Cloth wipes for #1

Back in September crunchy chicken had a cloth wipes chalenge. I purchased the supplies to make cloth wipes way back then, but it has taken me until mid January to put it into action. For girls at least, we wipe the most for #1 since we go #1 way more than #2. So it makes sense to me to start with that. I purchased, at our local thrift store, 1 queen sized flannel sheet for $3. When I got around to it I cut about half of it into long strips and then into squares. Each square being about 4x5. After trying to use just the cut cloth and realizing it frays horribly after one washing I needed to sew them. So I matched 2 squares together, sewed the edges accept for about 1.5" gap, then I turned it inside out. Thus the sewn edges were now on the inside of the 2 squares, and I sewed the last 1.5" gap to make a rough square. "Really," I told myself, "it doesn't need to be perfect.... it's a pee pad."

I am surprised how easy it really is. I keep the clean pads in a beautiful cloth cube my mother in law sewed for me right on the counter by the toilet. The dirties go in a small wicker basket I got at the aforementioned thrift sore for a whopping .69 cents.    

I wash the used pads with my regular laundry once a week. I am not sure why but this grosses some people out. It's not like I am throwing cups and cups of pee in my wash, for reals, you are supposed to stop peeing before you wipe! Does TP come away soaking wet? Well.... um..... then why would a cloth pad? The other issue I thought might be and issue is smell. I've been down dark alleyways in the summer, you feel me? But since there is so little on the pad and I wash them once a week I haven't had any issues. I suppose if it was left for a LONG time...... but eww gross!

Not including the time it took me to sew the pads my cost as been miniscule. Adding maybe $1 for the thread used I am up to $4.69, ok maybe $5 after tax. Now considering I have barely used 1/2 of the original queen sized sheet, I am going to get a lot of life out of that original $3 purchase. I am not sure how much TP I will save but I can already tell it's going to be tons. Since I purchase the 100% recycled TP the cost can get pretty high. Not that I would suggest this as a money saver but it will probably save me around $200 per year in TP costs.

Now about #2..... maybe later.