Japanese Twitter user’s advice is especially handy if you live by yourself.

If your home is supposed to be your castle, then surely your home’s bathroom, that quiet, peaceful place where you can be alone with your private thoughts and bodily functions, is your castle’s throne room.

Unless it becomes the dungeon, that is. Japanese Twitter user Shigeru Kanemoto (@SgkSsci) recently raised the question of what to do if you get done doing your business only to realize that your bathroom door’s handle or lock release has broken, and you’re now trapped inside. This is an especially big problem if you happen to live by yourself and have no family members or roommates that will hear you banging on the door or calling for help.

Luckily, if you’re locked in the bathroom, you probably also have a key, or, more accurately, the materials to make one, as Kanemoto shared in these photos.

https://twitter.com/SgkSsci/status/1310469461560885254

Simply take the core from a roll of toilet paper and tear the tube so it unravels. Then insert the edge of the paper into the thin gap between the door and frame, slide it up until it hits and undoes the latch/lock, and you’re free!

▼ A video demonstration

https://twitter.com/SgkSsci/status/1310578415829876737

Kanemoto’s MacGyver-style escape plan impressed other Twitter users, with many commenting that they’d previously gotten trapped in a bathroom and that if they’d known about Kanemoto’s technique they could have freed themselves using less destructive means than what they ended up resorting to, as shown in these photos.

https://twitter.com/hahahamemend/status/1310725002770051072

One commenter also showed that a plastic clear file will also do the trick, though it’s an item you’re less likely to have access to inside your bathroom.

https://twitter.com/kawashieee/status/1311166850344972288

Kanemoto actually recommends following multiple precautionary protocols. If you live by yourself, for example, going to the bathroom with the door open will guarantee an easy exit, though Kanemoto cautions that this plan carries the risk of getting so accustomed to the practice that you might forget to close the door when using the bathroom at a friend’s house or in a public restroom. He also says taking your phone into the bathroom is a good idea, since you’ll have a way to call for help should something go wrong (plus there’s all that great toilet-friendly reading material on the Internet these days).

Source: Twitter/@SgkSsci via Jin
Top image: Pakutaso
Insert images: Twitter/@SgkSsci
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Follow Casey on Twitter, where he’s been trapped in no fewer than two bathrooms in his life so far.