Is My Toilet Paper Shrinking?
Jul 28, 2009
Is it me or is my toilet paper getting smaller?
You’re not going crazy and you’re hands aren’t getting any bigger. One of closest companions is actually getting smaller.
Toilet paper was originally manufactured 4.5” wide by 4.5” long, which is relative to the average man’s hand size. The square makes it convenient to fold over a few times and still be acceptable for size/ sanitary coverage. Basically, the size was established because it worked – kind of like the 90-foot pitcher’s mound and the 10-foot basketball rim.
However, the size of toilet tissue has been reduced in the last decade as manufacturers try to trim costs by trimming sheet size.
Currently, most TP rolls are still 4.5” wide (or close too it at least), but have may contain much shorter sheets. Typical sizes of popular brands include:
- Kleenex Cottonelle; Standard : 4.5 x 4.0
- Angel Soft; Standard: 4.5 x 4.0
- Charmin Basic: 4.4 x 4.3
- Quilted Northern: 4.5 x 4.05
If you’re missing your old friend, have no fear. Two manufactures still produce 4.5x.4.5″ rolls of toilet paper:
- Boardwalk Toilet Paper; 2-ply
- Windsoft Recycled Toilet Paper ; 2-ply
**Product Update: As of November 1, 2009, Private Label brands Boardwalk and Windsoft Toilet Paper no longer produce sheets in 4.5″ x 4.5″ sizes. Both brands have reduced their sheet size to 4.5″ x 4.25″. Thank you to Phil for bringing this to our attention.**
Sort of out-of-date info:
Follow your own links for these two (to your own website) and you will see that these two are not 4.5 x 4.5″ anymore, but have been reduced to 4.5 x 4.25″ as well.
If you’re missing your old friend, have no fear. Two manufactures still produce 4.5x.4.5″ rolls of toilet paper:
- Boardwalk Toilet Paper; 2-ply
- Windsoft Recycled Toilet Paper ; 2-ply
Hi Phil,
Thanks for bringing this error to our attention. When the blog was written back in July, the sheet sizes were still being products in 4.5 x 4.5 sizes. We’ve updated the blog to show the current correct sizes. Sorry for any inconvenience!
I would like to see an update. After noticing my last purchase of Northern was 1/2 inch narrower than the prior purchase with same packaging (except dimension info), I decided to look closer at the store shelf. Almost all brands, except for one no-name brand, were between 4″ and 4.2″ wide. Doing the math, the reduction is about 15% less material with the same price tag.
I noticed the tissue getting smaller in the summer. I buy Northern and am not happy about the smaller roll. It goes back and forth on the roller. Everything is getting smaller and they charge the same price.
Isn’t there a regulatory agency that controls sizes? Just another case in point; it doesn’t matter what the people prefer.
Oh the ever shrinking roll of t-paper!
Northern now looks like rolls of adding machine tape. If you could find yourself a roll of
t-paper from back in the 50’s you would note the paper core fit around the paper holder with just enough slack to freely turn. That little core, of course, has enlarged and enlarged. It would now fit around a piece of 3/4 inch pipe with no problem. Dollar General Stores sell a nice big fat roll of paper, but I don’t see how they can manufacture paper so thin. You do use more but overall it lasts longer. I for one have spent my last cent on any Northern product.
Thanks very Good Sharing
We wish! No regulations on size of rolls.
I will stop buying Northern, too. I was my favorite toilet paper. I guess they don’t care what the customer thinks…..
I’ve noticed that Scott wrinkles the sheets near the end of the roll to make the roll look bigger.
Really? Can you send a picture? Jessica@cicgo.com
Okay, I am mad because my house was built in the 50’s and now the tp will not fit in the recessed holders. Has anyone replaced this type of recessed dispenser with one to fit the new width of the roll without ripping the whole wall out?
I have been on a toilet paper mission to find TP thet’s still 4.5 for the past year – Northern Quilted was the last one out there.
I, too, would spend a little more to have the wider paper. In fact, if a company made the smaller tubes AND a wider paper, maybe they could sell a 4 roll pack equivalent to the current space wasting 12!
cottenelle has gone to a 4×4 sheet! Sheet thats way too small … we get a super sized meal but a baby sized sheet of a%% wipe … pretty sheety deal.
