BPathome, I started almost the exact thread about a year ago with same observations. I think it is marketing trickery but find it inevitable, sigh...the thread morphed into a discussion about wages and cost of living vs Corp greed.

OK, you made me look. :) 4x4 exactly, I think it's Angel Soft. But I agree about the smaller rolls. Some of it feels like it was rolled by hand, it's so loose.

I had to look, too - 4" x 4.5" Costco Kirkland brand.

They've been tricking us for a long time, and TP companies aren't the only offenders.

I no longer buy TP in retail stores because of this. It's all pumped up with air to make the rolls look big. IT's a complete fraud.

I buy Feathersoft TP by the case (96 rolls per case, 500 sheets per roll - vs. the usual 200 in stores), from Webstaurant.com. I love it. It's like TP used to be, and you don't go through one roll in a day.

Or, yes, Kirkland.

I was using Cottonelle but got tired of changing the roll so often, so I switched to Scott without the cardboard tube, hoping they'd be the ones to buck the trend, but the paper is thinner so you use more.

I use Scott Brand Septic Friendly. It's really thin, so I use more, but it melts in water and doesn't clog the septic. Some of the softer, thicker varieties definitely appear to be wound loosely on the tube.

Kirklands here too, the price has really jumped over the years and the amount included in the bulk package is maybe 2/3 to 1/2 of what it used to be. That's a lot less paper for a lot more money! (It's not as thin as Scotts and is Septic safe)

Good to know the Kirklands is septic safe. My parents us Scotts for septic, and it is soooooo thin.

I wish TP and paper towels had their name on the roll, so when you get down there you know what to buy--or not buy--next time.

bossy, yes, I do recall there was a thread about it, I couldn't remember when that was. But it was on my mind this a.m. as I reached for a fresh roll...again..land there was NONE!

FYI: All TP is septic safe. I"m also on a septic system. What I've been told by two independent septic pros is that the mosts deadly things for septic systems are wipes of any kind...baby wipes, that sort of thing, even if they say "Biodegradable" on the package. Do not ever flush wipes.

1000 sheet rolls for us as well - & Scott's isn't the only co. making them. Target's Up&Up brand is almost $1 less for a 4-pack here.

1 roll lasts so much longer than those 'soft & fluffy' brands. & they haven't seemed to change @ all over the many years I've been buying.

DH is our "provisions" shopper, and I've noticed that he's been bringing home the small rolls lately so can only assume they've been on sale. Seems I'm changing rolls about every other day, which is annoying. Of course, when he brought home the ginormous rolls, I complained because they didn't fit well on our TP holders due to their huge proportions.

Do not ever flush wipes. Yes. This. Don't flush 'em whether on septic or a "regular" system. I heard a plumber say that although they may claim to be flushable, you should never flush them. "Technically, a sock is flushable, but you'd never even think about putting one down your toilet. Same with wipes."

Funny, I recently noted how often I was changing the rolls. It seemed really odd because now it's generally just DH & me here during the week. I knew something had changed. I'd rather pay more & not keep having to change rolls out.

I buy my paper goods at BJ's & mistakenly grabbed a pack of Bounty Basic paper towels instead of their regular ones. Cannot believe how bad they are! Almost as useless as using a facial tissue to clean a spill. The thing is the price was close to what I'd been paying for years for the regular towels and the packaging is almost identical, which is why I hadn't noticed.

Yup, these products have changed for the worse, I'm afraid.

I love Kirkland paper towels, for what it's worth.

At his office yesterday, my DH had Rotor Rooter (sp?) come to fix a clog. The plumber said to only use Scott because most other TPs will eventually cause clogs. The office is on regular pipes, not septic. We have septic at home.

How long is "eventually"? I've been using Kirkland since I moved into this house 15 years ago and have never had a clog (not on septic). The rolls last a long time before changing, and because it comes in such a giant bulk package, I don't have to buy it very often and I never run out. I was bummed when they switched from individually wrapped rolls to multiple packs, but it does make for less wasteful packaging. I like their paper towels, too.

We only buy Kirkland paper towels and toilet paper.

My sister, head of the Costco Fan club, bought us all Kirkland TP as gifts. There isn't a Costco product she doesn't LOVE. We make fun of her about it.

I occasioanly vacation with a friend that buys multiple roll packs of whatever brand he likes, even when staying in a hotel. I said it doesn't matter to me, I use what is provided. From the shocked look on his face, you would think I said I use dollar bills.

When he uses my vacation place, he never checks to see how much of his brand we already have so he buys another multi pack. My linen closet is so well stocked I had to tell him NO MORE until this is gone. I'm running out of space for towels.

In his defense, he has a family of 5, plus they always bring extra kids, so I guess they use a lot of TP? I try not to think about it.

He also over buys baggies, foil, wax paper - that drawer is ridiculously full. I did an inventory of alcohol recently and put a moratorium on buying more until they use up that stock. He's generous to a fault but I'm running out of room in the kitchen.

