My wonderful MIL, who I genuinely adore, is visiting us for a month. We're about 3 weeks in, and literally every single time she uses the bathroom, she switches my TP roll around from overhand to underhand. Every single time I use it, I switch it back.
At this point, I have to assume we're both doing a social experiment.
I refuse to be a grown up about it and talk to her, because now I have this morbid curiosity. It's going to last the full month, right? Could you imagine doing this in someone else's house for an entire month?? Like, ok one time maybe you think you'll just swap it because they probably don't care. But then it switches back every single time, so yes they obviously do care.
Is this a power struggle? Is she taking it off the holder for some reason and putting it back the other way out of habit? Is it a poltergeist? Did the dog learn how to do it?
Dinner was spinach and mushroom scramble with clementines.
You have me laughing so hard I snorted my coffee out my nose.
Firstly, the underhand is 100% wrong (fight me! And also check out the drawing from the original patent - overhamd for the win), and people who run it that way are suspect.
Secondly- keep switching it back. This is hilarious. I bet she will silently keep "correcting" you.
We underhand it because toddlers and pets in my house. Maybe I'll get to switch it back once they get older, but now I'm starting to actually like it that way 😵💫
This was the reason FIL started the war at our house. One morning he switched it and while I was feeding the baby. My toddler rolled every sheet on the floor within 10 mins. Told him he was out of luck. Last roll. “That’s why it’s on the wrong way.” I didn’t have a car that day. Baby was down. You can use what fell on the floor or walk to 7/11. It was delicious watching him make that decision.
THANK YOU! My fiance got upset "Who put the toilet paper on?" My first thought was... it wasm't me, it wasn't you... "Oh nice! HEY GOOD JOB, kid's name. Thank you for replacing the roll this time." He pipes in "Hey kid, it goes the other way!" "Absolutely not. You use buttwipes, we use the paper. You dont get to dictate how we do it. Its easier to grab for them." "Its wasteful." "I just want them to use it!" ... "Thats fair." Lmao. (We've always disagreed in this so I knew as soon as the criticism cane how it was without looking.)
Ill be honest, I dont pay that close attention. I truly dont care. My battle is getting the roll on the bar. If anyone besides me did it, its a win. Lol.
I started underhand because of the cats. I'm not so maniacal about it that I change it in other's bathrooms, though. I guess it's a control thing and I just don't care enough, lol.
Yeah I underhanded it for a while because one cat was an asshole. After a couple of weeks, she got bored because she couldn't unravel it anymore so I switched it back and she never tried again lol
This is exactly right. After re-rolling an entire roll for the third time, or fishing half a roll of tp out of the toilet, you learn underhand is the only way to go!
NOPE. We have spiders like to hang out under the top sheet if it's put in overhand. Big ones. I once ran out of there like my tampon string was on fire. No thank you!
And see, my own childhood fear of spiders (in a house that uses a wood stove and always had lots of bugs getting into the house on the firewood) is why I need it overhand because reaching up under has me worried there will be somebody hiding back there, while with overhand I can rotate it from a safer distance.
Now my husband tends to do underhand because of the cats, and I hate it because I can’t tell if it’s gathering on the ledge behind the roll, plus our cats don’t tend to attack TP unless they can roll it on the floor.
No bugs have surprised me on TP at all for 40ish years, so at some point I’m going to get over that childhood trauma, I’m sure….
If it's on there overhand, they're able to crawl under the top sheet and tuck themselves in like it's an unholy bed. They can't surprise you like that if it's underhand
When I lived in the (US) south, we underhanded it because brown scorpions liked to hide under it if it was overhanded. (And in your shoes, and in your laundry. I don’t miss it. 😂)
We have several cats and they don't play with the TP. The dogs, on the other hand... we had to get bathroom trash cans with lids to stop their disgusting snacking.
AND you have an orange cat, so you definitely get it 😭 Mine only stopped because we moved out of our apartment and into our house and he’s afraid of the bathroom in the new house.
(He’s afraid because the entrance has a decorative row of tiles that’s different from the rest of the tile and he approaches it with his tail poofed and on his belly and never ever enters the bathroom. He is delightfully stupid)
I have two (boy and girl siblings) and have it overhand as well. The girl won't bother it, but the boy every once in a while gets bloodlust and tears it apart with his teeth and claws. Doesn't unroll it, just mutilates it into big, papery chunks. Wouldn't matter what the orientation was when he gets psycho. 😅
My toilet roll holder will shred the first 1/8 of a roll if it’s put in overhand (long story about why it is the way it is), but I’ve gotten so used to underhand I prefer it, because I also find it’s easier to control how much TP I pull and tear off with one hand. Sometimes a girl must use one hand.
