Bizarre Question

[titchy]

Ok so I have a bizarre question. Is it me or do paper hand towels cost a fortune. Does anyone have any alternative solutions as obviously we are not allowed to the let the children share a towel or perhaps where I can get these from at a reasonable price.

[narnia]

we buy ours from the consortium, but Gompels sell them more cheaply ( but you have to buy in bigger quantities, whereas consortuim will sell one box at a time)

[Panders]

I just go to my local cash and carry store to get them. We also make sure we don't put out too many at once so the children can't waste too many drying their hands when no adult supervising.

[Cait]

we have a 'happy medium' and use face cloths as towels. They can often be picked up for less than 50p each, and over the years we've amassed about 200. They are single use for the children and then they drop them in the wash bin, so they get used to the paper towel ethos they'll get at school but have the towel's drying ability they are used to. They go in the washer each night on a hot wash with an ionising ball and then into the dryer with those tumble balls so I'm not using any chemicals on them at all. I know the initial outlay might have been expensive if I'd bought them all at once, but most of them have been 'going' for over 10 years, so well worth it. They look nice and colourful too!

[HoneyPancakes]

I use face cloths too, and in my setting where there are only 3-7 children at any one time, they each have their own which hangs on a suction hook - easy to change and also shows who is actually washing their hands, and who is just waving them under the tap. I use the Ikea ones with different coloured hangers, but could put a name or picture of the child on the appropriate hook to save mix-ups.

 

The hooks cost about £1 for 4 from Wilkonsons.

 

Fe

[Gezabel]

Cait I love your idea of single use

We have individual towels - we made them by cutting up a large towel and hemming 'the pieces'. They have children's names on and the children hang them each day on arrival.

 

However, it is tricky to absolutely guarantee that they dry their hands on their own towel with them all hanging on hooks in row! (the towels not the children! )

 

Why on earth didn't I think of single use. I could save hours of time taking off name labels when children leave etc etc

 

THANK YOU CAIT

 

I can't believe there was such an obvious solution and I didn't think of it!!!

Virtual glass of wine coming your way with my thanks!

Edited April 18, 2010 by Geraldine

[diesel10]

Like the single use flannels. I am always standing by the door at mass wash hands time to make sure the children only take one. + put on soap! Mind you another one is when they pull the paper towel out and put it straight in the bin!

 

Our local advisor told me recently that the nursery that she also works in has electric hand dryers. I asked if the children were scared of the noise. But she didn't think so.

[Cait]

THANK YOU CAIT

 

Virtual glass of wine coming your way with my thanks!

 

 

Thank you - I'll save it for teatime!

 

We also went the route with the hooks for individual children but found that children weren't using their own, and as a hygiene issue we decided to just go with single use.

[Guest]

We bought a paper towel dispenser and mounted it onto a board so we can pack it away at the end of every day. Children can then only take one at a time, and we find the z-fold ones better as they come out one at a time.

 

Like the face cloth idea though. MMMMMmmmm Something to discuss at tomorrow's planning meeting

[Guest]

I use flannels for single use, too. Mrs O liked them!! My downstairs loo is in the integral garage, next to the utility area, so the little ones use them then pop them in the washing machine! She thought this made them very independent

 

Paper towels too fiddly for little ones and I didn't want a wall dispenser in my home, tried a jumbo paper towel roll but it was too heavy for the little ones to manoeuvre if the sheet didn't rip off at the front!

 

Another childminder locally was marked down by Mrs O because, although each child had their own towel, the hooks were too close together and there was a risk of cross contamination!

 

Nona

[Inge]

We used Tiny Towels which are half size so had less waste and had twice as many for the same price.. well it was at the time.. worked well, and Mrs O was fascinated by them..

 

Inge

[louby loo]

Sad to admit - but we use the flannel system at home!!!

this first started when daughter keep bring 'little friends' home in her tummy.

Works well at home- amazing to think you can actually completely dry youself after a bath with a face flannel!!! We do still have big fluffy towels for 'wrapping and finishing' though!!!

 

Back to the pre-school. Much as I like the flannel system but I'm not prepared to take on all that washing myself- however if the owner offered than it would be my prefered choice.

We have found no real cost difference with using either cheap or expensive paper towels- so we jsut go with whatever is on offer at wholesalers at the time.

We found that with the dispenser - if too many were in it, the children had trouble pulling them out, and if not enought were in it they just fell out onto floor!!........so we now put them in a little basket. We do have heaters fitted and some children use those. We've has one or two that a frightend by the noise- but it's amazing how quick that's overcome when they find out what fun they are if you blow it onto your face and your hair flys out!!!!!!!

 

xxxx

[anju]

Back to the pre-school. Much as I like the flannel system but I'm not prepared to take on all that washing myself- however if the owner offered than it would be my prefered choice.

 

i feel exactly the same - we already take tea towels home to wash and big towels we use to mop the floor by the water tray etc. it's bad enough keeping the family washing under control!!

