Crunchy on a Whole New Level

I mentioned awhile back how impressed I was with Crunchy Domestic Goddess's Ditch the Disposables Challenge, and that really the only disposable we had left to ditch was toilet paper. We've flirted with cloth wipes in the past, and I think now (as we're running low on toilet paper!) is the time to make the switch. Amazingly, another blog I hadn't heard of previously called Crunchy Chicken is currently running an ultra-specific Cloth Wipe Challenge. Bingo! Count us in.

The plan: we already have a selection of rags around the house, and we'll probably just designate one (dark) color to be used in the bathroom. Like this site, we plan to use a squirt bottle of warm water to initiate the cleansing process, basically just using the cloth wipes to pat dry. This idea makes innate sense to me since it's very similar to the peri-bottles we give to new moms in the hospital for keeping their behinds fresh and clean.

As for where the used wipes go, I have an empty yogurt container (32 oz.) that's filled with water, a couple of drops of tea tree oil, and a scoop of washing soda. Happily, I already had all of these items around the house, and you can also use washing soda and tea tree oil (plus borax, which we've got leftover from making our own laundry detergent) to make homemade dishwasher detergent (which we plan to do tonight!). You just drop in the used wipes, and then run through the washer every couple of days. It remains to be seen whether we'll eventually need a bigger container, but it was the quickest thing I could find.

For even more reasons to go TP-free, and tips on doing so, you can go here.