Sorry, I digress, back to the conversation about TP...

I think I once bought that Scotts single ply stuff that's supposedly better for septic systems - hated it. I've been on a septic system for about 25 years. I use regular TP - no problem. In my city it was required by law to have system pumped every two years and visually inspected. No big clog of TP in there. We do not however flush any feminine hygiene products.

I guess if you don't plan to have your septic system pumped on any kind of regular schedule suitable to your level of use, the less you put in it the better including single vs. double ply TP.

I finally resorted to buying the jumbo rolls of TP because I felt like I was using a roll every couple days. Unfortunately when we moved the TP holders are too small to accommodate - big rolls won't roll. So now I'm back to buying a giant package of tiny rolls and going through several per week - in a household of two people.

During the economic collapse when they made the rolls shorter they would no longer stay in my TP holder - it had a prong on each side, not one all the way across. They fell out and unfortunately the TP holder was one of those ones recessed into the wall so not easy to change.

I also noticed at that time that bars of soap started being hollowed out on one side so you got about half as much soap as you did before at the same price.

MD 6 pack (supposed to be like 24 rolls) and it's nice NOT to have to put new ones on quite as often : )

We are also no septic, have lived in our home for 19 years and have had no problems with the system. We use charmin. If you will pour your old milk out in a sink, toilet, etc. it goes to the septic field and helps provide bacteria to "eat" up the paper. If you don't have excess/old milk products, there is stuff you can by and I believe, use once a month.

HH, as usual, you crack me up!

We've been on our septic for about 10 years, maintenance it every couple of years and have never had any issues with the Kirklands.

We love(d) their paper towels too until they went from regular sheets to those stupid pick a size which we absolutely hate. It's a marketing gimmick, they claim more sheets but we compared them to the standard and while yes, there are more tiny sheets, they are SMALLER. Volume wise, the rolls are much smaller than the ones with standard size sheets. Kirklands towels are made by the same manufacturer as Bounty. Refusing to have the select a size pushed on us, we found the regular sized Bounty towels at Sam's club. The packaging is the same but costs about 7.00 more. I'll pay more because at least we're buying what we actually like but 7.00 difference is a steep increase IMO.

My mom hates the select-a-size, Dad likes it. I think it's great. I was always tearing the sheet in half anyway; the smaller sheets is much better. If I need a bigger sheet, I just tear off at the second perforation. (I like Bounty)

I got Kirkland tp because everyone raved about it. The first pack I liked a lot. The second pack, not so much. Did they change it?

By the time I get to the end of a roll, I forget what I've bought! Why don't they label the tube?

Well, there you go, variety is a good thing, too bad it's slowly disappearing.

Love Kirkland TP.

To determine how easily your tp will break down just put a few squares in a jar half full of water, seal the jar and shake for a few minutes. You should end up with what looks like snow in the water. Most tp on the market today is septic friendly. What you never ever want to flush is kleenex or any other tissues or paper towelstowels. Do the same test using a kleenex in the water and no matter how hard or long you shake the jar the kleenex will remain the same. YouTube has several of these tests you can watch. When you own an RV you learn really quickly how important it is to have extremely easy to dissolve tp! And you absolutely never put a kleenex down the RV toilet. Now that we are being forced to live in the RV in the driveway because our house went under water I can tell you I really really miss my Charmin! It is not very RV friendly - I tried it. The worst tp in the world is the stuff they sell as RV tp. It is just about see through.

I have bidets on my toilets in the house and I really miss them too. I have been looking for one that will fit on an rv toilet. I wish they came standard on them, reducing the amount of tp going in the tank.

Ravencajun,

I am so sorry to hear about your home. The flooding is so difficult to watch.

Love Kirkland as well. Bought some other stuff on sale, and am changing the rolls constantly!

Wow, sorry to hear about your house, raven.

Bidets/washlets are so civilized, environmentally friendly, and do a better job than TP, so why are they taking so long to be part of most American households?

Oh, raven - so sorry about your flood woes. I keep thinking it's hit the high mark but it keeps going.

I, too, got sick of trying to buy decent sized rolls and having to change the rolls/buy them so frequently (I got so sick of trying to compare brands/sizes/sheets/rolls/prices, etc) that I went on a quest, based on Tibb's recommendation of buying online. I found this and am SO happy with it. 4.5" x 4.5" squares, two ply but it's more like a thick one ply to me (better for septic according to my septic folks), soft enough, wrapped in paper, so no plastic waste (yay!). And I now have enough tp to last for ??? a year, maybe two. There are other versions of Boardwalk, but the one I bought is #6155. I got it on Amazon with free shipping.
boardwalk

I bought a pack of "mega" rolls at Aldi. They really are mega rolls.

