Now this is something that I have definitely never thought of using cloth for!
I stumbled upon this creative thrifty odd interesting idea today, and thought I would pass it on to you all!
Have any of you ever heard of this idea of Family Cloth? Have you tried it? (If you have, wow, you are a brave soul, you have my most sincere admiration!) Do tell!
I have heard of this just recently it’s pretty awesome those people that do it. I think my hubby would really think I had gone nutso if I told him no more toilet paper, even though he is very supportive of everything I do. But as for me I’m just starting to use cloth pads and I don’t even use cloth diapers so it’s a bit out there for me.
To me, toilet paper is not that expensive to justify using family cloth. I am frugal in many ways, but this will NOT be one of them! Very interesting though!
I’ve thought of doing this. When we were running low on t.p. I used diaper liners to wipe and put them in the diaper pail. It was actually like a luxery toilet paper! Now I just need to do it all the time.
Its funny, when my DH was the one who suggested cloth menstral pads I thought it was gross, even though I knew when we had a baby we would cloth diaper (which we do now we have one). I always used natural disposable pads. I just thought it was too gross. But ironically it wasn’t gross to wash out sheets and things that got leaked onto. Anyways…I ended up buying into the idea and love my cloth pads.
All this to say that my initial reaction to the no toilet paper thing is….GROSS! But hey, I said that about cloth pads. LOL. I know my DH would think this goes too far though. I do make sure I get a non-bleached, recycled toilet paper (which I can get a cheap one for, that is the same as the “green” one minus the label!) I also try to use less. Its amazing that without thinking I can use a lot more than I need.
I have heard of someone else doing this though. They keep a bucket under the sink. They weren’t able to convince their family though and keep regular TP out for company too. 😉
My mom said they used to use Eaton’s catalogues in the outhouse as TP! I can’t imagine that would be very soft though and it wouldn’t work on modern sewers or septic.
Hi Stephanie!
This is actually the one thing we HAVEN’T switched to cloth. We’ve done everything else – diapers, wipes, pads, kleenex, napkins, etc. But not tp. What I did do recently, though, is make some nice wipes for my 3 year old to use when she goes to the bathroom, I just keep them on the back of the toilet, and the diaper pail is in the bathroom so she just tosses them in there when she’s done. I think her delicate little bum deserves cloth. 🙂 And I must confess, I’ve used them once or twice, and it’s heavenly. 🙂 But I’m not sure our family is ready to do family cloth just yet. 🙂 We do use the unbleached, post-consumer recycled tp though.
Maybe you should just try it and see what you think! And let us all know how you make out. 🙂
Alissa
I am really glad you posted this, because, funny enough, I was wondering if anyone had any tips on saving money on TP, but I was too embarrassed to ask! 🙂 I’ve switched over to using rags instead of paper towel (although I still buy some because my hubby prefers it) and cloth pads (which I’ve come to LOVE!) and we want to use cloth diapers when the Lord gives us children. I don’t know if I could do this or not, though. I’d be willing to try, but I’m not so sure my husband would want to do the same. But hey – If I do try it, we’d be saving 1/2 our TP bill! Currently, we’re trying to simply use less and I’m really trying to remind myself to “think before I pull” (that is, not mindlessly yanking off a whole bunch of TP that I don’t really need). I try to keep it to 2-3 squares.
If you do end up trying this, let me know! Could take some getting used to, but I said that about the cloth pads and moon cup which I now love!
I love the wide variety of responses! My husband’s response was “no way- that would be going to far!”.
I don’t think that I will end up doing it for he or I, although I am contemplating it for my 3 year old, who doesn’t wipe well, and may do a better job with cloth (as well as not waste lots of t.p.).
I’d love to get feedback from the rest of you who try it, though! We’re happy doing cloth for all our cleaning, napkins, diapers, pads, etc. but I need to let my hubby draw the line here! 🙂
We use it part time. I came across the idea when first researching cloth diapers but resisted for a long time because I just couldn’t wrap my mind around throwing adult ummm . . . poop in my washing machine. Then, about the time we were getting ready to potty train, it hit me, there’s no law that says it has to be all or nothing, so I took the baby wipes I wasn’t going to be needing for diaper changes & put them in a basket in the bathroom (& got more). I only use it for urine, one of my girls uses TP for poop & the other uses wipes. DH uses TP. It has greatly reduced the amount of TP we go through in this mostly girl household. It (and cloth rags instead of paper towels adds about one load every other week to our laundry (I used to save up towels & rags & do a load every other week, now I do a load of wipes, rags AND towels once a week). It meant that when the girls were potty training we had no issues with using too much TP, they just used a wipe, they could wipe themselves after peeing right away with no problem. And it’s so much softer.
This is an interesting idea, but I would be afraid to try it on account of the potential smell. We are a family of 2, so we only do laundry once a week and since we don’t have kids, we don’t have a diaper pail to lump our cloths in with. Does anyone have ideas on how this could still be a viable option for smaller families?
I’ve thought about doing it, but never took the plunge. I may do so for tinkles. 🙂
I have actually done this in the past. Haven’t been doing it recently though… I’m pretty sure I accidentaly flushed the wipes a couple of times and decided it would be cheaper to use toilet paper than to replace the leach field for my septic system! If I weren’t so absent minded, I’d go back to doing it in a heartbeat though. Especially since we cloth diaper and use cloth wipes for that anyway. (P.S. I made free cloth wipes from cut up T-shirts since they don’t ravel so require no sewing.)
I use it and like it better than TP. DH said no and that’s unfortunate because he uses tons of TP and even wets it so what’s the difference? I’m already washing diapers every day for 3 kids (3 and under). I just started using mama pads also so I figure why not? It is a little hard to teach my 3yo to use it since she is used to TP but hopefully she’ll come around to it also!