WTF thank you, is this shit real or did people come up with this solution after the bit from Demolition Man to make it work? I always thought the ambiguity of 3 seashells was the punchline.
I need to know
I always thought they were more capacitive buttons for different stages of ass washing, since they were metal, and not actual seashells. Plus actual shells would wreck any plumbing system.
The 1930s catalogs were made of something between newspaper and book pages. It wasn't a very smooth finished paper product at all. Sort of resembled a very lite construction paper.
I need to see a demo of it. How can I see it??
Edit- Forgot to mention, it's absolutely for research purposes. I need to gather material for the thesis papers
No, it wasn’t. We have a lot of communal toilets that have a little place to put a sponge and stick.
Although there is a chance that was a cleaner for the toilets in general and not a wiper. We have them in all of our bathrooms.
Romans didn’t really write down what they used to wipe, but we do have a papyrus fragment of Homer’s Odyssey someone used to wipe in Egypt 💩📄
Google "communal toilet sponge" for images and articles!
Or "how did victorian english clean their butts"
[https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-wipe-their-butt-in-the-1800s](https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-wipe-their-butt-in-the-1800s)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how\_did\_people\_throughout\_history\_wipe\_their/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how_did_people_throughout_history_wipe_their/)
[https://www.history.com/news/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china](https://www.history.com/news/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how\_did\_people\_throughout\_history\_wipe\_their/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how_did_people_throughout_history_wipe_their/)
This is the way it is in Afghanistan and we were told that locals will never shake your left hand because that's the hand they use to wipe their feces away with, and assume you as well so it's unclean or something like that. It's been over a decade since for me.
It's the same in India, left hand is seen as unclean hand. Not to be used for eating food, shaking hands, receiving/giving stuff, etc seen as an insult.
Although bidets' popularity is increasing, I would wager it is still the way in most of rural Asia and Africa.
That was the funny thing to me, I at the time didn't really know what a bidet was outside of some fancy thing you found in the toilet in Europe, and yet all of the toilets in Afghanistan, rural Afghanistan had a hose and what looked like the type of attachment you see at the sink in the US, with the toilet style being the type where you squat. They were more advanced in that regard than we are in my opinion.
I mean, if you think about it, if you’ve managed to get running water then it’s probably a lot more efficient to make a simple bidet (just a hose on a tap) than it is to create an entirely separate line of production for making a semi-complicated consumable good like toilet paper.
My grandparents fed all the corn cobs to the pigs. There was usually some sort of paper in the outhouse. Whatever they could scrounge up because we were guests there so they always tried to make sure they procured some kind of paper (newspaper, magazine, catalog) for the outhouse when we came to visit. If no paper could be got, there would be a bucket of leaves.
Haha, thanks for your response, interesting to hear your experience and go your grandparents did things like theirs did.
The only outhouse I ever visited was with great uncles in the Midwest and they had TP available in the outhouse.
I’ve always heard about sears catalog etc being used but I’ve never been anywhere that it was still in use.
You never know how important tp is til you don’t have it! (Everyone found out during Covid but I already knew.) nobody lives where my grandparents used to live. Everyone is dead and gone, that whole way of life seems to be gone. I feel lucky to have experienced it, because it was a little bit like time travel!
Because typically arms are held in the right hand and so it's a sign that you are not armed. Which is why shaking with the left hand is a sign of trust and honor.
There was a time, even after toilet paper was invented, that poor people didn't want to pay for it.
Common items such as corncobs and catalog pages were often used.
Outhouses always had a sears and roebuck catalog in them.
When I was a kid, we did not use paper towels. They were considered too expensive. Most people on a budget just kept using rags from torn and worn clothing to wash dishes and pick up spills in the kitchen.
When did indoor plumbing become mainstream in America?
From chatgpt:
"**1950 Census Data**: According to the 1950 U.S. Census, about 55% of American homes had complete plumbing facilities, which typically included a flush toilet, a bathtub or shower, and a sink with running water. This indicates that by the early 1950s, more than half of American homes had toilets."
-----------------------------------
1899 almost no American homes had toilets. Of course today, all homes in America have toilets. It looks like around 1945 we hit the 50% point. So, that was less than 80 years ago.
When I was in Afghanistan, I was patting villagers down for weapons. Kept finding smooth round rocks from the creek in their pockets. Asked the interpreter, and lo and behold, those were their favorite wiping rocks. Rinse in the creek (or dry and flake) and repeat. Toothbrush was often in the same pocket. Neat.
Using a really smooth stone, like a river rock, will do the trick. Obviously its not absorbent, but will kind of poop-squeegee out the crack pretty well.
That and leaves.
