1. Sailors shared a length of rope
The toilet aboard an Age of Sail ship — a hole set into the bow, called "the head" — obviously had no toilet paper. Sailors shared a length of hemp rope with one end unraveled into a soft, frayed tuft, and used it to clean themselves after using the toilet[1].
The used rope was simply left hanging over the side into the sea, in the hope that the motion of the water and the waves would rinse it clean for the next use. This unsanitary habit is thought to have been one contributor to the spread of diseases like dysentery and typhoid aboard ship[1].
2. Ancient Rome's shared sponge on a stick
Archaeologists have found, at the ruins of ancient Roman public latrines, a tool made of a sponge tied to the end of a wooden stick — known by the name xylospongium (or tersorium). The traditional interpretation is that it was a shared hygiene tool: used after the toilet, then rinsed in a bucket of water or vinegar for the next person to use[2].
That interpretation is debated, though. Because the original written sources are vague on the point, some more recent research suggests it may instead have been a brush for cleaning the latrine itself rather than a personal hygiene tool — and scholars remain divided on which is correct[2].
3. Japan used a thin wooden strip called a chugi
Paper was a precious, expensive material in ancient and medieval Japan, far too valuable to use once and throw away. Instead, people used thin, narrow strips of wood known as "chugi." Their length and thickness weren't standardized — there was no fixed size[3].
Large numbers of chugi have been excavated from ancient toilet sites around Japan, including at the ruins of the Kōrokan, a former diplomatic guesthouse in what is now Fukuoka. It took a long time for paper to become widely available enough to fully replace them[3].
4. Wiping with paper began in China
Around 589 CE, a scholar of China's Northern and Southern Dynasties period named Yan Zhitui wrote that he would not dare use, for toilet purposes, any paper bearing quotations from the classics or the names of sages — a remark generally considered the earliest known record of using paper for cleaning oneself[4].
By the early 14th century, one region alone — what is now Zhejiang province — was producing several thousand to as many as ten thousand bundles of toilet paper a year. Records show that in 1393, 15,000 sheets of specially made, perfumed soft paper were produced just for the Ming imperial family, while the wider court used roughly 720,000 sheets a year[4].
5. Corn cobs and mail-order catalogs in America
In rural America — especially in Appalachia and the upper Midwest — dried corn cobs, left over from eating corn, were widely used to clean up until around the 1930s. Dried out, they had just the right texture: not too hard, not too soft, and a basket of them was commonly kept in the corner of an outhouse[5].
In 1857, the businessman Joseph Gayetty began selling what's considered the first commercial toilet paper, but it didn't really catch on. Rural households kept relying instead on the thin pages of free mail-order catalogs that arrived every year. In 1871, Seth Wheeler patented a machine for making perforated roll paper, and in 1883 he patented a design specifically for toilet paper — the prototype for the roll format used everywhere today[5].
6. Most of the world still cleans up with water and a hand
Even today, cultures that clean up with paper are actually in the minority worldwide — more of the world's population belongs to cultures that use water and a hand instead[6]. In much of the Islamic world, a practice called istinja is used: after the toilet, water is scooped from a small container or ewer with the left hand for washing. In many countries across Southeast Asia and the Middle East, a small handheld shower head (sometimes called a bidet shower or "bum gun") is mounted next to the toilet for the same purpose.
Japan's heated washlet toilet seat — which rinses with warm water after wiping with paper — is an unusual combination of a paper-based approach and a water-based one. Its own development history and how widely it's used are covered in more depth in a separate article on this site[7].
7. Some countries don't flush the paper
Japanese toilet paper is engineered to dissolve quickly in water. Paper made elsewhere is often not, and flushing it as-is can clog the plumbing. Because of that, in many old European town centers, in Latin America, and in parts of Asia, used paper is commonly thrown into a bin next to the toilet rather than flushed — though this isn't universal; newer buildings and hotels can often handle flushing it, and the practice really varies by region and by individual building[8].
South Korea offers one interesting historical example: pit toilets were the norm there until the 1970s, and when flush toilets spread rapidly in the 1980s, one theory holds that improvements in paper quality didn't keep pace, so the habit of binning used paper to prevent clogs became established. A second theory traces the habit further back, to the pit-toilet era, when people avoided mixing paper and other foreign material into waste that was collected and used as fertilizer[8].
If you want to look for yourself
Check the packaging on the toilet paper at home: what kind of pulp is it made from (recycled or virgin), what percentage is recycled content, and how many meters long is a single roll? If you ever get the chance to travel abroad, it's worth noticing whether there's a bin next to the toilet or not — and, if you can get hold of toilet paper from another country, comparing its thickness and roll length with what you use at home. If you're curious about the real function of ancient Rome's shared sponge-on-a-stick, that's a good example of a question where specialist sources go deeper than this article can.