If you’ve been grocery shopping in person lately, you may have noticed that items like tissues, napkins, and toilet paper are – once again – in short supply. The shortage is nowhere near like it was at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March, but as cases of Covid creep back up this fall, these items aren’t as plentiful at the store as they should be. The new shortage raises a question: are you finally ready to let go of your reliance on toilet paper?
Why did Bidets gain Popularity?
Bidet toilet seats offer you the opportunity to reduce – and in some cases, eliminate – your need for toilet paper. That’s because instead of wiping your genitals with dry paper after you go Number One or Two, bidets clean your nether regions with a steady stream of water. Many bidet seats also come equipped with a warm air dryer for post-wash so you don’t even need a piece of toilet paper to pat yourself dry.
In case you’re not familiar with current bidet technology, today’s bidet seats similar to the TOTO S550e Washlet are largely interchangeable with your current toilet seat. As long as you have an outlet within three feet of your toilet bowl, all you have to do is swap out your boring, luddite toilet seat with a modern bidet seat. Then plug in the bidet, and voila, you’re ready to rock life sans TP.
Options Newer Bidets Offer
When you start researching bidets, you’ll find that modern bidet toilet seats offer you all kinds of options: heated seats, instantly heated water temperatures that can be controlled to the degree, nightlights, variable pressure washes, remote controls, slow closing lids, air deodorizers, the aforementioned warm-air dryer, and much more. You will find that you have so many options that it can be overwhelming.
Luckily, high-end bidets offer you all the perks in one seat. Mid-range bidets offer many options, too. The most affordable models have few bells and whistles, but even they can get you off of your dependency on toilet paper.
Bidets are Healthier Alternative to Toilet Paper
Letting go of TP is not just helpful in Covid times, it’s also good for your health in regular times. One of the main sanitation issues that can arise when using traditional toilet paper is that your hand might inadvertently come in contact with your waste. If you don’t wash your hands well enough after you use the restroom, you can accidentally spread that waste all over your home or work environment.
Unfortunately, this accidental spreading of bathroom waste happens more than anyone would care to think. Bidets, like the Brondell Swash 1400, eliminate this health risk because there is truly no need for your hand to ever come near your waste. After you do your business in the restroom, you simply press a button on your bidet to initiate your wash, and then you’re clean. Further, bidets have been shown to be more efficient and effective at eliminating harmful bacteria that toilet paper wiping can leave behind.
That means bidets can help women avoid urinary tract infections and they can help men and women avoid colorectal issues. Bidets have also been shown to help people who suffer from medical issues like hemorrhoids and constipation. Anyone who has ever had a hemorrhoid knows that wiping with abrasive paper can make the situation much worse. But a warm, gentle stream of water can actually clear the hemorrhoids up sooner. Likewise, constipation can be relieved without pills or medicine merely by using the enema wash setting available on many bidets.
Bidets Eliminate Dependency on Toilet Paper
Another important point to keep in mind about bidets identical to the Bio Bidet BB 2000 Bliss is that if you can eliminate your dependency on toilet paper, you’d be doing a helpful thing for the planet. Americans chop down millions of trees every year to manufacture toilet paper. Talk about waste. We’re killing all those trees just to make a product that we literally flush down the toilet. And converting large trees into soft toilet paper requires millions upon millions of gallons of water.
The water used in bidet cleanings is a fraction of that used to manufacture toilet paper. When you combine these facts you can see that converting to bidet use helps save trees and helps save water – two of our Earth’s most precious resources. Who knew you could help out that much just by changing how you behave in the bathroom!
Covid-19 may have brought you to the point of considering a bidet for your bathroom, but now that you have all this information on how healthy bidets are for you and our planet, do the right thing and buy a bidet today.
About the Author
Jensen Lee is the Founder and Managing Member of bidetsPLUS, an online retail store specializing in bidet toilet seats. Prior to bidetsPLUS, Jensen held management positions in technology-related fields, in both the U.S. and Europe. He has held the position of Product Manager of Global Network Services for British Telecom. Most recently, he held the position of Executive Director of Product Marketing at AT&T Interactive, AT&T’s internet advertising division.