Natural Living advocates: the reusable toilet wipe

[katty]

more: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/bottom_reached#49803

“Natural living” advocates unveil their latest planet-saving invention - the reusable toilet wipe.

Surely it’s time global warming believers marked their houses with some sign, a green pentacle or something, as a warning to visitors to enter at their own risk.

[RobertSeattle]

1. Wip or Wipe?.... :-)

[katty]

2. ha - wipe...

[SoCalDem]

3. Moms have known about this miraculous invention forever

it's called a washcloth/washrag. :rofl:

Use 'em, rinse 'em..wash with bleach & hot water:)

There WAS a time before Babywipes:)

[donco6]

10. Beat me to it.

I wonder if we can still patent that?

[GoesTo11]

4. The left hand?

[robinlynne]

5. ew.

[Skidmore]

6. In the Middle East, people use a special ewer filled with water and

you wash yourself--sort of a precursor to the bidet. Actually it is quite nice, and you feel really clean later. I've always thought TP was overrated and costly.

[kirby]

9. ewer == pitcher

For those that need to look it up like me.

[SoCalDem]

11. name change..Skidless

:)

[JCMach1]

19. This has evolved into the use of water sprayers... Great idea! Gets you very clean

So much so my butt can't take the TP only solution in the States any more...

However, I fear that it leads to the overuse of water. I don't know how green it is compared to ordinary TP use.

[walkaway]

7. bidets nt

[dustbunnie]

8. There was a time when women made their own reusable sanitary napkins too -

There is at least a grain of truth in that old saying "if you wait long enough, old becomes new again."

[SoCalDem]

12. They sell them online.. or if you sew, you can make them easily

there's a reason the slang term "on the rag" came to be:)

[dustbunnie]

13. I always wondered how that term was born!

:D

Wish I could sew, and know someone who does make her own.

Never paid much attention, but a trip to Jones Beach in the spring surveying all the washed up plastic on the shore, makes ya think. What a money saver too.

Turlet paper is one thing, but now that we're also supposed to buy disposable swiffer dust and mop thingies, it's mind-boggling what this earth is going to look like in the future.

[SoCalDem]

15. click on Leftymom's post..she posted links & everything

A friend made some from bargain bin towels for her incontinent grannie..

The Depends were so expensive and chafed her poor old skin, so she took a sanitary napkin and used it for a "pattern".. ( she customized it) , and sewed layers of the toweling to the thickness her sewing machine would handle, and then bought "waterproof" fabric for her bedding.. Her skin improved, and they saved a lot of money too:)

[dustbunnie]

17. Shall do! The environmental impact has always bothered me -

but it also irks me how women get shafted on the cost of things we NEED. We're such a captive market for all kinds of nonsense.

That grannie is/was a lucky lady to have such a caring grandchild. I used to volunteer at a palliative care center, and came to see how little things mean a lot in the care of the elderly. :)

[SoCalDem]

20. I made my kids baby-bibs from fingertip towels

those plastic bibs were a bitch to wash up, and they always got crackly and the others stained so easily.. My bibs were always in demand at baby showers. It was a standard gift I gave..and soooo cheap..

stores always had tons of fingertip towels on sale.. no one ever USES those things..

Fold one fourth down, cut a semi circle (for the neck) and use bias tape for the ties.. and you're done.. I put a duckie applique on it to decorate a bit.. but those things got washed and washed and washed and bleached,, and when the kids were done with them, they became car clean-up-the-hands rags..(just cut the strings off)

[LeftyMom]

14. Women still do that.

:shrug:

There are plenty of reusables on the market:
http://www.lunapads.com/
http://www.gladrags.com/
http://www.divacup.com/

to say nothing of instructions for DIYing one's own cloth pads:
http://sewgreen.blogspot.com/2007/05/cloth-pads.html
http://www.sleepingbaby.net/jan/Baby/PADS.html

[dustbunnie]

18. Thank you LeftyMom!

Those gladrags look way more festive than the disposable kind too. :)

We're slightly off topic, but this is far more informative and interesting. :D

[LeftyMom]

23. There are a lot of really cute ones on etsy too.

I make my own, it doesn't take much sewing skill and the materials costs are minimal. Plus that way I can use fabric that I like, cut them the perfect size for me, just thick enough for me, etc.

I reuse old flannel sheets for the inner layers, buy some cute print for the outside, and use a little blue dritz snap fastener that ran me about $4 at Joann for the snap, though if I had a proper snap press (one of these days I'll invest in one) I'd use that. I figure each pad costs me less than fifty cents, with the majority of the cost coming from the snap.

edit: the snap kit: http://www.joann.com/joann/catalog.jsp?PRODID=prd11080&AID=1489912&PID=2187177&SID=3flgSVyYOFJE3cE9XAZ10SmguNyx87XV

[kestrel91316]

16. I have a gallon ziploc bag of carefully cut flannel squares,

stored under my bathroom sink, just waiting for TEOTWAWKI or at least the unavailability of TP. But I have no intention of using them until and unless I HAVE TO, lol. If for no other reason than that washing them is more trouble than I want to go to right now.......I certainly don't have a problem with the fundamental concept.

[nosmokes]

27. um, considering their purpose, is there any particular reason for the "careful cut"?

d'ya think folks will complain if they find one that's a bit of a rectangle?:P

[kestrel91316]

29. I wanted them to stack nicely. They were cut with pinking shears, too.

Betcha you don't even know what those are, huh? Huh?

Whaddya think I am, some sorta white trash with random wipies that look like RAGS?????

:rofl:

[Rosa Luxemburg]

21. wasting water vs paper? wasting paper + water etc

[ljm2002]

22. Not so different, really...

...from reusable diapers. You remember those -- nice, soft cotton diapers. You had to pre-rinse them and wash them thoroughly with hot water and bleach. Another tip: to prevent irritation from the bleach, it's a good idea to add white vinegar to the final rinse to neutralize the bleach.

Not that I'm planning to do reusable TP anytime soon. I use the 1000-squares-per-roll 1-ply stuff and it lasts a good long time, so I'm not going overboard with it.

OTOH, I've often wondered why those gigantic piles of sawdust that accumulate at lumber yards aren't routinely reused for utility paper products like TP and napkins and paper towels.

[Hekate]

24. Having lived through a couple of years of my husband's ulcerative colitis, all I can say is: Hell No

I would go on the rag if I had to (although Hekate is thankfully past that phase of life) and I would certainly invest in or sew re-usable Depends if I had to, but there are some modern conveniences I would not give up and toilet paper is one of them.

Hekate

[beyurslf]

25. I'm sorry but that is gross. I like toilet paper.

[pipi_k]

26. I make my own wipes...

when my MIL was here we got some of that rinseless bath stuff that you mix with water for giving bed baths without soap.

I found out that I could put a capful of that stuff in a spray bottle, and since I'm going to be using TP anyway, I spray some of the solution on a small wad of TP and get a nice fresh clean feeling without having to rinse.

A gallon of that stuff lasts for years....literally. The bottle we bought in 2005 has lasted this long.

And since it's regular TP, it's flushable, whereas some "wipes" are not...a big issue when you've got a septic tank...

[earth mom]

28. Sounds like the ShamWow.

Hilarious post about the ShamWow here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5145265#5145326

:rofl:

[pipi_k]

31. Can you imagine Vince doing a commercial for the "ShitWow"?

:7

[tabasco]

30. Asswipes!

[bertman]

32. The solution to the TP problem: A copy of the "Left Behind" series on the back of every commode.