 

do most of you have a washing machine at work? maybe I should think about investing in one; wonder if I could get a grant?

[anju]

should have added: i AM the owner!!

[louby loo]

should have added: i AM the owner!!

 

I wish you were my owner!

I do the tea-towels ect (but try and hide from hubby!)

.......and I not sure what will happen when I finish my study .... and I'm still spending hours doing 'college stuff'

 

xxx

[HappyMaz]

I would happily pay one of the team to take home the washing but I never have any takers!

 

Maz

[Cait]

I do the tea-towels ect (but try and hide from hubby!)

 

Why do you need to hide them? As I wash all our teatowels etc. every day anyway, I just fire the Preschool teatowels and dishcloths in at the same time.

[louby loo]

Why do you need to hide them? As I wash all our teatowels etc. every day anyway, I just fire the Preschool teatowels and dishcloths in at the same time.

 

.... well I have a thing about not mixing the washing, but that aside I work in a privately owned setting and hubby feels I do far too much unpaid with no thanks whatsover (which I have to add is very true).

 

xxx

[anju]

I work in a privately owned setting and hubby feels I do far too much unpaid with no thanks whatsover (which I have to add is very true).

 

exactly, and if you are doing washing as well you will be subsidising the setting financially too despite almost definitely earning a very low wage!

[lynned55]

We were told by Ofsted that using towels were a complete no no and we had to stop using them. I'd love to go back to using them and can see the benefit of single use but Cait how many children do you have in a day? We have 25 per morning and I could see us using over 100 per day. Like others though I'm not prepared to wash these every day, to say nothing of carrying them back and forth to work. I must admit it would save the setting quite a few pounds over the year but cant say it would do much for my electric bill!!

[Cait]

we have 19 or 20 in a morning and 15-18 in the afternoon. With the ion ball it doesn't take long in the washer because there's no rinse cycle needed. I leave them a day in the wash basket before putting them in the dryer, just to take some of the moisture out, and if it's a sunny day I tip them out on a bath towel outside for a while too! It all saves electricity! As we have over 250 we can do it easily - we've only run out a few times, and we just resorted to wet wipes as it was the last couple of handwashes of the day each time

[Guest]

We used Tiny Towels which are half size so had less waste and had twice as many for the same price.. well it was at the time.. worked well, and Mrs O was fascinated by them..

 

Inge

Hi Inge,

 

Loved the look of these tiny towels. I have the same problem as everyone else, wasted paper towels on the floor as they all fall out!

 

Have ordered a box at £20 and a dispenser at £15 and will take down my big towel dispenser.

 

Thank-you for this tip .

[thumperrabbit]

I would happily pay one of the team to take home the washing but I never have any takers!

 

Maz

 

We have washing on a rota each staff member has to take the washing every 6th day, then it's fair on everyone.

I do occasionally have someone 'escaping without taking' though

[suebear]

Hi, our parents have a rota system to take the tea towels home after every session for washing. Wonder if that would work with face cloths too? Do you go through a lot of face cloths per day, washing hands after paint, before snack etc? Just wondering how many face cloths would need to buy to begin with!

[Cait]

I just started with an allowance of 3 per session per child, once we'd scrapped the one towel on a hanger per child idea. I just buy them when I see them on offer, sometimes £1 for 3 offers, I definitely don't pay more than 50p each!

[Deb]

We used Tiny Towels which are half size so had less waste and had twice as many for the same price.. well it was at the time.. worked well, and Mrs O was fascinated by them..

 

Inge

 

Inge - looks interesting - do the towels come out singularly or in clumps like the consortium ones?

 

Love the idea of face cloths too, just not sure about all the washing.

[Inge]

Inge - looks interesting - do the towels come out singularly or in clumps like the consortium ones?

 

Love the idea of face cloths too, just not sure about all the washing.

 

 

ours came out in ones - except when it was getting to the end of the pile.. then more tended to come together.. it was the way they were interleaved, they boxes we had needed keys to open them so no children could get in, and one of the keys broke after about 6 months, but a call to them and they sent us 6 spares by post to arrive next day.

 

we used to buy 2 boxes at the same time as it was cheaper and had a parent who would store a box for us... and we got one dispenser free on our first order..

 

Delivery was fast too.. ordered one morning before 1 and they arrived the next day... even had next day delivery once when I ordered late afternoon..

 

 

and they were always helpful on the phone..

 

Inge

[bubblejack]

I love the idea of single use flannels. They would be easy to use with mobile sink in playroom but do you just leave the clean flanells in a container in toilets with a bucket to put in dirty ones?

[Cait]

I love the idea of single use flannels. They would be easy to use with mobile sink in playroom but do you just leave the clean flanells in a container in toilets with a bucket to put in dirty ones?

 

 

The clean flannels are on a table and the bucket for the used ones is underneath, yes

[Pimms o'clock?]

I've just spotted white flannels in Tesco for 25p each, thought others might like to know where to bag a bargain

 

BMG