Category Archive

toilet

The straight poop: Why you should think about using squat toilets

There are advocates, both, for and against squatting as a main method of using the bathroom. But it’s interesting to note that squatters outnumber sitters across the world!

Where do you stand (or sit, or squat) on the great toilet debate?

Toto Washlet: My Japanese butt-washing robot toiletseat

A Toto Washlet is essentially an electrical toilet seat that washes your butt with a little wand. It connects to a power supply (via a three-prong outlet) and your water supply (via a small hose), and then you press buttons to make it do its thing. Here’s what it’s like…

Hardcore ways to survive a drought (or just save money on your water bill)

Did you know that about 25% of the continental United States is in extreme drought conditions right now? The ’10s saw a long drought in Australia that led to deadly fires, and parts of central Europe are below normal rainfall levels right now. Climate change brings weather extremes, throwing once-regular rain patterns out of whack. Even if your hometown is currently nice and wet, it might not be in the future. And besides, saving money on your water bill isn’t a bad thing. So try some of these hardcore hacks to save water…

I fixed my toilet and cut my water bill by 75%

My house has five toilets. I know, it’s an embarrassment of porcelain riches. When we first moved in some of them ran occasionally, and I knew it was wasting water, but fixing these odd-duck toilets just seemed so daunting and confusing. It’s an easy problem to ignore, so we did. When we finally got around to investigating the problem, the fix was simple, fast, and cost us all of $10.

Indonesian bathrooms and the beauty of the “butt hose”

Initially, the idea of forgoing toilet paper and embracing the butt hose made me cringe. It didn’t take long, though, for me to adapt — and now I’m a total convert. When we visit countries that use toilet paper, I feel gross and dirty. I suffer from butt hose withdrawals!

Use tube-free toilet paper to cut down on waste

If you are like me, throwing the cardboard tubes in with the bathroom trash is not an option because they go into the recycle bin. So a line of empty tubes line up on my windowsill, and it’s just not pretty. We switched to the tube-free kind of toilet paper, and that problem disappeared.

A great lesson in DIY, eco-friendly, backyard art studios

If you’ve ever thought about building an art studio in your backyard, you can really learn a thing or two from Chris and Jean’s hand-made art studio. But tell me, is this making you realize YOU could build your own art retreat in your backyard?

Family cloth: would you go toilet paper-free?

We’ve talked about all sorts of eco-friendly home hacks, but let’s try the final frontier of reusable toiletries: FAMILY CLOTH. The concept is pretty straight-forward: rather than wipe your butt with paper that you then wad up and flush into the septic system, you use small squares of soft fabric that you then wash and reuse.

No more toilet paper, ever. Wait, EVER!?