Family Cloth...what nobody ever told you - Page 21

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Originally Posted by neonalee 

So excited to join the FC family!  I splurged and bought myself a set of cute WAHM wipes this past winter, but was in the middle of preparing for a cross country move.  Now that we're moved and (mostly) settled, and yesterday I bought a small step can.  Now I just want to buy a wet bag or 2 that fit the can.  I'll wash with DSs diaper laundry, every other day.  Starting with just pee.  Maybe I'll move to all FC once I'm used to that, and then when DS potty learns that's all he'll ever know!

To add to the DH/DP stories - DP is totally on board with ME doing this, but wants no part of it for himself.  I read him the bit from a PP about would you wipe poo off your arm with dry paper and he pretended not to hear me   He was interested in adding a bidet though...

[LunaLady]

Hello!!! I found this thread yesterday and it was just the push I needed to get us started on FC.

I had a flannel fitted massage table sheet that had a hole in it, so I used that and cut up some 6"x12" rectangles and surged all the edges. They are VERY soft and have been washed many, many times already so I know they won't leave lint behind. I have a cute basket to use in our bathroom and for the guest bathroom I'm going to keep everything under the sink. I'll keep regular TP in the guest bathroom. Not only would I get weird looks, but I don't really want to wash my guest's poopy wipes! 

We bought from Fred Meyer (west coast chain) two of these SimpleHuman foot pedal trash bins for our soiled wipes. What I REALLY like about them is they have a removable plastic can within the trash can itself - and it's small enough it can fit in my dishwasher so I can sanitize it now and again.

Today I've tasked myself with sewing up some cloth liners for the bins that I can toss in the wash with the wipes. 

And I really like the spray bottle idea (rather than having all the wipes sitting in liquid) so I need to go to the store and pick up a couple of those, too.

I haven't read the whole thread... but does anyone wash these with Soap Nuts? I use Soap Nuts for all my normal washing, but I don't have cloth diapers to wash (yet! Baby is due in November) and I haven't come up with how I'll be washing those, either. I do have borax on hand that I toss in with really dirty stuff (DH's hockey clothes, yard clothes, wash rags used to clean up pet yucks, etc) so I will likely use that, too. My wipes are white (as are most of my cloth diapers) so I could use bleach - does anyone do that? Or just wash on hot?

[Arianwen1174]

Originally Posted by LunaLady 

Hello!!! I found this thread yesterday and it was just the push I needed to get us started on FC.

I had a flannel fitted massage table sheet that had a hole in it, so I used that and cut up some 6"x12" rectangles and surged all the edges. They are VERY soft and have been washed many, many times already so I know they won't leave lint behind. I have a cute basket to use in our bathroom and for the guest bathroom I'm going to keep everything under the sink. I'll keep regular TP in the guest bathroom. Not only would I get weird looks, but I don't really want to wash my guest's poopy wipes! 

We bought from Fred Meyer (west coast chain) two of these SimpleHuman foot pedal trash bins for our soiled wipes. What I REALLY like about them is they have a removable plastic can within the trash can itself - and it's small enough it can fit in my dishwasher so I can sanitize it now and again.

Today I've tasked myself with sewing up some cloth liners for the bins that I can toss in the wash with the wipes. 

And I really like the spray bottle idea (rather than having all the wipes sitting in liquid) so I need to go to the store and pick up a couple of those, too.

I haven't read the whole thread... but does anyone wash these with Soap Nuts? I use Soap Nuts for all my normal washing, but I don't have cloth diapers to wash (yet! Baby is due in November) and I haven't come up with how I'll be washing those, either. I do have borax on hand that I toss in with really dirty stuff (DH's hockey clothes, yard clothes, wash rags used to clean up pet yucks, etc) so I will likely use that, too. My wipes are white (as are most of my cloth diapers) so I could use bleach - does anyone do that? Or just wash on hot?

Hello from a fellow west-coaster (Oregon, home of Fred Meyer)! I also use a spray bottle for the wipes and it works great for me. No advice on the soap nuts. I wash in a way that many folks would say "Ew" to--I just toss the wipes in with whatever laundry I'm doing. I do throw in a scoop of Oxi-Clean. Enjoy your family cloth!

[LunaLady]

Thanks!

I think I'm just not going to worry about it. As I read earlier in this thread - I was our underwear in with regular clothes and the dirty kitchen rags go in with our other 'whites'... And I imagine those things are just as dirty (if not dirtier!) than a simple wipe? I got soap nuts, Country Save, borax, bleach, seventh generation chlorine free bleach, vinegar and BS in my arsenal, so likely I can find something that works for us! 

[Arianwen1174]

Exactly!

[rducky]

I'm planning on washing wipes with diapers (baby due any day now...) but for now I'm washing them when I get enough for a load.  I use oxi-clean plus an unscented detergent.

[Pogonia]

We learned NOT to use Soap Nuts on anything we want to remain absorbent, i.e., towels, dishcloths, etc. The saponin will eventually reduce their absorbancy. But we LOVE the frugality and naturalness of soap nuts for everything else! :)

[LunaLady]

Originally Posted by Pogonia 

We learned NOT to use Soap Nuts on anything we want to remain absorbent, i.e., towels, dishcloths, etc. The saponin will eventually reduce their absorbancy. But we LOVE the frugality and naturalness of soap nuts for everything else! :)

Oh thank you for that info! I had no idea. What about stuff that's 'sport material' like wicking layers and my husband hockey jersey and such? He washes his stuff after every game in soap nuts.

