Tissue and toilet paper maniac. Anyone else?

Sounds like your on top of it.
I am a care giver for my husband, an active working R.N., & have lots of tricks up my sleeve for this disease.
So she may use a lot of toilet paper daily-is it a $ problem? If not, just save the old toilet paper empty rolls & split the paper on to say 4 rolls, for each roll, & give that to her daily to use-see if it helps? Good luck...

Thanks for the response, not a money problem but the waste is unreal...and our 100 year old house can't the paper going into the sewer line...my hub is a plumber and his equipment isn't enough to snake the clog.,.he has to take off work and rent industrial equipment to snake the line...as for splitting the paper on on other rolls, she would just ask for it 4 times a day..she blames it on her incontinence but I'm here 24/7 and she doesn't go all that often and she does wear depends

oh wow, I have unclogged the toilet 2 weeks now in a row, but my husband saves the tissues - I empty his bed stand drawer every day...can't get it stopped, he uses hankies but oh loves those tissues

My dad will use a tissue intil it is lint! TP not a problem yet.. now I have another worry to look forward to! And we laugh that his eyes are connected to his nose.. when we give him his eye drops, he always needs a tissue

Disable the flush handle. That way you can check for the mountain of paper before you activate the flush.

:-). My mother steals toilet paper and hides it in her linen drawers, she stuffs it down the sides of chairs and has reems of it in every pocket, she also hasn't got a cold but constantly wipes her face, eyes, nose. I remember my nan used to do the same, but with a cotton handkerchief, constantly wiping, wiping, so it seems to be genetic!! If mum hasn't got a "hanky" she gets distressed, it's almost like a comfort blanket!

Came across controli-a-roll, worth considering

dave i bought one! with shipping it was under 9.00…it would be so nice not to have to carry toilet paper around…thanks for sharing that

My mother has tissues because of drooling problem. I was trying to break her habit of not putting her toilet paper down the toilet, but now I see that is a good thing!

My mom used tissues a lot for a runny nose. Seems like that's a different problem. I know her nose was running that much. She would have a little drip of clear liquid coming from her nose all the time if she didn't wipe. We investigated with docs, to see if it was a cold. My heart went out to her that she needed to have that little old lady tissue up her sleeve all the time and her waste basket was always filled.

I just keep wondering how will we be? How will we feel? What can we do to help ... both our elderly and ourselves to address these issues. So, I'm sharing a somewhat different/similar experience, but I don't have a good idea... except to always be kind and compassionate with all the good ideas.

Good wishes to everyone here. Thanks for sharing all the bizarre and beautiful changes in our lives.

My mother also went through a lot of paper products and if I made a big deal of it, that just made it worse. She uses much less now that she's on a Seroquel generic.

My 90 year old grandmother lives with us and she uses one large box of tissues a week (it would take me 3 months to use the same box). She is obsessed with blowing her nose. If we are going somewhere and I'm getting her in the car, she immediately says "I need a tissue for my nose." She stuffs them in the cushions of her favorite chair, in her pockets and leaves piles of used ones on her table...She will never throw them away unless I do it. She creates a ton a garbage with her tisue obsession! When I give her a napkin with her meals, she will blow her nose with those too. She has a home RN right now who sees her every week, and she says she is physically healthy (not congested and she's nice and clear) but she blows her nose so much that she sometimes gets nose bleeds....I do not understand why she needs tissues so much! I can't imagine what you're going through with the toilet paper added on top of the tissue situation. My heart goes out to you!

Wow. I just thought it was my mother that was like this. This whole topic has been helpful. My mother loves the bathroom. She will go in there for 2 hrs at a time if I will let her. I just thought it had to do with the fact as a child she used an outhouse. I just have her flush the toilet several times during her "visit". It is the perfect time for me to drink a cup of coffee and put my feet up!!

I gave my father plastic freezer bags(zip lock bags) filled with bounty paper towels which were folded in 4s. I would keep them in his walker, near his bed etc so they were accessible to him. His meds had the side effect of giving him sinus type problem. I had small plastic bags with him to use as trash bags.

For toileting, I ripped bounty towels in half and stacked them in the bathroom.
He would use half a towel when in the bathroom which could be flushed. We did not have plumbing issues.

I used to engage him in the twice a week 'folding and bagging" the bounty towels. It was something he could do while sitting in his recliner and made him feel he was useful. It freed me up to do the chores which needed mobility. He actually enjoyed doing anything to help out. In general, I tried to engage him in any chore he could do or assist me with during the day. Even if it is a small assist which you can do yourself faster, I was not in a rush and he had a better mood with being able to help. I always praised him and thanked him for his help, which reinforced that he was still useful.

My aunt HAS to have tissues with her at all times. She stuffs them up her sleves in every outfit. I've always thought it was just her way...but maybe it's an elderly thing or a generational thing...

