Some people are preparing, and what to do if toilet paper is sold out

I haven't been in the bigger stores recently, but my husband reports that there are sections of bare shelves here and there. One of these was for toilet paper.

But there is a substitute for toilet paper:  reusable cloth wipes that are sometimes called "family cloth".  There's an introduction to family cloth here from a family that uses it. These wipes are best made from cut-up cotton rags, preferably flannel or jersey from old T-shirts.  Jersey doesn't need hemming; flannel wipes will last longer if they are hemmed, but it's not strictly necessary.

In our house we don't use cloth wipes for the whole family, only for the babies. I highly prefer cloth wipes to disposable baby wipes; they just get the job done a lot better. I wash them along with the cloth diapers. With the "high-efficiency" washer at our house, I do a cold water wash first, with an extra rinse, and then another wash on the Sanitize cycle. In a non-HE washer, I would just wash them on Hot for the second wash, but the HE washers don't use the hottest of the available hot water for their Hot cycles.

I don't use bleach on the diapers or wipes, although I might if I were using a coin laundry. Mostly for the protection of my own family. The USDA (I think it was) did a study on bacteria in washing machines some years ago, and found that the washers were not sterilizing the laundry and that bacteria could very well be passed from load to load. The heat of the dryer, or direct sunlight in line-drying, reduces that risk quite a bit, I believe.

The main obstacle to us using family cloth full-time at our house is the extremely high risk that the wipes would be absentmindedly thrown into the toilet and flushed.