plumtreeblossom | I Am Right Good And Horrified

Look, I'm all for greening efforts, in the home and in the world. If I can help, I'm happy to, and consider it my duty anyway. But there is a certain level of greenness intensity to which I can not and will not under any circumstances go.

I give you Reusable Cloth Family Toilet Wipes:

You really don't want to see this.

No matter what I do in the interest of greener living, there are two categories of things that I will never, ever swap out for reusable versions: safer sex supplies, and toilet hygiene products.

I'm going to swing at the first fastball that's certain to get thrown and answer the question of "How is this any different from cloth diapers?" It is very different, and here is my reasoning behind saying that.

What I can't sign off on is the communal use of something reusable when eliminatory fluids (and solids!) are in the same sentence. Cloth diapers are good. My mother used them on me. But the difference was that they were mine and used only on me, and it wasn't like my Dad was wiping his ass on them, too. Sort of like underwear -- no sharing, no problem. But these wipes would have everyone in the household using the same wipes communally, wiping with glee under a rainbow with doves circling overhead in an ariel dance of peace and community. Mom, Dad, the kids, the kid's friends, the chili-filled dinner guests, Uncle Ed and his colitis, and the toilet-trained Persian cat who sometimes needs help cleaning up. Wipes for all! And just toss it in the bag for next week's laundry!

I would rather use a dried corn cob. Leaves, newspaper...anything I could throw away and never have to see again. I'll buy recycled and unbleached TP if I'm at a store that sells it, but whatever is hanging next to the potty at my house is going to be something flushable. Also, considering how often I grab a swath of toilet paper to blow my nose in...I can't even think about it.

The website recommends washing the wipes separately from the regular laundry. Golly, I wouldn't have thought of that. I was just going to toss the doo doo rags in with my turtlenecks.

Well then, I bet you didn't need that post today! You're welcome. I wouldn't be surprised if I've inadvertently sold any number of you on the product, and you're going right over to buy some now. All I can ask is that if you do switch (or currently practice wipe reuse), and if you ever invite me to your house, PLEASE warn me ahead of time so that a packet of Kleenex can accompany me. If I walked into a bathroom and was startled by a stack of animal-print fabric squares by the hopper and I had no other alternative, you'd have to peel me off the ceiling. And nobody wants that.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Agreed! Besides, think of the water waste generated by separate washing of the little dears. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water!
Just out of curiosity: is that a SERIOUS web site or was it meant as a joke?

It's serious. Apparently there's cloth wipe movement (haha! pardon the pun!). Finding this site is typical of the trouble I get into on the internet. How I got there was that I was on a condom store website, clicked a link to a feminine products website, clicked another link to a reusable feminine products website, then clicked a link to a green-living blog that had the link to this. I never knew such a thing existed until today. Oh horrors.

EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWW!!
that most definitely IS carrying things a bit too far.
gross.

Your userpic is perfect. That's exactly what I would look like if offered a communal wipe (and my ear would probably fall off, too).

Especially when you consider what temperature "hot" water is in a standard home washing machine. There's no possible way to get them sanitary except perhaps to soak them in bleach, and with those bright festive fabrics, bleach clearly isn't gonna happen. Hello residual bacteria! *shudder*

Edited 2008-02-16 23:37 (UTC)

Not to mention what you have now added to your washing machine!

You have to handle them again to put them in the wash, and the smell! You are leaving a festering pile of human waste in an open plastic bag.

This goes beyond dangerous!

The smell would be intolerable. Given the battle I have with cat litter odor every summer, a bag of human filth in the bathroom is Out Of The Question.

Eeewwww!!!!

And I don't see how this helps the environment either.

Not with all that washing, and the electricity it requires. Oh wait, maybe they advise just rinsing the wipes in the river that they bathe in. ;-)

I actually found this post highly entertaining -- just what I need in my convalescence. Maybe I've got an overly-developed sense of potty humor, but this is funny stuff.

For the record, there's no way in hell I'll be using these. I'm with you: I would rather wipe with a banana leaf and then bury it then use communal cloth lozenges. Ick.

Perfect userpic. I remember Japan's toilets on both ends of the technology spectrum. Some were posh Futureworld supersonic thrill rides. Some were smelly horizontal urinals.

Glad you're on the mend!

i'm all for green living, but hell, that's taking it too damn far. eww.

There's green, and then there's gangrene.

my dad tried to do this to me when i was a teenager (don't even get me started on the things i had to endure) and we just used color coded ones. mine were pink and yellow and his were blue and green. and that solved that problem. and as far as the whole gross factor? let's just say i was out and about a lot and worked hard to use public restrooms when possible.

do you use reusable menstrusal supplies, like cloth pads or diva cups?

I don't, but some of my friends do. But I'm significantly less squicky about reusable menstrual products because, ideally, they are single-user and not shared. I use non-applicator, bio-degradable tampons. I only have a few years left of need for such products anyway, so I'm sticking to my brand.

Oh, here's one of my father's favorite horror stories:

Back in the 60's, my father had a married pair of colleagues, both doctors, who didn't believe in diapering their children because they believed it inhibited their creativity. One evening when my dad was at their house for dinner, their toddler squatted on the living room carpet and took a steaming dump. When my dad asked if they were going to clean it up, they said "No, that's his offering!"

I think I would have gone out to the bushes to hurl.

they obviously didn't study the diaper-free movement very well at all. its really a thing, but you don't just let them do there thing whereever, you potty train them from day one. No, really!

it's called ec (elimination communication) and there really are teeny tiny new babies who are diaper-free and go in the potty.

totally amazing!

its a lot of work though :-)

Give me paper, no dye and biodegradable, but not reusable.

OTOH, I do use reusable menstrual pads. Here comes the TMI. Besides the obvious money savings and benefit to the environment, disposable pads make me itch something awful, whereas flannel ones don't. Thinking about the diva cups the previous commenter mentioned, too.

I see the reusable feminine products as a different category because they're not generally shared by multiple users (well, probably some households share, but I'd sooner spend a week in the menstrual hut bleeding into the hay). I use non-applicator bio-degradable tampons. With menopause less that 10 years away, that's as far as I'm ever going to go, methinks.

Gross.

Sorry! These TMI rants just happen sometimes. I plead insanity. :-)

Oh, *thank you *so* much*.

Dude, that is just nas-T, nasty. I'm all with the environment and shit, but that Is Not OK.

THANK YOU! A doctor weighs in!

I Am Right Good And Horrified

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The levels of ewwwwww

Re: The levels of ewwwwww

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