One of the most common questions that pop up when you’re about to go on a camping trip or during the act when you realize you may or may not have toilet paper to use is, how do you wipe your bottom without toilet paper? Leaves naturally become your go-to. But which leaves?

The best types of leaves to wipe within the wilderness are willow leaves. Willow leaves are some of the softest leaves out there. What makes them so soft? Good question. Willow leaves have a layer of fur on the surface. This makes them very soft against our skin. They are also non-toxic so you don’t have to worry about any adverse reactions to the leaves themselves. They are soft and harmless to us.

In case you’re not satisfied with a simple straight-forward answer above and you want more information on this topic, keep reading.

In the wilderness, there’s not too much available for… cleaning yourself after doing a numero dose. But if you spend any time outdoors as most of us do around here. The time will come to drop a deuce in the wilderness. When the time comes, if you forgot toilet paper or something similar to wipe with…

…it can turn into an SHTF survival scenario like nothing else, literally.

Let’s break this down, shall we?

Leaves as Toilet Paper

There are a few characteristics we want the leaves to have before we grab em and go to town.

Criteria for leaves to wipe with:

Non-toxic

Soft

Very very soft…

If the leaves meet those criteria, that’s all I care about. Assuming you know how to identify poison ivy, make sure you don’t go grabbing those and start wiping with.

Next Best Options

Finding some willow leaves would be the best-case scenario. Now if there aren’t any willow leaves insight, you’ll have to use something else. But what?

Sticks

Another choice, although not as perfect of an option as willow leaves, is to use sticks. With a slight modification. Get sticks that have some bark on them. Peel and whither away the layer of bark. You’re left with a nice smooth surface.

Those two options are usually enough to get the job done smoothly (no pun intended).

Grass

This should be somewhat of a no-brainer but in the heat of the moment, it’s easy to forget obvious things. There’s always grass that’s an option if there is a decent amount grown where you’re doing your business.

Water

Water is actually one of the best choices if you have plenty to spare. You can clean yourself much more thoroughly so you can stay as clean as possible in the wild.

Conclusion

Now you know what the best leaves to wipe your ass with are. Find some willow leaves if you can as they are the softest.

We hope this article helped you understand what the best leaves to use as toilet paper are and which leaves you should wipe with. You may also want to see our guide on how to make a tin coffee cup and also our guide full of 37 other bushcraft survival skills.

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What have you used to wipe in the wild before?