Homemade Wipes Tutorial

It seems that everywhere I turn on the blogosphere I am running into "tutorials" on how to do things. So, I thought I would post a tutorial that could be helpful for all of my mommy friends.

As most of you know, we use cloth diapers part time for a number of reasons - save the environment, health, and cost. I have a number of friends who have ventured into cloth diapering as well. But, what about wipes? With Katherine I used a bunch of cheap washcloths with plain water and threw them into the wash with the diapers.

For those of you who do not use cloth diapers, I would like to tell you how to make your own wipes. Before you laugh, it also saves money and is better for your kids because it does not have all of the chemicals in store bought wipes. It was funny because I had the directions and wrote "make wipes" on my to do list. After I finally made them, I laughed because it was so easy that there was no need to even add it to a list. Full credit should be given to Janna for this tutorial as she gave me the "recipe". Since she does not have a blog, I will post it.

Homemade Baby Wipes
Needed:
Bounty Paper Towels (I like the "select a size" ones as they are great because each paper towel is about half the size of other brands and a better size for wipes.)
Choose 2 of the following: Baby Lotion, Baby Soap, Baby Oil
Boiling Water
Air tight container with a lid

Take the paper towel roll and cut is across the middle so that you have two short, rounded paper towel rolls. Place one roll inside the container.

Boil the 2 cups of water. While the water is boiling, measure 2 Tablespoons each of 2 of the items listed above and add to the pot. Stir till dissolved.

Then pour the mixture over the top of the paper towel roll in the container. Place the lid on top and let it set for 5 minutes. Make sure the lid is on tight and flip over where the lid is on the counter and let set for 5 minutes. The wipes are ready. Before using, take the brown roll out of the wipes and proceed to use the wipes from the middle of the paper towel roll.

I love that I can use the soap, lotion or oil of my choice so they can be more natural and with a fragrance I like. Also, since it is basically a soapy towel, we use them to wipe hands and faces as well.

As far as cost, the homemade wipes are $.015 per wipe (when you buy paper towels by the case at Amazon). Pampers and Huggies wipes bought in bulk are $.03 each. When you consider the number of wipes that are used of over the course of a baby's diapered time, that can add up to a lot of savings.

This post is a part of Works for Me Wednesday at Rocks in My Dryer. Head over there for more great ideas.