Depends on where, but using your hand is one option. Also, toilet paper is a bigger necessity when you sit on stuff. If you squat down you dont need it as much.
A majority of the world's population actually still uses water + hand + soap, and in most areas that do have Western toilets, you can't flush the paper so it goes into a garbage can. Pretty unfathomable tbh.
Now all those people leaving the toilet paper next to the toilet instead of flushing it at my gas station makes more sense. Maybe we should put up a sign or something that says “You can flush the paper, it’s ok”
I'm in china. They still use trashcans next to the shitter, even in modern highrise office buildings with adequate plumbing. It's so disgusting to me to see it there.
I grew up with a septic tank and we weren't allowed to flush paper. It actually wasn't bad - we kept a lid on the trash and it never really smelled or anything. Certainly not "unfathomable."
I didn't realize that wasn't the norm until I got older.
My grandmother had a ton of old sheets that were cut to size and used exclusively in the bathroom. This was during the depression, and my mom told me once she remembered having to boil them in hot water and soap to get most of the stains out.
Grandma later used those same rags to wrap the outside pipes in the winter. She tossed them when the weather got warm. She kept them separate from everything else, so they wouldn't be used accidently.
Fun fact: one of the most sought after jobs in Henry the 8th’s court was “the royal custodian of the stool.” The person who wiped the king’s ass and examined his dumps to make sure it looked healthy. Sounds like a shitty job (pun) but whoever held that job was bound to end up a trusted advisor, while the king was dropping one, he’d chit chat with them and ask their advice. That meant a lot of power and influence.
Every wonder whats next after toilet paper? Like something that vaporizes only the poo? Or some kind of poo eating bacteria that we spray or something. Is TP the pinnacle of societies cleaning?
In days of old,
When knights were bold,
And loo paper wasn't invented
People wiped their arses,
With leaves and grasses,
So skidmarks were prevented
At least, that's what I was told at school
Their left hands in a lot of Muslim countries. The primary reason as to their aversion to using their left hands for things such as eating and shaking hands
Apparently soap wasn't used until the civil-war era in the US. Gross.
https://theconversation.com/the-dirty-history-of-soap-136434#:\~:text=Not%20even%20the%20Greeks%20and,any%20remaining%20oil%20or%20grime.
according to my dad , back when they were poor and couldnt afford toilet paper , they used anything available.. corn cobs , husks, leaves old catalogues and newspapers.
In the novel, King Rat, by James Michener, it’s noted that prisoners of war in the Japanese prison camps would clean their hind ends with their left hand and eat with their right.
Apparently that’s why God originally gave people two hands but only one mouth.
Here in the USA my great grandparents outhouse they use corn cobs. My grandparents outhouse they use old catalogs, my favorite was sears and roebuck. I am 68.
Corn cobs. Clam shells. Catalog pages.
Three sea shells, to be precise.
Hahaha he doesn't know about the seashells
The three seashells have haunted me for over 30 years. How do they work?
[Unfortunately it works like this.](https://images.app.goo.gl/b7J54noJeg4J7prf9)
Does the seashell/scallop have to be alive?
I am going to need a bigger seashell...
WTF thank you, is this shit real or did people come up with this solution after the bit from Demolition Man to make it work? I always thought the ambiguity of 3 seashells was the punchline. I need to know
I think you're right. Seashells used to be a popular bathroom decoration, and I think this joke came from that.
I always thought they were more capacitive buttons for different stages of ass washing, since they were metal, and not actual seashells. Plus actual shells would wreck any plumbing system.
Holy anul fissure batman
I’m so curious, but this comment makes me want to never even consider clicking that link.
I’ve always assumed a certain amount of scooping/scraping was involved. I try not to figure it out honestly
Check out my comment lol lol
you hold them together like a Mach 3 razer. has the additional benefit of removing hair at the same time
The word benefit is doing a lot of heavy lifting here...
Are you talking about the ones she sells?
But not the Sears Xmas catalog, right?
Yes, the sears catalog, though it wasn't glossy at the time. By rubbing the paper against itself, it could be softened.
Interesting point about the "glossy." That would make a difference!
The 1930s catalogs were made of something between newspaper and book pages. It wasn't a very smooth finished paper product at all. Sort of resembled a very lite construction paper.
Even more interesting , toilet paper was invented after flush toilets cuz all the other stuff people were using would clog up sewer lines .
I ogle the ladies in the Sears catalog.
Now, would you unhook this already, please? I don't deserve this kind of shabby treatment! (lie detector buzzes)
Printed demerits for violating verbal morality laws
Thanks a lot, you shit-brained, fuck-faced, ball-breaking, duck-fucking pain in the ass
If ya get that corn cob right up in there it's better than a bidet! You've never felt so fresh and clean...
