RE: How many cloth wipes do you keep ready?
I prepare a whole wipes container worth at a time. Since I use mainly thin terrycloth wash cloths, it's probably like 12-18 at a time? I put 5 drops of tea tree oil in the bottom of the empty container, fill the container about 1/3 full with tap water and add the wipes. Sometimes I need to add a bit more water to get all the wipes wet. It takes about 10 seconds to do and I probably do this every other day. I never run out of wipes and the wipes never smell bad since I use them up within a couple days.
I have 2 empty wipes containers that I use, one that I keep the current wet batch in and one that I store the clean ones in after they come out of the dryer. I just rotate between the two containers. Now, I am a flargrant over wipes user. I have been known to use 5 wipes on a poop! (That's one reason I feel better using cloth wipes.) I have 4 dozen wipes (got most of them on the $1 clearance table at Baby Depot in packages 5/$1 ) and that works really well for me.
HTH,
Beth, mom to older DD (8/01) and younger DD (10/06) and always missing Leah (4/22 - 5/1/05)