2.22.2009

Making Baby Wipes

I've been meaning to do this post for a while now.  A couple of months ago, I got sick of buying wipes.  I loved the Target brand wipes for both their price, and their quality, but the drive to Target was just too much to justify, just for a box of wipes.  Especially since I never seemed to leave with just a box of wipes...  So anyway, with a little internet searching, and some help from my friend Heather, over at Want What You Have, I came up with this super-easy solution.  I'll be honest, ever since we received a box of Kirkland brand wipes for Christmas, I've felt spoiled, and might be a little bit sad to go back, but the cost savings alone is enough to justify it for me.  Hopefully this will help out some of you, too.

So here are your basic ingredients:

You need: 
2 Tbsp. Baby Soap, 
2 Tbsp. Baby Oil, 
2 1/2 Cups Hot Water, 
and a roll of Bounty Paper Towels (the really nice, thick, expensive kind.  Don't worry, they're still cheaper than a pack of nice wipes, especially since you get two packs of wipes per roll of paper towels).
You'll also need a container that can hold your half-roll of paper towels--mine is actually an old brown sugar container from a set of canisters we got at BB&B for $10.00, and it does the job perfectly.  You can use old wipes boxes, too, but you have to fold the wipes up the right way yourself, which is a big turn-off for me.


If your baby has a little bit more sensitive skin, as mine does, you may wish to switch to Coconut Oil (which seems to be in a solid state, actually), and I also switched to the Oatmeal baby soap, which is supposed to be gentler.


The first step is to cut your paper towels in half. This is the hardest part. I usually use my little hand saw, or a serrated knife. Choose a half to use for this set of wipes, and save the other one for next time. Then, after you've decided on your ingredients,  pour your hot water into a bowl (I just do it all in my measuring cup, for ease), and then you add your oil.  If you're using baby oil, you can just continue at this point.  If you're using coconut oil, you need to wait for it to melt, like I'm doing here.

Once the oil is pretty much melted, you can add your soap,

and then thoroughly stir it all together. I think the oatmeal soap is bubblier, for some reason.


At this point, you put your paper towels into your container, and then pour the mixture over it. Most of it should go into the center, but make sure to pour some on the top, and down the sides as well. I usually only use about 1 1/2-2 cups of the mixture (but make the whole thing so I get the right soap/oil/water ratio).

Now put your lid on, and flip the container upside down. Leave for 5 minutes and check your email, or my blog or something. :)

When you come back, you should find the paper towel center very easy to pull out, and when you take it out, it should start the wipes coming up for you!

Just continue to pull the wipes up from the center, and enjoy the cheap goodness of having done it yourself!  

P.S. Sorry about the sideways pulling-up pic--I can't seem to get it to flip, and I don't really care to figure out why right now.  Off to bed for me.

12 comments:

Tannie Datwyler said...

Okay, so this is super clever and I am so glad you posted about it. I'll have to try this.

*Aliese* said...

Ugh...Why do I not have children so I can actually try these things out!??! Rest assured in...oh...10...20 years, I come back to your blog searching for this very post. :)

Jessie said...

Actually, Aliese, you can make all kinds of wipes--disinfectant wipes, other cleaning wipes... you just change what kind of soap (and maybe oil, I'm not sure) that you put in them. If you go to Heather's blog, which I linked to, I think she has more info for you on that.

BECKY said...

Word for word what Aliese said!

You are amazing... I love this.

Becky said...

I haven't been to your blog in so long...I'm sorry. I keep changing my sidebar and lost a few people in the process. I'm so glad I came in when you did this post! That's ingenious! Now I need a BABY!!!!!

Unknown said...

Becca told me you were doing this a while ago. But as soon as I saw this post and got the measurements I went out and got the paper towels and the Tupperware to do it. And it did work but the bummer was I didn't buy a big enough container (just barely not big enough) so I had to cut the stupid paper towel twice! what a pain in the butt that is! You weren't kidding. my least favorite part too!

Unknown said...

Becca told me you were doing this a while ago. But as soon as I saw this post and got the measurements I went out and got the paper towels and the Tupperware to do it. And it did work but the bummer was I didn't buy a big enough container (just barely not big enough) so I had to cut the stupid paper towel twice! what a pain in the butt that is! You weren't kidding. my least favorite part too!

Unknown said...

p.s. I think I am going to steal this and post it on my blog just so that I can pass along the good advice!

Geo said...

Thrifty!

Tannie Datwyler said...

Ooo, I've never read For Whom the Bell Tolls. I'll have to try it - I just put it on my goodreads list. It's been a long time since I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I remember that I loved it. Yes, I agree with you that there really isn't a "romance" genre. Unless you're talking about classic romance novels which are all smut. I decided that Jane Eyre is one of my favorites, and I guess you can label it a classic, but then I thought about To Kill A Mockingbird for my classic. . . so I opted to have Jane Eyre as my romance favorite. :)

Stephanie said...

Jack is our PUPPY! We got him at Christmas. I was really worried about Ben's fear of animals and I thought it would nice to for him to have a playmate. Ben loves him now.

We should get together soon. It's been way too long. And I want to try your wipes to see if it will make me get off my lazy butt and make my own!

Vanessa said...

Thank you so much!