How to Make DIY Cloth Toilet Paper – Easy and Zero Waste!

I started working on this post about ten days ago, when we started locking down here in Italy for the health emergency, and people were starting to get worried in other parts of the world. My friends in the United States and other English-speaking countries kept telling me about how people were in a total panic because there were no more toilet rolls left in stores. So I decided that the time had come for me to write about something controversial, but interesting: DIY cloth toilet paper.

Since then, the emergency in the US has escalated and I’ve been seeing lots of pictures of empty toilet paper shelves like these:

If you follow me, you probably know that I am a huge proponent of virtually all reusable products that are alternatives to disposables. (Which is an interesting way to put it, seeing as it is actually disposables that were originally alternatives to the classic reusable products.)

I actually created Cucicucicoo back in 2009 as a place to write about washable and reusable cloth diapers and menstrual pads, among other products. (Read all about the origins of this website and what “cucicucicoo” means!) I later created patterns and tutorials to help others make the jump to cloth:

• cloth menstrual pads
• cloth nappies (I am currently working on this pattern, which is a BIG one!)
• cloth baby wipes
• cloth nursing pads
• wet bags (those are waterproof fabric bags that are very useful when using cloth products outside of the home)
• makeup remover pads (that tutorial is included as an extra in my baby wipes pattern)
• cloth napkins and hankies (those are two other tutorials that I’ve been meaning to make and they WILL be published at some point!)
• reusable produce bags
• reusable shopping bags (there are a few tutorials for those on this blog, such as my bag made from an umbrella, my no-waste bag from a sheet, and my no-sew T-shirt bag)
• furoshiki reusable fabric gift wrap

So it makes sense for me to write about DIY cloth toilet paper now that so many people are in a panic over the current loo roll scarcity.

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Watch this video or continue reading to find out WHY you should consider using cloth toilet paper, HOW to make it quickly, easily and FREE in your home right now, and how to wash it!

Basically, cloth toilet paper is a piece of fabric that you clean your butt with, then wash and use again. Simple.

A lot of people get really upset about this idea, as if their common decency were offended, which I don’t quite understand. There are actually a lot of people who chose “family cloth,” which is what you call it when the whole family uses cloth toilet paper for their own moral and health reasons.

So, what are those compelling reasons to use fabric toilet paper? Here are a few:

1. Disposable toilet paper contains chemicals. THOUSANDS of chemicals. The most notable one is chlorine bleach. And that stuff messes with your body. Just Google it and you’ll see.
2. Disposable toilet paper is made from trees. And you just use it once. Which is a waste. Any sort of reusable cloth product is, as the name says, reusable, so even if it IS made from natural resources, you’ll use it a bunch of times. AND if you’re repurposing fabric to make it (as I’ll show you in a sec), you’re not using up any new materials at all.
3. Disposable toilet paper is found in stores. Well, duh, obviously, but do you know how awesome it is to be self-sufficient and not be tied to regularly buying certain items? I loooove the fact that my days of realizing at midnight that I don’t have any diapers/pads/bum wipes left and having to run out to find an open shop and get some are long past. Same goes for toilet paper. If every supermarket in your town is out, you’ll be totally fine while everyone else is freaking out.

I am an honest, transparent person. I tried cloth toilet paper a little when I was cloth diapering my second child, but my husband was horrified and wanted nothing to do with it. So I stopped. But, that said, I have been using other cloth products for the past 13 years, despite anybody else’s objections, so just hear me out.

I’m not saying that you should permanently convert to using washable toilet paper, unless you want to, which would be great! But do consider it if you can’t find a single toilet roll within a 20 mile radius of your home. You do have an alternative to using your hand, or some equally unhygienic solution to clean your dirty butt.

And, as every day more and more cities are locking down and prohibiting citizens from going out, I’m showing you how to make your own DIY cloth toilet paper for FREE with stuff you can find in your home, without having to sew. Oh, yes! Let’s get started!

Print out these instructions!
Scroll down to the end of this post and click “Print”.

Materials:

• fabric
• scissors
• ruler
• permanent marker* (optional)

Let’s get a little more specific. I suggest using jersey fabric because it doesn’t fray in the wash. So my favorite fabrics for this project are old cotton jersey T-shirts and bedsheets. But feel free to use any fabric that is a natural fiber (cotton, linen, bamboo, etc.). Synthetics don’t absorb and are just better not to rub against your delicate parts.

You can purchase fabric at a shop (in which case, I suggest using 100% cotton flannel), but at the time of this writing, when we’re forced to stay home and shops are closed, you have no choice but to use what you already have at home. This is a great way to use up old, ripped and stained clothing. It doesn’t need to look good; it’ll just get stained anyway.

