Wind spacecraft measurements are analyzed to obtain a current sheet (CS) normal width dcs distribution of 3374 confirmed magnetic reconnection exhausts in the ecliptic plane of the solar wind at 1 au. The dcs distribution displays a nearly exponential decay from a peak at dcs = 25 di to a median at dcs = 85 di and a 95th percentile at dcs = 905 di with a maximum exhaust width at dcs = 8077 di. A magnetic field θ-rotation angle distribution increases linearly from a relatively few high-shear events toward a broad peak at 35° < θ < 65°. The azimuthal f angles of the CS normal directions of 430 thick dcs …500 di exhausts are consistent with a dominant Parker-spiral magnetic field and a CS normal along the ortho-Parker direction. The CS normal orientations of 370 kinetic-scale dcs < 25 di exhausts are isotropic in contrast, and likely associated with Alfvénic solar wind turbulence. We propose that the alignment of exhaust normal directions from narrow dcs ∼ 15–25 di widths to well beyond dcs ∼ 500 di with an ortho-Parker azimuthal direction of a large-scale heliospheric current sheet (HCS) is a consequence of CS bifurcation and turbulence within the HCS exhaust that may trigger reconnection of the adjacent pair of bifurcated CSs. The proposed HCS-avalanche scenario suggests that the underlying large-scale parent HCS closer to the Sun evolves with heliocentric distance to fracture into many, more or less aligned, secondary CSs due to reconnection. A few wide exhaust-associated HCS-like CSs could represent a population of HCSs that failed to reconnect as frequently between the Sun and 1 au as other HCSs.