Actually, the timing couldn't be more perfect for such a recipe. I keep meaning to wean ourselves off of paper towels, but then at the store the other day my Sales Radar went into overdrive and I made it home with a 12-pack of paper towels. Really, I don't know what came over me. As soon as I put them in the car I gave myself a mental smack in the forehead--duh! So I have tons of paper towels, and we're going to use them up making baby wipes. When those are done, I'm buying flannel, cutting it into strips, and making reusable wipes. It's just important to us. Believe me, if you had three kids in disposable diapers, you'd start to feel guilty, too. I hate to imagine what our garbage men think of us.
Without further ado, here's the recipe. It's taken from the book 365 Ways to Live Cheap (yeah, I know, should be "cheaply," at least in my opinion) by Trent Hamm.
Directions
Mix 2 tablespoons of baby soap, 2 tablespoons olive oil, and 2 cups of water. Cut a roll of paper towels in half the long way and put them in a baby wipes box. Either pour the solution on top of the towels and swish it around, or fill a spray bottle with the solution and spray it on the towels for each use.
And that's it! The solution, as strange as it sounds, is actually great and works really well. I thought Charlotte's bottom would be all oily, something to slide around on my frying pan, but you hardly notice the olive oil. My only complaint with the directions is the "cut a roll of paper towels in half" part. They just don't fit in a typical wipes box. I ended up cutting each sheet into four and only using half the amount of solution per box. I just stored the remainder in a tupperware for the next batch.
Here's to doing our part, one baby bottom at a time!
11 comments:
I have a similar recipe! Mine uses Johnson's (or generic) baby oil instead of olive (I just typed "Oliver") oil, which makes it a bit less costly. Just a suggestion!
Enjoy your fun Chicago day!
Rae
Thanks for the recipe. I"m looking for ways to cut costs too. I'd like to switch to cloth diapers but Nick is skeptical. What kind of cloth diapers are you looking into using? I want to try bumgenius 3.0.
Rae, the baby oil is a great suggestion. Thanks!
And Rachel, I have researched and (probably) settled on Kissaluvs. Costly on the outset, but looks to be definitely worth it. Plus we'll have to invest in some wool covers and longies.
So cool!!!! I LOVE that you are switching to cloth...After 2 months working at a baby home in Bolivia where all they have is cloth and rags I'm in love with the idea...
we'll see if whoever I end up with someday thinks it's such a cool idea :)
My friend Adrienne was making diapers for this co-op type company: http://www.bittyfluff.com/
Her daughter Caleigh's been wearing them since birth and she still keeps some disposables around for emergencies and being in the nursery at church, etc. (It's crazy how many people don't know how to change cloth diapers.)
The cutest thing about cloth diapers is the babies get a little bubble-butt. Haha. It's adorable. But it makes for needing to buy bigger pants...
We cloth diaper and love it! It has saved us a ton of money, too! We invested when Olivia was a baby and came to the conclusion that we only had to use them for 9 weeks straight to come out even. we still use them for Austin, 3.5 years later.
when the kids were younger, we used the same recipe for wipes, too(though with Rae's adaption). What I used to do, when I had good cloth wipes, was the make that solution and put it in a spray bottle. Spray their bottom, then wipe off. Is that what you're going to do with the flannel? Old t-shirts work well, too. :)
wait, if you (and my square brother) are hippies, what does that make me??
Wow I feel dumb saying this but I never even thought of making my own wipes - I love the idea! May have to try this out on baby #3...whenever that may be of course. Thanks for the "recipe!"
Janie, you and Ryan and clearly uber-hippies. You take the definition of hippy to a whole new level.
ha, you're sweet. where have you been? it's wednesday afternoon and no new posts since monday? ouch.
Yaaaay! You're a hippie too! I thoroughly appreciated the comment about adjective vs. adverb usage (cheapLY, people!), as well as the one about how you thought Charlotte would be good for greasing up your egg-frying pan. That one brought on a hilarious mental picture.
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