So I guess my question then is - can I wash using just borax, BS or non-chlorine bleach and get things really clean? I also have Country Save, but it says not to use it with bleach.

[sosurreal09]

Oh hey we use FC! I have been seeing a lot of negativity about it on here lately! People here even think we are quacks you know. I don't get it, it's certainly not dirty or complicated

Do you guys let company use it? It creeps me out and we just have TP when we have guests. I guess I am sort of in the closet about it lol my good friends know (but I still don't have them use it)

[Nicoleoleole]

We use the same diaper detergent on all of our family cloth (but seperate loads). I have one for DD's Diapers, my mama cloth, and then the toilet cloth (DH doesn't use it though, he thinks it's gross). 

[sosurreal09]

You do separate loads? We just throw in everything together.

[LCBMAX]

The only company I have that would even want to use it are closest friends, fellow freaks, and I'm not skeezed at all about their pee. I doubt they'd be bold enough to use it for poop. I wouldn't, at someone else's house. I would use someone else's FC for pee, and have, but wouldn't want to impose! by using someone else's cloth for poop myself.
 

Originally Posted by sosurreal09 

Do you guys let company use it? It creeps me out and we just have TP when we have guests. I guess I am sort of in the closet about it lol my good friends know (but I still don't have them use it)

[Nicoleoleole]

Originally Posted by sosurreal09 

You do separate loads? We just throw in everything together.

Yeah. I don't mind washing my stuff together, but I don't want my bodily fluids going on her diapers. Weird right? lol

[rducky]

As far as I know, no one (guests) have used it.  Nobody has really asked what it is...although I did put it away when MIL was coming over....somehow didn't want to field questions from her!

I don't think I would mind if people used it for pee...not super stoked about other peoples #2 though 

[sosurreal09]

def weird lol She lived inside of you for 9 months!
 

Originally Posted by Nicoleoleole 

Yeah. I don't mind washing my stuff together, but I don't want my bodily fluids going on her diapers. Weird right? lol

[Nicoleoleole]

Originally Posted by sosurreal09 

def weird lol She lived inside of you for 9 months!
 

True... but I didn't menstruate on her or wipe myself with her clothes. hehe ;)

[LunaLady]

So we've been using cloth for several days now and I think we're starting to get used to it. I like using cloth - I feel a lot cleaner. DH has been on board since I first brought it up to him (bless him) but he said he's still having a bit of an adjustment and said he's used TP a couple times. I said that's fine - and that it's fine if he wants to use TP because I'm really the one who uses it the most! 

I did the first washing of FC yesterday and it seemed to go well! I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it - so I just washed them with some of our 'clean up' towels (not kitchen towels, but towels for cleaning and messes) in a small load. I did the 'extra small' load in my top loader and WOW it still filled the drum almost half way full... It was way too much water for my load. Our water bill has been outrageous since we moved into this house last year (despite the fact that DH and I shower only once or twice a week and only flush with #2 and strictly do dishwasher washing...) and I have an inkling it's the washer. It's an OOOOLLLLLDDD washer - original to the house (1977). The washer and dry work REALLY well (both being original) but I suppose they are not very environmentally friendly or easy on the bank account. Poo. DH really wants to get a new washer/dryer anyway. 

ANYHOW. I used soap nuts, borax, bleach, vinegar and baking soda in that load. Maybe overkill? DH was like, "You put all those together? Hopefully you didn't create some chemistry experiment that will be spewing noxious fumes into the basement!"  I suppose he's right, eh??

I think next time I'll just do borax and vinegar. I shouldn't even really be using bleach, eh? It's pretty toxic... How do people keep their whites white without bleach? I use like ZERO household chemicals except for bleach. I just don't know what else to use?! DH's socks won't get clean looking without it.

[LunaLady]

Also, I took some pictures of our FC (how I made it and our setup) to post on that other thread about pictures of FC, but it's locked for some reason?? Weird.

Anyhow, here are the pictures I took. I'll put them in a spoiler so as not to bombard the thread:

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

I took some flannel fabric and cut it into 6x24 inch pieces with this cool ruler/cuter thing:

And then cut those in half:

 

 

And serged the edges:

 

I then made jersey fabric liners for our bum rag bins:

 

And those inner bins go into the foot petal bin (bin by Simplehuman):

 

 

Here's the set up in the guest bathroom. Dirty bin is under the sink so as not to be confused with a trash bin:

 

And here's the setup in our master bathroom:

 

That's all! 

I have since also made jersey knit fabric wipes and terry cloth wipes. I think I like the flannel best for pee and the terry best for #2. The terry is fabric I bought at the craft store, so it's not super thick towel terry, it's thinner than that. 

And the bottle of Happy Bum Spray that I made is just distilled water, 20 drops Dr. Bronner's, five drops Lavender EO and about 1/3 teaspoon castor oil. Works well and smells great!

[Arianwen1174]

Love the pictures! That photo thread is locked because it's so old. You should start a new one! If you start it I'll take pics of my setup too. And you're making me want to use a bit of Dr. Bronner's in my spray bottle. I'll have to add a bit the next time I'm in the bathroom.

[LunaLady]

The Dr. Bronner's is nice - just a bit of suds but doesn't leave me feeling like a need a rinse off or anything 

I would suggest avoiding the peppermint Dr. Bronner's, though!!  I used tea tree. Probably the unscented one would be best (which is what I plan to use with my baby wipes when baby is here!)