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!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Cloth Wipe Challenge Kickoff!

Cloth Wipe Challenge 2009Welcome to the first day of the Cloth Wipe Challenge! I hope you've got your cloth wipes stacked and ready to go. This should turn out to be a real easy challenge for you once you get into it if you are doing cloth wipes for #1.

If you are being more adventurous and getting busy with cloth wipes and #2, then it should be no more difficult than storing and washing cloth diapers. Actually, it's a ton easier than cloth diapers because you are neither peeing nor pooping directly into the cloth wipe. You are just, well, wiping.

If you are just now reading about this and want to know more, check out all the last posts on the topic about the basics and how to set up. For a real easy intro to cloth wipes that will cost you nothing and should relieve most of your squeamishness (for #1 at least), just take an old t-shirt and rip it into squares. Store the used wipes in whatever container you have lying about. Even an old large plastic tub with holes poked in the lid for air circulation will do, although I prefer a mesh bag of some kind.

Then wash the wipes with your other stuff whenever you get around to it. We've gone a few weeks in between washings without any smell or other issues. Remember, you are not peeing on them, just wiping so there's very little, if any, moisture left while they are "waiting" to be washed.

One of my readers sent me a rather well thought out email the other day asking if it really is more environmentally friendly to use cloth wipes over TP. I hope to get the chance to address her questions later this week.

In the meantime, start wiping!

12 comments:

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

Oooh, this ties in so nicely with my Ditch the Disposables Challenge which is going on through the end of October.

Cloth wipes for a week, huh? I just might be able to commit to that. Sign me up for #1.
Thx for the challenge, Chicken. ;)

Farmer's Daughter said...

Have fun folks! I'm out on this one... Don't hate me.

Michelle (Whats Cooking Blog) said...

Our kids' napkin drawer is filled with colored bits of cut up old t-shirts!

mudnessa said...

I have a mesh zippered bag I was using but I would have to empty it out when I wanted to wash my bras so I went rummaging through my drawers to find something else I could use to put the cloth wipes in (I started using them with last years challenge #1 only) and I found a stash of mesh bags from fruit and veggies from the store. I think I had bought some tomatoes and lemons in a plastic mesh bag at some point. It was secured at the top and bottom and I had cut a hole near one end to get the veggies out.

It is now hanging next to the toilet. When it gets full I secure the hole with a safety pin or two and toss it in the with a load of laundry. It works great and I don't have to go finding little pieces of cloth stuck to all my clothes.

For the cloth wipes I cut up an old sheet and did a horrible job at making them good sizes so sometimes I make my cloth 2-ply because they are so small and also because it is a really thin old sheet.

Good luck to all who are giving this a try, I am saving a lot on tp and feel so much better about buying it when I have to, especially since my husband refuses to give any recycled tp a try. He puts up with almost everything else so I let him have that.

Megan@SortaCrunchy said...

BRILLIANT! I am doing Amy (CDG)'s Ditch the Disposables challenge and this is one of my goals - cloth TP!

I just blogged about this yesterday so yeah, I am TOTALLY in!

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

mudnessa - love the idea of throwing all of the wipes in the mesh bag in the washer. i'm going to do that. :)

aubrey said...

I've been "stalking" Your blog! I started the no tp challenge last week...so please count me in!!! :)

hennalion said...

I'm in! I've been using cloth wipes for #1 since the lady and I moved out to the middle of nowhere. Wandering around in the fields all day doesn't lend itself to toilets or carrying tp, so I made us some nice flannel wipes to carry for those #1 on-the-spot moments.

We're living in an apartment for a few weeks, so maybe I'll step it up and go for #2 - good encouragement for me to sew more wipes!

TulipGirl said...

I'd totally do this, if I had a baby in the house. . . even though I know Hubby and the boys would think "ewwwww!"

Green Fundraising Ideas said...

If we were not right in the middle of a move, I would do this! I will postpone it and make it my dual challenge along with Amy's at CDG!

Jeanne

www.ecolabelfundraising.com

dezprincesscc said...

Today was, um, not a good day to start, for, you know, lady issues. But I'll be starting tomorrow! I'm pretty sure I'll end up sticking with it so I won't feel bad about a day.

Billie said...

My work asked me to go to Mexico later this week so I am out for now.