Are Reusable Baby Wipes Worth it?

Are reusable wet wipes good? The simple answer is 100% YES

What are the advantages of reusable wipes?

There are so many pluses to reusable baby wipes!

1. Buy once and have them forever
2. Never run out
3. Wash and go
4. One wipe wonders
5. Sooooo much gentler for your hands and babies face or bottom
6. No chemicals
7. Great with cloth nappies OR disposables
8. Repurpose them when baby potty trains and weans
9. Choice of fabrics
10. Hand them down to siblings and friends
11. Save money
12. Choice of colours and patterns!
13. Kinder to the environment
14. Reduce single use plastics
15. Avoid adding to our fatberg situation
16. Keeps the sewer pipes flowing
17. Keep our oceans cleaner
18. I'll stop because I'll never run out of benefits to list!!!

Advantages of reusable wipes vs disposable wipes

There is really only one advantage of disposable wipes and it's a false one!

Convenience

We have been trained by advertising that disposable 'everything' is convenient and easy. I used washable wipes with my third child from the get go BUT occasionally reached for what I thought might be the quick practicality of disposable wet wipes.

Oh, I had them stuck everywhere, ten came out when I wanted one, they got caught on my hand, on the babies foot, which then got stamped in the poop, then as we were using reusable nappies I had nowhere to put them!!

He ended up chewing on one and looked very alarmed - no comparison to his familiar soft towelling cheeky wipes! Cheeky Wipes are the perfect size and thickness to only need one wipe per nappy change.

My youngest is now 11 and I still have the odd original cheeky wipe floating about! Over its years its role has morphed from chief nappy change wipe, to weaning clean up, it has been frozen and popped on a bumped head, used to clean the kitchen sides, even taken camping for washing armpits and bits! And it's still going strong.

Our standard all in one kit comes with 25 wipes, we never ran out! I added to my stash with some pretty rainbow bamboo wipes for weaning and avoided needing to rush out when we got to the bottom of a pack like I'd had to when my first two were in nappies.

How do reusable wipes work?

Our wipes are simple to store, use and wash. Store damp wipes soaked in water and our essential oils wipes solution or coconut oil in our fresh box or a wet bag, or store wipes dry and use our wet and wipe spray as you go!

The mucky wipes are thick enough to keep your hands well away from any mess, and then can be dropped through the pop top of our mucky box if you are using disposable nappies, into a mucky wetbag or stored with your cloth nappies til washday.

Then you can just pop them in your washing machine as part of a mixed washload which makes for a very environmentally friendly option as no extra washing is required.

In fact, washing 25 wipes every other day for a year as part of a 7kg washload adds up to just 6 extra loads of washing annually!

Check out our guide on how to clean reusable wipes.

They are gentle on the skin and you will know exactly what you have added to them - no unknown chemicals. Our essential oils are all safe for babies from 6 weeks when diluted with water, or pop some coconut oil in for even easier wiping, some of babies own body wash, or for babies with eczema or other skin issues go for plain water and refresh your box daily.

Our wipes come in a variety of fabrics including bamboo, organic cotton, cotton flannel and bamboo plush. We even have a handy guide to the best fabrics for reusable wipes to help you choose the most appropriate wipes for you. We all have a duty to protect the planet and do as little harm as possible.

This is a simple, easy swap that will also save you money. Even if the majority of people switched to reusable wipes just for weaning clean up for wiping hands and faces we would cut down on waste significantly.

How do I use my cloth wipes when out and about?

Reusable baby wipes are totally transportable. Just wet a few, squeeze them out and pop them into a wetbag for the day. This can be for nursery, for a daytrip or overnight break.

Our double wetbags allow you to carry clean and used wipes together conveniently, and even have an integrated mesh bag so you won't have to touch dirty wipes on their way to the machine. Pop them all in a nappy pod, along with a change of clothes, snacks, and anything else baby needs for the day!

Why stop with the baby? Reusable toilet wipes for adult bums

We can all recall the mayhem at the start of the COVID 19 pandemic, with panic buying causing a shortage of toilet roll........ well never be caught out again with our toilet paper replacement wipes for the whole family.

They are soft and gentle compared to paper or wet wipes, and will help the sewers fatberg issues our country is currently fighting against. So good for your household pipes and S-bends too! 

We hope you've enjoyed our Cheeky guide to reusable wipes and that the door is open for you to try some too. If you aren't sure of what would suit you or which fabric to go for, fill out our Wipes Questionnaire and Paula will get back to you with her recommendations and many handy tips. Now is the time as we have £10 off kits during January 2022

If you enjoyed this we think you would like this blog on 8 brilliant sustainable things every eco friendly person needs in their lives!

As always, if you're unsure of what you need to make the switch, please do drop the team a line or use the online chat function.  The team all use the products themselves and just LOVE to chat pee poo and periods, all day long, nothing is TMI and we all love to overshare based on our own experiences...

About the Author:  Kirstin Scriven is part of the Customer Experience team at Cheeky Wipes, which since 2008 has been selling the original reusable wipes kit. She is mum to 3 and loves the forest, the sea and the hills!

Along with the rest of our crack team, she spends most days talking about poo, pee and periods and loves a chance to overshare. The business was recognised with a Queens Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development in 2021, celebrating their hard work over the last 13 years.