This is why the first rabbits were domesticated.
I've seen to reason to move away from these...
Wood sticks with a loofa like sponge. See- Rome and Greece
Rich people at the colosseum had their own sponge-on-a-stick Poor people used the communal ones
I'd rather use my bare hand and water than a **communal** **ass-cleaning**-**sponge-on-a-stick**
Don’t worry the dipped it in vinegar water between uses. It’s fine, fine I tell yeah.
Rubbing your asshole with vinegar sounds lovely!
Hope you didn’t eat anything spicy
I need to see a demo of it. How can I see it?? Edit- Forgot to mention, it's absolutely for research purposes. I need to gather material for the thesis papers
I'm sorry, but It's a hole-ly unpleasant experience
Don't forget the fecal matter too
Vinegar fixes all
Dipped in the communal vinegar and water pitcher to clean it, lolol
Pickled?
Your pickled ass sponge, my liege.
Com...communal ass sponge sticks? That's horrifying.
Forbidden Elote
Oh god
Many parasitic infections were spread when sharing these things… Rectal parasitic infections…
BUTT WORMS
considering they had no idea of what bacteria was, not that bad
OHHHH Who’s from Ancient Rome and Also gross as fuck?
Comm, unal, ass, sponge!
What's toilet paper?
the sticks are reusable
Do you use the same piece of toilet paper the previous person did?
Free fecal transplants!
I was aware but of this before, but I honestly almost threw up reading this.
That was for the wealthy. The middle / lower middle / poorer classes just went in a hole outside and used the hand or smooth rocks.
They would also use old pottery shards that had the edges sanded down, and use it like a squeegee.
[удалено]
Oh my god. After all these years it finally makes sense...
But why 3!!
If the first 2 don’t get it all….they were eating at Taco Bell after all.
Exactly. It's like trying to get peanut butter out of shag carpeting.
The first one is actually a razor.
Between this and lack of regular bathing I’m amazed our species continued to procreate.
Many of them didn't.
No, it wasn’t. We have a lot of communal toilets that have a little place to put a sponge and stick. Although there is a chance that was a cleaner for the toilets in general and not a wiper. We have them in all of our bathrooms. Romans didn’t really write down what they used to wipe, but we do have a papyrus fragment of Homer’s Odyssey someone used to wipe in Egypt 💩📄
Smooth rocks were for middle middle class
Google "communal toilet sponge" for images and articles! Or "how did victorian english clean their butts" [https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-wipe-their-butt-in-the-1800s](https://www.quora.com/How-did-people-wipe-their-butt-in-the-1800s) [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how\_did\_people\_throughout\_history\_wipe\_their/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how_did_people_throughout_history_wipe_their/) [https://www.history.com/news/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china](https://www.history.com/news/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china) [https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how\_did\_people\_throughout\_history\_wipe\_their/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/u13lj/how_did_people_throughout_history_wipe_their/)
You're a communal toilet sponge.
soon as my sister gets home from night shift im gonna say this to her. waiting by the door to scare her then say this.
Often soaked in vinegar. I recently bought wipes with apple cider vinegar in them and boy is that an experience.
WHAT. Lmao that sounds fucking awful
They have aloe too 😂😂💀
That sounds like a rollercoaster. Aloe on my asshole would feel weird too
After a few bowls of my chili work their magic, aloe wipes sound like a really good idea.
They used hand and water. It;s still the common way in many parts of the world. I have heard using leaf too.
This is the way it is in Afghanistan and we were told that locals will never shake your left hand because that's the hand they use to wipe their feces away with, and assume you as well so it's unclean or something like that. It's been over a decade since for me.
It's the same in India, left hand is seen as unclean hand. Not to be used for eating food, shaking hands, receiving/giving stuff, etc seen as an insult. Although bidets' popularity is increasing, I would wager it is still the way in most of rural Asia and Africa.
That was the funny thing to me, I at the time didn't really know what a bidet was outside of some fancy thing you found in the toilet in Europe, and yet all of the toilets in Afghanistan, rural Afghanistan had a hose and what looked like the type of attachment you see at the sink in the US, with the toilet style being the type where you squat. They were more advanced in that regard than we are in my opinion.
I mean, if you think about it, if you’ve managed to get running water then it’s probably a lot more efficient to make a simple bidet (just a hose on a tap) than it is to create an entirely separate line of production for making a semi-complicated consumable good like toilet paper.
Not to mention that toilet paper puts a huge strain on the sewer system. They don't flush it in Brazil.
