Cotton Love: Cloth Wipes

It's been awhile since I've posted on one of my favorite topics! You all know that one of the biggest things I do to save money is cloth diaper, but on a smaller scale, I have recently switched to cloth wipes as well. I don't think of wipes as a huge expense, but when you consider that a case of them costs around $15, and Hubs goes through them like water when he's on diaper duty, it certainly does add up. Quite honestly, when you cloth diaper, it just makes sense to go the cloth route for wipes as well. Because what do you do when you're done using a wipe? You stick it in the dirty diaper and wrap the whole thing up. Well since you don't toss a cloth diaper in the garbage can, you find yourself having to dispose of a bunch of poopy wipes and I just couldn't find a great solution for that. The little scented diaper disposal bags actually do a pretty good job of masking the smell, however they also cost money and are bad for the environment. Toss 'em in your garbage without one, however, and all you get is a stinky garbage can. So now, at least the whole dirty diaper package goes into my diaper pail  - no more stinky trash!

I did a little internet research on cloth wipes, and you have two options: make them or buy them. Making them looked easy enough, so I decided to give it a go. And it was SO simple! I simply cut 3 of Sweetie Pea's flannel receiving blankets up into 7x7 inch squares (and for the record, cutting up those blankets I wrapped my newborn baby in was the hardest part, emotionally speaking. But let's be honest, we have like 373849597 receiving blankets ;). Then I zigzag stitched around the outside edges to prevent fraying (that part took me for.ever because I am an idiot with a sewing machine), and voila - 3 dozen cloth wipes!

I keep them in a recycled Pampers wipes container, folded pop-up style.

Here they are, folded and ready to go!

In order to get them wet enough to do the job, I now keep a squirt bottle (the peri-bottle I got from the hospital after giving birth, if you must know) of water in the wipes warmer, and wet the wipe with nice warm water before, ahem...wiping. I also have California Baby's Calming Diaper Area Spray for those super messy diaper changes. A few squirts of that directly on the bum and he's clean and sweet again!