G has a lot of allergies.
Pretty much anything composed of atoms, whether alive or dead, make his sinuses react like a puddle of nitroglycerin at a rock concert.
We're talking serious drainage here, folks, and that requires an investment in Kleenex that could practically pay the salary of a Kimberly-Clark VP.
Since we're not made of money and the thought of all those dead trees turns our stomachs, we've hit upon a better solution.
I say "we," but it was really all G.
He actually has quite a few official hankies in his clothing collection - and he uses them - but he also introduced me to the concept of a snot rag.
Great name, right?
So indelicate.
I'd thought about changing it for this post, but you know what? No other name would do it justice, so snot rag it is.
Now, pretty much anything can be a snot rag when you need one (random t-shirts, tea towels, cloth diapers, baby blankets...), but in order to protect the decent bits of fabric scattered around the house from this onslaught of goo, I have "created" a huge pile of designated snot rags for G to choose from.
The best thing about this idea is that it was also a way for me to reuse all sorts of items that were otherwise good for nothing but the garbage heap.
Oh, sure, you can easily prolong the life of a ratty towel by turning into a cleaning rag, but items like t-shirts and pillowcases well past their prime aren't usually thick enough to be effective in cleaning away all the nasty bits from your home's cracks and crevices.
They are just the thing for cleaning out your nasal crannies, though.
Think about all those old t-shirts and pillowcases that you don't want to part with. Why not? Because they're incredibly soft, right? It's most likely taken you years to wear that fabric into a particularly supple state that makes it difficult to change out of whenever you're in a Jack Butler-esque funk.
But you don't have to toss out the woobie or the flannel shirt, never to be seen again.
Instead, these treasures can be reborn - just cut them into large squares for use as a hankie and never buy a box of Kleenex again.
It might sound kind of gross, especially if you've never cloth-diapered (after that, you never have any qualms about washing something disgusting again in your life!), but it's just so not a big deal to toss these used rags into the wash along with your undies and your socks - I mean, smelly socks and old undies aren't all that different from a snot rag, you know?
We'll turn practically anything previously worn into a snot rag, but our favorite items to attack with scissors are:
- t-shirts (you can usually cut several large squares out of one shirt)
- cotton camis (I wear these a lot, so when the elastic starts to go, I cut out the shelf bra and pass them on to G as snot rags. You can also cut off the tank top portion of the shirt, but I often leave the straps on so that G can tie it to various spots to have handy when his nose starts to run)
- old flannel shirts
- cloth diapers (although some are softer than others)
- receiving blankets (particularly those small flannel ones that your baby quickly outgrows)
- pillowcases
- sheets
- sweatpants
 |
| These snot rags, in their former life, were two camis, a pillowcase, and a set of my old flannel pajamas. |
Even though Gv and I don't seem to have the same allergy-problems that G does, we've both made plenty of use of these snot rags as well.
Any time a case of the sniffles heads our way, I haul out the snot rag stash and appreciate not having to use scratchy Kleenex to mop up the mess.
Any time a case of the sniffles heads our way, I haul out the snot rag stash and appreciate not having to use scratchy Kleenex to mop up the mess.
Had you ever thought about saving money (& trees) and cutting the Kleenex out of your budget? I'd love to hear! Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.
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