I underhand because my house was built in the 70s and my vanity is approximately 18” tall (exaggeration) and so the TP is also super low (it’s mounted on the vanity). We’ve since replaced the toilet which also used to be on the ground to a modern height. Anyway, when the TP is overhand and the roll is full you have to pull down from above or it rips super easy. But if it’s underhand you can pull up easily without it ripping after 2 squares. So I underhand. Only in that bathroom. And the cleaning lady always changes it to overhand. And then I change it back.
This MIL is clearly a philistine- grr! I would set up the equivalent of a swear jar/penalty jar in the bathroom for her to do penance each time she commits such a crime
The fact that neither woman will surrender the TP is sending me 😂 This is exactly the kind of petty household battle I’d refuse to end too. Overhand forever.
I'm an underhand-er. I don't know, it just feels right to me. I also had to battle my mom once when she moved in, but I quashed that debate real quick.
Neatly fold the end of the TP into a triangle, dampen the kind of stamp you use to emboss a wax seal, and press it into the tip of the triangle. Then hide the stamp in the bathroom and do it every time you are TP adjacent. It’s time to escalate!
It’s not as fancy, but for people who like this vibe (I’ll admit, I do lmao) quickly turning the tap on and off to dampen the spout and then using it to do this works too. It’s amazing how fancy the prints from some taps look on TP 🤣
My neighbor's 10-year old did this to every bathroom in our house one day (we have 4 bathrooms, I know, too many). It was hilarious and also fancy!
Edit to add, neighbor kid is a boy. Just unexpected whimsy out of that kid every time.
Yeah I used to do a foldover into a pointed/folded tip and then affix a gold sticker to it like in the fancy hotels. Don't have a photo of that, but I did find this lovely origami collection, could be fun and a great skill to have ;-)
I have a friend who does this every time she visits. It doesn't annoy me, but I put it back every time. We have never talked about it. I am considering doing it to hers next time I visit. 😅
I can understand you and OP as the home owners switching it back to your preference. But people who don't live there changing it is what's weird to me.
Print out a copy of the toilet paper patent by Seth Wheeler and tape it above where you keep your TP. There is one right way and it ain't your mother in laws way!
I came here to suggest this! My husband and I were at war over this when we first moved in together. He finally showed me the patent- I was wrong- and as a consolation prize I put a framed print of in our bathroom.
I did this in my mom's house. We are overhanders for life. My mom's groundskeeper is an underhander. The TP battle had been going for 5 years before I printed the patent TWICE and put above the toilet paper holder, and above the paper towels in the kitchen.
I will never understand underhand. Why? Why? What is the advantage here??? The roll itself is no further away from contamination, the position is less convenient for grabbing, and it forces everyone’s wiping fingers into shared contact with the wall or cabinet side that the toilet roll is mounted upon! Nasty! I don’t get it!!!
Also, yeah, this is a weird thing to do in someone else’s house. Like, even in someone else’s underhand house, I would just deal with it. The audacity!
EDIT: Love the replies here! I don’t have kids or pets, so it never occurred to me that underhand might be better in those cases!
I did underhand when my kids were little. A small child can unroll an entire roll of tp amazingly quickly when its overhand. Once the were old enough to understand, it switched back to overhand
We switched from overhand to underhand when the kids were toddlers and with pets to avoid them pulling off the entire roll. While the correct method is overhand the practical method is underhand to create some small amount of resistance.
I’m assuming your MIL got used to underhand for similar reasons and forgot to turn back after the kids were grown.
Forgetting to turn her own toilet paper back to overhand is one thing. It doesn’t explain the audacity of turning OP’s tp around to underhand everything time she uses the bathroom. That’s a deliberate action and an incredible amount of audacity even if it’s over something very silly
Yes, I believe the MIL is saying she know best and she will always know best, and just for the record, she took care of your hubby for a couple decades and might be salty. lol She is definitely making a specific statement to you.
Habit. Look at the underhand dispensing roll long enough, and overhand looks wrong, even if it is the proper method. My youngest was in her 20s before I switched back.
With four cats, however, we're back to loading for underhand.
Oh, I would never dream of adjusting anything in another's home without expressed permission. I grew up with the old women that would break your fingers if you did.
