Wee Cloths and other unmentionables

A few days a go I mentioned that a comment on another blog had set me off thinking about reuseable cloths instead of kitchen roll, toilet paper, disposable cloths etc.  The original comment was regarding 'wee cloths' - which means just what it says, to be used instead of toilet paper!  I thought about it a little and it sounded more comfortable than using toilet paper, which has a tendancy to shred, so I  googled it to get more information on washing, hygiene etc. 

This led me to websites which sold reuseable sanitary pads and pant liners and I thought, "what a great idea!".  I've always hated the fact that the ones we buy are full of chemicals that can irritate and these reuseable ones looked so comfortable.  Also very expensive.  So I wondered if I could make them myself, what kinds of fabric could I use and were they cost effective and the fabrics readily available?  I found this fantastic website which had all the information you could need http://www.clothpads.org/.  I have some old fleece pyjamas that I can use but other materials might have to be bought.  Nevertheless, I think this will be very cost effective, should reduce the amount of natural resouces I use and rubbish I produce and it's less to have to go out and buy on regular basis - plus it sounds very comfortable too!

After that I took the idea of reuseable and ran with it - most of my ideas were very obvious but I'd never given it any thought before.

So, here's my list of projects I'm working on:

• Cloths to clean my glasses with - much better for the lenses than using toilet paper!
• Washable cloths for taking my makeup off with, instead of using throwaway wipes
• Cotton hankies instead of disposable ones/toilet paper (unless I have a cold of course!)
• A supply of rags - old tshirts etc-  for wiping up messes
• Wee cloths (much to Iains disgust, I've decided to give this one a go!)
• Cloth pantyliners (again, to the disgust of Iain!)

I've already cut up some old t-shirts to use as rags and I used one particularly soft one to make cleaning cloths for my glasses.

I made two like this and hemmed them so they wouldn't fray in the wash.

These are the old flannels cut into quarters and ready to be hemmed for use as the dreaded 'wee cloths'!

I may have to buy some cheap flannels to cut up and use as make-up cloths as I don't think I have anything else suitable, but I'm looking for some old shirts to make hankies with.

And finally, one of the benefits of all this reuseable stuff is that I'll be using hardly any toilet paper!  I could probably even manage on loo roll purloined from public toilets!  Only joking - but I have actually known a couple of people who did this - never bought loo roll at all!