Blog Update!
For those of you not following me on Facebook, as of the Summer of 2019 I've moved to Central WA, to a tiny mountain town of less than 1,000 people.

I will be covering my exploits here in the Cascades, as I try to further reduce my impact on the environment. With the same attitude, just at a higher altitude!

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Cloth Wipe Challenge check-in

Cloth Wipe Challenge 2009How's the Cloth Wipe Challenge going for those of you participating? Are you finding it easier or a lot harder than you expected?

I know when I first started out, I felt like I was doing something illicit. Like wiping my ass on the bath towels and not telling anyone. Or picking my nose and wiping it on the carpet. Well, you get the idea. Once you get over that strange feeling of wrongness and embrace the softness of cloth wipes, one can become rather giddy with excitement. Or something like that.

So, how's been your experience? Are you ready to sing from the rooftops, smile secretly to yourself, or give up the wipes?

12 comments:

Megan@SortaCrunchy said...

As you know, I'm in the midst of shouting it from the rooftops, in an amount of details that is wonderfully squirm worthy. I'm working on my next post about it RIGHT NOW. Came over here to grab some linkage from ya.

Honestly, I am so glad to be using it again. The one thing I will say over and over - and this applies to all cloth vs. paper discussions - cloth is just so much more EFFECTIVE than paper. Every time.

Looking forward to the thoughts of others on this!

motheralice said...

Yep, cloth is def. more effective than paper. My problem is remembering 1) don't drop in toilet, and 2) to use them even in the middle of the night (I guess old habits are harder to break when you're half asleep). Otherwise, this is pretty easy for me. Once I get more wipes made, I think I'll stick with it. Thanks again for making this challenge!!

Tadj said...

So far so good. I'm only going the #1 route, so it's not very weird feeling. Okay, I guess the first day was a little strange feeling, but I've already grown used to the routine. Also, I think my yogurt container of used wipes behind the toilet has remained out of view from my roommate. I could see continuing this after the challenge.

Robj98168 said...

Is there something wrong with picking your nose and wiping it on the carpet???? Huh????

dezprincesscc said...

Good so far! I did lose my grip on the soft flannel and drop it in once. Oops! And the TP is still right there for DH, so I've grabbed it out of habit a couple of times. I used pinking shears on flannel and they still frayed though. I think for the long term I'll have to find something better.

Cara said...

I'm set to go... AF is here until tomorrow, so I didn't want to start with that, you know. My wipes are ready and waiting. DD is just toilet trained so she went right to cloth, no tp at all ;)

Adrienne said...

You know Crunchy, you almost have me convinced to try this, but I am worried about dropping the cloth in the toilet and having to fish a pee-drenched sopping-wet cloth out of the bowl! YUCK! I know I'll do it, too. Even worse I'm afraid I'll do it in the middle of the night and flush it and clog the toilet and it'll just be a disaster. So I'm still on the fence...

Crunchy Chicken said...

Adrienne - Yeah, you do that a few times and you learn pretty quickly to pay attention! It really isn't pleasant fishing it out of the cold water. I've never flushed any, though.

Another option is to use cloth during the day and TP at night if you can keep it straight.

Sandy said...

You're right. It does feel a bit illicit. But I am doing fine and plan on continuing after the challenge is over.

Megan said...

Loving it! It does feel so much cleaner. One cloth really goes a long way.
I finally broke down and ordered some planet wise wet bags today. I've been wanting to for the diapers but they cost a bit more than I wanted to spend although they are supposed to be awesome and are really cute. I got seconds at clothdiaperclearance.com. Can't wait till they get here because I think it'll make the system a little bit better.
I would def. recommend sewing your cloths even if you used the pinking shears. Then they don't fray when you wash them. When you sew them, the flannel works great.

hennalion said...

well, this is an adventure. i know i'm retro-posting, but this happened in the middle of the week, i promise!

i chose to wash my wipes by hand (#1 AND #2), because my partner didn't want poop wipes in the laundry with her clothing, and it seemed worse to spend $3 on one load of laundry when it was really just a dozen cloth wipes.

so out came the dr. bronners, a bucket, and some boiling water. i soaked all the wipes in soapy HOT water for a couple minutes, swishing them around in the bucket, and then drained it and poured in boiling water, swished more, and once it had cooled down enough i washed them by hand.

bad news, though - i've washed my clothes by hand plenty before (no washboard or wringer, etc), but never with HOT water! i got blisters on my fingers. luckily in two days i'm moving back to a farm that has an old glass washboard lying around, so i'll be putting it to good use!

of course the wipes were rinsed afterward, and they're small enough that they air dry just fine if i lay them out on a wire shelf in the bathroom. woohoo!! that was an interesting process to figure out since i've never had kids or worked with cloth diapers before... washing poopy things by hand is quite the adventure.

Sarah said...

Ok, so this is *way* after the fact, but I just ran across these posts. They're pretty thorough! I've been on again off again using cloth wipes for #1 for a while now. It's easy at my house because we cloth diaper and the changing station is in the main bathroom on the dryer. I just toss the wipes in with the dirty diapers.

Of course, this gives me the problem of baby vs. adult wipes getting all mixed together. They're both mostly cut up old flat diapers. The baby wipes are a little small, though, and I'm kinda squeamish about mixing them up (I mean-they're used for *toddler* poo... eww). I just forget to use them sometimes if we're behind on laundry or they've been put away with the baby wipes instead of handy reaching distance from the toilet.

My main point for commenting though was regarding fishing them out of the toilet. First, you'd be over it if you've ever had to swish toddler diapers in the diaper with your hands. Yuck. Second, we keep a spatula (clearly marked *poo*) in the bathroom for diaper scraping, and I can just use it to fish stuff out of the toilet. What fun!