Wondering how long your toiler paper stash will last while in self-quarantine during the coronavirus pandemic? Well, wonder no more, because new website HowMuchToiletPaper.com can do the math for you!
Created by London-based software developer Ben Sassoon and artist Sam Harris after they had a conversation about how much toilet paper they each use on a daily basis and how that would change during the global health crisis, HowMuchToiletPaper.com features two main sliders. The first one is for the remaining number of toilet rolls you have, and the second one is for the estimated number of toilet visits you take per day. Adjusting these sliders automatically displays the number of days you have left before you run out of toilet papers.
But to get a more accurate figure, you can also modify five additional sliders under the advanced options tab. These sliders are for your average number of wipes per toilet visit, number of sheets per wipe, number of sheets on a roll, number of people in your household, and number of days you need to be in quarantine.
In an email to The Verge, Sassoon said that he and Harris made the online calculator for some “light-hearted humor.” But to their surprise, it quickly became “a tool that can educate the masses and help reduce the stockpiling issues going on around the world.”
“We went from idea to deployment in less than three hours. The site has definitely gone through a lot of changes since the first version, but it just proves the power of the internet. You can go from idea to viral in hours or even minutes,” Sassoon explained. “We are currently at around 2 million viewers in just four days. It’s beyond anything I’ve experienced before.”
The duo also hopes that the website will help people realize the dangers of hoarding during a crisis. “Our average user has 500% more toilet paper than they would need in a potential quarantine. We are hoping that people will use the site and see they don’t need to go out and empty the shelves,” Sassoon said.