Toilet Paper Size Is Shrinking

If it feels as if you’re running through toilet paper rolls faster than ever before, that’s because you are. Toilet paper rolls have been shrinking. Toilet paper squares, the individual sheets that connect to make each roll, were once 4.5 inches wide and the same long. That standard, however, has shifted, to a point where companies are selling sheets that are half an inch shorter, or thinner, or both. A reader wrote in to a columnist at the Los Angeles Times saying he’s noticed a roughly 26 per cent reduction in the surface area of his toilet paper. “The old standard for a single sheet of tissue was four and a half inches by four and a half inches, a nice square,” he said. “Some tissue companies have changed the length of the sheet to four inches, with a width of four and a half inches – no longer a square.” Others, including Consumer Reports, have noticed the trend, too. The consumer advocacy group said that rolls are becoming “narrower,” cardboard tubes are getting bigger, and sheets are shrinking in both size and number. At least Mr. Whipple isn’t around to see this.