What is it with having pieces of paper towels all over the place?

In the old days it was a hanky. Now it's Kleenex or a paper towel. Runny noses, sneezes, drooling, drainage. Lots of reasons why an elder uses a tissue and likes to have it handy. Every so often, I go through Mom's purse and throw away all the used or wadded up Kleenex. I keep a wastebasket near her chair so she can discard the used ones when at home. I do the laundry, so if one goes into the wash, it's my fault not hers. Just one of the million things a day we have to keep on top of, LOL!

My mom does the same thing! She claims to get many uses out of one Kleenex and paper towel --just to be thrifty --and hates to be wasteful.

Perhaps it's a comfort thing. I remember my grandmother always having a handkerchief with her at all times. Never knew when it would be needed. Paper tissues replaced those as she got older and she always had them stuffed up her sleeves or pockets.

My mom has frontal lobal dementia, she does the same thing. They are stuffed in the couch, piled in her room, in her pockets, and in her purse.

No, no runny nose. I do asked her why the need of so much paper towel, but she has no respond. I will ask my friend in Fla. if she have asked her mom; what's with all the tissues? Thanks all, and have a blessed day!

Ah, tissues in the washer and/or dryer....I learned a long time ago to check ALL pockets before washing anything. Never know when a tissue has crawled in and taken up residence in a nice warm pocket but decides to escape during the heavy rinse cycle.

What I don't like is when she stuffs them in her pockets and then does laundry. The dryer vent is probably clogged by now and I worry about a fire. I may go in and clean myself or call out the vent wizard people. It has been less than a year since the vent people were here, but those tissues worry me. The filter doesn't catch it all. We have tissue fuzz all around the blow area from the dryer vent.

I think most old women do it. Noses run a lot and one is best armed with tissues at all times. My mother never goes anywhere without a couple of tissues clutched in her hand. Of course, she drops them here and there, so I keep some backup tissues in my purse for her. I understand the tissue thing. They are like having a security blanket in a world filled with runny nose.

Have you asked her why she has them? Does her nose run all the time? Really, it could be something practical. Or it could just seem practical to her . . . with her cob-webby mind. It could be her hazy replacement for Kleenex. Interesting, though, that they're both doing it.