I heard about this on the radio this morning: the Family Cloth. Holy Toledo! Remember when Sheryl Crow suggested people should only utilize one square of toilet paper? Well, this takes that idea even further. People use cloth to wipe after utilizing the facility. The cloth is placed into a container (diaper pail?) and some unlucky person (that would be me in my house) gets to handle all those germ-soaked, stinky, nasty, disgusting cloths that have been collecting for however many days, and throw them into the washing machine. The cloths are then dried and placed back into the bathroom for reuse.

The purpose of the family cloth is to reduce the waste created by toilet paper. The environmentally unfriendly aspects of toilet paper happen before it arrives at your home. Trees are destroyed for the necessary pulp and large amounts of chemicals are used to turn the wood pulp into the soft, fluffy, white tissues we like to use. In addition, those darn packages of t.p. are big and a lot of fuel is burned getting them to their destination. These concerns are causing people to ditch their toilet paper and use a family cloth instead.

Seriously? Are people actually going to do this? Apparently yes. (here, let me help you with that link. CD = cloth diaper, DD = darling daughter, DH = darling husband)

I can see how it’s not a stretch for families who have utilized cloth diapers for their babies. I am fairly certain I came from a cloth diaper family due to being allergic to the adhesive on disposable diapers. But the thought of wiping my butt with a cut up tee shirt, and then throwing that into a bucket to be washed later in the week grosses me out. I can produce a powerful stench; I do not want that intensifying in a bucket all week.

That being said, I am intrigued by the idea of have a TP-lint-free tootie. I hate TP lint residue. It grosses me out. (Although the current brand of TP leaves much less lint residue.)

I just don’t know that I’ll ever care enough about the environment to want to stop using flushable toilet paper. Next they’ll try to take my tampons away. Here, shove this rolled up tee shirt up there, it’s more eco-friendly. BITE ME!

What do you think of the Family Cloth? Would you use it? Would you want to use the bathroom in someone’s house knowing that the stack of cloths on the back of the commode are recycled tootie cloths? Personally, I’d avoid that house. But I’m a bit of a germ freak.

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