If you live with family, or a roommate, how often do you acknowledge the little things that they do for you?

How often do they acknowledge what you do for them?

Replacing the toilet paper…buying the toilet paper…wiping down the toilet…

Do you do these tasks? Do you help with these tasks? Does someone else do these tasks? Do you expect someone else to do these tasks?

We ran out of toilet paper last week.

Normally, I am the person who replaces the paper on the holder. Usually they just grab a tissue. At least, I hope that they grab a tissue…but rarely does someone take off the used brown cylinder and replace it with a fresh gleaming roll…

And this is how I know that we are running out of paper…because I put the roll on and I count how many rolls there are left.

Early in pandemic, I would buy toilet paper when I saw it. I would pick up my one rationed pack and tote it home because we really didn’t know if we would see toilet paper again. I’m surprised some enterprising company didn’t rename their paper “Unicorn” because sightings were rare, and we would text each other if we say it…

“Morton Williams. Now. The good Charmin in four packs…”

But I digress…thinking about the good old days and how we had to forage for a square…

Back to my bathroom…

The other day, a miracle happened. Someone in my house replaced the toilet paper.

Huzzah.

Alas, the person who took that last roll out of the plastic covering failed to make the connection that throwing the package away meant that there was nothing left. Not a square to spare…

And neither alerted me to the lack of tp, nor bought a roll on their own.

Toilet paper

toilet paper

toilet paper

Nope. Not like Beetlejuice. You don’t say it three times and have it appear.

You have to actually go to the store and buy it…

Who knew?

Well, you know who knew? The person that always does these things…

So if someone in your life does the little things that make your world go a little more smoothly, give them a little nod every now and then. Be appreciative of the little things that they do. Maybe buy them a present.

Or maybe just check on the toilet paper situation, so that the person who does so much for you doesn’t go into the bathroom and say “Oh crap” for the wrong reason…

70 thoughts on “The Little Things”

  2. My wife buys it, but I do replace the rolls and would tell her if we were out. I’m the one who takes out the trash, cleans the toilets, etc. I’m pretty sure everyone who has ever lived here thinks elves so it while they are sleeping

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  4. I have a dream. I take a toilet paper roll and hide it. Then I remove all the toilet paper from the house, plus the tissue and paper towel. THEN, when I need to go, I take my hidden tp and afterwards, hide it again. When they ask me where the tp is I might take a piece of note paper and draw them directions to the store. The end.

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  7. There are rules in my house around stuff like this that is supposed to prevent these kinds of events. We have back ups of all kinds of things. If you pull the back up, you put it on the list so the one shopping can get a new backup before it is needed. I live with a lot of very… um… particular, yeah, we’ll go with particular… people, so this is something that is mostly followed. Except… my son isn’t quite as particular as the rest and often forgets to put the item on the list. Thankfully, the TP is so rarely the thing that gets forgotten. It is usually the fun stuff like breakfast items.

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  10. I always know when someone else changes the roll……They usually leave the old brown cardboard roll on top of the lovely new one – like a flag!!! Saying ‘look what I did!!!’

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      1. I’m not allowed to go anywhere near the dishwasher – I load it incorrectly – apparently 😀 my ploy has worked! Now to wash clothes incorrectly! I have a long list of things I can do incorrectly….

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  15. Have you ever seen the movie “Singles”? All Janet wanted was a guy who said “bless you” when she sneezed. Spoiler alert: she found him…right under her nose. Pun intended.

    Proof that it really is the little things that matter.

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  16. We frequently thank each other for the little things, even if routine in our agreed upon division of household chores.

    TP and pandemic buying, though….As I was going through my horrible recovery from knee replacement surgery, I came down with 3 + months of acute, chronic, non-stop runs – and the stores had no TP! We had about three rolls in the house and I was going (kid you not) about 30 times a day! That was my pandemic hell.

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  17. Okay, not to brag but my husband thanked me for doing the laundry yesterday. I am the toilet paper monitor but I am only really responsible for our bathroom. The kids have had to call me from their bathroom asking me to bring some TP to them – LOL.

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  18. Fantastic post, LA. 🤣 A great reminder to slow down and practice appreciation. Important, and I think this concept and practice will become even more important in the future as things open up more and more.

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  19. Oh noooooooo. This happened once in our house with shampoo (not mine, the boys’ shampoo) and no one told me they were out of shampoo until the DAY AFTER I GOT HOME FROM COSTCO. I mean. What even is that. Anyway, I try to show appreciation for the little things the guys do in our house – my big thing is that when they change the toilet paper roll, could they PLEASE put the old roll in the recycling. You’d think that would be easy but you’d be wrong. When they do that, once in a blue moon, I give lots of positive reinforcement in hopes it will happen again.
    By the way, found your blog through Ally Bean! Hi!

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  21. It’s sad how quickly we take those little things for granted, isn’t it? Especially when they make our lives so much easier. Saying thank you to the person who does them now and then is certainly in order.

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  24. It is the little things. Recently my husband asked me to write out directions on how to do the laundry, run the dishwasher and the bills. I asked him if he had taken out a life insurance policy on me I didn’t know about. I then realized for 40 years I have done it all, he thanks me at times, but it always throws me when he does.

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  25. Great post LA! Feeling and being appreciated goes a long way. I often chuckle at how my kids will be when they are out on their own because they just don’t get it. Well, one does, but not the other one. He will be the one reaching for the tissues after the roll is empty and cursing that he forgot to buy TP. LOL

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  27. Great post. A nice reminder that all the little things in life count and need to be appreciated. The only way to make others realize is by taking turns.. I feel everyone needs to collectively contribute towards chores around the house and take responsibility. Appreciation and respect will start pouring in then.

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  28. We had a rule in our family that the last person to fish a product was responsible to replace it, So toothpaste, soaps, toilet papers… all were responsible for it. The house worked like a well-oiled machine.

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  29. I’m glad at least a few other followers mentioned thanking other household members for being considerate when it comes to shared supplies. There may be some “spousal beware” tips in there too, though probably the heads up re the other party filing for divorce may only happen after both of you are retired and therefore able to run out for supplies of any type during the day. I’m speaking here only of my own recent painful personal experience.

    Clearly you LA live in NYC where there is no storage for anything. In the burbs we can lay in overly large supplies of nearly anything. My mom still does this and I must confess to still being the proud (remote) owner of a large stock of tampons for my daughters.

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