A million years ago, I was part of a campus social justice group and we held a yearly retreat. One year, we stayed at a farm and the first time I went to the bathroom I saw they had the TP hung wrong. So, of course, I fixed it. My friend mentioned the same thing. We laughed, silly farmers.
All weekend I kept having to fix the TP in the various bathrooms but at least I knew my friend was helping me out by doing the same thing.
Obviously on the drive home we debriefed. And of course we were unknowingly on a TP war with each other all weekend, each of us correcting the other’s folly.
My father-in-law and I do this with the hand towel in my bathroom! Neither of us has ever spoken on it, but it's been going on for 10 years. I like it one way, and he "fixes" it every time he goes in there.
Haha the office I'm in has one single bathroom. There are seventeen of e, plus the at least seven people from other parts of the building who use our bathroom every day.
A few times a week, I find the toilet paper turned around the wrong way. I don't know who does it but I always correct it lol.
My MIL didn’t know how to put the TP on the roller when it ran out, alway on the counter. Drove me nuts. Her son my late hubby did this too.. lol miss them both
My husband also never closes kitchen cabinets and puts leftovers in the fridge on a plate instead of packing them away, and I always thought it was a boy thing until I went to her house and she does it too! I love this woman so much but she has some lowkey feral habits. I'm so sorry about your husband <3
Mine never put cap on tooth paste, snored to the point that you wanted to smooth him ( no I did not do that🤣) hardly ever put his glass/ cup in kitchen when empty, just left it. But I will say after he passed from a very short battle with cancer, I miss every little quirk that annoyed me first. I never realized that fog horn snoring actually helped me sleep and in its odd way made me feel safe. I still have to sleep with back ground noise or I just can’t sleep after 5 yrs.. cabinets cracked me up because my DIL never closes them. I go to there house and I giggle every time I see everyone she got into wide open.. Those quirky things are priceless- you will alway laugh about the TP, maybe not now but you will.. Thank you for your kindness, he was one of a kind..
I don’t know about your MIL, but I’m deep into year 38 of doing this with my husband. For the record, he is incorrect (under), and I am correct (over). And, should anyone be curious as to why this has been going on for this long, I submit that I married a man who is incapable of doing anything the same way two times in a row (his ADHD makes other people with ADHD seem regimented). I’m genuinely curious as to how long he can keep this up (also starting to think that his ADHD is just weaponized chaos).
This is hilarious. Imagine this happens for the rest of your life. Every time you and MIL are in the same house this keeps happening…forever…and no one says anything. That would be hysterical…”yeah we’ve been fighting the battle for 15 years” 🤣
I have been known to switch to overhand in other people's houses as a guest. I used to think that it was only ever installed underhand by people who weren't paying attention to which way the roll would unwind and didn't care. I found out that some people like underhand better, so I stopped doing it.
There's someone at my work who puts it in the wrong way when they replace the toilet paper. I don't know who it is, and I wish I knew WHY they think it's better. Genuinely what is the reason for it? It doesn't make any sense. It's so much harder to grab and rip off the roll.
Do we work together? Hi, it's me, I put the toilet paper on underhand at work.
Why? Well, I prefer it that way, but that's not why I do it. I know it's "wrong". And if I just happened to be the one who's replacing the toilet paper because I used the last of a roll, I'll replace it the "right" way. Except!
Every. Single. Time. that the toilet paper roll is already empty when I walk in the bathroom. Now, now it's getting changed the way I prefer it to be done. Y'all lost your patent-drawing privileges.
I'm still stumped on why. Why do you prefer it that way? Maybe there isn't a reason. But I can't see why it's better. It gets stuck to the wall. I don't want wall on my cooter!
I don't know why I like it better that way, it just feels better for it not to be flapping willy-nilly out in the air to me. I'm also AuDHD, so once I get it in my head that something is the "right" way (for me), it's pretty much going to be that until I die, or at least until someone proves beyond a reasonable doubt that there's a better way for it to be done.
Because I am a semi-adjusted member of society, I can acquiesce on this one in public... until someone pisses me off about it. Then you're all gonna hear about it!
The only time I can see it making any sense is if you have a cat that loves to play with it. Overhand they can unroll the whole thing. Underhand thwarts them every time.
My honey used to do underhand; he says people use less TP that way. And he’s all about squeezing his pennies. However, when I moved in, he switched to overhand as a welcome gesture because he’s a sweetheart.
You're so lucky. When I started dating my honey, he came in my house and changed the TP direction to overhand every damn time he went into the bathroom. In my house! Eventually my brain melted and I just left it that way, but I will still put it underhand if he doesn't change the empty roll when he finished one.
