Each member of your family has their own cloth. You do not share it amongst the family. Ours is made of double panel flannel squares that are serged together. You can see ours here, I had ours made for us and we each have our own design/designs that we use.
The designs were my choice, I bought my own materials, sent it to a lady to have her put them together for me and received over 130 squares for our family. Now it cost me roughly $50 for the material and I traded the lady $50 worth of clothes and things for her to make them so it was about $100 start up cost, now keep in mind we are a LARGE family and I am pregnant, so I had a LOT made. Smaller families start up cost would be cheaper due to size of family, and if you can get a great coupon for the materials or whatnot you can save a lot more!
Now we spent roughly $15 a month on toilet paper before I was pregnant, but now being pregnant we could estimate roughly $20 a month in toilet paper alone. Now before I was pregnant we would have spent $180 a year, and being pregnant we would have spent roughly $225 a year. So in one year we saved anywhere from $80 to $125 a year just on toilet paper! We also do not buy the cheapest toilet paper, but we did not buy the most expensive either, so depending on the brand you buy you could save a lot more!
Not to mention you are not only saving money by switching to family cloth. Family cloth has no chemicals therefore it is not going to cause irritations to your skin. It is very durable and holds up when wiping. Leaves behind no residue. It also cleans much better. For women it is softer than toilet paper, and during sensitive times of the month it can make a huge difference! For "messes" that are a bit harder to clean, you can wet the family cloth and it helps clean much better! What usually takes 10 squares of toilet paper you can save and do with one square of family cloth!
Cleaning family cloth is simple. You throw them right into your wash, preferably by themselves or maybe with your cloth diapers if you cloth diaper. We use natural or organic cleaning methods, no harsh chemical detergents. You can use something like Oxyclean to remove the stains along with your regular detergent right in the wash.
Now some of you are probably asking what we do with the family cloth when it is used and in the bathroom, well of course we do not flush it like traditional toilet paper, which goes into the sewage system. We have a hanging wet bag in the bathroom, and we all stick the family cloth into the bag, when the bag is full it heads to the laundry. What is a wet bag you ask...a wet bag is a bag made that has PUL lining inside which is water resistant. They also can come in a variety of designs and can easily be made to match your bathroom. Or you can splurge and buy a foot petal garbage can a small one will do, make sure it has a removable bucket therefore you can just take the bucket out and dump it in the wash. Spray the bucket with a natural disinfectant and your done! A wet bag if you choose that route like we did, can be throw right in the laundry with your family cloth to be cleaned.
I hope in some way this has helped you in making your decision on family cloth. Or at least given you an open mind enough to try it. We did and love it. We are no longer spending tons of money on toilet paper, no longer sending toilet paper down into the sewage system, and no longer having to worry about running out of tp either!
Until Next Time:
Mom of Many
No comments:
Post a Comment