There are a lot of everyday things you don’t think twice about—until they’re gone. Like bread. Or Wi-Fi. Or chairs.
Toilet paper falls squarely into that category.
If you want to know what really matters to a society, take a look at what people rush to get in a crisis. Back in 2020, people didn’t hoard chocolate or canned beans—they hoarded toilet paper. It wasn’t just about hygiene. That soft little roll was a symbol: everything’s still okay.
But what did people do before toilet paper? They made do with what they had. Romans? They used sponges on sticks—communal ones, no less. In ancient China, it was bamboo spatulas wrapped in cloth. Other places used snow, moss, seashells or even smooth stones. Early Americans had a thing for corncobs. Newspapers and almanacs hung in outhouses before toilet paper became mainstream.
The story is less about the materials and more about the human instinct to solve uncomfortable problems with creative ideas. Every culture came up with something. Some solutions seem strange to us now—like wiping with ceramic pieces etched with your enemy’s name—but they worked at the time.
Toilet paper as we know it didn’t show up until the mid-1800s. Even then, people didn’t want to talk about it. The first ads made it sound like a health product—because the thing no one wanted wasn't the paper, it was the conversation.
That’s what makes the invention of toilet paper so fascinating. It didn’t just replace earlier options—it changed the standard. Slowly, silently, we moved from sticks and stones to perforated rolls and three-ply softness. Not because the old ways stopped working, but because this new way just felt... normal.
And normal is powerful. Tools like toilet paper quietly redefine what we expect from everyday life. That’s why we panic when they disappear. We’re not afraid of running out. We’re afraid of going backward.
So here’s to the little things that make daily life more comfortable—things that seem simple but tell a rich story of adaptation, invention, and progress.
Next time you use a roll, remember: we’ve come a long way.