On hikes I take TP and baby wipes. If I'm fortunate I don't need them after a couple days and scavenging the right leaves (personally I like broadleaf maples :-). Honestly though I have been saved by the babywipes a couple times, I would not like to have hiked the last 12-14 miles with crap where it would irritate, if you know what I mean. Anyway, you asked.

About 500 rolls of TP in the bathroom closet for the post-apocalyptic world or extreme pandemic situation. You can never have enough, and it is one of my economic barometers - whenever the price of gas goes up, so does the (delivered) price of TP to Costco. What once was a $12 purchase now runs about $19. Should TP strike $25 I fear the end may be near...

All this TP talk reminds me of the Cold war espionage where it was known to the west that TP was in very short supply for the Russian army. The Russians knew that the west knew that the Russian army was short of TP, so the Russians used to issue false intelligence documents to its troops who would use the paper as TP, knowing that western intelligence agencies would collect the used documents as a means of collecting intelligence on the Russian Army. As you could imagine the Russians had the last laugh because not only were they passing false information to the west about their capabilities but they knew someone within the western intelligence agencies was having to wipe the s*it off the paper as well.

Nothing is as effective as snow balls - exhilarating, too

And the most effective too, in my opinion.

To get really clean, I think some moisture is required. Unfortunately, TP usually shreds if you try to moisten it.

To avoid later irritation, I would need to pack pre-moistened wipes, or a cloth I could moisten, or perhaps employ a "spray bottle and left hand" technique.

I'm glad to have learned some new tricks, especially removing the cardboard center, I hadn't thought of that.

I like the idea of the cut up Tee shirt as well, I still have a couple shirts from basic training, full of holes, comfortable work shirts. the washing idea is sound.

While traveling my daughters baby wipes are alwaqys present for double duty, during a short stint as a wild land fire fighter I used some "bath in a bag" setups which are far better than pit/crotch/derrier rot.

I should add a few of those for hiking as well incase a day hike becomes longer than anticipated.

I'd like to here some references/citations from How to Sh*t in the Woods

I love the input!

Thank you.

Here on the west side of the Cascades (WA/OR), we have a handy nature-made TP and washing tool called sphagnum moss, which can be used dry or wet. A bundle of grass is also very useful. And they're biodegradable, too.

If you find yourself needing to use leaves, be sure of what leaves you're using. Poison oak, poison ivy, poison sumac, stinging nettles, any leaf with a fuzzy surface, and any other plant you know that has toxic properties.

Can you imagine how much worse your situation would be if you used poison oak as TP??? Yikes!

Sue

Rumex obtusifolius or BroadLeaf Dock - Natures TP and will cool and soothe the behinds of those who have somehow thought Stinging nettles will do the job nicely.

If you store the stuff in any quantity, keep in mind that field mice would probably find it great nest material. I've lost rolls of paper towels that way.

We learn to make fire with drills and flint, but can't figure a substitute for a brand new comfort like tp? The folks in the mideast have been using a little water and their left hands for centuries. The mission leader of the the last Methodist medical mission taught us the drill-if Methodists can learn to do it, pretty much anyone can. See http://hubpages.com/hub/Hand-vs-Toilet-Paper

I simply wait for the roll in my house to get down to the last third, pound it flat and slip it into a baggie. I generally carry one roll for every three to five days and depend on leaves if something happens to the roll/s.

Baby wipes are okay for a lot of uses but a simple washcloth, bit of water and soap works better and can save weight as the time gets long and the number of baby wipes needed grows. In a short term emergency or for a car kit baby wipes work so they have a place.

Most baby wipe manufacturers seem to declare them biodegradable. Some are clearly mislabeled because they are made out of polyester scrim and are not biodegradable in any conventional sense. Some others might break down but only very slowly and they can reemerge months later. Hike any trails where the general public goes, particularly the duffer, easy, trails, and you find the woods littered with toilet paper that didn't get burned and buried and baby wipes that get washed up or dug up by animals un-degraded, if they were buried at all. Nothing like getting back to nature and seeing little wads of pink and white wipes and paper every ten feet within 25' of the trail.

I have seen people who thought a wet wad of pink toilet paper was a kind of flower or unique ground fungus. I just shook my head and walked on feeling disgusted. Embarrassed by the process of elimination many Americans have no idea of how to properly take care of business when there is no porcelain. The predictable result is that if there are people present the surface water is full of fecal coliform bacteria.

The bottom line is that if there is ever an emergency where the general public is forced to live, even for a limited time, away from modern sanitation devices the chances of wildfire outbreaks of dysentery, with cholera and typhoid waiting in the wings for a carrier to come along, grow as time and numbers increase.

Learn how to dig a latrine trench and be willing to educate your fellow campers if groups are going to be in the woods any time. The life you save could be your own.