@Sheila,
This doesn’t make any sense. The rolls have become more NARROW, not wider. If your roll fit a recessed spot at 4.5 x 4.5, then certainly it will still accommodate a 4.5 x 4.0.
You may want to check again. That just doesn’t make sense that a house built in the 50s won’t accommodate the newer smaller rolls.
I could see if they were getting wider, but yeah…just a simple matter of physics it would seem to me.
Sheila’s comment does make sense, since some of the rolls are narrower AND fatter, so they won’t fit into the recessed TP holders.
If all tissue paper brands would have the same dimensions / size and standard number of plys, it would so much better!
But who would be the one to set the size? Some people prefer 1-ply to 2-ply, or vice versa. I think toilet paper democracy is a better way to go
Re: the recessed holders, the roll has nothing to hold it in since the holders come in from the side and the roll is narrower. It just falls out. Annoying!
I too do not like the change in the size. It looks stupid on the holder. It looks like I bought cheap stuff. But….. I had collected several large packages of Northern when it was 4.5 wide. I have lots of things like that put away. I only use them when company comes so it doesn’t look so stupid bouncing from side to side on the holder.
Who makes Boardwalk tissue paper? I am looking for their contact info. The mill contact info.
Costco’s Kirtland paper is 4.5 wide and very good.
Boardwalk is a private label manufactured for Lagasse Sweet. For contact information, please visit their website: http://www.lagassesweet.com. Hope this helps!
I switched from Northern to Costco’s Kirkland brand last year and LOVE IT. They are also individually wrapped, which is an added bonus. The quality seems very comparable to Northern and it’s less expensive. I was a loyal Northern user all my life until they shortened the rolls, which now looks ridiculous on my TP holders. I emailed Georgia Pacific and got the same canned response as written on another blog. I do not routinely blog or complain to companies, but this change almost felt like a betrayal after being a loyal customer for so long and the fact that the change was instituted without warning as if they thought people wouldn’t notice. They will never get another dime of my money and the Costco membership fee is well worth it!! Thanks Georgia Pacific for forcing me to find a better alternative to your overpriced generic TP!!
update: I have been researching and have found that tp on a continuous roll like at a resturant is 3″ with no perforations. Quilted Northern that I found was 4″ by a 4.5 sheet. Kirkland brand was 4.5 by 4.5. but most ranged 4.5 to 3″ core and the majority were 4.25 by 4.25. Now, we are still paying the high price and about the same price per brand…Are we getting “ripped” off?
And who determined the size of the sheets anyhow?
CVS Brand “Premium Bathroom Tissue” is 4.5 inches
wide in a 4 roll pack. 2ply.
I guess with smaller sheets size, they can somehow make more money, usually that is the only reason to change something?
Thanks for letting us know Eugene!
So I thought my tissue paper is really shrinking because everytime my mom is buying from the store I am wondering of its size.
Nowadays, tissue papers are getting more expensive and I agree that the size is shrinking. I guess that’s how they make money. Same price for a lesser production cost.
Maybe it is more economical for toilet paper to be produced with a smaller sheet size? How big of a sheet do we really need?
I think the toilet paper is shrinking. Before you can just use two squares to wipe your behind, but now you need 4 or at least 3.
The brand that I buy is 4.25 x 4 and it’s one of the widest one’s I can find any more. It’s a Safeway generic brand, SOFTLY, I believe. I have noticed for years that a lot of TP has been shrinking and I refuse to buy them. I am always looking for the bigger rolls and will switch when I find one in a heartbeat. It hate the feeling of being ripped off.
This is what I think the TP companies are going to do in a few years time. They will put out “new thicker and wider” TP for an increased price of their “regular” rolls. It will actually be the same size of what the rolls used to be, but most people who don’t see the shrinking of the TP now, will just buy into it, paying more money for what they used to get 10 years ago. It wouldn’t surprise me if the big TP companies plan was to both cut materials now so that they can make more product, therefore making more money now and THEN in a decade, after subtle shrinking over that time, make more money by marketing the original sized TP as a new “convenient product”.
I know, a conspirator lives within me
Toilet paper resizing is pissing me off:
Angel Soft Standard has gone from 4.5 x 4.0
to 4.0 x 4.0
Whats next 3.5?
I am on a crusade to find the min of 4.5 in width
(height)