During this global health crisis, most of us think about stocking up on basic necessities like food, water, and medicine to avoid going outside our houses. However, most of us overlook the fact that we might run out of toilet paper eventually. Aside from that, it could be challenging to find them in supermarkets for a while. You could get wholesale of it and have it dropped at your place with Salehoo, but that is if you do find stocks. A shortage of stocks is what happened in stores across the United States.
In this guide, we’ll be showing you how to make toilet paper at home with ingredients you can find lying around your house. Aside from that, we’ll also discuss some alternatives to toilet paper. For more survival guides, make sure to check them out on Survival Habit.
Why You Need to Learn
We’re living in abnormal times, and no one’s sure about when this will all be over. This means that aside from staying at home, it could be challenging for toilet paper manufacturers to produce the same volume. Learning how to make your own toilet paper will help you live through these abnormal times.
What’s more, this will come in handy when you travel to places that have a limited supply of toilet paper. So even beyond this global health crisis, this is still a valuable skill.
Making Home-Made Tissue
The best alternative to store-bought toilet paper is a home-made one. In making your own toilet paper at home, everything you need can already be found in your house. For this DIY project, you will need the following materials:
- Bucket or tub
- Large pot
- Heat source like a stovetop, open fire, or a propane burner
- Spoon or ladle
- Ten large sheets or half a pound of old paper. This could be any paper that is non-glossy like newspaper or copy paper.
- Leaves
- Grass
- Water
- Baby oil, aloe or unscented lotion
- Scissors
- Rolling pin
- Rubber mallet
- Wooden board
- Weights
- Large bath towels
If you have everything on the list above, we can now start making toilet paper. Follow the steps below to make your home-made toilet paper:
- Soak your paper in the tub or bucket. Soaking removes the ink from the paper. Once 75% of the ink has seeped out of the paper, you can now remove the paper from the water.
- Place the soaked paper in a large pot. Add two handfuls of grass and leaves, and then cover them with water.
- Bring the mixture to a boil and allow it to simmer at a low temperature for about an hour. Make sure that you don’t bring this to a boil at the beginning so that the dry materials can absorb the water.
- After simmering it for an hour, bring the water to a boil for half an hour. You can add water if necessary.
- The foam will begin to form at the top. This is mostly ink, glue, and other materials that should not be present in our toilet paper. Remove the foam with the spoon or ladle.
- After boiling, the paper will become pulp. Remove the pot from your heat source.
- Remove most of the water by scooping it out of the pot. Be careful not to disturb the pulp at the bottom. Let the mixture cool down.
- Remove the pulp and remaining water. Put the pulp back into the pot.
- Add softening ingredients like baby oil, aloe vera, or lotion to the pulp. You can also add witch hazel to act as an anti-bacterial agent.
- Scoop out the pulp in chunks and place them on a towel on a flat surface.
- Use a rolling pin to spread out the pulp into a thin layer. You can use a rubber mallet to remove any lumps.
- Place another towel on top of the pulp to create a sandwich. After that, place the wooden board on top of the towel. Weigh it down with heavy objects. This step removes the excess water from the toilet paper.
- Remove the weights and the board after 30 minutes. Remove the top and bottom towels from the pulp. Do not try to remove the pulp from the towel.
- Place the toilet paper under the sun to dry.
- Cut the toilet paper into strips after drying.
Staying clean is important during this global pandemic. Make sure to check out our guides for making disinfectants, hand sanitizers, and a surgical mask at home.
Alternatives to Tissue
If you’re not convinced of the idea of making a home-made toilet paper, you could use other items to clean up after yourself. Here are some great alternatives to the regular toilet paper:
Paper and Paper Products
When you can’t find toilet paper in the supermarket, you can always find other store-bought alternatives such as facial tissues, paper towels, and baby wipes. While they might not have the same texture as toilet paper, they will get the job done. However, it’s important to remember that you can’t flush these down the toilet because it will cause a clog.
Another option is plain old paper like newspaper, copy paper, or any paper that isn’t shiny. While it’s not as soft as your standard toilet paper, it will clean you up after you do your business. Just make sure to crumple it up real good to soften it. You can toss this in the garbage bin after use.
Sponge
Do as the Romans do by using a damp sponge after using the toilet. A common practice in Ancient Rome, this sponge was placed at the end of a stick, and they used this to clean themselves. Make sure that you clean this out properly to avoid bacterial growth. This can be cleaned by soaking it in bleach water or by boiling it and rinsing it out.
Water
People in other countries simply use good old water after using the toilet. With the help of a spray bottle, bidet, hose, or water dipper, you can wash yourself off with your hands and water. Others also use soap to make it extra clean. Make sure that you wash your hands thoroughly afterward.
Leaves
A natural alternative to toilet paper is leaves. The great thing about leaves is that they are soft and abundant in supply. This is especially useful if you’re in the great outdoors. Just make sure that the leaves you’re using are not poisonous like poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Here’s a list of leaves that you can use to clean up after yourself:
- Cottonwood
- Fuzzy lamb’s ear
- Grape
- Hazelnut
- Large-leaved aster
- Maple
- Mullein
- Thimbleberry
Family Cloth
One home-made alternative is family cloth, which is also known as cloth toilet paper. However, not everyone is too eager on the idea of reusable toilet paper. Family cloth is squares of fabric that can be made from anything, even old clothes.
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Advantages of Using Cloth Tissue
- You don’t need special materials to make this at home. You can use extra cloth or old clothes and cut them into square fabrics. This is a great alternative, especially if you don’t have a ton of paper lying around the house.
- It’s recyclable. You can help save the environment by reducing the amount of garbage.
- It’s washable and reusable. This is the reason why a lot of people are hesitant about using family cloth to clean themselves with.
- It’s comfortable to use. Some users claim that family cloth is more comfortable to use compared to regular toilet paper.
- You’ll save a ton of money in the long run. Because it’s reusable, you don’t have to spend more money on rolls of toilet paper that you’ll use only once.
Frustrated about how to groom yourself at home? Make sure to check out our guides on how to cut men’s hair and remove acrylic nails at home.
Conclusion
Learning how to make your own toilet paper at home is a skill that comes in handy during this pandemic. Most of the things you need to make toilet paper can be found at your house.
If you’re not too eager about doing this project, you could also try out the alternatives that we’ve listed above. Who knows? You might like some of these alternatives and use them regularly from now on. Do you know other recipes for home-made toilet paper? Let us know in the comments section below.