How much soap and toilet paper do you stock?

allenwrench · Intermediate Crude Joined: Apr 23, 2008 Posts: 841

How much soap and toilet paper do you stock?

Will your numbers change dependent on things going down hill from here?

CarlinsDarlin · Moderator Joined: Jul 02, 2004 Posts: 1394

Not near enough Smile

But then my plans are to barter with my soaping neighbor and also to begin making our own soap soon enough. As for toilet paper? It takes up too much room, and a little water will clean you just fine if we get to that point.
Food's more important in my limited storage space.
K

duke

We stock enough TP and body soap for 18 months. Also shampoo and any and all hygiene/medical products we ever use. Laundry soap, dish soap...the whole nine yards. We are adding to the none food areas everytime we shop to extend the range out to two full years. Food and other related food preparing items are in good through year three.

kpeavey · Expert Joined: Oct 04, 2004 Posts: 1235

my inventory spreadsheet shows 187 rolls of TP, 62 bars of soap.
This will hold me for 4-5 years at current rates of consumption.

Soap is dirt cheap, 10 bars of Safeguard for $3.30+ tax. My cost for the stock I have is about $22.

TP is running about $11 for a 24 count double roll of Angel Soft. My cost for what I have in stock, about $85.

I pick up soap and TP when I'm in that area of the store. Rather than throw down a big sack of cash on the counter and buy a bunch all at once, I've been gradually increasing stock over the past couple of years. Most of my HBA items are at a 4-5 year level.
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Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1921

Some things are just not necessary enough to stock.

Some things are just too bulky to stock.

TP is both.

Depending upon you, ehem, rate of usage, of course.

If you only use a roll a month, then you can stock for the rest of your life rather easily.

If you have a larger family and you use a roll a day, then it probably doesn't make too much sense to stock several thousand rolls. But maybe.
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Massive Human Dieoff must occur as a result of Peak Oil. Many more than half will die. It will occur everywhere, including where you live. If you fail to recognize this, then your odds of living move toward the "going to die" group.

duke

One thing is for sure...if you don't have a lot of food stored like most...most will also not need a lot of TP. We have even constructed one outhouse and converted another to a permanent site in case the grid goes down. No need to run the genset to flush the toilet.... We leave the toilet tanks full for the midnight run rather than going outside.

In the outhouse there is a can on the wall with old corn cobs and pine cones for visitors to use if... they failed to stock up on their own TP. No running water out there that I am aware of:) Smile

.

I will be selling TP by the roll for about 50.00 each. At that price you better use both sides. Not everything we store up is for us to use. Some of it will be turned into "gold" so to speak when others can not find it around on the empty store shelves.

It is easy to say no TP storage. Why not go without now...for a month or two and then come back and share about that adventure?

joelcolorado · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 25, 2008 Posts: 683

I am going to rub my butt on the grass like my dog.

stu2745 · Coal Joined: May 29, 2006 Posts: 3 Location: Berkshire, UK

72 bars of soap, enough for 12 years.
Loo roll, not much as bulky but was thinking of insulating my roof with it and using it at the same rate as global warming Laughing

joelcolorado · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 25, 2008 Posts: 683

I appreciate the forethought of everyone but in a survival world, toilet paper and soap is your least concern. Less than 60 yrs ago, ppl took one bath a week. My dad said ppl just stunk but everyone did so you didnt notice so bad.

Food will be VERY hard to come by. Have you ever gone for even a week with no food but what you can scavenge? I have several times. Both in war theater and in the mountains in survival school. Basically you slowly starve.

My grandfather said that during the depression they ate one meal every 3 days. Large ppl will not survive that time. Smaller frame people have an advantage for sure. Good keepers they are called.

He said he knew of ppl who starved to death in Dodge City Kansas. And they went to work altho there was no pay. Had nothing else to do and he was the city engineer and things still had to be done and maintained. This time might be worse as there are more ppl and less ppl with farms and ties to the land.

They had cows and chickens so could at least eat something or trade for things.

taizee · Tar Sands Joined: Jun 22, 2008 Posts: 52

I think modern humans overuse soap and much of it uses nasty chemical ingredients. If it comes to the crunch, we won't worry so much how we all smell. Using harsh detergents on skin and hair takes all the natural oils out, so then you need hair conditioner/skin lotions etc... and all this stuff costs money.

Use/make more natural soaps and wash hair less, we will get used to it.

As for TP, how does everyone else in the world manage ? and what about women's sanitary pads ? I don't want to start that discussion here, but I often wonder how women in the past and in poorer countries manage. I suppose they just kept/keep having babies.
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joelcolorado · Intermediate Crude Joined: May 25, 2008 Posts: 683

The american indians had a small teepee where the woman would go and sit on a pad of cat tail fluff or other absorbent material which other women would help replace periodically. She stayed there for the duration of the period.

i guess if you are REALLY thin, you will quit menstruating too. Like the athletes do.

Jenab6

Zel · Coal Joined: Jun 22, 2008 Posts: 19

From what I've read, Native Americans, as well as other societies, believed that blood held power. A menstruating woman was believed to be more powerful during her 'moontime', so she was isolated from the community during that time. Plus it's just messy and who wants to see that? *I won't get started on the sexism in all this, as it makes my teeth hurt.

In pioneer days, women used cloth pads, stuffed with cotton, hay, leaves, or wool. The covers would be sterilized and reused. I sincerely hope I hit menopause before it comes to that.

On the TP, I was thinking rags/old t-shirts. Cloth diapers are soaked in bleach water or boiled. I would think the same could be done for 'butt rags'.

Pops

Water and a rag can wash my butt: TP storage is for Bobby Hill preparing for Y2k. Very Happy

Water and sunlight can cleanse my body if I run out of fat and wood ash to make soap - though I won't, if I did; would anyone notice?

In the last resort, soap is for disinfection, not personal grooming.

But considering the responses to this thread and the obvious demand, the imminent demise of either TP or soap seems kind of overblown and perhaps other considerations should be put first.

Now, a supply of triple antibiotic ointment might be a handy thing to have on hand and perhaps some bleach flakes or the chlorine tablets or pellets sold for pools at Wallies this time of year make good disinfectant....

As to the original question, maybe a couple dozen rolls of TP and half a dz bars of soap.
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Make a plan and work it:

PrairieMule

Thank God for oak trees and the leaves they produce. Ragnar Benson covered the subject of pioneer assrags in a American Survival Guide article(circa 1998?).
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