March 28th, 2009

How to Make Pop-Up Cloth Wipes

I assume that most parents who use cloth diapers also use cloth wipes, and everyone has their own special solution or formula.  I was originally still using disposable wipes with the cloth diapers, but that just creates a big mess since you then have to throw yucky poopy wipes in the garbage.  Ick.  I wanted to switch to cloth wipes, but I wanted it to be as convenient as disposables, especially because Hyphenated Husband was NOT into the cloth wipe idea at all. 

At first I bought the expensive Thirsties wipes, which were a total waste of money in my opinion.  I can't believe they get such great reviews. They feel like velour – so image trying to wipe poop off a butt with a thick velour cloth.  Not happening.  Then I asked my mommy friends what they use and they pointed me toward the Circo baby washcloths ($2.99/5 pack) from Target.  Absolutely perfect.  I sat down to fold them into the container, and I felt like I struck a bit of genius by realizing I could fold them so they worked in the pop-up container – popping up one-at-a-time – just like disposables… only better.

So here are my instructions for "Pop-Up Cloth Wipes."  Enjoy!

Step 1: Lay out the first cloth, then put the second cloth halfway over it

Cloth_step1 

Step 2: Fold one cloth over the other

 Cloth_step2 

Step 3: Lay another cloth over the side you just folded over (here it's the striped side)

Cloth_step3 

Step 4: Fold the opposite side over the cloth you just laid down (here we''ll fold the blue cloth over)

Cloth_step4 

Step 5: Keep laying and folding until you have a high enough stack

Cloth_step5 

Step 6: Place the wipes in an old disposalbe "Pop Up" style container.  This one is my favorite.

Cloth_container

Step 7: Use a few cups of water with a drop or two of Tea Trea Oil (optional, but it keeps the wipes fresher longer)

 Cloth_solution 

Step 8: Pour this solution over the wipes until they're good and soaked

Cloth_step7 

Voila!  Close the container and pull the first wipe through.  You'll enoy the convenience of a one-at-a-time pop up wipe system just like disposables – except with cloth instead!

Cloth_finished

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Click to Leave a Comment



1
Response by: Jill on: Mar 28th, 2009

Cool!
You’ve inspired me. The kids got a horrible stomach flu about a month ago. I’ve been using disposables since then (since it was at least a diaper every two hours and I was really sick, too) knowing that I need to get back to cloth before the baby doesn’t fit in them anymore.
I’ll start tomorrow. I just found (as in an hour ago) a stack of baby washcloths. I never knew that about tea tree oil. I always ended up with funky wipes at the bottom of the tub with plain water.
Thanks for this. =)

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2
Response by: Noble Savage on: Mar 29th, 2009

Thank you so much for that, how useful! I’m definitely going to do this.

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3
Response by: Terra Jones on: Mar 29th, 2009

Perfect!!! we were JUST talking about how we wished we could figure this out! Thanks for taking the time to share w/ those of us who aren’t up to the challenge right now ;-)

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4

This is a great idea! I’m totally going to print this out when I get home so that I can set up when my due date is a little closer =)

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5
Response by: ferrous on: Jul 16th, 2009

Your clever method is being talked about on Twitter (@ferrous and @badmummy). I used to do a similar thing with Smiley’s cloth wipes, but it never occurred to me to do a pull through thing. Very cool. :-)

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6
Response by: Andrea on: Jul 16th, 2009

Neat idea! A few questions (I always have questions): How many wipes does it take to fill your container? Do they feel cold to you (since you don’t use a warmer)? What material are in the Target wash cloths? How big are they (you can guess)? Thank you! : ) I want to do this. My DH would love it.

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7
Response by: Jennifer on: Jul 17th, 2009

Even cheaper is to hit the fabric store and buy half a yard of cheap cotton terry cloth, cut it up into squares–half a yard of material will give you 18 squares. And with the knit fabric you really don’t even have to finish the edges. If you got flannel, you’d need to serge the edges.
YMMV!

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8
Response by: Dou-la-la on: Jul 22nd, 2009

You need to win some kind of reward for this. Srsly.
I, too, was wondering about how many will fit in a standard pop-up container?

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9

Actually, I never counted how many would fit, but off the top of my
head I think it’s about 30-40?  But actually, I only do about 15-20 at
a time because I can only use that many in the few days they’re fresh. 
They only last about 3-4 days before they start to stink a little (less
if you don’t use tea-tree oil) and since we only use the wipes with a
soiled diaper, we don’t go through them that fast.  But if you have a
newborn and use tons of wipes each day, you can definitely fill it with
at least twice as many as I usually do.
Hope that helps!

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10
Response by: Dou-la-la on: Jul 22nd, 2009

That is hugely helpful, actually. I’m absolutely going to start doing this. I’ve always felt guilty for continuing to use disposable wipes along with our cloth dipes, even if they are the less-evil 7th Generation ones. No longer!
THANK YOU!

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11
Response by: Heather on: Jul 28th, 2009

I LOVE this! We did disposables with our first, but are going cloth with our twins (due anyday!). I just realized perhaps we should figure out what to do for wipes & was wondering about using baby wash cloths. So you answered 2-in-1 for me! Thanks!

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12
Response by: Kari on: Aug 25th, 2009

I had a question about cleaning cloth wipes–do you just toss them straight into the diaper pail/washing machine after use? Do you rinse first? We dunk and swish our diapers in the toilet, but I’d imagine the wipes would be kind of difficult to do that way. I’m considering switching, but I’d like to know how this works first. Thanks:)

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13

Hi Kari,
No, I don’t rinse them off, they just go straight into the bin. I don’t find that they’re too dirty to be tossed straight in – but I’m dealing with toddler poop (mostly solid) and not newborn poop either, so I suppose it depends on the consistency you’re dealing with. I’ve been doing this for about 6 months though and have never needed to rinse. Hope that helps!

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14
Response by: Mhairi on: Dec 20th, 2009

Someone in one of my Livejournal comms just asked how to fold cloth wipes to pop out of a container so i've directed her to this post.

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15
Response by: Jessica on: Jan 2nd, 2010

Thank you so much…seriously!!! You've just made using cloth wipes SO much better for me! And having them in a familiar format (popping out of a container) seems to make my husband a little less scared of them, too!

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16
Response by: RockStarMel on: Feb 9th, 2010

Hilarious…

I used to buy flannel remnants at the fabric store and cut them down into approximately the same size, then fold them similarly for use with our old pop-up tubs.

The nice thing about the flannel is that when they got *really* nasty, I didn’t feel bad about throwing one out.

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17
Response by: Mira Clark on: Apr 12th, 2010

This is SO AWESOME!
Mira Clark´s last blog ..Thinking of Angels My ComLuv Profile

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18

[...] you have an old pop-up wet wipe container around, you can fold them up according to The Feminist Breeder’s instructions, put them in there, and soak ‘em in homemade wipe solution so you can use them as you would [...]



19

[...] cloth, and she is totally a huge wealth of knowledge for cloth diapering. She even has an awesome cloth wipe tutorial on her website I think everyone should check out. Needless to say I picked her brain for a good hour [...]



20
Response by: Katie L on: Aug 20th, 2010

I love this! Have you had any problems with baby’s bottom getting irritated by the oil? I’ve seen a bunch of other recipes saying to add olive oil to dilute the TTO more…

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