Cloth Toilet Paper...you know you want to try!

So this is the blog I have been promising for awhile...the one about my switch to cloth toilet paper!  Some think it is gross, some think it is great, where do you stand?  For me it started as a thought that became a nag in my mind and led me to do more research on the subject.  I was really sick of buying toilet paper ALL THE TIME!  Between my daughter and my pregnant self we were using A LOT of paper.  I am already washing cloth diapers and wipes a few times a week, so it wasn't going to be an issue to add a few more items to the laundry pile.  The problem it seemed was creating and learning a new system.  When I saw how easy it seemed based on another blog (I Googled it), I thought hey I can give this a try.  It really doesn't take much to start, just a few cloth wipes and a wet bag to put them in, easy peasy right. 

I have 3 bathrooms so that is really the only irritating part about the whole ordeal, buying enough supplies (wipes and wet bags) for 3 bathrooms (and then keeping all 3 stocked!).  The start up cost to doing cloth toilet paper is really not bad at all even if you do have a few bathrooms to stock.  All you really need is several wipes, a wet bag, and maybe some bottom spray or an old peri bottle full of water, oh and of course a cute basket to keep your wipes in ;)  I purchased 3 small Bummis wetbags http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/products/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=9381&idcategory=18 (I choose 3 different colors to sort of coordinate with my bathrooms), 32 of these wipes http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/products/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=1615&idcategory=19 (these are best for duty #2), and 30 of these  http://www.kellyscloset.com/Flannel-Baby-Wipes-15-pk_p_4079.html (I like these for duty #1). 

That's it!  That is all it took for start up...$84.44!  If you are handy with a sewing machine, you could buy flannel and sew your own wipes or use some old receiving blankets and save even more money!!  And obviously if you have less bathrooms that means not so many wet bags to purchase, so start up could be practically nothing.  Either way for me, $84.44 to start and so many less trips to Target for toilet paper and going crazy trying to find coupons for it has been amazing!  I'm pretty sure I have only purchased paper toilet paper once since we started and half of the pack is still in the closet.  We started in July and are still going strong.  Full disclosure, my husband WILL NOT use them and that's fine.  He's not here all day while at work and I don't think men wipe when they pee...so his use is pretty minimal anyway ;)

So how does it work?  VERY simple.  Go potty, pick your favorite wipe from the basket on the back of toilet, wipe, place wipe in wet bag...SO EASY!  When going #2 best scenario is to pre-wet your wipe in the sink, but that doesn't always work so having some bottom spray like this http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/products/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=5868&idcategory=82 or this http://www.target.com/p/California-Baby-Non-Burning-Diaper-Area-Wash-6-5-oz/-/A-12717097 in your basket or a peri bottle of water to wet your wipe with works just fine.  I get frequent yells from the bathroom now...Mama, can you wet my rag!!!!!!!!!!????????...I mean really that is better than...Mama, can you wipe my butt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?????????????...which is the yell I used to get all the time ;)  She finds it a lot easier to wipe herself now and I know she is getting cleaner with the wet wipe instead of just toilet paper.  Yes, I'm sure some use those toddler wipes right, but again expensive and frequent trips to the store (not to mention that outrageous bill from the plumber when those darn things clog your pipes!), no thanks.

So when the wet bag is full or you are running out of wipes, throw your cloth toilet paper into the laundry with your cloth diapers!  I'm not sure what I will do when I am no longer cloth diapering, as in what will I wash my cloth wipes with?  But I have several more years of diapering ahead of me, so I will cross that bridge when I get to it!

Here are some pictures to show my system... 
This is my master bathroom.  Basket on the back of the toilet holds cloth toilet paper and the wet bag hangs on the paper toilet paper holder.  I did have to buy this basket, BUT it was 1/2 off at Hobby Lobby so I don't have to count that in my start up cost, right!?

If you visit my house this is the bathroom/powder room you will use.  Please feel free to give my cloth toilet paper a try!  Again, wipes are in a basket on the back of the toilet (I already owned this basket, HA!) and you put your used wipe in the pretty pink wet bag.

Now doesn't that look easy!?  Don't you want to give it a try?  I challenge you all to give cloth toilet paper a try.  Once you go cloth, you'll never go back, I promise.  I haven't even mentioned one of the best parts, which is how much better cloth feels on your bottom and how much cleaner you feel.  That, PLUS you are saving money and trips to the store, PLUS you are helping the environment! 

Oh and if you are visiting my house...the other rule we live by is...

If it's brown, flush it down!  If it's yellow, let it mellow! 

Could it be...am teaching them to parent already?

Am I the only mama that worries about her kiddos getting older one of these days and making strange decisions?  What if God forbid my daughter or my son and his wife choose NOT to birth naturally, or breastfeed, or babywear, or co-sleep, or cloth diaper, or keep their sons intact, or make their own baby food, or eat organically, or recycle, etc.  What on Earth would I do?!  I guess I just have to lead by example and hope that they take good lessons away from growing up in this household.  So far both of my kiddos are breastfeeding, babywearing, co-sleeping, cloth diapering "parents" to their dolls and stuffed toys.  So, maybe I AM teaching them well :)

Empowered Birth Awareness Week

This week has been Empowered Birth Awareness Week! https://www.facebook.com/danielle.braden#!/event.php?eid=119031084860920

I am thinking that an empowered birth must mean several different things to different people because when it comes to birth there are so many WAYS.  And everyone thinks their way is the best, right.  I have actually had it two different ways, with a third new and different way coming in October :) 

My first birth was just that, the birth of my beautiful daughter.  I love her more than anything in life, but I do not love her birth.  Her birth broke me emotionally and left me feeling broken physically.  For my second birth, it was the birth of my first son, a beautiful boy that again is my world, but also the birth of a new me.  I changed the day I VBACed my son.  Not only was a new tiny man welcomed to the world, but a new woman in me was born too.  Now that is what I call empowered!  I empowered myself in his birth to TAKE BACK what had been stolen from me the first time I birthed.  Sometimes I think I would change the way my daughter was born, but other times I realize that if that was changed, I would not be where I am today.  Everything happens for a reason and I needed to be shown something that day.  I am so thankful for the lessons I learned during my first very medicalized, traumatic, surgical birth.  Because what I learned is that I didn't want or need ANY of that.  I trust my body and my baby more than anything or anyone else.  I do not need any doctors or nurses telling me what my body can do.  I will tell them what my body is capable of, and they will watch and learn.  My birth is just that, mine and my child's.  I refuse to ever again let someone else have control over the natural beautiful miracle that is BIRTH.

Please educate and empower yourselves for your own births!  Whatever that means for YOU.  Just remember always that YOU are in control, not the medical professionals.  You can always say no, you can always look for other options, you can always walk away.  Be EMPOWERED and your mind, body and spirit will thank you for it later.