Watch: Toilet Paper Tablets?

This video title caught my eye, so I checked it out. Turns out, it’s not exactly marketed that way, but these compressed paper towels do look handy and super-packable for cleaning up after nature’s call.

The ones he’s demonstrating look a lot like the Instacloth, which another AO writer wrote about a while back. In what looks something like a huge aspirin pill, you have a roughly 8″x10″ paper towel. You wet it with an ounce of water or less, and it swells up and allows you to unfold it and put it to use.


Naturally, you need to keep them dry until you use them.

Personally, I carry paper towels with me while hunting for cleaning up after, well, you know. They fold up nicely and hold up a lot better than toilet paper. These compressed towels are also made of paper, they’re apparently good and strong, and since you wet it to open it up, it should work pretty well for that sort of work.

Because they’re simply paper without added chemicals, they’re biodegradable, and unlike baby wipes they really will break down in the absence of air and light.

At a rough cost of 15 cents apiece (this varies), I won’t order these anytime soon. I just wouldn’t get enough use to justify the expense; good quality paper towels cost just one or two cents each.

But if I had a lot of hiking to do and needed to conserve space in a pack or bugout bag, these would certainly be more packable than a roll of paper towels. And unlike TP, these would be great for washing your face and otherwise freshening up while out in the sticks.

What do you think? Useful cleanup tool, or expensive gimmick?

Russ Chastain

Editor & Contributing Writer Russ Chastain is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has spent his life learning about hunting, shooting, guns, ammunition, gunsmithing, reloading, and bullet casting. He started toting his own gun in the woods at age nine and he's pursued deer with rifles since 1982, so his hunting knowledge has been growing for more than three and a half decades. His desire and ability to share this knowledge with others has also grown, and Russ has been professionally writing and editing original hunting & shooting content since 1998. Russ Chastain has a passion for sharing accurate, honest, interesting hunting & shooting knowledge and stories with people of all skill levels.