Washable Wipies

Reusables are possibly the easiest change a person can make at home. I'm pretty sure no one ever said, "I love driving by the landfill, I can't wait until it gets bigger." The truth is, I'm not sure people really think about landfills, unless they drive by one regularly. If this is the case, I'm sure it is easy to notice just how quickly they grow. This is not even to mention the really awful smell if you forget to turn the air in your car to internal before you pass by. So what can one person do against a literal mountain of trash? Find something you throw away most, and see if you can replace it with something you can reuse.

This was very easy for me at first, as I lived only on a university stipend when I had my first apartment to myself. The first thing to go:  paper towels. Growing up at home, we always tore the paper towels in half to make a roll last. (This was before the new smaller ones existed.) While on my own, however, I decided it was pretty silly to use a paper towel to eat my pastry each morning. What on earth is wrong with using a plate and just rinsing it off? Plus, my dog was house trained and it was only her and me. There were not a lot of messes to be cleaned up.

This decision has been harder to maintain with a bigger house, bigger family, and bigger messes. But I am happy to say paper towels are still banned to this day. Messes are handled with newspaper, towels, and baking soda (which soaks up liquids like pee and turns solid so you can sweep it up and clean the surface). There are many other disposables to ditch too. Starting with plates, utensils, and napkins, and moving on to cotton balls, menstruation items, and diapers. Before you throw out the toilet paper, though, you might want to start with something a little easier to lose.



My most recent change has been the baby wipes. After all, they are just paper towels for babies! Before my son was born, I bought the fabric. I also invested in cloth diapers and everything to go with them. Sadly, these items never got much use. As much as I believed in them, and wanted to do the "right" thing, I was caught so deeply in depression that any extra pressure was unbearable. I spent weeks crying at the sound of birds chirping. I can laugh at it now, but at the time it was the first sign that I had lost another night of sleep. As you can imagine the last thing I wanted to do was wash off runny baby poop with an overpowered sprayer that splashed all over the bathroom.

So, here I am, two years later, and I have finally made reusable wipes. (I'm also using the cloth diapers, they are great for potty training at night and nap times.)

Materials:
Flannel (each yard will yield 24 wipes)
thread
measuring and cutting tools

I did a lot of quilting in college when I worked at my aunt's quilt shop, so I have a cutting mat, a cutting ruler, and a rotary cutter. A ruler and scissors works fine, it just takes more concentration.

Do not unfold the fabric. Cut your fabric into 6" strips. Use the fold as the straight edge, line it up with the ruler and the mat, and trim.

Optional:  Put a Baby Mozart CD into a Ninja Turtles player.

Put 4 strips down, 2 high and 2 stacks. Trim to 5 1/2" to create the wipes.

When you separate the wipes, leave two pieces back to back so there are two right sides facing out.

Using a serger or a regular sewing machine, sew edges around each pair. If you have a serger, simply go down one side of all the pairs. No need to cut or turn the corner, just create a chain. Then, trace the remaining three sides, again, no need to cut them yet, just chain them. With a regular sewing machine you can do the same method but use a zigzag stitch along each edge. Trim the excess thread to separate the wipes.

 Sadly, most of my photos are terribly out of focus. That is what I get for feeling sorry for my old digital camera. 

Now that you have wipes, throw them into a water-tight container and add a solution. I used some dissolvable tablets made for baby wipes. Diluted Castile soap would also be good.

If you use tablets or shaved bar soap, make sure they dissolve fully. My first container of wipes smelled like mold after two days. I would recommend only keeping about 10 wipes in the container and adding more when you get low. You can also leave them dry and just wet them with water. 

To wash these wipes, and any poopy or urine soaked items, I keep a couple of fishing bait buckets. I put in the soiled items, cover with water, and add Borax, vinegar, soap, and/or essential oils. Every other day, the items are drained and put in the washer. I set the machine to hot, extra rinse, and I add Borax and regular detergent (Seventh Generation Free and Clear), then I put vinegar in the bleach and the softener dispenser. If you don't have enough to run a small load, or for some reason you can't wash them, be sure to change the water in the bucket daily/bi-daily. 

Since this recent change, I have thoroughly enjoyed not having a load of trash! Once we've passed potty training, the laundry will be cut down too, hooray!