Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Two things I never thought I'd say

Two sentences I thought I’d never type: “I think I may plant a garden in the Spring” (something I thought I’d never consider until Brielle was say…four?) But, inspired by the produce and the natural relationship between human and earth (thanks Phil and Tiff) I’m considering it. They have already been harvesting from the Harvest Network Garden, and have shared with us many potatoes, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a green pepper. There were also yummy blueberries there! It was so exciting to pull weeds and dig up potatoes (even when it was really HOT) and the prospect of feeding my family healthier produce for less cost is really very appealing! If you want to know more about the economical reasons to garden: ask Phil!

On to sentence #2: “I think I’m going to switch to cloth-diapers.” I know, I know, it seems like an insane statement. I’ve actually read about it here and there on the internet…then one day I was reading some nice lady’s breastfeeding BLOG (I can’t find it again for anything) and she did a whole breakdown on the cloth diaper business. And it made sense. At least at the moment when the $$ savings were calculated! Since then I’ve been reading, reading, reading about cloth diapering and here is how I’ve come to see it:
There are basically three economical ways to cloth diaper: the expensive way, the cheap way, and the in-between way. Some GENUIS CALCULATED it all for us! The cheap way is to buy a bunch of prefold cloth diapers (the kind mom used) and basic covers, maybe a few snappis, and call it a day. The in-between way is to learn how to make those really cute diapers yourself! Hey, and once you do that you can even keep right on making them and sell them on hyenacart.com as many moms do. Regardless, with any of these systems you have to have a pail to put them in, dry or wet, with a washable liner. You can have a sprayer (this is cool) that connects to the back of your toilet for solid-fed babies. You also have to wash them every few days, and from what I’ve read there is a PROCESS involved.
But here is what really got me: the environment. It takes 500 years for one diaper to decompose!!! I think of all of the thousands of diapers I threw into landfills when I ran daycare (a 13 gallon bag a day usually) or worked in the 2 yr old preschool classroom. I feel bad. But hey, I didn’t know, just like I never thought of recycling or the fact that breastfeeding uses so many LESS cans of formula (um, 0) and since Brielle likes table food over jarred baby food, we just keep on with the roll (okay the last two were unintentional). But maybe that helps, one step at a time, to preserve our beautiful earth. And maybe it will encourage others to consider it as well (here’s hoping!).
Then, after researching, reading, and reading more… I began to kind of chicken out. It just seemed like so much more WORK! However, when I told my mother-in-law about my idea, she was so supportive. She said, “I give you one month.” ???? What ???? She challenged me! grrrrrrrr….. J So, now I’m on mission.
My parents offered to start us out with the basics: 24 pre-folds, and 6 diaper covers. Cheapest place we could find: babybestbuy.com. Total cost: 32.18. While I think those are the only necessities we need (I’m using old cotton cloths for wet wipes) the other items mentioned would be SUPER great to have (i.e. the sprayer, the snappis, the pail liner, or even more diapers) if you are feeling donatious. I’ll keep it posted on this blog what we have/get and how it goes for REAL once we get the cloth diapers delivered!

7 comments:

jami and chuck said...

so, you do know that i am working at a children's consignment store now, right? we sell thursties diaper covers and thursties all-in-ones. we also sell local, handmade hemp diapers, one-size all-in-ones. but what is really, really cool, we also get in used cloth diapers, so they are really affordable. its getting lots of people excited in helena that normally wouldn't shop use cloth. we are even having a community, open-to-the-public-bring-in-the-kids cloth diapering chat night. long story short, let me know if you want me to send you some used diapers. i just priced about 50 used fuzzibunz today (love them)! great decision! i want to buy up all the fuzzibunz before they are sold out, even with children still very far in my future! love you!

jenna said...

I had no idea that you had used cloth diapers there, no! I thought I'd have to buy them off of diaperswappers.com or something, and I just can't figure that system out so far. Plus, because one of the main reasons we are doing it is for budget cutting--the larger lump sum of diapers is not really feasible. However, fuzzibunz and thirsties seem to be (IMO) the cutest and most popular diapers I can find. I have a Thirsti swimsuit and I loved it fo Brielle. She even pooped in it, and I was like, "okay--just rinse it out." It was great.

So what kinds of deals can you get on these used?? (hehe) brielle is a Large I think.

that is SUPER cool that they are hosting a cloth diapering chat night! every town needs one of those!!!

You're so cool Jami!

jami and chuck said...

kelly is going to kill me if i call you before i return her phone call, but we should talk about the diapers on the phone. a lady came in yesterday morning and pretty much bought out all of the cute colors. fuzzibunz go fast! i put aside the ones i thought you might still like though. they are seven dollars each, which is really good considering they are almost 20 new. and the thirsties i can get a wholesale price, though i will have to send you them as presents a couple at at time so not to abuse my wholesale privilege.

jenna said...

I tried to call you! You can't beat those prices!!!!!!!! I am not sure if they are AIO's or pocket diapers though? Not that it really matters! That's great!

jami and chuck said...

jenna, i was going to call you back this weekend but forgot my little list of diapers/sizes/colors at the store. i have a bunch set aside, so i will try to call you on tuesday from the store to see which ones you want. i also have some credit right now at the store, so i thought i would send you a few of the new thirsties with my discount. be thinking if you want the all-in-ones or the diaper covers with the hemp contours and/or prefolds.

jenna said...

That is awesome! Thank you so much Jami! Just let me know the costs, I could never get them that cheap---even from the cheapest places I could find! That is really really nice of you!

SusieGoodness said...

There is a really good chart at www.diaperdecisions.com/cost_of_cloth_diapers.htm about the breakdown of how much cloth costs. Thought I would share :)