Resources
Restroom supply estimator: a month of paper, soap and liners for your building
Enter the people in your building, daily visitors and the days you’re open, and this restroom supply estimator shows a monthly range of tissue rolls, towels, soap refills and liners. Use it to size an order, set closet stock or check what you buy today.
A month of restroom supplies, estimated
Start with your building type and the number of people there on a normal day, then add daily visitors and the days you’re open each month. Choose your tissue (standard or jumbo rolls), how people dry their hands (multifold or roll towels, or hand dryers), the soap your dispensers take (foam or liquid) and how many restroom trash bins you have. The estimator shows how many restroom visits your building sees in a month and a monthly range for each supply, ready to send with a quote request.
How the estimate is put together
The estimator works in two steps. First it turns the people in your building and your visitors into restroom visits, using the building design defaults that designers rely on when sizing restrooms for each type of building. Staff who spend the whole day inside account for far more visits than a customer who stops by for half an hour, which is why the two are entered separately. The building type matters as well, since a shopper in a store and a patient in a waiting room don’t use a restroom at the same rate.
Then it turns those visits into paper and soap, drawing on hand-washing observation studies for how much towel and soap a wash takes, and on the sizes of the products you chose. Liners follow your bin count and the days you’re open. The arithmetic stays inside the tool, so you see a finished monthly range rather than a formula.
Why you get a range, not one number
Two buildings with the same headcount can go through very different amounts. Habits differ, dispensers differ, and some weeks bring more visitors than others. A range gives you a sensible low and high to plan between: stock toward the top while you learn your building’s pattern, then settle where your real use lands. After a month or two of actual orders, run the estimate again and compare the two; the gap shows whether a dispenser, a busy room or a change in visitors is moving your numbers. Our guide to matching restroom care to how busy the room is looks at the same idea from the cleaning side.
What pushes use higher
- Visitor-heavy buildings. Stores, clinics, restaurants and venues send a steady stream of short-stay guests through a few restrooms.
- Towel format. Roll towels and multifold towels are pulled differently at the sink; switch between them in the estimator to see how your choice moves the range.
- Dispensers without portion control. Open towel stacks and soap pumps with no set dose let each person take more than a wash needs.
- Long hours and events. Weekend opening, evening classes and busy seasons add visits that a weekday headcount misses.
When one restroom runs out before the others, its dispenser or its traffic is usually the cause, and that’s worth pointing out on the walkthrough so the plan can change for that room alone.
What sits outside the estimate
Two items are left off the result, toilet seat covers and the small bags that line feminine hygiene bins, because no reliable published figure shows how many of either a building uses. Those are counted with you on site instead. Hand sanitizer stations, breakroom paper and trash bags for other rooms are sized on the same walkthrough, so the full supply list comes together in one visit.
Dispensers deserve a deep clean too
Stocking keeps the paper flowing, but the dispensers themselves collect dust, soap drips and fingerprints that a refill never touches. During commercial restroom deep cleaning, towel, soap and tissue dispensers are opened, wiped inside and detailed outside, alongside the rest of the room: fixtures descaled, partitions washed, floors and drains scrubbed and high-touch points disinfected. Book a restock on the same visit, and every unit starts the month clean and full.
Turning the estimate into stocked restrooms
The result is where planning begins. The button beneath it drops the estimate into the quote form on the same page. On a free walkthrough we count fixtures and dispensers, check which refills fit them and set a reserve for each supply closet. Ora’s janitorial supplies service can then deliver and stock paper, soap and liners on their own or alongside cleaning visits.
Still deciding who should buy the stock? Our guide on whether you or your cleaner should supply paper, soap and liners weighs both options. For the cleaning side of the room, see restroom deep cleaning and the restroom cleaning checklist. To plan the rest of the building, try the cleaning task list builder or the janitorial schedule planner.
A few useful answers
Common questions
Why does the estimator ask for visitors separately?
Visitors use a restroom far less often than the people who work in the building all day, and how often depends on the kind of place they’re visiting. Counting them apart keeps the estimate close to real use.
Should I choose standard or jumbo tissue?
Choose whatever your dispensers take. A jumbo roll holds much more paper, so the number of rolls drops even though the paper used stays about the same.
What changes if we use hand dryers?
Pick hand dryers and paper towels leave the estimate, while tissue, soap and liners stay in it.
Can Ora keep our restrooms stocked from this estimate?
Yes. Pass it along with your quote request, and after the walkthrough we set reserve levels for each closet and deliver and restock on a schedule that matches your use.
How often is it worth rerunning the numbers?
Whenever your headcount, opening days or dispensers change, or before a busy season, so your stock keeps pace with the building.
Are dispensers cleaned when restrooms are restocked?
The outside of each dispenser is wiped on the regular visit, and a periodic deep clean opens and details each unit inside and out.