In Maine, You don’t Need to Throw Out Expired Pandemic Toilet Paper

Believe it or not, there are things about 2020 I miss.

As a complete introvert in most circumstances, I found the first several months of the pandemic to be the best time in my life. Of course, I felt horribly for all the bad that was going on in the world at large, but my life was almost idyllic at that point. I love staying home and enjoying quiet time with my wife. And for the first time ever,  we had lots of it.

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One thing I did get tired of pretty quickly, was all the shortages. I remember somewhere in week 2 or 3, we went to Sam's Club for supplies, and I saw a woman get in a screaming match with an employee, who didn't want her to take two carts full of toilet paper. She literally had over a dozen cases. She lost that argument, and a few more people got some TP that day. There was rejoicing by all.

That same TP you stockpiled 4 years ago, is now expiring. Does that matter?

Yup, that's right. Even toilet paper has an expiration date on it. It seems almost ludicrous that TP could ever expire. Yet, here we are. So the thing is, knowing that, does it really matter? Is there really anything to be concerned about when it comes to your 4-year old toilet paper?

Of course not. It's paper for gosh-darned-sake. It's not going anywhere. In fact, about the only thing you should be concerned with, is just trying to store it somewhere nice and dry. The only enemy of TP is water. And I don't mean moisture in your basement. I mean, as long as your TP isn't exposed directly to water and get soaked, it will last years. Even decades... So yeah... literally nothing to worry about as far as expiring.

So why did people stockpile so much?

It's hard to say really. A lot of manufacturers were having staffing issues, people were sick left and right... It was a hard time for a lot of industries. But since then we've learned just how far a few cases of toilet paper can go. Will it stop it from happening again in the future? Hard to say...

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Next time it might not be toilet paper. Maybe it'll be paper towels. Or jeans. Who knows? Sadly though, we learned that if people get a whiff of the idea that they might not be able to get something, you can bet they'll knock down the person in front of them to get to it. And that's what's really sad.

Maybe you could break some other old habits today too...