Are you folder or a crumpler?
Dec. 17th, 2005 01:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckYesterday afternoon I read an article in Die Zeit about toilet paper. It was full of interesting but to me fairly useless facts.
Aside from the environmental consequences that would arise if the Chinese, who originally invented the stuff, all started using it, I found out that there are cultural differences in how it is used.
The parts of the world that use toilet paper seem to be divided into folders and crumplers with wrappers and single sheet pullers as the minorities.
Apparently, most Germans neatly fold up the paper which might be a reflection of our supposed love for order and stability. Only six percent of the population crumple the paper up into a ball. In the United States, on the other hand (excuse the pun), most people are crumplers. The percentage of crumplers is higher in France than in Germany and every third person in England prefers crumpling to folding.
These differences in use affect the manufacturing and marketing of the product. When the American brand Charmin was introduced in Germany, they had to invent a completely new variety of it, because American toilet tissue is too flat for folders. We not only have two-ply paper, but also three-ply and four-ply - which makes sense, because if you don't crumple and instead fold the paper it stays flat.
By the way, I'm a folder and I live with a crumpler.
ETA: For testing purposes the manufacturers use honey that is dyed green.
More fascinating facts can be found in the wikipedia article on toilet paper including a discussion of the differents methods of installing a roll in the holder.
Aside from the environmental consequences that would arise if the Chinese, who originally invented the stuff, all started using it, I found out that there are cultural differences in how it is used.
The parts of the world that use toilet paper seem to be divided into folders and crumplers with wrappers and single sheet pullers as the minorities.
Apparently, most Germans neatly fold up the paper which might be a reflection of our supposed love for order and stability. Only six percent of the population crumple the paper up into a ball. In the United States, on the other hand (excuse the pun), most people are crumplers. The percentage of crumplers is higher in France than in Germany and every third person in England prefers crumpling to folding.
These differences in use affect the manufacturing and marketing of the product. When the American brand Charmin was introduced in Germany, they had to invent a completely new variety of it, because American toilet tissue is too flat for folders. We not only have two-ply paper, but also three-ply and four-ply - which makes sense, because if you don't crumple and instead fold the paper it stays flat.
By the way, I'm a folder and I live with a crumpler.
ETA: For testing purposes the manufacturers use honey that is dyed green.
More fascinating facts can be found in the wikipedia article on toilet paper including a discussion of the differents methods of installing a roll in the holder.
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Date: 2005-12-17 04:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-17 05:10 am (UTC)LOL
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Date: 2005-12-17 10:16 am (UTC)Having said that, and in the interests of furthering research, I did ask Spouse. He's a folder. Me too.
* the things we find out about each other, eh?*
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Date: 2005-12-17 10:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-12-18 12:05 am (UTC)I've always been a folder myself, learned it from my mother at an early age. So if we learn it from our mothers, the distaff side. But then those ancestors all left before TP came about so I cannot attribute it to my French ancestor from Haute-Saone. Actually, years of experience has taught me how to get 4-5 good wipes out of one arms length of folded American TP, depending upon.... well, you know!
Back in the 70s my mother travelled to Europe a few times. It seems back then she always had a run-in somewhere with the most awful of TPs. She even brought some of the rougher brown stuff she came across to show people. But then we still have that gawd-awful, thin-rolled, grey-stuff in cheaper American public places.
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Date: 2005-12-18 06:18 am (UTC)So, where are all the closet crumplers?
And the worst TP: the first grey recycled stuff that was as coarse as sandpaper. Ouch. But I don't like the perfumed stuff either. Disgusting.