Cloth Toilet Paper – How to Reduce Your Paper Consumption One Square at a Time
On average the US alone spends over 5.7 billion dollars on toilet paper alone each year. That is expected to double by the year 2010. We are literally flushing away the earth’s numerous biologically rich habitat’s down the toilet.
Contrary to popular belief, old growth and non harvested forests are used in the production of paper goods. These forests are replaced with tree plantations. The problem with tree farming is that these produce 90% less species than a natural forest would. Not only are we wasting trees but we are killing off important species of plants and animals that are imperative to the life cycle of the forest.
Regardless of the resources used to generate toilet tissue, it also makes us, as consumer’s, Dependant on one more thing and to the big box and retail stores. There is a growing trend in the natural family living communities across the country to institute cloth toilet paper in the home. Many families have made the switch happily.
Using cloth toilet paper is not only economical choice but once you try it I swear you’ll never go back! It may seem gross at first, but I assure you wiping with cloth instead of paper is much more comfortable! We have been using it in our household for going on 7 months now. I, like many others, was reluctant to give it a try at first due to the gross factor. After cutting out cloth napkins and paper towels over 7 years ago, then cloth diapering my babies for a couple of years, it seemed like a natural choice for our family. I also decided if cloth wipes were good enough for my children, they are good enough for me! Also, I really hate it when we run out of toilet paper! As for comfort, like i mentioned previously, you will find using cloth after bowel movements to be much easier and cleaner feeling.
I started with several dozen assorted wipes in our house. We mainly have cloth diapering style wipes, but now have several dozen washcloths dedicated to the purpose as well. You can also sew your own if you are creatively inclined. Or for a quick no sew option, you can make your own by cutting up squares of flannel, fleece, or recycled cotton t shirts. These won’t need hemming. For our family of three, 18 wipes is sufficient, laundering them every other day.
Try storing your wipes in a decorative basket on your bathroom counter on the back of the toilet. You can use a small bucket or a trash can with a step lid to store used ones. You do not need to rinse off your wipes after use. Just toss them into your pail and wash every other day or so. I like to wash mine on a hot cycle twice.
It may seem like a really odd choice to make in this day and age, but I promise you won’t go back to scratchy, irritating paper after trying cloth toilet paper! You also feel better knowing you are saving our earth’s precious resources one square at a time!
