Cloth wipes

Lately I've been thinking about our cloth wipes. We started using cloth wipes a couple of months after we started cloth-diapering--when we were comfortable with cloth-diapering full time and starting to wash our own diapers (See here for previous blog about finding our cloth style).


Our cloth wipes system is simple. We use flannel wipes, sized 8 by 8, and fold them in a certain way that resembles disposable wipes in a box. These are the wipes we use. We have about 40-50 of them, and about 3/4 of them will fill up one box. I like these because they get wet fast and do the job quickly. They are a bit thin. So if you are looking for something more thicker, there are other wipes you can find here. Kissaluvs or Thirsties have a bit thicker wipes. The flannel ones work well for us, and are cheaper too.


After prepping them (one hot wash worked for us), I sought out to learn how to fold them. There are video tutorials on the web and pictures as well. To share with my readers, I have pictures with steps to show you how you can fold cloth wipes in a way that will be easy to pull out of the box.


You will need an empty disposable wipes box. It needs to be dry. 

Basic steps:
1. Lay one cloth wipe open and flat as shown in picture below. I will call this Wipe A.

2. Lay another cloth wipe (Wipe B) on top of the first one but only covering half of Wipe A. Wipe A is on the bottom and Wipe B is on top.

3. Fold the outer half of Wipe A over Wipe B.

4. Grab a new wipe. Lay Wipe C on top of the folded part of Wipe A. (Sorry the picture turned out a little crooked).

5. Fold the half of Wipe B (the second wipe) up and cover half of Wipe C (the wipe currently on top).

6. Continue process of steps 2-5 until you have enough wipes to put inside of your box. For me, this is usually about 30 or so wipes. I fold the top wipe over and pull it through the slit in the top of the box so it is ready to use!

Ta-da! You could decorate the outer part to say "Cloth Wipes" if you wanted.

It takes me about 5 minutes to fold all the wipes once I got the routine down. Sometimes RaeRae likes to help me. 

As for the wipes solution, we keep ours in a peribottle. I wait until I need my wipes wet to use it. Some mamas will use a wipes warmer for cloth wipes and have wet wipes all ready for next diaper change. In my opinion, it depends on your preference for whether the wipes are warm or not. Your baby will tell you if they are adversely sensitive to the cold, wet wipes and prefer warm ones. RaeRae seems indifferent so I don't spend my money on a wipes warmer. I also like to keep my wipes dry until time of diaper change to avoid mildew or other bacteria growth.


I have heard that you can generally spend about $300 on disposable wipes from birth to potty training. That's a lot! I think I have spent about a total of $40 on my cloth wipes and wipes solution.


For my wipes solution, I use Ruby Moon's wipes bit.  You boil a cup or two of water, add one to two cubes, let it dissolve, stir, and after it cools off, you can pour it into a spray bottle or a peribottle like I use. I like the peribottle because it's faster to squeeze out into the wipes. We happen to sell peribottles on the site. I just used mine that I received from the hospital when RaeRae was born. But you can buy them here for just one dollar. One cube or "bit" will typically last us about a month. Each bag has about 5 oz of bits. I haven't counted exactly how many cubes are in the bag, but it looks like there are between 30-50 pieces. It is made out of Goat's milk soap and fragrance. I like to add a few drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract because of our recent yeast battle. I also add a bit more water than usual to the solution so it lasts a bit longer. I keep the extra "solution" in another spray bottle and just pour that into the peribottle when I need more.


Here's a picture of our basic set-up for diapering. It was from earlier in the summer, but the set-up is still the same. In the picture, you see our pocket diapers in our first dresser drawer, peribottle with wipes solution, and wipes box nearby. What's not shown in the picture is CJ's butter, one of our must-haves! Like I said, this picture was from earlier in the summer and I think it was pre-CJ's butter time. Now we have CJ's butter there at all times.

So there you have it. Our basic set up for cloth wipes, and a few other things. Are you using cloth wipes? If so, what's your set-up like? If you're still using disposables, what questions or concerns do you have trying cloth wipes?