Homemade Baby Wipes from Kleenex Hand Towels
Reader Heather sent in a great use for all those Kleenex Hand Towels that we were able to score for $0.29. Here is what Heather said:
My baby is cloth diapered & I normally use cloth wipes as well but, I have a husband who prefers to use disposables. I hate that wipes cost so much – even on sale it’s hard to get them for less than $0.01/each. Such a waste!! When you posted the Shoprite deal for Kleenex hand towels I got an idea which worked out wonderfully.
Here is how I made super cheap wipes:
Ingredients:
- Baby Wash
- Baby Oil
- Tea Tree Oil
- Hot Water
- Empty Huggies Wipes Container
- Kleenex Hand Towels
Directions:
- Cut the had towels in half – making 120/box
- Made a solution of 1 Tsp baby wash, 1 squirt of baby oil, drop of
tea tree oil & 1 cup hot water. - Added solution to empty huggies wipes container, one half of the
cut towels. - Repeat steps 2-3
The wipes are amazing! They pull out of the container just like
regular wipes and are just as hardy.
Two boxes of wipes for $0.29 is a good enough price to please the husband 
Thanks Heather for this great frugal tip!
Cindy Livesey is the force behind Living Rich With Coupons which provides its readers with all the resources they need to shop smart so they can get life’s luxuries for a lot less. Her family of 5 has saved over $11,000 a year in groceries. And you can too.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Awesome idea! Thanks!
I’ve done this with “Select A Size” paper towels, and they work great too! I also reused the original container too!
I have no kids so I don’t know how much baby wipes are but I think this is an awesome idea.
OMG… I remember doing this 16 years ago!!
Wow, thats awesome! I have to try that when I get home. I have like 6 boxes of the Kleenex Hand Towels and wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them except wait for our next BBQ and put them out for guests.. hahaha.
I’ve beeb making these for a few years now. They work very well & can save you money
I also used the same ingredients with “select a size” papertowels. We cut the roll in half with the electric blade (for turkey, lol) and placed it in a perfect size rubbermaid container with lid. It worked great and saved us a ton of money!
Funny..my husband prefers the cloth wipes.
We used cheap shop towels the cheap white kind (or you can use rag towels or the cheap thinner towels), and I ran them through the serger to keep the ends from fraying. I think I got about 20+ wipes from one towel. I had cut them so they were the size of a folded up wipe then doubled it (they were almost square when open, rectangle when closed). Make sure you prewash the towels & dry on high heat incase they shrink. I put them in a wipes container and when I need a few, use a squirt bottle to pour on homemade solution. I tried to wet them all at once but they ended up musty smelling no matter what I did. Now we just use plain water and sometimes chamomile ess. oil.
Be careful of tea tree if you have sensitive skin and lavender has had some negative articles written lately, so you may want to google that first.
You know I had heard the negative lavender thing too and while discussing it with some herbal friends, discovered that the “lavender” they were talking about PROBABLY was the fake lavender (chemicals mixed together to mimic a scent) they put in products to make it smell like lavender. Most of the inexpensive products have little to no actual essential oils in them as they are more expensive to use and so they use fragrance oils which are totally different.
The one or two drops of tea tree is probably diluted so well that it will not harm the baby’s skin.
It was acutally pure essential oil that I had read about and it was regarding the endocrine distupting abilities of lavender. That being said, the dried flowers were recommended over the ess oil due to concentrations.
For tea-tree, I used it diluted and found it caused my child diaper rash. While this may not be true for everyone do a patch test if you are concerned. Dilute a drop of the essential oil in 2 tbs of virgin olive oil and rub a dot on the back of an arm (where it can’t get into the mouth). If it’s fine in 24 hours great, if it’s red, do not use.
I make my own wipes too! But I cut bounty paper towels in half and mix 1 1/2 cup of water and 1 tsp baby wash in a container then put the half roll of paper towels in the solution and let soak for a while, then take the center cardboard out! I take my wipes apart and fold them in the baby wipes case like store bought ones!
I just bought Care bear wipes from Dollar Tree 80 for $1. I haven’t tried them yet, but the ingredients are the same as in my Natural Wipes from Babies R Us.
That is an awesome idea!! I never got around to getting the kleenex hand towels. What else could I use?? I have plenty of bounty paper towels, could that work??
Do you need the tea tree oil? I dont have any but I have everything of the other ingredients. Maybe I’ll try it without that.. wonder what the difference would be?
I think it is a great Idea, however I wouldnt use the Teatree , it can be irritating…
sometimes Kandoo wipes can be found free after coupons, or close enough to free, also I like the Shoprite brand “real cloth” babywipes and they are cheaper than most, sometimes they run a sale on the multipacks, Im still using up my haul from months ago when they had the 3packs (240 wipes total) for $1.75 (or something like that) it came out to less than a penny a wipe ($0.007), and I bought all that I was allowed and went back more than once that week…
lately I grabbed up huggies sensitive wipes for what I would consider pretty much free, it was using a store coupon for free huggies wipes with the purchase of huggies diapers @ $9.99 then I used a manufacturers coupon for the diapers and another for the wipes bringing the price of the diapers and wipesd together to $5.99 (jumbo pack diapers and 64ct wipes)
$5.99 is my price point for a jumbo pack (as in unless it is an emergency I dont want to pay more than that) so I consider the wipes free
I love this idea! Sometimes, school-age kids are asked to bring in baby wipes as part of their school supplies. I could see myself taking advantage of sales and sending these in to the classrooms.