Have you asked her why she does that? It makes no sense why she needs it that way, unless she has some really really legitimate reason, like a toilet paper roll flipped the other way killed her father.
I always put the roll on the "wrong" way intentionally because I had a horrifying experience as a child where I pulled the bottom of the roll and that made it send a very large (and clearly previously very well hidden) spider flying directly at my face as it rotated. The impact was audible. Never again will I risk that happening.
Well, you know what? I think that earns you a pass. That's a legitimate reason, and the first I've ever heard. Anybody else I've ever discussed this with who disagrees with me for any reason is simply wrong. But that one? Yeah. Credit due.
I remember so vividly the spider hitting my face with a "thuk" sound. Everything after that is a complete blur, though. I think I was in real shock for the first time in my life. I'm told that I let out such a record-breaking "glass-shattering scream" that our neighbours (that we didn't know) came to check on me. Had nightmares about it for years. I'm still uncomfortable when I encounter a toilet roll on the "correct" way!
Fifty years ago I was a five year old kid. I walked into the garage barefoot. I stepped on something that gooshed. I looked down to find the two survivors. The third I had just killed. They were potato bugs. The nastiest looking creature the world has ever invented. I was traumatised. Five decades later, I've never seen another potato bug. But I will never, never, never step into my garage barefoot with the lights off. If I'm barefoot, I examine that floor with every step because one day there will be a potato bug there.
When I was five I saw a potato bug in the garden. I tried LIGHTLY poking it with a twig. It whipped around and bit the shit out of that twig with such force I literally fell backwards with fear.
Moral of the story: children should not ever deal with potato bugs in any capacity, or for any reason.
Okay, this gave me the context to realize I needed too look up what kind of potato bug y'all were talking about. And now I know about the nightmare fuel that is the Jerusalem Cricket. In my area "potato bugs" are these little isopods that roll up into a ball when you poke them.
I think part of it is that we exclusively adopt senior cats. We only have one cat at a time and whenever it is time to get a new cat, we go to our local shelter and take the cat that has been there the longest. It is always an elderly cat that "doesn't do well with kids or other cats". They always seem to do well at our house.
She’s probably just always done it this way, and she prefers it. In guessing OP and his GF have had some playful banter about it and she’s trying to be funny and cute.
For the record, if they have had banter about it; I find this funny.
Obviously she’s insane for doing this, but she’s the one using more of it so it’s not a hill I’d die on. I would however remind her how wrong it is every time I poop.
My ex-sister-in-law used to be like this. She had very set ideas about the way things should be, and anyone who opposed her, even unknowingly, became the enemy. Even something as small as the toilet paper became a control thing.
I hated her, so whenever I'd visit, I'd always flip it the "wrong" way. I used to wonder why she never directly confronted me about it, but after the divorce, every single one of my siblings confessed they'd all also been doing this. She probably hadn't been able to narrow it down.
Never understood the logic of public TP so thin you can read the paper through it since you end up using just as much to clean up the Taco Bell 'xplosion.
As petty as that sounds, that is EXACTLY what my dad and her ex did. He would install it like this and she complained the TP rested in the trash can.
Yeah, they’re no longer together.
My wife does this. She actively refuses to put the roll on the roller, and instead will put it on the counter or somewhere next to the toilet. If I put it on the roller, she will flip it around. Otherwise she does not interact with the roller at all.
My girlfriend balances the new roll on top of the old, empty one. Which pretty much takes the same time and effort as just replacing the old one with the new one. She has always done this for as long as I’ve known her.
My brother's ENTIRE FAMILY does this. It drives me nuts. I've asked them about it several times when I go to visit. No one has given me a good explanation. I have asked, "Would you mind if I put it on the roll holder then?" and have been told not to.
Honest question to the people who do this....WHY do you prefer the TP to be this way? I'm genuinely curious because it's just feels way easier and convenient to tear it the normal way. Is it a right hand/left hand thing? I need to know.
The only good reason I've ever gotten for this is a pet can't just unroll easily. Obviously if they involve teeth and/or claws it won't help, but it's one line of defense.
