Going Paperless---Tissue Edition

Thanks to Springtime, all is snot and watery-eyes around here. While I am free from seasonal allergies the men in my life (small and tall alike) suffer something awful. So with that I say, "All hail the HANDKERCHIEF!"


First and foremost I feel that I must point out that poor old handkerchiefs have REALLY gotten a bad reputation, thanks to the tissue industry indicating that they are "unsanitary" and "germy." (I put those words in quotes like I know that the tissue industry said those exact words, but I do not!) It all went down in the 80's, or maybe it was the 70's... either way, one day we were all happily blowing our noses and wiping our eyes with soft cloths and suddenly Kleenex revolutionizes the world and we now all blow our noses with scratchy pieces of paper that have to ADD lotion and aloe to keep our under-noses from bleeding.

Ridiculous.

Now, don't freak out. Snot on a cloth is really almost no different than snot on a disposable piece of paper. IT'S NOT. (HAHAH, get it? It...snot? HAHAHAHAH! Woah, back to the topic at hand...)

I do not use store-bought handkerchiefs. Why? Because they aren't super helpful, or soft. I wipe small children's noses an upwards of 12 times a day EACH during spring and summer (no, I am NOT exaggerating.) So, I made my own. I use the term "made" very loosely. I bought some fleece and chopped it up into small (About 3 inches wide, and 4-ish inches tall) rectangles.One yard can make dozens of "hankies."

Why fleece? Because the edges don't fray, thereby rendering this project "no-sew" which means any dolt with a sharp pointy object can do it.

Why fleece? Because it's very very soft. I can wipe and wipe and wipe and my army of boy's noses stay happy and without any pain or redness.

Why rectangles? To allow for them to be "single use" I made them small and easy.

Why rectangles? Because then I didn't have to measure exactly. Squares have to be exact, rectangles can be eye-balled.

The only way I could make this easier for you is if I made them for you and mailed them to you. But I'm not going to.

Now, get a few cute baskets from the craft store and place them where your boxes of tissues live. Once they get used, throw them in with your regular laundry. Replace them back in their baskets when you sort laundry.

It's SO SO SO easy.

SO EASY! I say.

"But Morgan!" you cry in disgust, "It's germy! It's SNOT! I don't want to ever touch that much less wash cloths full of it!"

To which I say, "Why? That is silliness. I mean, come on, do you not WASH your hands after you wipe a snot-nosed kid anyway? Because if you don't then YOU'RE GERMY! Regardless of the mode of wiping, you're going to get germy, paper or cloth. That is just a fact. So wash your hands. Throw the used hanky in the laundry and then WASH YOUR HANDS. It's simple."

There is NO reason why you can't just throw a couple of fleece wipes in your kids' pockets when they are snotty. They can wipe and shove them back in their jeans. Then when they don't take them out, unlike PAPER TISSUES there is no gross tissues bits in your laundry. The cloths get washed just as they needed to, and you're not grumpy because your lint trap is full of gross paper.

See? This is a brilliant plan. It is. You know it.

Give it a whirl.

Do I NEVER have paper tissues? I would be remiss if I said that I never do. Why? Cuz I can't seem to get my husband on board. He likes his paper tissues. But the kids? They don't mind  the cloth ones in the slightest.

And in closing, am I the only one who always refers to tissues as "Kleenex" regardless of whether they are "Puffs" or "Kleenex" or "Generic"? Like how people in south call all soda "Coke"?

Hello?

Just me then?