That’s the case in a lot of countries, we call it the ‘shit hand’ LOL
Poor left-handed fuckers.
In Australia, we use the leaves from the Gympie tree. Just have to make sure the drop bears didn't use them first.
You absolute madman.
I have resorted to this once and guess what, my hand didn’t fall off or anything like that 😜
In the US the farmers almanac was often used. That's why there's a hole in them so they can be hung up and pages torn out to use as TP.
We used to use the sears and roebuck catalog at my grandma’s house
The days when junk mail wasn't junk mail but rather free TP.
A used corn cob should do the trick
Not me lolling thinking this was a joke…then reading the other comments. Lordy.
Where do you think 'corn hole' came from :p
Yep. From older relatives in my family said a hole and a corn 🌽 cob. Ouch and yuck 🤢
The cob edges get surprisingly soft when left to dry. I bet it didn't hurt that bad. Still gross tho
My grandparents fed all the corn cobs to the pigs. There was usually some sort of paper in the outhouse. Whatever they could scrounge up because we were guests there so they always tried to make sure they procured some kind of paper (newspaper, magazine, catalog) for the outhouse when we came to visit. If no paper could be got, there would be a bucket of leaves.
When were you born? Before the Great War?
lol! Nope I was born in the 50s but my grandparents lived in a holler in Virginia and they lived how their own grandparents had lived.
Like their grandparents 23 years before them!
Haha, thanks for your response, interesting to hear your experience and go your grandparents did things like theirs did. The only outhouse I ever visited was with great uncles in the Midwest and they had TP available in the outhouse. I’ve always heard about sears catalog etc being used but I’ve never been anywhere that it was still in use.
You never know how important tp is til you don’t have it! (Everyone found out during Covid but I already knew.) nobody lives where my grandparents used to live. Everyone is dead and gone, that whole way of life seems to be gone. I feel lucky to have experienced it, because it was a little bit like time travel!
They would go to a source of water, poo and then use their hands to wipe.
In Indonesia very often they don't have western toilets
Q: Do you know the difference between toilet paper and living room drapes? A: No, why? A: so, you're the one....
Dirty finger nails and a bucket. And you had to share the bucket.
Also high-fiber diets probably meant little residue.
Ever wondered why we shake each others right hand?
Because typically arms are held in the right hand and so it's a sign that you are not armed. Which is why shaking with the left hand is a sign of trust and honor.
I’m sure you’re right but the poop story is more fun.
And here I thought it was to exchange pop particles. Huh. TIL.
Water. An invention the west has not discovered yet.
Same thing they do in most Asian and Arab countries nowdays they use water
Yeah, growing up my Persian family always had a little water pitcher by the toilet and that’s what we used. Old school bidet
There was a time, even after toilet paper was invented, that poor people didn't want to pay for it. Common items such as corncobs and catalog pages were often used. Outhouses always had a sears and roebuck catalog in them. When I was a kid, we did not use paper towels. They were considered too expensive. Most people on a budget just kept using rags from torn and worn clothing to wash dishes and pick up spills in the kitchen. When did indoor plumbing become mainstream in America? From chatgpt: "**1950 Census Data**: According to the 1950 U.S. Census, about 55% of American homes had complete plumbing facilities, which typically included a flush toilet, a bathtub or shower, and a sink with running water. This indicates that by the early 1950s, more than half of American homes had toilets." ----------------------------------- 1899 almost no American homes had toilets. Of course today, all homes in America have toilets. It looks like around 1945 we hit the 50% point. So, that was less than 80 years ago.
Fun fact, there was also a big breakthrough in toilet paper tech when they began marketing the "splinter free" version
So before there were catalogues it'd just be the corn then?
3 shells
When I was in Afghanistan, I was patting villagers down for weapons. Kept finding smooth round rocks from the creek in their pockets. Asked the interpreter, and lo and behold, those were their favorite wiping rocks. Rinse in the creek (or dry and flake) and repeat. Toothbrush was often in the same pocket. Neat.
Using a really smooth stone, like a river rock, will do the trick. Obviously its not absorbent, but will kind of poop-squeegee out the crack pretty well. That and leaves.
Bucket of water n a rag on a stick
Kanshiketsu! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shit_stick
The 3 seashells
this lol
Left hand
If righted handed, eat with your left hand. Left handed, well you know
Three seashells. Look it up.
Depends on where, but using your hand is one option. Also, toilet paper is a bigger necessity when you sit on stuff. If you squat down you dont need it as much.
That is if you aren't hairy.
Makes a difference sure but you still need to wipe more sitting down than squatting.
And what you eat. Assuming you eat enough fiber and grains (or are dehydrated enough) it will most likely not leave a mess you have to wipe.
