Monday Manners: Love Your Bum (And Everyone Else's)

Over the weekend, I managed to find myself in more than a few pubic restrooms. Most public restrooms you'll see contain those large plastic toilet paper dispensers with the giant rolls of abrasive, rough toilet paper therein. But once in a while, you'll find yourself in a homier public bathroom that uses real toilet paper on the kind of holder you might find in your own personal bathroom.

Walking into one such bathroom last night, I realized that, while I've addressed public bathroom etiquette before, toilet paper was barely mentioned. But it deserves a mention, because it's something that applies to both public bathrooms (with standard dispensers, at least) and to your own.

For starters, if there's extra toilet paper around, there's really no excuse to leave the bathroom with three squares of toilet paper left on the roll. And even if you can't find a replacement roll under the sink or in the linen closet, you should still tell whomever is in charge of the bathroom—whether it's the manager of the establishment you're visiting or the friend whose apartment you're in—that the TP's run out. After all, how would you like to discover, with your pants around your ankles, that you've got nothing with which to wipe your ass? (Skid marks don't come out easily in the laundry...)

If it turns out that there is extra toilet paper on hand, you shouldn't just unwrap it, tear a few squares off, and exit the room. Remove the empty roll from the holder and replace it. Don't leave the new roll sitting on top of the old one, perched on the back of the toilet, or sitting by the edge of the sink: that's just asking for it to fall off and land somewhere you probably don't want your toilet paper landing. (Your toilet paper should only be wet once it's used.) It's not necessary to fold it hotel-style or anything (see photo, above), just be polite and put it on the holder.

If you're the one in charge of maintaining the bathroom, and you're not the only one using it (i.e. it's a public restroom or you have guests), do try to make sure that extra toilet paper is readily available. You should always have at least one spare roll in the bathroom or near it and, if possible, you may want to consider keeping a box of tissues on the back of the commode, just in case of emergency. (Guests, please note, however, that tissues don't flush as easily as toilet paper and should be used as a last resort only, and even then, sparingly.)

Image via Flickr user woofiegirl.