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 20, 2009

Cloth Wipe Challenge Wrap-up

Cloth Wipe Challenge 2009Today wraps up the Cloth Wipe Challenge for 2009 and I know more of you are participating than those who responded to the check-in earlier in the week. For those of you who haven't weighed in yet, now's your chance. Now that you've had a whole week to try it out, what are your thoughts? Will you continue or are you gonna hang up your wipes?

For the rest of you, here's a poll, because we haven't had enough lately!

Would you ever try using cloth wipes?

11 comments:

Tressa said...

Love the cloth wipes! This was pretty easy and will continue. I'm only using for #1 right now and I think I'll tell my husband about it too now. I love the softness of the cloth wipes vs. TP. (I bought mine at Wallypop = http://living.wallypop.net/) I always had problems with TP "leftovers" too, when the TP started coming apart during use and stuck to me. Not an issue with cloth! Way less irritation too. I don’t think my body likes TP. Now it feels weird to use TP outside of home. I’m not sure how to, but I’m thinking about taking wipes to work. I do it with my cloth pads…. This will take more thought. I had thought about switching for a little bit and your challenge was what I needed to get going. Thanks for the challenge!

Anonymous said...

I too love the cloth wipes - so soft! #1 is easy - haven't had the nerve to try #2. Hubby is also using the wipes. Don't think we will ever go back to TP for #1. Love your blog.

Sparkless said...

Another great idea is to get a plastic squeeze bottle. Before you go to the bathroom fill it with warm water. After going squeeze some water on your bottom to clean stuff off. Us your cloth wipe to dry. You can only do this at home but it really helps when you want to use cloth wipes after a bm.

Amy in Tacoma said...

I tried the squeeze bottle once, and all it did was make me have to pee again!

I started the cloth wipe challenge before the start date (not realizing there was a state date initially), and throughout the last two weeks, I've used cloth sometimes and TP at others, based on whether or not I remember.

I'll probably continue to do so. It does take a lot less to wipe up with cloth than TP, but I have to remember, and to clean them often (unlike others, I only do laundry once every 2 weeks, so I need to handwash my wipes in between laundry days.)

An advantage to cloth wipes is that it makes frequent cleaning of the toilet easier. We practice "let it mellow" in my house, which makes the toilet get stained faster. If the bowl has TP in it, you have to flush before you clean. No TP in the toilet means you can clean often without using water to flush first.

Anonymous said...

I may give it a further try in the future. I tried using some flannels I have for menstruation, but they just didn't seem absorbent enough. The idea of a bag hanging off the TP roll just struck me as really ugly, plus the peed-on wipes would touch the wall.

I need to find the right fabric and the right container, and I'd like to find a squirt bottle. I had just recycled one that would have been perfect after it sat unused for over a year. But, how do you get warm water? By either running the tap or heating it in the kitchen? Neither of those seems a great solution, but cold water is quite unpleasant.

I may get there one of these days. I did at least try it this time!

DK said...

Tried it and loved it. I was actually doing this earlier than the challenge start date because we ran out of TP in the house as I had said in a comment to an earlier post. I just have to keep it on the DL as right now my fiance and I live with his mother and I just know she would have a fit about it if she knew, even though I'm fairly sure she used cloth diapers on her boys at least a couple times.

Megan at Simple Kids said...

Spurred on by you and Amy (Crunchy Domestic Goddess), I am thankful to be using cloth TP full-time again. I'm sticking with it, sister!

ashley said...

well, I'm sorry to say that I didn't participate...after I was all gung-ho and excited to get going and everything. I got sick right after I signed up. dealing with extra wash while I could barely keep up with regular stuff didn't sound so good. turns out, I'm pregnant! so, while the "sickness" may not go away anytime soon, I am gearing up for a full switch when we get back to cloth diapers! thanks for hosting this :)

Jenette said...

It went well and still going. My DH wonders why I never change the TP roll now :)

Crunchy Domestic Goddess said...

i tried it with #1 and was honestly surprised how soft cloth is. i probably only did it about 50% of the time though because i didn't always use the upstairs bathroom where i had put the cloth wipes. will i continue? probably only part-time.

hennalion said...

well, i forgot a couple times, and did not use cloth wipes will out of the house, but otherwise it went wonderfully. before this challenge i had only used cloth wipes for #1, and now i'm going to use cloth wipes full-time at home.

my plan is to use all cloth for #1 and #2 for a month or two - it's surprising how long it takes to weed out old habits (reaching for the paper roll on the wall). while i'm getting used to that, i'll figure out a nice waterproof/zipper-up bag to keep the dirty wipes in, and make another one that will let me carry clean and dirty wipes separately when i'm not at home.

woohoo! thanks for the challenge. i'm excited not to be using tp anymore.