Putting a trash can for her TP (with an air tight cover) in her bathroom might be an answer. Emptying it daily would be less stressful than constantly snaking the drain. Good luck!

My mother is the same way. She doesn't overuse the tp but she freaks out if there is not tons of tp in the cabinet that she can see. She has sent the caregivers scouring the house looking for it even if there is some in the bathroom. I always have to check her clothes before the laundry because she always has tissues in the her pockets, in the couch, etc.

i wish she had HER bathroom…we have 1 here….and just getting in there when you need to is a whole other topic…i have had a stubborn UTI which required 2 rounds of antibiotics and guess who had to wear the depends temporarilily….

Whippedat56... Get a potty chair for her bedroom?

my mom also uses a million tissues..she will be wiping her face with them, her nose, etc....i have figured out its all about comfort......it feels good to her.....so i encourage her to get a soft washcloth and it slows down the need for her to wipe so much.....now her going to the bathroom and then wiping herself with the toilet tissue and putting it in the trash can instead of the toilet is her problem....its a constant reminder we need to give her..........

deb we have one but refuses to use it….she so needs her own bathroom but there no place in our house where we can add one really…..and my hub does that for a living…ironic no?

ahhhhhhhh it's not just me!!!! A while back there was a cesspool problem. So SIL taught MIL to camp poo? Put it in a bowl in the toilet with a baggy and dispose of outside....She taught her this rather then call the cesspool guy. MIL was so proud of herself. Now that the cesspool is fixed I can't get her to flush any paper at all... she puts it in the garbage can next to the toilet!!! The smell is horrific...She won't put it out the garbage!!!. I tried to tell her that everything is okay and tried to "teach" her like SIL. NO use! She doesn't do this when SIL visits so she thinks I'm making this up for "sympathy" and to justify $ for the caregiving. Thank you! I'm not crazy and MIL is not vindictive....it's part of the process :(

I'm smiling cause it's funny (but not) hearing others go through the toilet paper/tissue problem. I stopped buying paper towels and tissue because she would use them and put them in toilet causing a plumbing back up. TP is the must have in our house. I just have to make sure I keep a roll in every room she uses. Yes she does go through alot but I don't have the tissue/paper towel blockages anymore. Oh yes...she does have a small sinus drainage but not horrendous. I think it's a security thing with her.

Thanks for your response. I should add that when you started to talk about the plumbing problem you have I had to laugh. I am dealing with the same issue here. Get depends on her. For your own sanity. It is apparent that she wishes to be clean-yes? Depends are most helpful.

she wears depends for urinary incontinence…im thinking its a bowel movement issue of wiping wiping wiping...

My Mom does the same. She has her own bathroom and she goes through a roll of toilet paper faster than the other 5 of us in the house! When I asked her about it, she told me that she only uses 4 squares at a time. I had to laugh and think to myself, "then you must use the bathroom 50 times a day!" I know this may only get worse as her Alzheimer's progresses....something to look forward to...oh boy!

If it involves dementia and Alzheimers, there is also a component to the disease process of repetitiveness and picking, rubbing etc on the body... which could be part of this. If it's being overly concerned about BMs, perhaps having the baby wipes to finish off the cleaning would help. Scott's (I think!) make a brand that is flushable. Might be less TP usage with a wet wipe ability as the end of the wiping? My mom sticks squares of TP and Kleenex all over the house too....uses and reuses for her nose. Always has done this though, and I thought it was a depression era thing....as she says she doesn't want to 'waste' the Kleenex when it can be used over after it dries!! She does the same with paper towels in the kitchen. She will tear off corners, to wipe down the counter....and it's too little to actually clean, but there's no telling her a thing...so I get this. She is getting worse in this area with her own dementia too. Every time I go down to visit for a few days, I find more and more of it....little OCD patterns developing....along with new 'storage' areas. Not as bad yet as you all are describing. This is such a hard disease to cope with!

Whippedat56 How about an egg timer that dings when her time is up.? Say 20 mins? If you have a basement maybe you can set up the potty chair for other family members to urinate in ? Holding your bladder is not good.

If clogging the plumbing is a concern, I wonder if she would consider this alternative. Consider getting an empty plastic paint tub with a lid. They are available at hardware stores. You can line the paint tub with a plastic bag. She could discard the used toilet paper in the lined paint tub then cover it with the lid. When the paint tub is full, the contents can be discarded in the garbage.

Yes my Aunt who lived with us did that too, wore Depends, had a pad on top of that and also stuffed her underwear with toilet paper. I tried all kinds of things, but she told me she was afraid of smelling bad. It was a challenge. My MIL and Nana also HAD to have a tissue or handkerchief in their hands at all times.
So as to the TP, I just rationed her by only having a small amount on the roll. It, like everything else about caregiving was exhausting. Rationality did not help. I was going to try baby powder as an alternative to the 'smell' issue but she went into care and then it wasn't an issue for me any longer. Good luck!