You have to maintenance your septic system? Oh jeeze. City girl here. We moved to a lake house on a septic system a little over two years ago. All I remember the Realtor saying about it was that it was checked and should be fine. I too use Kirkland TP, but the occasional Cottonelle wipe gets flushed. Have I set myself up for disaster?

Darcy, wipes are very hard on a septic system. My neighbor flushed wipes and it ended up clogging up some of her septic pipes - it was a major, smelly mess that involved heavy equipment and new lines. Wipes don't degrade at all. I'm not sure a few wipes is cause for alarm but I sure wouldn't flush any more!

And Darcy, just to make sure you know, you have to have your septic pumped out at regular intervals...depending on how large it is, how often it's used, etc. It gets filled with sludge and can fail (which you don't want to have happen). Find out who your neighbors use and consult with them about frequency. The wipes will get removed when it's pumped, but using them too often or if your pipes are narrow, they can plug up the works.

Darcy, it's usually about every two years for septic pump outs, so about time to make that appointment.

For TP I usually buy Marcal, as it's recycled (ummm, NOT from TP), and of good quality.

We must be real hillbillies here because I do not know of anyone who has had their septic "serviced" or pumped unless they had a problem. We supposedly have a pretty large tank and only 2 people. We've been in the house 19 years. It's only been pumped once, because we had something happen to a pipe coming out of the house and since they opened the tank, they went ahead and pumped it. Also, it seems like the water/TP test wouldn't be very accurate because water would not have bacteria, which helps the tp dissolve???

The water test is to determine how easily the paper disintegrates. The bacteria will take care of the rest but when paper or tissue, wipes are put in the bacteria has to try to do all the work. Being able to dissolve easily in just water makes much less work for the septic systems. If you have a really well set up septic system and very good pipes and very good lateral lines you may never have to have it serviced. But it's extremely rare for all of those parts to be perfect. We have had them at every home we owned. Some with no problems some with lots of problems. For example where we are now with all the flooding everyone is having septic problems. The lateral lines are completely under water so there's no way the septic systems can function. The ground water will get into the septic tank and it will all back up right into your house, the bathtubs, shower, toilets, sinks. When the ground is under water they fail. We have had ours pumped several times during the flood. That is all you can do. As soon as they pump it out it will fill back up with the ground water.

If you have breaks in the lateral lines it can't drain the liquid from the top of the tank and it will back up. If you have old clay pipes they eventually crumble and cause a blockage. Every thing backs up. We have had all of the above between the various houses. I now know way more than I ever wanted to know. And then I had to learn about the RV dumping process which I will never personally do, that's myhusband's job. Our current house has 2 septic tanks 500 gallons each. Some have a special one just for the kitchen a grease trap.

Please don't ever flush anything except toilet paper even if you don't have a septic tank and are in the city. The wipes, tissue feminine products still end up in a septic system and it still causes big problems, it doesn't just disappear, and it doesn't dissolve it takes chemicals, bacteria and a long time to begin to break it down. Think about how much of those things get flushed in a big city! How would you like to have the job of dealing with those clogs.

If the grass is growing beautiful and green over your lateral lines you probably have a pretty good septic system. I could spot our lateral lines at our Dallas house from the Google Earth maps, nice straight bright green grass in rows the rest of the ground around it was brown dry dead grass. Never had a single problem with that system. The ground was super dry and ready to absorb all the water from the lateral lines.

In Thailand and other countries, even public bathrooms have some form of washlet, mostly a hose attached to the tank. The US relies on tp. We bought a $50 washlet that attaches to almost any toilet and it makes a huge difference, both in feeling clean and using tp.

Interesting Raven. I have always had a septic system, except for the first 3 years we were married. My dad has been in his house 52 years and they did have to replace field lines or something along that nature somewhere down the line. He is also on a well. We had a well and septic in our first home but since then we have had only septic. I think we do have good lines and no clay pipes. I know when we built, we had to identify a site for a second system, should we ever need to go that route. I hope note! Sorry you are having troubles!

Was just talking to boss the other day about septic tanks...he is on septic and has maybe had his septic pumped once in 10-15 years. If I understood him right, assuming everything breaks down like it should and leach out you wouldn't need pumping. I know growing up on septic, I remember the pumping company many times.

I live in a house with a septic designed for 3-4 bedrooms and for the 35 years I've been here it's been only 1 or 2 people in the house. Nothing goes down the toilet but tp, no kleenex, no fem hygiene, etc. I've had the tank pumped only 3 times and the last time it had been 8 years and I was told I could have gone a few more years. The problem with not pumping, I was told, is that if things aren't working right, or the tank fills with sludge, it can spill out into your drainfield and ruin it (or back up into the house). Around here a new drainfield/septic system is tens of thousands of dollars because of the proximity to Puget Sound and they now are requiring everyone to put in a very, very fancy electric system that I don't want to have to pay for. So I have it pumped, just as extra insurance that it will continue to work well.

Here is a good article from Mass. about their recommendations:
Mass.gov septic care