Have you noticed a change in Charmin toilet paper lately?

For ages I have bought the package with the red label. It had been the same for a long time. And then something changed - sizes. Double roll, triple roll, gigantic roll, you had to be really careful to make sure that you bought a size roll that actually fit on the toilet paper roller thingy.

Now, if the arrival of sizes wasn’t bad enough, suddenly the Charmin in the red package is thicker. Being the busy parent that I am, it took me a few clogged toilet bowls to figure out something was up. But Kathy at the Junk Drawer whose humorous posts always make me smile, quickly cleared up the mystery - and I quote:

2. If I worked for Charmin, I could tell them that their Ultra Strong version of toilet paper doesn’t stand a chance in hell of being flushed down the toilet on the first try. It’s the consistency and thickness of paper towels, and no one with half a brain would try to flush paper towels. Stick with the Ultra Soft brand if you want to save a thousand gallons of water.

Thank you Kathy for my “Aha!” moment. You see, the red label Charmin has now been reborn as Ultra Strong (perhaps stronger than necessary) and the new blue label Charmin is called Ultra Soft (which is more similar to the “old” Charmin). I would take Kathy’s advice and stick with the blue Ultra Soft. If you are determined to buy the red label Charmin make sure you purchase a bathroom plunger to go with!