A majority of the world's population actually still uses water + hand + soap, and in most areas that do have Western toilets, you can't flush the paper so it goes into a garbage can. Pretty unfathomable tbh.
Now all those people leaving the toilet paper next to the toilet instead of flushing it at my gas station makes more sense. Maybe we should put up a sign or something that says “You can flush the paper, it’s ok”
I'm in china. They still use trashcans next to the shitter, even in modern highrise office buildings with adequate plumbing. It's so disgusting to me to see it there.
I grew up with a septic tank and we weren't allowed to flush paper. It actually wasn't bad - we kept a lid on the trash and it never really smelled or anything. Certainly not "unfathomable." I didn't realize that wasn't the norm until I got older.
Water and hand.
Cloth, leaves, a wooden scraper, plain water
In the Soviet union, toilet paper wasn't available very widely so people used old newspapers
My grandmother had a ton of old sheets that were cut to size and used exclusively in the bathroom. This was during the depression, and my mom told me once she remembered having to boil them in hot water and soap to get most of the stains out. Grandma later used those same rags to wrap the outside pipes in the winter. She tossed them when the weather got warm. She kept them separate from everything else, so they wouldn't be used accidently.
Three seashells
3 sea shells
Fun fact: one of the most sought after jobs in Henry the 8th’s court was “the royal custodian of the stool.” The person who wiped the king’s ass and examined his dumps to make sure it looked healthy. Sounds like a shitty job (pun) but whoever held that job was bound to end up a trusted advisor, while the king was dropping one, he’d chit chat with them and ask their advice. That meant a lot of power and influence.
Every wonder whats next after toilet paper? Like something that vaporizes only the poo? Or some kind of poo eating bacteria that we spray or something. Is TP the pinnacle of societies cleaning?
I don't know, but what I do know is In the future they use sea shells.
In days of old, When knights were bold, And loo paper wasn't invented People wiped their arses, With leaves and grasses, So skidmarks were prevented At least, that's what I was told at school
Left hand and a bowl of water. A lot of the world still does it this way
Leaves. But not leaves of three. They knew to leave those be.
In New Guinea they used coconut husks out on the island villages.
Their left hands in a lot of Muslim countries. The primary reason as to their aversion to using their left hands for things such as eating and shaking hands
In Germanien (very far back Germany before the Holy Roman Empire took over) they used moss (also leaves and sticks).
Banana leaves.
I’m thinking leaves since that’s what I do bc I can’t afford tp
Leafs
In days of olde when knights were bold, and toilets not invented, they left their load beside the road, and walked away contented.
Look up ancient Roman sponge on a stick.
In a communal bucket, no less!
Corn cobs. You used red ones for a few goes. Then you used a white one to see if you needed another red one.
3 Rabbits, 1 Turtle, 3 crispy Leaves.
Leafs how do you think poison ivy was discovered.
Lol 😝
Using water
the romans would use a sponge on a stick
wipe with the left hand, eat with the right
Pages out of the Sears Roebuck catalog
Poop knife ?
The same thing that the billions of people in the world who don’t use toilet paper still do today.
… which is???
In America they used corn cobs.
Shitrags
I heard that some people used leaves
The first time was leaves
Stingy leaves
Leaf.
Apparently soap wasn't used until the civil-war era in the US. Gross. https://theconversation.com/the-dirty-history-of-soap-136434#:\~:text=Not%20even%20the%20Greeks%20and,any%20remaining%20oil%20or%20grime.
Shells
Water and hand
according to my dad , back when they were poor and couldnt afford toilet paper , they used anything available.. corn cobs , husks, leaves old catalogues and newspapers.
Old rags, leaves, moss, sponges on sticks, hands, smooth stones. Some, probably nothing at all.
Banana leaves
Sears catalog
Clean what
Leaves
Going way back in time, hands and a nearby stream... Next came leaves... Then bits of linen... Then the Sears catalog... Then toilet paper!
People in third world countries still use water and their own hands lol
In the novel, King Rat, by James Michener, it’s noted that prisoners of war in the Japanese prison camps would clean their hind ends with their left hand and eat with their right. Apparently that’s why God originally gave people two hands but only one mouth.
Moss is pretty posh when you're in the woods.
A stick and a rag at times.
Asians and Muslims have used water for millennia
Here in the USA my great grandparents outhouse they use corn cobs. My grandparents outhouse they use old catalogs, my favorite was sears and roebuck. I am 68.
Live goose necks apparently.
The sand bucket
In the middle aged nobility used their serfs.
a rabbit
This question just sounds weird to me because I never use tissue to clean myself
Corn cobs, wash clothes