the miracle of baby wipes

Hey Y'all! (no, I'm not from the south, and honestly I rarely in real life say y'all... for some reason I tend to write it though... I guess it's my fantasy southern belle trying to get out!)
This is my very first Works for Me Wednesday post ever! I do randomly think of things now and then, but they seldom make it to the keyboard. This one I've been knowing I had to write about for awhile though... the miracle of Baby Wipes.

Now, I don't know if this is true for all baby wipes as for the last four years or so we've been loyal to Costco's Kirkland brand baby wipes (with some Target brand thrown in there when we didn't have access to Costco while living in MI). We did use a lot of the Pampers brand when Savannah was a baby due to her sensitive skin (it was before we tried Costco), and I know they were great couch/carpet cleaners as well. Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself-- let me back up.

My Works for Me Wednesday tip is that I use baby wipes for everything! They are my go-to miracle cure for an endless list of dilemmas.
Here are just a few examples of the way they work for me:
Couch/Carpet cleaner
We have an amazingly comfortable big chocolate brown sectional sofa that we are in love with. In fact, anyone who's ever sat on it is in love with it. We've had it our whole marriage. And even through two kids (one who was a monster spitter-upper) it looks as good as new. It's made of that micro-fiber suede-ish material and being chocolate brown in color, you bet it shows every swipe of snot and of course the lovely baby spit up quite well. Well everytime we had a loss of baby belly contents or some excess snot escaping from a toddler nose, I just grab the baby wipes. It takes it all right out. Same for our carpet as well.
Shoe cleaner
My husband let my two year old "help" him mow the lawn this summer... with his brand spankin' new Converse Chuck's on his feet. He came in and every speck of formerly white rubber on his shoes was now a nice bright grass green. Grass stains... I was not happy. Well, I sat down on the deck with the shoes and a pack of baby wipes and it only took about three wipes per shoe and a little elbow grease and the shoes were as good as new. I also did this recently with some tennishoes of Savannah's that she had to wear on our camping trip (tons of dirt, dirt and more dirt)... they were brand new and as much as it made me cringe, she had to wear them as her old ones were too small. Now she was able to wear them to school and they look good as new.
Make-up/Tanner remover
I keep a pack of baby wipes in my bathroom, not only for emergency diaper changes or random "Mommmmy... wipe me!!!"'s, but I often use sunless tanner on my skin and I've found the very best remedy for any streaks or dark spots is to run a baby wipe over it. Seriously, it erases any mistakes and evens it out wonderfully! Also I've used them often while traveling for make-up, especially eye-make up remover.

Now hearing all of the ways these wipes have worked for me, you might wonder what the heck is in these wipes and if they are such good "cleaners"; it cannot be good on a baby's behind, right? Well I glanced at the ingredients and they actually sound pretty "green"... water, glycerin, lanolin, aloe leaf, and a bunch of other things that don't sound too incredibly chemically. Both of my kids had/have extremely sensitive skin where I need to use dye and frangrance free detergents, and these wipes have been perfectly fine on them.

Costco sells their Kirkland brand wipes in boxes of 8 packs and even though my youngest is currently all but nighttime pottytrained, I am confident we will still be buying these wipes for years to come. I keep a pack tucked away in almost every room, just for emergencies!
Next time you have a seemingly stubborn stain or spot on you or anything you own... give baby wipes a try!

And for a plethora of Works For Me tips, check out Rocks In My Dryer!