As for scissors, use your sharp fabric shears* or a rotary cutter*, quilting ruler* and cutting mat* if you have them. If not, just use the sharpest scissors you have at home.

Make DIY cloth toilet paper:

1. If you’re using T-shirts, cut them open along the side seams (shown by arrows above). Cut off the sleeves and cut them open along the bottom arm seam.

Cut away and discard any vinyl printed designs on the shirts, like the Pink Panther on the one above.

2. Lay your fabric out flat. (The fabric in these pictures is a repurposed jersey bedsheet.) Cut out a rectangle.

You can use a ruler and permanent marker to mark off the shape or make a cardboard template to cut around. Or you can just eyeball it, which is relatively easy with striped fabric. These do not have to be cut out perfectly.

I suggest either a 6 x 6″ (15 x 15 cm) square or a double size, 6 x 12″ (15 x 30 cm) rectangle so that you can fold it in half for extra absorbency/hand protection.

I already mentioned that I prefer using jersey because it doesn’t fray. You can use other fabrics (for example, as shown above, regular cotton bedsheets or bathroom towels), but just be forewarned that they might fray in the washing machine.

You can just ignore they frayed bits, but I suggest you either sew a zigzag or overlock stitch around the cut edges before using them or cut them out with pinking shears*, which are zig zag scissors for fabric, which reduce fraying.

I suggest cutting around 50-100 pieces so you don’t have to wash them too often. You can always make more if you find you need them. If you have a big family, you’ll probably want more.

How to use cloth toilet paper:

So now that you’ve cut out a bazillion little fabric squares of DIY cloth toilet paper, it’s time to actually use them! Some people are super fancy and put plastic snaps on the short ends of each little square, that way they can actually snap them together to form a long chain that can be rolled up and put on the toilet paper holder. I don’t like that idea because that means more plastic, more money and more time, both to make them and to use them. (Seriously, who has the time to snap together a gazillion pieces of fabric?)

The short time that I used washable toilet paper, I just kept the pieces in a little basket in the bathroom. You could also put them in a cute fabric drawstring bag that you hang from the toilet paper holder, or just keep them in the linen closet. Whatever works for you.

When you pee, obviously just wipe yourself with a dry fabric square of cloth toilet paper. Pretty easy, right?

When you poop, you can use the fabric dry, or you can get it wet in the sink and clean yourself, then use a dry one to wipe your bum dry. Some people use special baby wipe liquid, but when I was cloth diapering I found it just as good to use good old fashioned water. Another thing you can do is keep a spray bottle with water near the toilet and spray yourself before wiping clean. Just do whatever works best for you.

How to wash cloth toilet paper:

When you’re done cleaning yourself, throw your dirty cloth wipey in a little bucket like this one.

People are often concerned about smell. Do remember that cloth toilet paper is nothing like cloth nappies or diapers. Babies do all their pee and poo INSIDE the diaper, so obviously those things stink in a bad way. We fully functioning adults do our stuff in the toilet, so it’s a relatively small amount getting on the fabric, so they smell less. However I do still suggest using a bucket like mine, with sides that snap shut, in order to contain any stinkiness that there may be.

Some people put water in the bucket where the dirties go with the idea that it helps to remove the gunky stuff, but I highly discourage doing that. That actually makes it smell worse and it’s a lot more of a pain in the butt to clean it all out afterwards.

When the bucket is somewhat full, or after 2-3 days, dump it all in the washing machine. Use your regular laundry detergent and add some cheap white vinegar*, which helps disinfect a little bit and deal with stinkiness. Set a long and HOT washing cycle with a pre-rinse. Then, you can line dry it all or pop it in the dryer at a HOT setting, which helps even more with killing off germs. Then just shove the clean wipes back wherever you chose to keep them, whether it’s a basket or bag, until you need them next. No need to iron or fold.

That might sound like a lot of hassle, but it’s really not that bad once you get into the rhythm of doing it.

Some people claim that the environmental harm done in those extra loads of laundry negates the good that reusable toilet paper does. While I don’t agree in the case of something like disposable nappies or menstrual pads (because those are full of plastic and really terrible chemicals, which have a truly horrific effect on body and environment – read more here about the harm in disposable diapers), I really don’t have the scientific evidence that using cloth toilet paper is better for the environment, though my opinion is that it is better. Either way, I’m just putting this out there for you to decide if it’s the right decision for you, or not!

And, remember, this doesn’t have to be a permanent decision. You can always try using family cloth and see how it goes. It might just be an emergency alternative for these dark times when the bath tissue aisle of every supermarket is empty. Or you might just find yourself a cloth toilet paper convert! You’ll never know if you never try it!

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