It’s amazing how far toilet paper has come. From wet sponges to leaves, straw, hay, and grass to  catalog paper,  and from traditional toilet paper to the new flushable wipes, humans have come a long way in developing a product that is used primarily for the purposes of wiping one’s bottom after going to the loo.

Personally, I don’t put much thought into toilet paper. Yes, it is a necessity, but I honestly couldn’t care less about softness or absorbency or pretty patterns that supposedly make the toilet paper stronger. So you can imagine I was surprised to come across a site called The Toilet Paper Encyclopedia. It is dedicated to toilet paper history, its uses, funny stories about toilet paper and it includes surveys about how people feel about their restroom experience. Who knew! A fact I found particularly interesting was that 75% of people who took the survey, said that ’tissue texture’ was the most important factor for public washrooms.

Now I’m sure you’ve all seen these ads multiple times on the television, but I’ve posted a few here, just to refresh your memory:

Quilted Northern Soft and Strong Ad                                 Kleenex Cottonelle Ad

Charmin Ultra Soft Ad                                                   Purex Ad

From these ads, it would seem that these companies actually conducted market research about what their consumers wanted from their toilet paper and then designed the new product to meet those needs. Whether it be softness, strength (to stay together), the company’s community involvement, absorbency, environmental impact, and how the consumer feels after each use. It’s very interesting to see how much thought people put into deciding what brand of toilet paper to purchase.

And if you’re one of those people who uses the new ‘flushable wipes’, you might want to watch this video on Flushable Wipes as consumer reports found that they don’t do all that they promise.