The Woman's Perspective, Part One

Well, gang, it’s time for the woman’s perspective on this new way of life.  ‘Keeping house’ in an RV is very different than keeping house in a house. There are things one needs to be concerned about on a regular (sometimes daily) basis that we take for granted when living in a house.

Let’s start with toilet paper.

I stopped shopping for toilet paper in 1991. I didn’t stop buying it; just stopped shopping for it. That was the year I moved to Kirkland, Washington and was introduced to the mega store ‘Costco’. I was in awe of a store where the shopping carts were hand trucks and everything was ‘giant-sized’. Reminded me of Woody Allen’s movie ‘Sleeper’, for those of you who remember.

In any event, I discovered the 30 mega roll packages of Charmin. And from then on until I moved into the RV, I had been buying those 30 roll packages when we needed them.

But…Charmin and RV’s do not mix, due to the plumbing arrangement in an RV (which I will go into in more depth in a later entry for the few of you who are still interested in our blog, after reading this scintillating article). Basically, Charmin is too good for an RV. In an RV you need thin, rough TP. You can buy special TP just made for RV’s, which is thin, rough and expensive ($1.00 or more for a tiny roll) or you can find one that is thin, rough, and cheaper…and do the dissolving TP test to see if it qualifies for RV life..

Being cheap myself, I headed off to the grocery store to ‘shop’ for TP for the first time in over 20 years. I stood there bewildered by large, double, extra large, and super large rolls consisting of 1 ply, 2 ply or multi-ply. Scented, unscented, ‘lotioned’. ‘Green’ ‘Recycled', single rolls, 2 rolls, 4 rolls, 6 rolls, 8 rolls, 12 rolls …..and so on. (Do we really need all these choices?)

All I wanted was a small, 1 ply, single roll to test. Not to be found.

I finally settled on the only 1 ply roll I could find…Scott 1000 sheet roll.  Not exactly cheap, but a good value.  Took it home and put it to the test. 

For the scientists out there….the test consists of putting a few sheets of TP in a jar with water and shaking it up to see what happens. If the TP dissolves for the most part, it is probably OK for the RV. If it clumps and stays together, it will do exactly that in the RV plumbing system which is ‘highly undesirable’ and can be ‘costly to repair’. (In fact, just about anything one does incorrectly or slightly incorrectly in an RV can be ‘costly to repair’!)

Well, Scott passed the test with flying colors. Now, hopefully, as long as the makers of Scott don’t alter their formula for TP, I may not have to ‘shop’ for TP for another 20 years.

So, stay tuned for the next episode, Boys and Girls. 

(PS: John can’t believe I’m writing about TP, but if he can write about golf and the economy on this blog – I declare it ‘open season’ on topics.)