The Grey Area - Is Toilet Paper Really Necessary?

I might be insane. But I'm ok with that. We're three days in and I'm already trying to find new ways to challenge myself in the not-spending-money department that are maybe a little, tiny, baby bit weird. But I'm ok with that! I'd say I was trying to challenge Joshua too but he's already been crazy for several years. I wouldn't be surprised if I found him naked and covered in mud, running around in the backyard attempting to poach squirrels for dinner. Was that too detailed? 

In all sincerity, I have become really excited about the prospect of doing with what we already have and being, well, creative for this next year. I find myself asking maybe weird questions, like, what does prison wine taste like? Why did I buy light bulbs when we have all of these candles and oil lamps? Do people still buy human hair?

In a moment of dumb, I found myself thinking, awww, my daughter loves it when I take pictures of her. I should buy her a toy camera! Seriously Elissa? Christmas was how many days ago? Luckily I snapped out of it -no pun intended - and went and built her one out of duplos. To which followed the question, what else can I make out of Legos?

I did finally hit a wall today when my suggestion to try out "family cloth" was met with some resistance by Joshua. And by resistance I mean that he threatened to stop using the toilet altogether. For those unfamiliar with this concept, family cloth, in layman's terms, is reusable toilet paper. To be fair to myself, I didn't think things through and the idea of washing rags that previously removed poop from my husband's butt didn't really sit well with me either. Touché.

So today we had to go buy toilet paper since the restaurant napkins that we found in the car were about to run out. Yes, it's toilet paper, considered a necessity in most modern homes. But knowing that there was another less convenient but still plausible, and darn it, GREENER way around buying the stuff, I felt that we had somehow failed by making that singular purchase. But marriage is about compromise, right?

Yet, I still find myself thinking that there are people in the world who use leaves, or their hands, or fancy water fountains, and I can't get around the fact that no, toilet paper is not really essential to our survival. But then, what is? Aside from the black and white food, water, air, and shelter, just about everything else in this life falls into the grey area. If our plan is to make only the most "necessary" purchases in order to get out of debt and live closer to life itself, then we have to decide what things we take with us from our current way of living, and what we leave behind. 

I know that to many, even the consideration to avoid a toilet paper purchase seems asinine, and whether you think I'm an extremist or not, this was the first time that I really felt challenged by the prospect of being a little bit uncomfortable in order accomplish something that I feel Christ is calling us to. We knew we would eventually have to face the fact that some of the things that we can't live without are actually things that we just don't want to live without. I just didn't expect it to happen this soon.

What we're attempting to do isn't for everyone, and I'm not saying that when this year of radical financial moderation is over we're going to continue in every aspect of it. Some changes we make may stick, and some we might be glad to be done with. Regardless, we are learning how to survive and thrive, and without many of the things the world tells us we "need." We are becoming more flexible, adaptable, innovative. And when it's all said and done, if we walk away from a year independent of the figurative toilet paper but more dependent on Jesus, then what did we really lose?

So have we had a change of heart? Are we ditching the TP? Not yet at least. As it stands now, the materials for a sanitary setup would cost us a little bit of money, which we're obviously trying to avoid spending, especially since we just paid for a bunch of paper that was made specifically to be thrown away. But to be completely honest, as we go through these glorious rolls of luxury, Joshua and I have agreed to reconsider the possibility that buying toilet paper may not be necessary for our family at this time. I feel like it's the only option if we're going to be true to ourselves and to what we're doing this year. Fortunately, we did shop for the best deal, which happened to be in the form of a 48-roll package the size of a small human from the neighborhood Costco, so we have a 4-month supply before have to decide how far we're going to take this.

“I didn't go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

-C.S. Lewis

If the idea of family cloth has struck a chord with you, I encourage you to check out Penny's post over at Penniless Parenting's blog - she makes some pretty convincing points.