The world is changing. Modern times call for modern solutions. That’s how things like How Much Toilet Paper?! come about.
This new website provides a simple calculator that can tell you how long your treasured TP stockpile will last you during the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020. The Verge recalls that it is a relatively simple tool – first, you tell it how many rolls you have left and then how many times per day you venture to the bathroom.
The calculator will then display a whole number of days for you to plan your isolation around. For example, the default metrics are 10 rolls of TP, for three visits per day. This equates to only 53 days of pillowy softness.
For those unconvinced, there is also a variety of “advanced” options, more metrics to influence the equation like “average number of wipes per trip” and “people in household”, even one for “number of sheets on the roll” to really solidify a very accurate estimate.
While the TP calculator is a fun and light-hearted tool, it can have a real use for some. As co-creators and UK residents, Ben Sassoon and Sam Harris say, that while the website began as light-hearted humour it soon became “a tool that can educate the masses and help reduce the stockpiling issues going on around the world”.
Sassoon says that the website has now gone viral, no pun intended, with up to 2-million viewers in just four days.
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The hopes of the creators are for the site to wake people up to the dangers of hoarding in a crisis. “Our average user has 500% more toilet paper than they would need in a potential quarantine. We are hoping that people will use the site and see they don’t need to go out and empty the shelves,” he says.
Creativity in the time of Corona
Sassoon tells The Verge via email that his self-imposed social isolation has allowed him to distract himself with new creative projects, like this one.
He says “We are experiencing one of the largest social experiments in our generation — almost the entire world is now working from home, and millions of freelancers and service workers have unfortunately become unemployed overnight”.
“It is a strange and upsetting situation, but a lot of people suddenly have a lot more time on their hands — so I wonder what other creatives will come up with.”
Edited by Luis Monzon
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