how do you store these? (cloth items instead of paper/disposable)

[luckygreen713]

I am in the process of switching my family to cloth products instead of paper. We have always cloth diapered and we use cloth wipes for our kids. We use rags/dishcloths/towels in the kitchen, and I'm making some cloth napkins for us. I keep my kitchen cloth in a big drawer in the kitchen, with it's own basket/hamper in the dining room. That works fine. But I want to replace our tissues, like for wiping noses and such. I have a bunch of receiving blankets that I cut into squares for this purpose, now I just have to figure out where to keep them. I want them to be accessible to my dd's, who are 2yo and 3.75yo. And I want them to look nice/neat. How/where do you keep yours?

Also, for family cloth in the bathroom, where do you put the used cloth? Designated wastebasket? Wet bag? Something else?

Thanks!

[zech13_9_goforgold]

For little kids, I would get a cute basket with a lid that you could fill with FC/tissues and set on the floor by the toilet. Unless you had a shelving unit in your bathroom that you could set the basket on. Or, if you prefer to keep your tissues and TP separate, you could put the little basket in the living room (or where ever) and put a different basket in the bathroom for TP. Something like this. Or if you don't care if they look professional, you could buy a wood box from the craft store and have the kids paint it. Anything that's indistructable.

I don't have kids yet, so maybe these ideas won't work. Hopefully someone with kids can tell me that a basket wouldn't last in their house, or whatever. I'm amazed at what baskets cost in the US. I'm in Southern Africa right now and I know that you can get baskets for much cheaper. But, this website claims to be fair trade.

The Family Cloth thread in Rrduce/Reuse/Recycle has some good advice and answers your question about where to store them when they've been used.

I hope this helps and doesn't come across as skatter-brained as I feel right now.

[Dakota's Mom]

I have a basket on the table. Napkins and nose wipes go in that basket. In the bathroom we have a closet right beside the commode. I put the clean wipes in the shelf right there. The used wipes go in a wet bag that hangs on the bathroom door.

Kathi

[mumkimum]

I've always liked the idea of this cloth hankie bag you can hang on a doorknob.

As for family cloth, at the moment I toss them in the kid toilet in the bathroom (used for these and wet nighttime undies) and then we transport them to a bucket downstairs, and previously I used the diaper wetbag. If you have either of those things going on, they're easy to use.

[ArtsyMomma]

For hankies/nose blowing I think a basket would be fine. Just stack them up and put the basket somewhere it would look nice.

For family cloth, I had a basket on the back of the toilet. We still had a LO in diapers so I just moved the diaper pail close to the toilet and threw the used cloth into the diaper pail. A small waste basket with a swinging lid would work too.

[hillymum]

We do not use FC but I keep hankerchiefs in a tissue holder box in the family room. As a child I remember we all had our own handkerchiefs which were kept in our own draws.

[annethcz]

For family cloth, I just keep folded washcloths on top of the back of the toilet. Used wipes go in a covered garbage can that sits next to the toilet.

As for hankies, we don't use them that often. I keep them stashed throughout the house, car, in my purse, etc. Used hankies just go in a basket on top of the washing machine or in the laundry hamper.

[jimblejamble]

err, posted on the wrong thread. oops...

[proudmomof4]

All the kitchen cloths are somewhere in the kitchen: "tea" towels, dish towels, and napkins in a sideboard, dish rags under the sink, the "paper" towels are still on top of a roll of paper towels to remind me.
Handkerchiefs are in my night stand.
FC is in a drawer of the bathroom furniture (next to the toilet, so that's convenient), the used ones go in a plastic container under the bathroom sink - mine doesn't have a lid but as it is "behind closed doors" there are no odors.
Mama cloths are also in a drawer easily accesible from the toilet.