Family Cloths

You have heard of these right?  The reusable toilet paper.  WHAT?!?

As I venture further into becoming a better steward of money, time and life, I am finding that my initial heart towards "little house on the prairie" living is growing.  The family loves the homemade meals.  Hubby enjoys the free range animal entertainment almost as much as I do anymore.  Daughter is very helpful in both of these things, although chickens are not her favorite.  Son does not hang around too much anymore, but if we need him he helps.  We have learned to rely on and to trust each other more.  I think we are a closer knit family now even though both of the kids are spreading their wings to fly out of the nest.  There is, however, one exception.  One subject that divides.  Family cloths.

This idea intrigues me to the point that I have found an old flannel sheet (because I am not a fan of sleeping on flannel at all) and have cut out a few pieces to sew together and begin the journey to reducing our paper use.  Yes, I probably should have started with cloth napkins, or even handkerchiefs / tissues.  The napkins would require me actually buying fabric, and although I have an order sitting the cart at fabric.com, I don't have the extra funds to do that just yet as there are few other things higher on the priority list.  But believe me they are going to be FABULOUS napkins-very cute! I am also looking into the reusable "paper" towel rolls and female hygiene items.  Daughter and I have discussed the use of family cloths for, shall we say, #1.  This alone will reduce a good amount of toilet paper and septic tank use.  Although I do have a fear of dropping them in the bowl out of habit.  Ugh!  I am practicing being more conscious of this to prepare.

A sewist, I am not.

 Nonetheless, I have a very few that I have started on for "wee" girls (sorry, I couldn't help it).  I have them sitting in a basket on the back of the toilet awaiting for the rest of the supplies: a specific wastebasket, a spray bottle and more cloths of varying sizes. I do hope to find old flannel shirts at Goodwill or a yard sale or something that has patterns.   I think that would be more ideal.  At some point, I will have specific patterns for specific people...if there is a full change over. 

Let's just say that hubby is not going for it just yet.  That's okay, but I have told him that after I have my family cloths at full capacity,  I am only buying four rolls of toilet paper a month, particularly for guests at the house.  Luckily, I think this little project will take several weeks due to budget issues.  If I let hubby know this he may not give me any allowance.  Good thing I keep the books! :)