2 Simple Steps for Making Your Own No-Sew Reusable Baby Wipes

1. Gather 2-3 outgrown or stained baby onesies or an old t-shirt that are soft have a good thickness to them.                                                                
2. Start cutting them with a pair of sharp scissors in the size you would like.  I didn’t measure as I was cutting, but an approximate square of 5 inches seems to be a great size.

• The beauty of this simple method is that they don’t need to be perfect. It can be done very quickly, and using cotton material of baby clothes, they have never unraveled or frayed even though I didn’t sew the edges.                             
• You can use old t-shirts or other soft material as well. I wouldn’t recommend fleece. I tried a fleece-lined sweatshirt fabric that was very soft, but the water beaded up and just rolled off.                                                              
• How many baby wipes you make depends on how many you tend to use daily and how often you do laundry, I would start with around 25 and you can always make more as you need to.                                                         
• I keep some soft dry wash rags at the changing station to dry my daughters after using the water and wipes. These can be reused for different changings since they are used after baby is all clean.                                
• You can put the wipes in a cute little basket or container for handy dispensing.

I do want to explain that for messy bowel movements, I still use disposable wipes followed by a reusable wipe to rinse them. You can also use regular toilet paper for messy changes followed by a final clean with your reusable wipes.  When babies are newborns, I would suggest having disposable wipes hand or regular toilet paper for all the messy changes and you can always rinse with the reusable wipe.

I also use disposable wipes when we are away from home, but I only go through about one wipe container a month even with two daughters.

My favorite disposable wipes to buy are at Aldi, where you get a 3 pack for 3 to 4 dollars (the prices have increased lately). The Aldi wipes are unscented and hypoallergenic.

Another way to conserve on disposable wipes is to tear them in half. Many times, a half of a wipe is plenty for simple clean ups after just a wet diaper.

Water is the Simplest Reusable Diaper Wipe Solution

Using plain water in an insulated travel mug has many advantages.  Other solutions require time to put together and some ingredients that you may not have readily available. Most homemade diaper solutions need to be discarded and have their containers washed after a few days because of the short shelf-life and growth of bacteria.  

Water is the perfect pH for our baby’s skin and doesn’t leave a residue behind.

When you use water in an insulated travel mug, you can even keep it warmed for longer.  I used warm water especially when my babies were newborns. Since water cools quickly, you can use hotter water to fill the thermos and check it for temperature as you wet the wipe. If it is too warm to use right away, it cools in a few seconds once it hits the air.  Later on in the day, the water becomes room temperature, but now that my girls are older, they don’t seem to mind cooler water at all. 

The other advantage of using a thermos or water bottle is that you can pour as little or as much as you would like to use.  When wetting the wipes, water can spill on the changing pad, so I pour it over the used diaper or over their potty chair or I also have a wash rag handy in case I drop any water in the process.

Many wipe solution recipes call for moisturizing agents like coconut oil or baby oil to add to the solution.  I keep a jar of coconut oil from the dollar store to help moisturize baby’s skin if needed after changes. It has a much longer shelf life when kept in the container than when added to a solution.

For a more complete comparison of the benefits of using water verses wipe solutions, here is a link to the article.

Washing Reusable Baby Wipes

When I do laundry, the wipes add very little bulk to the load and wash up really well. We use cloth diapers, and I usually put the wipes in with the rinse load wit the diapers, and then the regular wash load. If you don’t use them for wiping bowel movements, they can go in with the regular wash as well. I use a discount laundry soap that doesn’t have a strong fragrance, and I put some white vinegar in a fabric softener ball to help remove any soap residue during the rinse cycle, and our babies have never had any problems of laundry soap irritation. 

We have a top load washer and I just shake the small items like the baby wipes and socks to the bottom of the washer as I am unloading. Then I gather them all up after I have removed the other items. You can throw them in the dryer right away, or if you like to air dry things like me, I just spread them out on a flat surface to air dry and then throw them in the dryer with other things for a short time just to soften them up. When I sort laundry, I just toss them in their own pile and refill the basket at our changing station.

Other Household Uses for Reusable Wipes

With even the budget paper towels going up to $2.00 a roll, You can place a bag of slightly larger homemade fabric squares in your kitchen as well!

You can also make larger ones to wet and clean your child’s face and hands after meals.

They make great cleaning rags for mirrors and glass or countertops since they are very low in lint.

Making your own wipes is so easy, you can do it for free and start today. You will be doing something smart for your baby, great your budget and helping the environment too!

For more tips on diapering, parenting and frugal living, visit momumentalyou.com!