If you’ve been following along with the Sustainable Swap Challenge, you know that one of this year’s theme on Conscious Life & Style is removing single-use products and transitioning to a low waste lifestyle.
One of the most commonly used (and wasted) one-use items in our lives is toilet paper. In fact, Scientific American reports that Americans use 36.5 billion rolls of toilet paper annually. Statista reports that the average American uses 141 toilet paper rolls per year which would result in an even higher number of total toilet paper rolls.
In terms of resources, the production of 36.5 billion rolls requires the pulping of approximately 15 million trees, the use of 473.5 billion gallons of water (yup, that’s nearly half a TRILLION gallons!) and 253,000 tons of chlorine for bleaching.
Although toilet paper might seem like a non-negotiable essential and necessary expense for sanitation reasons, there is, in fact, a better way. And that, my friend, is a bidet!
To make this zero waste swap and test out a bidet myself, I partnered with the bidet company, TUSHY! (Note that this post includes affiliate links. As always, all opinions are my own.)
The TUSHY team gifted me their Classic Bidet to try out, and I created this TUSHY bidet review to share my experience with it and to provide some helpful tips if you decide to make the switch to a bidet, too.
First, though, let’s start with the basics…
What is a Bidet?
Bidets are essentially a type of sink used to wash and clean yourself after… well, doing your business in the bathroom! The bidet can also be used for keeping clean during menstruation and some even use them for rinsing and cleaning cloth diapers. Bidets can come as a separate sprayer, a standalone fixture like a toilet, or as an add-on to an existing toilet.
Using water instead of rubbing toilet paper to clean might seem a little strange to North Americans but bidets are very common in Europe, (especially Southern Europe) Asia, and certain South American countries. But, when you think about it: bidets make so much more sense.
Bidets save you money, they save resources, and it’s far more hygienic (and comfortable) to truly rinse and clean that area than to wipe it with dry paper.
You might ask: what about wet wipes? Well, other than being FAR from a low waste option, wet wipes can clog up your pipes and many of the conventional wipe brands have questionable chemicals in them which can irritate that area.
To be honest, I wasn’t instantly convinced about using a bidet! I had seen bidets before when traveling to Europe and had been resistant to trying them out. I was convinced, though, by the environmental impact of toilet paper — and now after getting over the hesitation and trying out TUSHY bidet and seeing how much more clean you feel… I’m officially a bidet convert.
How to Install TUSHY Bidet
TUSHY has a pretty comprehensive guide to installing their bidet and the bidet ships with instructions as well so I won’t get into the nitty-gritty details here, but it was essentially these steps for the Classic Bidet:
- Turn off the water valve near the toilet
- Flush the toilet to drain the tank completely
- Take off the toilet seat
- Disconnect the existing flexible hose from the toilet tank
- Attach the flexible hose to the adapter to connect to the TUSHY
- Connect the other end of the flexible hose to the port under the TUSHY attachment
- Place the TUSHY on top of the toilet and align seat brackets with toilet seat mounting holes
- Secure the toilet seat on top of the TUSHY and voila! All done!
Installation is expected to take about 10-15 minutes for the classic bidet. The one snag that happened with the installation of the bidet on my toilet that made the process a bit longer was step 4: disconnecting the existing flexible hose. It was pretty tough actually to unscrew the existing flexible hose from my toilet tank so if this happens to you too, I recommend grabbing a towel or something else to get a good grip on the connection to unscrew it!
What is it Like to Use TUSHY Bidet?
Using a bidet feels a whole lot more sanitary! It actually kind of feels like you just showered. At first, I was nervous to use a sprayer in such a well, gentle area, but the TUSHY bidet comes with a pressure control knob that’s really easy to use, thankfully.
With the TUSHY Classic Bidet (the one I tested out) there is only a cold water connection so the water will always be a bit cool. The TUSHY Spa Bidet also connects to your sink’s hot water connection so this is the bidet option to get if you’d like to use warm water for your bidet.
The water isn’t freezing cold or anything with the TUSHY Classic, but the TUSHY Spa is probably slightly more comfortable. The reason I went with the Classic option is that my sink’s hose connection is under a cabinet and not accessible without doing some drilling! And even if you don’t have the same inaccessibility to your sink’s hot water connection, you may still prefer a simpler/quicker installation with the Classic. It comes down to personal preference! (And also, the Classic is $30 less expensive.)
Now let’s talk about soap. Some people do like to use sensitive soap for cleaning along with the water. I personally do not use soap (I figure the water is already a big step up from toilet paper!) but everyone has different needs and preferences. If you do have any sort of skin condition, I’d talk with your dermatologist or doctor first, though.
Overall TUSHY Bidet Review
Alright, now to the TUSHY Bidet Review!
As I mentioned, my primary motivation for using a TUSHY bidet was the environmental impact. And I’m happy to report that this has been successful as I’m using far less toilet paper. I haven’t been able to embrace air-drying so I’m planning to invest in some toilet towels to further reduce paper use.
Regardless, even if you still use a little bit of toilet paper to pat dry after going #2, you’ll be reducing toilet paper use.
In terms of the experience, I was pretty surprised by my TUSHY. I was expecting to sacrifice some convenience and comfort to achieve my low waste lifestyle goals, but it’s actually been really comfortable and it feels far cleaner than wiping with dry paper. Some people may argue you can just use wet wipes, but using a bidet is safer (have you looked at the chemicals on some of those wipe packages?!) and of course, it’s far less wasteful than using wipes.
I’ve seen some pretty fancy bidets will tons of spray and pressure options, but to me, this one does everything it needs to do. There are two options: there is a sink-like option where the water pours down which you’d probably have to use a cloth towel for or this is a spray-style option that has more pressure.
The pressure you feel likely depends on your pipes and how your water is, but with my fixture, I only turn the knob slightly for the slightest amount of pressure.
Plus, I’m all for affordably priced zero waste options. So at $80 for the Classic Bidet, that’s pretty unbeatable — you could probably make that money back fairly quickly in toilet paper savings!
Want to try it out yourself? You can shop the TUSHY Classic Bidet here and TUSHY Spa Bidet here. Let me know what you think if you do try it out!
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