One of the scarce items in a disaster, especially in an End-of-the-World-as-We-Know-It scenario is toilet paper. Sure, we can stockpile it, but eventually the pile will dwindle and be depleted. Or, in the case of flooding, get wet and thus unusable.
There are alternatives to toilet paper we can use until we can start making our own toilet paper – and believe me, since toilet paper dates back to BCE times, making toilet paper will be a very high demand skill and product in a post-apocalyptic/long term disaster. The toilet paper we make may not be the perforated rolls we’ve come to rely on, but they will be acceptable.
This is one of those TEOTWAWKI diaries, but there might be something in it for other people, too.
Until the new toilet paper manufacturing is up and running after a disaster (and in the cities and urban areas, this will be much faster than in rural Bug Out locations), there are other alternatives to consider. Some of them are environmentally friendly, and perhaps someone would like to switch to them.
The ancient Romans tied a sponge to a stick to use in cleaning themselves. The sponge was kept in a pot of saltwater between uses, cleaned daily, and replaced when it was worn. That’s certainly a very comfortable and viable alternative – the number and frequency of cleaning the sponges would be dependent entirely upon your personal tastes. I use this method on camping trips, and provide a sponge for each person. Because I’m currently an occasionally wasteful and lazy person, I throw away the sponges after the trip, but in a survival situation, I’d clean and re-use them until they were too worn to use anymore.
Ancient Japanese used thin wooden sticks, a little larger than chopsticks and flat. I’d imagine they used the sticks as scrapers and possibly to guide the direction of rags, seaweed, or cloth wipes. During the eras they used the sticks, they often either diverted small streams for toilet usage or built toilets over existing streams or pits (so they could collect and use the waste for fertilizer), and probably used the water for additional cleanliness. I'm not terribly sure how they did it for real though and haven't found anything other than mentions of this method.
The Arabs and desert people of the Middle East used “water closet” situations, whereby they squatted over a hole and poured a small amount of water over the area to clean it. I find this method exceedingly awkward and requiring feats of contortion that less able people might find impossible to do. But it is certainly a better alternative than accidentally using poison ivy leaves!
Another common method was to use small squares of cloths (about the size of handkerchiefs) to wipe with and toss them into a closed pot for laundering. These cloths should be kept separate and laundered separately with boiling water for hygiene and health purposes. Natural fibers would be the best to use – cotton, wool, hemp, linen, bamboo…
In early American history (and occasionally still in remote rural areas), corn cobs and corn husks were used. In cities and suburban areas, we aren’t likely to have a lot of corn cobs lying around for that purpose, and in rural areas, corncob makes a good liquor, so it would be a fine balance between booze and butt wipes.
Woodshavings, leaves, and moss are good alternatives to use when camping or in areas with a surfeit of them. In cities and heavily built up areas, these items might be harder to find. We might find enough for a use or four, but we’d run out quickly. I think the sponge and cloth options are the best ones for city folk if we don’t have water available with which to use our toilets.
In the cities and suburbs, we are pretty limited by what’s available. We’ll have flushing toilets and bidets (which are excellent substitutes for toilet paper) so long as we have water and the sewer lines don’t clog up, which makes it imperative to put nothing down the toilet but what passes through the body – no toilet paper, no leftovers, no Kleenexes, no floss. Nothing but water and naturally occurring bodily wastes.
If no bidet is available, the sponge on a stick and the bucket of butt wipe cloths are our best and most comfortable alternatives when the toilet paper runs out and before new supplies become available.
Those who can knit or crochet can also make washable toilet paper cloths instead of using rags. If you want to be deprived in style, this is definitely a morale-boosting way to go. Personally, anything we can do to boost morale in times of deprivation and need is worth the little bit of extra effort, so if fancy crocheted butt wipes make you feel happier and more in control of your fate, go for it. You might even be able to use those fancy butt wipes to supplement your income – through sales and barter. It’s up to you to figure out how many individual knitted toilet cloths you’ll trade for , oh, a pound of tomatoes or getting your toilet unclogged when you sleepily forget and toss one of your precious toilet cloths down the toilet instead of into the bucket.
Making toilet paper itself is not a difficult process. It’s similar to making any other type of paper, just using materials that are softer than what we’d use for making writing paper. The ancient Chinese were making soft perfumed toilet paper by the 7th C. We can equal that feat easily enough. The first packaged toilet paper sold in the US wasn’t until 1857 (a thousand years behind the Chinese!), so we don’t have a long history of toilet paper use in the US. But we’ve become extremely acclimated to it, and I, for one, would hate to be deprived of it. That’s why I taught myself how to make toilet paper. No matter how dire the circumstances, I will always have toilet paper!
