post #15

I think a machine vision directed spray is the future. I don't fancy collecting the training data though.

Doubt it would take off, considering the low adoption rates of "regular" spray toilets in the west. It's a relatively marginal improvement after all.

Bidet use is accelerating rapidly* in the US. Which doesn't surprise me, really. When I got one, most of my family was surprised. As they tried it out of curiosity, most of them were really happy with how clean they felt, and have gone on to get one for their own homes. I'm sure they have other friends that come over and will experience the same. It's an exponential effect.

(* source: https://www.proremodeler.com/bidets-finally-making-inroads-u... )

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