No More Toilet Paper

I figured if I am washing cloth diapers and wipes, cloth napkins, cloth place mats, cloth dish rags (instead of paper towels), whats a little more cloth wipes?

I am constantly trying to be a better person, mother, wife, and I am always trying to be more "green" and reduce my natural urge to be over consumptive and have lots of shiny new things.

It's very easy to not do something different, well, because its different. I am not sure when toilet paper was invented, but its probably within the last hundred years. Kind of like air conditioning.  People act like we have always had it, but hello, it wasn't until the late sixties, early seventies that people even started to have it in their homes and cars! So people (my husband) act like using anything but toilet paper, and paper towels for that matter, is absolute insanity. He literally stormed out of the room in a huff when I said I wanted to switch to cloth wipes instead of buying toilet paper.

I don't get it. I thought he might like the idea of soft flannel on his bum, especially since he doesn't have to do ANY laundry, EVER. What does he care?

But the idea of change is so uncomfortable for some people that they immediately knock it down without giving it a genuine moment of reflection. So in the end we compromised. Sort of. Currently, I am the only adult in the house using the cloth wipes and only for pee. He says he is even "greener" than me and "shakes" when he pees-sorry if that is TMI but not sure how else to say it!

So here's how it works:

I have a little metal trashcan in the hall bath next to the toilet and a stack of wipes on the back of the toilet. I use two cloth wipes each time I pee and just throw them in the can. In our master bedroom bath, we have our cloth diaper pail in there, so when I use the bathroom there, I just throw the wipes in pail. When I do a load of cloth diapers, I throw in my cloth wipes in with diapers and wash like normal. Easy PEEsy.

Since, I am trying not to buy new things unless absolutely necessary, to save money and again, to reduce my consumptive nature. I cut up some flannel receiving blankets from when Penelope was a newborn ( I still have plenty for posterity, don't worry). I used one of her Bum Genius wipes as a size template and cut them up using pinking sheers, so the sides didn't fray. If you are a better sewer than I, you could do a zig zag stitch over the edge, sort of like a rolled hem.

So do you think I am nuts? Would you ever dare to use cloth wipes in your household?