I’ve been wanting to make my own baby wipes since kingdom come. Or at least since I started having babies, five years ago!

I remember my Mom making her own (yeah, she was cool like that!) when my youngest siblings were babies. Something about the smell or the feel or the way the lightly scented bubbles poured over a freshly-folded stack of paper towels when she made them, stands out to me.

There was such a simple pureness to the way that she cared for us and the way that she kept her home, and making her own baby wipes was only another expression of that. She made them with the same ease and grace with which she baked bread and hung out the laundry.

It wasn’t a big deal.

It was just something that she did effortlessly, because it made more sense to her than buying them.

Now, as the primary keeper of our home, I appreciate that pureness so much and I find myself continually wanting to replicate my Mother’s grace in that way. I’m a far cry from it, but somehow I feel a little closer when I bake my own bread and make my own baby wipes.

Last week, I managed to do the latter. And boy did I love it! I felt like such an accomplished earth Mama, making my own “Huggies.” Bread’s still on the list, but hey. At least “we’re” clean. And “we” smell good!

Now that I’ve finally made some, I wonder what took me so long??!! I mean, five years of wiping baby butts, spaghetti fingers, and milk mouths before I finally made this most essential, life-sustaining, can’t-live-without-it household item?

When it was really THAT SIMPLE all along??

And yes, they are that simple. The main work is in gathering all your ingredients. I ordered most of mine from vitacost. And of course, my oils come from Doterra. All I needed at the store was a roll of high-quality paper towels, which I grabbed on my regular grocery run, so they didn’t even require an extra trip out!

(Major bonus points when you’ve got a heavy-ass car seat and a sleeping baby to lug around, right??!)

Once you’ve gathered all your ingredients, start by cutting your paper towels in half.

Like this.

Or not!

I don’t think I used the right kind of knife, cuz there was definitely some hacking involved, and my paper towels ended up pretty butchered. Suffice it to say, this step was a little more messy than I envisioned it to be (think: sharp, serrated edge of a knife blazing clean through a loaf of soft bread!)

Yeah. Not so much.

But I can make a mess out of just about anything! So don’t mind me.

Mix up all your liquids, til they’re nice and bubbly.

Then, take a moment to enjoy those bubbles. Feel accomplished, for they are the purest, sweetest, organic-est bubbles you could possibly put on your baby’s skin. You could actually eat them. They’re that pure. Which is how they SHOULD BE!

Ahem, FDA. Ya might wanna take a hint here.

And now…Ruthie’s schpiel about commercial baby wipes.

Sorry! But I must go there for a minute.

You probably already know how horrible they are for your baby’s skin, so I will keep this short.

DMDM Hydantoin and Methylparaben.

Google them and then remember that they are the main ingredients in your Huggies. Remember them when you are swiping the spaghetti off that little punkin face. And when your baby “eats” one of them.

If you want to be horrified any further, check out this article about another main ingredient: Tetrasodium EDTA. Comforting, I know. But! Somebody needs to say it. And somebody needs to hold someone accountable for the poison that freely lines our grocery store shelves. In the BABY section, no less!

Today, I will be that somebody. Especially since I now know you can make perfectly good baby wipes with aloe vera and water. WATER, people! Good old H20!

Why put that toxic crap in our baby products?

WHHHYYYYYYYY?????

Ok, schpiel over.

Back to the pureness. And the bubbles.

All you do is pour the liquid bubbles over your paper towels and boom! You have wipes! Good, clean, chemical-free wipes for the whole family, including the smallest and the purest of them.

These things smell so heavenly, I want to lay in them and have more babies. Ok, not really.

(You’re done, Ruthie, remember?? No more babies for you! Repeat: NO. MORE. BABIES.)

I DO still want to lay in them. And soak my feet in them. Then I want to place them over my eyes and go back to sleep.

Yes, it’s 8:00 in the morning. I am nursing an infant. Need I say more??!!

Tomorrow I will be leaving my babies for a conference in San Diego, but you can be sure I will be taking my baby wipes with me! And you can be sure I will be shameless in using them!

On the plane. In the car. At the beach. (Whoo hoo!!)  I will be pulling these out whenever I need a “wipe” down.

But really, when they feel and smell as amazing as these do, how can you keep from using them on yourself? When they’re as heavenly as these, how can you restrict yourself to only using them on your baby’s bottom?

Not here! And not me.

I, like my Mother, am of the simple belief that “baby” wipes are made for everything. Washing apples. Removing makeup. Wiping steering wheels. Coffee spills. Phone screens. Smooshed fruit. Public restrooms. You know…

EVERYTHING.

What about you? What do you use “baby” wipes for?

Do you use them a thousand times a day, like I do?

Regardless of how, why, or when you use them, you will love these homemade wipes! You’ll be happy knowing you’re not spreading weird chemicals like tetrasodium and methylparaben around.

And something tells me you won’t go back to Huggies. Ever again!