Plant a plastic Halloween spider and leave it underhanded next time so you can't see it attached to the tp until it's in your hand. May need a drop of elmers.
Lol this happened to me in a hotel once. We were there for a week and I like the roll to be overhand too. We used the same roll the whole week, but the room attendant would change it to underhand every day when she came into to clean and change towels.
These kinds of discussions always make me feel weird about society. The things humans take waaaaayyyy too seriously (not talking about op, talking about the comment section lol) it's like... It's okay people do things differently it takes all kinds to make a society. I KNOW it's not that serious but sometimes I'm not sure others know
Edit: After I left my comment I worried it sounded too serious, I also am mad chill on this subject lol I just come from a place where I'm just happy it gets replaced 😂😂
She may be enjoying a small fun game with you. I love keeping it light because a good MIL story is rare and therefore encouraging. May the silent TP fun continue no matter whose house until the end of time, a new family tradition
Underhand is the only reasonable way for those of us who were in the US Air Force and have an unreasonable sense of making everything appear perfect (no cut lines) while making everything more difficult to actually utilize for everyone around us.
ETA: Visual aspect. No creases, no folds, no wrinkles, no cut edges -especially * gasp * perforated ones…. So unsightly.
My parents have the same kind of TP war (knowingly) going on with our friends/neighbors, spanning years. Theres been pad-locked rolls jokes and more. I think its fun
I’ve been locked in a similar TP Cold War with my partner since he moved in with me last year - turning the roll is now part of our bathroom routine and I hadn’t considered how deeply weird this is until typing this comment out
Ah, the Toilet Paper Wars!! the only way that over-hanging TP is wrong, and underhang is right, is if you have cats. add a fancy folded triangle to the tip of your overhang, like nice hotels do. updateme on this epic battle
Most of us have very strong opinions about the over/under issue. I always believed over was the correct and only way, until I shared my home with a cat who could unspool a brand new roll of TP in less than 60 seconds. Now, under is the way.
Regardless, this is your home. Please continue to establish your dominance! lol 😆
I'm team MIL here! I'll admit, I really didn't give a shit (😁 see what I did there?) how the tp roll hung, but my hubby has converted me to underhanging. Overhanging is just awkward and WRONG now.
My friend and I had this battle at each other’s houses but it was an ongoing joke. It started at a party she was having at her house. I was a little tipsy and went to use the bathroom. Noticed her toilet paper was on the roll underhanded and switched it to overhand, thinking someone else put the toilet paper on wrong. She made a comment a few days later on how someone switched the toilet paper to overhand and said who does that? I started cracking up and admitted it was me. From then on, every time we were at each others houses, we would switch each others toilet paper, since she liked it underhand and I liked mine overhand.
She passed away 6 years ago from complications due to a kidney transplant and I miss being able to play that stupid game with her.
One of my best friends and I have been doing this battle when we see each other for years!! We both believe we are right and it has become a running joke.
I am overhand, for the record. She is under. She is wrong.
This is no longer about toilet paper. This is psychological warfare. At this point you HAVE to let it continue until the month is over. Whoever switches it last wins
lol, this is so funny. I swear that my MIL switches out the tp for one ply when we visit! But, then we open the cabinets and there is charmin in the back! I guess we are not worthy of the charmin!
Hang up a frame with a sign that says “Beards are cool, mullets are bad” with a toilet paper roll image going the right direction for each line of text. Not my original idea, you can probably order one on Etsy, send it to yourself as a gift. Pretend you got it from a friend or Aunt Petty.
I’m laughing because I was just thinking about this kind of scenario yesterday and I realized that as long as I’m lucky enough to HAVE indoor plumbing and toilet paper, I couldn’t care less which way it unwinds. Also, my bathroom is too tiny to even have a TP holder, so the roll sits on a tiny cart that acts as the medicine cabinet. Problem solved.
If I’m at work & it’s underhand I always correct it to overhand. Depending on the person whose house I’m at I correct it & then let them know I fixed it for them. If I’m able to, I fix them in public bathrooms as well😹A solution to this is to get a vertical TP holder but then the conundrum becomes is the correct way to the left or right lol
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u/Andante79 Internet Auntie 20h ago
You have me laughing so hard I snorted my coffee out my nose.
Firstly, the underhand is 100% wrong (fight me! And also check out the drawing from the original patent - overhamd for the win), and people who run it that way are suspect.
Secondly- keep switching it back. This is hilarious. I bet she will silently keep "correcting" you.
Pretty please provide updates.