On laundry:

"I do laundry at least once a week, but usually twice. We've always separated lights and colors so that we can do whites on hot with bleach and colors on a lower temperature setting, so it hasn't really affected our laundry routines at all. Even a week's worth of cloth doesn't add much volume to the load of laundry, so we don't need to do it more often than we did. We also haven't needed to change our detergent because we usually just go for something super simple, and we've never used fabric softener anyway. (Fabric softener, by the way, is a big no-no for any effective cloth reusables because it basically takes away the absorbency of any fabric.)



"Though I do not have bigger loads of laundry to do as a result of using family cloth, nor do I need to do laundry more often, the folding process does take a bit longer. This, however, varies from family to family. I roll the cloths. It's time-consuming and a bit monotonous, sure, but I personally just don't mind. I fold laundry while I'm listening to NPR so a few more minutes doesn't bother me. Other families dispense with folding them altogether and just put them into a bin as they come out of the dryer or off the clothesline. You just gotta find what makes it work for you."

On staining:

"A stain does not indicate filth. It’s simply a discoloration caused when a substance containing intense pigmentation comes into contact with certain materials, like the natural fibers found in cloth. Modernity has coddled us into thinking that everything should be spotless and perfect, and, when marred, should be tossed and replaced. This mindset is part of what has gotten us into our current sad state of affairs, ecologically speaking. If my cloths get stained by menstrual blood and come out of the hot-water-with-bleach wash with reddish or brownish areas of discoloration, I honestly do not care and neither should you. We can all grow up and let go of our learned squeamishness for the sake of taking better care of our planet, our only home."

On living an eco-conscious lifestyle:

"Over the years, I've developed a real distaste for single-use items, both because of the economical reasoning and also because it started to feel really disrespectful of our planet's resources. We compost food scraps, we recycle carefully and thoroughly. We only own one car (in the suburbs, we're learning this is apparently freakish behavior) and walk or take public transportation as often as possible. We avoid disposable items and try to buy certain things secondhand. I mend and repair when I can so we don't have to buy replacements for socks and things like that. We make food from scratch as much as possible. We don't eat meat or poultry, and try to base our menus as much around a plant-based diet as possible (though we're not vegan). We participate in freecycling, micro gift economies, and curb scavenging. I'm sure there's more we do, but that's all I can think of right now.

"Using a family cloth was just the next logical step in our family's efforts to conserve and reduce our carbon footprint. For as long as it was in my sphere of awareness, I was always curious and interested in the concept and practice of using cloth instead of toilet paper. I think I had a bit of anxiety about it; I wasn’t completely confident that I could do this in a sanitary way. But after joining zero-waste Facebook groups and becoming involved there, I encountered lots of other people already doing it and their successes bolstered my resolve and motivation.

"Before this year, we'd been living in rented apartments and doing laundry either in facilities shared by all residents of the building, or at neighborhood laundromats. We had considered doing cloth diapering when our kids were babies, but never felt comfortable bringing that kind of stuff to shared or public facilities. But this past summer, we bought a house and now we do laundry in our own basement. This shift was basically the green light I'd been waiting for."