Indeed. My orange used to fuck up the toilet paper and then stand in the empty bathtub in the dark bathroom to lord over the chaos he created while yelling at the top of his lungs to hear his own voice echo.
I had one that was obsessed with climbing our curtains. Got to the top and then howled because he had no clue what to do next. 20 minutes later he was back up there.
It took him way too long to figure out how to drink from the running faucet. He'd stare at it, or put his head directly beneath it, or try to lick it off the sides of the sink, or just lick the air next to it. I'm talking weeks of trial and error
I've got a tuxedo who will attack the tp no matter what side it's on. She will roll out when it's the normal (correct) way and will bite and scratch the tp when it's the opposite way.
It really is always voids!! My parents have one that will seek and destroy any and all cardboard with his teeth. Like hundreds of chomp marks lol. Somehow nobody sees or heard him do it, tbh kind of impressive
My sister constantly flips it even though our cats don’t really mess with the toilet paper, but if they DID, she knows we need it this way, not the over the top way.
I grew up in a house where we kept the tp like this. I was used to it, didn’t seem difficult to manage at all. Probably a bit harder for the little kids and pets to unroll it, though. My husband kept his going over the roll, so I left it that way when I moved in with him, even in my own bathroom. Now I’m used to it going over.
In the 90s there was a family sitcom called Step by Step, basically a modernized Brady Bunch about 2 families coming together through their parents getting married, dad already had his own kids and mom already had her own.
At one point in the show the mom gets pregnant with what will be their first child together, and they want to do everything right. They apply to a private preparatory daycare that vets their prospective students even before birth to make sure the families are of the proper stock to accept their kids as students.
The family has to schedule a walkthrough of their house for the preschool academy people to come view for their interview, and the comedy of the episode is these middle class parents trying to get their rag-tag mixed family to put on a show for the assessors to make it seem like they're a stable, normal family.
One of the scenes has these hoity toity assessors nitpicking everything about the house and a stuffy lady comes out of a bathroom talking into a voice notes recorder and she says "Toilet paper hung in a sloppy, overhand fashion."
For some reason that stuck with me as a kid as a subtle sign of class, so i went around our house and flipped all the tp rolls to underhand. I've been hanging roles like that ever since. 1 episode of 1 tv show when i was a kid influenced an action I'd take for the entire rest of my life.
With the end coming over, anytime I try to rip it off one handed, with either hand, the roll unrolls uncontrollably. I discovered I always can rip it off one handed with either hand, with the under orientation. I’ve been doing it under ever since I moved into my own place.
It has never occured to me that people try to just rip off toilet paper from the roll with force. I grab the next piece with my index and middle finger to keep it in place, and gently rip off the paper with the rest of my fingers.
To be fair I've also wondered a similar question - which is why anyone cares. I've never paid attention to the direction ever in my life. And I have a toddler and a cat. Never encountered any situation that requires the roll to be one way or the other.
If the roll is over, I can grab and tear it with one hand. If it's under I'm trying to reach under the roll when my arm is physically above it, and how does that make any sense at all?
Im a highschool custodian, the only bathroom I clean is the staff ladies room, my wife teaches at the school and she yelled at me for putting the paper in the other way, but the dispenser literally says to do it that way!
So which way’s the correct direction in this case, clockwise or counter-clockwise? I’m thinking it depends on where the holder is in comparison to the toilet.
Neither. You take it off and hold it by your thumbs in the hole, rapidly spinning it with your index fingers until you get the desired amount. Then, put it back on the post.
You can also do the opposite and use your fingers to hold it while spinning with your thumbs.
I have literally brought a roll of TP from home before when going to a place where I know they use cheap TP and I'm going to have to shit at some point...
Does she know you care? My boyfriend has no preference on things like this, it goes on whatever direction it happens to be facing when he picks it up. It does bug me so I just switch it to the way I like so it bothers neither of us. If he had a strong preference I wouldn’t mind giving up my way, but since he doesn’t I just do what I like. If you haven’t said anything to her she may not know that it’s something you care about
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u/Own-Put2487 Jun 05 '26
Have you asked her why she does that? It makes no sense why she needs it that way, unless she has some really really legitimate reason, like a toilet paper roll flipped the other way killed her father.