To make tolerable toilet paper,
we need to use natural fiber rags – cotton is best, but linen, bamboo, kenaf (a relative of hibiscus), straw, kudzu, banana stalk, sugarcane, and hemp are also very good. You could use recycled papers such as newspapers and other papers that aren't glossy or waxy - these have been chemically treated and may not dissolve well in the toilet, clogging your system up. The fibers need to be cut up very small.
You will need two large towels, a 15 gallon tub, a wooden plank or other portable flat surface, a rolling pin, scissors, and space.
Not needed, but pleasant to have, are softening agents such as aloe, vegetable oils, baby oil. This will keep your toilet paper from hardening and becoming scratchy. Of course, if you're desperate, you won't mind rough toilet paper as long as you have some! Witchhazel is another good ingredient because it is an anti-bacterial, but it's not essential - just boil the materials longer to make sure all the spores and micro-organisms are killed off.
Tools that will make it easier, but aren't really needed: a cinder block, spray bottle, rubber mallet, cloth sack, a pizza cutter or a serrated tracing wheel, often used in sewing.
If you're using newsprint or other printed material, soak it in a bucket of water to remove as much ink as possible - this is mostly so you don't stain your tush when you use it, most inks are safe enough anymore.
Make sure your papers and materials are as finely shredded as you can get and cover them with twice as much water. Add the witchhazel, half a cup for every 10 pounds of material. Simmer slowly for about an hour to let the materials soak up the water. add more water if you need to. Now slowly raise the temperature of the water and let it boil rapidly at least half an hour, skimming any foam off - this is glue, ink, spores, and other particles you don't want in your toilet paper. Skim before adding any water. Once it starts looking really pulpy, turn the heat down again.
Now, scoop out as much excess water as you can without disturbing the pulp too much.
Cool it down until it's comfortable to the touch, and tilt the pot to drain it through a terrycloth towel (or cloth sack). The goal is to remove the water without losing the pulp. Gently squeeze excess water out of the pulp without drying it out too much.
Now return the pulp to the cook pot, and this time, add 1/8 cup of your softening agents for every 10 pounds of pulp. It should have a very slight oily sheen, but not actually be oily. Gently knead and blend the materials without losing too much water. You can add fragrance at this point or coloring agents if you want.
Lay a large towel out on a plank or other large flat surface. Scoop some pulp out and spread it around on the towel with your hands. Once it's spread out, lightly grease a rolling pin (marble is best, glass or metal next, wood last), and roll the paper out as thin as you can with tearing it. If there are lumps, use the rubber mallet to gently tap them flat.
Lay a second towel over the rolled paper, place another plank over that towel and weight it down (or walk across it) to squeeze all the water out of it. Check it after 20 minutes by removing the plank and slowly peeling the top towel back. If it sicks, you didn't use enough softener. You can start over at the point where you added the softener and add some boiled water to re-moisten it.
If it doesn't stick, dry the plank off and quickly flip the bottom towel over so the pulp is against the dry plank, then gently peel the towel off the paper.
Dry the paper the rest of the way in the sun, where it won't be disturbed. If you're doing this in cold or wet weather, dry it in a warm place indoors.
Once it's dry, cut the paper into manageable sized pieces, usually a handspan. Use the pizza wheel or serrated tracing wheel to cut it.
If you need to re-boil the pulp, boil it at least 30 minutes.
If your toilet paper comes out a little rough, you can dilute whatever you used as a softening agent and gently spritz the paper and let it dry. Don't overdo the softener or the toilet paper won't be as absorbent.
For stronger toilet paper, use a bit of raw cotton, sheep shearings, cat, dog, or rabbit fur in the mix - 1 cup per 10 pounds of pulp.
If your paper breaks too easily, next time use a bit of sawdust - 1/2 cup per 10 pounds of pulp.
If it breaks when you flip it, before it dries completely out, moisten your fingertips with some of your softening agent and press it gently back together.
If it breaks when you try to flip it, spread softening agents on the tip of your fingers, and gently press it back together.
It's a lengthy, time consuming process, but fairly simple. Machines made it faster. If there is an apocalypse, you can enlist help and have an assembly line going to produce toilet paper.
Here’s a video I found on making toilet paper.
A You Tube of making toilet paper – too modern to be of serious use to survivalists, but still good information:
Once you learn how to make toilet paper, you can use the same process for making disposable tissues and menstrual pads, although using cloth for either of these items is both a good alternative to disposables and an environmentally sound alternative.
The History of Toilet Paper, which is really more a history of paper in general.
The History of Toilet Paper: a slightly different history