I want to buy a lerge number of reusable wipes, what sort, how many & from where?

[Katymac]

I am about to trial reusable wipes for the minded children.

I have upto 9 under fives for 8-10 hours a day.

I currently use wipes for bums, wiping hands before snack, dirty faces, after meals and occasional spills

I will still use wipes for those smeared or explosive nappies - but want to replace the mildly grubby ones with reusables

So what should I buy?

How many for a fair trail?

How many will I need eventually?

Where from?

Do I just use water to wet them or do they need to be in a lotion/potion?

& while we are at it is Lavender & tea tree in water as an antibac spray? & if so in what proportions?

Thanks all

Shhh...that's what I pay staff for

No - I agree it's a bit labour intensive - maybe the dryer would work.

I have fleece wipes which I used when DD had nappies (just used water) and still use now for a variety of uses. They are dry the second they come out of the washing machine too. Can also have different colours/patterns for different children if you want.

Don't dry them, just leave them damp for the next day surely?

Would they smell musty if I left them in a pile?

mine don't but I don't have erm industrial amounts like you. Some people pile them in a wipes solution at the start of the day so they are wet when you need them, maybe you could do that?

industrial amounts

I only have the one child, so not sure if this is of any use to you, but I reuse jay-cloths. I bought an enormous roll of them months ago and barely seem to have made a dent in it yet. They tear off (perforated) but I cut them in half to get a better size. I keep them pre-soaked in mild tea-tree solution. They wash fine at 40 and 60 - I just chuck them in with my whites.
I haven't used them for bums though - just hands and faces, highchairs, etc. I tend to use them out and about, and have a pile of flannels (quite small ones, cheapo from Asda) at home. I guess the jay cloths won't last as long as the flannels, but I rarely chuck one away and when I do it's just because I'm being a bit fussy or lazy.

And a word of warning - when my sis in law saw what I was doing she said that she'd tried it but the jay cloths just fell apart in the wash like paper, so not any brand will do.

I don't re-use nappy changing cloths (yet) but as we use cotton wool for that we haven't bought a pack of wipes for months and months. It's great!

don't hempresto do them? hereShe's seriosuly green in her approach so would suit the nursery ethos I think- and I am certain she could give you lots of info on the oils etc.

Used to know the owener (we both moved away) and was seriously impresseed by her greeny credentials and the sheer effort she put into getting everything right.

I?ve probably come too late for this conversation, but if it helps, I use a cut up old bed sheet for botty wipes. They are just one single layer of worn thin cotton (but disposable wipes are just a single layer too)! A double bed sheet gave me over 40 odd large wipes, so you could get double that with two bed sheets which would be enough for 9 children at 8 botty wipes each a day. I wet my botty wipes in plain old water and then keep them in a cheap lidded sandwich container I got from Asda (but in your case you?d probably need a bigger container) and I keep the container with my nappies. I refill the container every second or third day, and the wipes stay wet all that time and don?t smell musty. I clean out the container when I put a fresh batch in. I wash the wipes with my nappies, and I place the wipes one on top of the other and put them either on the line or on an indoors airer and they dry overnight. They are so thin they take up hardly any room in the wash, and they dry really fast, even lying one on the other. I find fleece doesn?t wipe up poo as well and takes longer to dry than my cheap, thin cotton wipes.

For hand/face wipes I use the burp cloths from Asda. I can?t remember how much they are, but they come in packs of 5, I think. They?re quite big, so you could cut them in half. I also use the cheap face cloths from the pound shop, but have you thought about either those micro-cloths you can buy from the supermarket or cutting up muslin squares? They?d both dry really quickly too.

I agree with Miaou in that if you go for a mix of washable and disposable then go with washable for nappies and wash them with the nappies, because that seems to me to be your biggest use of wipes.

Phew - sorry for the (probably pointless) long post!

Well, the water is not old, it?s fresh from the tap, but I mean I don?t add anything to it!