



"I'm giving up toilet paper for lent!" I proudly announce over a family dinner the weekend before pancake day. I've always been a little 'out there' but this was not a conversation I ever envisaged having with my mother and my boyfriend present, but I was just so excited about my decision I couldn't help but tell anyone who would listen.





Understandably, my plans were met with a lot of questioning looks and a few disgusted remarks but that only highlighted to me how important this switch was, so I hopped on Amazon and selected this portable spray bidet bottle for just over £10 with prime delivery which I figured was a bargain if I never have to buy toilet paper ever again... But before you go out and buy something new, it might be worth having a look around the house to see if you have anything you could use already. Some good ideas I've heard include empty shampoo bottles or old measuring jugs. Saving something from landfill and giving it a second life is always better than buying new, and it saves you money too!





Now if the financial side of things hasn't already convinced you, you may be wondering what the point is of giving up something that until now has been considered a necessity in my life. Toilet paper production is a highly stressful process on the environment and according to Scientific American, requires about 1,792,528,687,500 litres of water per year in the US alone! (473,587,500,000 gallons for my American readers) Then you have to add to that the 15 million trees, 253,000 tons of chlorine, electricity used and extra resources needed to package and transport it to its final destination. When you realize that manufacturers do all of this just for you to flush it down the toilet, washing with a little water stops sounding so crazy.





So how do I do it? Without treating you to all the details, the simple answer is: the same as you would do it in the shower. Create a steady stream or jet of water, whichever you'd prefer, over your nether regions. Some people feel that is enough to get them clean, others like to reach around and scrub a little either with their hand or a small flannel. Then I like to pat dry with a towel just like I would after a bath. If

you think this sounds unsanitary, think about it this way, if you got poop on say, your elbow would you just wipe it with paper until it 'looked' clean? Or would you be scrubbing it with soap and water? I'll leave you with that delightful thought and hope that you came to the same conclusion I did!



