Reusable cloth panty liners

Panty liners aren't just useful for women at my time of life - they're also great for younger women who have irregular periods, who are pregnant, or who experience mid-cycle "spotting". And even if your periods are as regular as clockwork, panty liners are still invaluable right at the tail end of your period when you feel a tampon or full-sized pad is too much, but you don't want to be totally unprotected, as it were.

Seeing as I now wear panty liners more days than not, I've been looking into buying reusable panty liners, so that I don't keep having to buy the disposable ones and then throw them away where they end up in landfill. They're not available in my local stores, so I've done some research to see if you can buy them online. And indeed you can - one place you can buy them is at Amazon.com.

Obviously you will have to spend more initially than when buying disposable panty liners, but you should find that they pay for themselves in the long run. Reusable panty liners (particularly the organic cotton ones) can also be beneficial for people with sensitive skin or who are prone to allergies. Most of the ones featured in the capsules on the right and below have "wings" that are designed to wrap around your panties, and are held in place with a snap/popper.

Washing reusable panty liners

As with any type of garment, how you do this depends on how soiled they are. If there's no blood, just pop them in the wash. Obviously it's worth following the instructions on the pack but if there aren't any, I recommend a relatively low temperature machine wash (60 deg. C or less), using non bio liquid detergent. If you put the panty liners in one of those mesh bags before washing, you can simply hang the bag on the line without taking the panty liners out! If you've got any blood on the panty liner, then I recommend soaking in cold water first before washing.