Cloth Diapers

Yesterday began our foray in to cloth diapering and I am absolutely loving it. I had always planned to use cloth diapers, but to this point Little E has been to tiny to fit into the diapers we had purchased, or should I say my mother purchased. It has truly been a blessing that to this point we have only had to purchase a small amount of disposable diapers. We had to frantically run out and get more newborn diapers when E was born because we hadn’t planned on her early arrival, but other than that, we have been able to use diapers that people have given us at showers, which has been awesome.

I had done a lot of research before E was born about cding, but I could not seem to find the kind of diapers I wanted. I had babysat for a family that used cds, and they were pocket diapers with snaps, but I couldn’t find any cds with snaps that would last from 8-35 lbs and grow with our baby. (I didn’t even know such a thing existed, but the idea of only buying one batch of diapers for all of her diaper wearing years was vastly appealing to me). BumGenius was highly recommended, but they have Velcro closures, and I was not so wild about that.

Ultimately it was my mom who found our diapers on Ebay. They’re called Sunbaby diapers, and they are awesome. They will fit E until she is out of diapers and they have snaps. They do have a BuyItNow price, but I believe my mom was able to get them from an auction for something like $90 for 20 diapers! I know that Chinese prefolds and covers tend to be the most economical cloth diaper choice, but to not have to worry about folding them is fabulous.

I have yet to have to launder any of our diapers, so I’m hoping that they won’t be too much extra effort. I already love to hang dry my clothes, so hanging the diapers won’t be any trouble, but the extra wash cycles to bother me a bit. I’m also curious to see how our high efficiency washer will fair at cleaning the diapers. I know my husband is a little leery of the process, so I’d love to be able to reassure him.

I also did not have a diaper pail big enough for all of the cloth diapers or a liner, so I had to be resourceful. I ended up washing out an old stainless trash can that had been demoted by my mother in law for not having a foot pedal any longer. In place of a traditional liner I dug out a ginormous lingerie bag that I had sitting around, which was a perfect fit for the trash can. I was pretty pleased I was able to repurpose things around the house to use instead of having to spend additional money.

Additionally, I FINALLY made my own laundry soap. I’ve been wanting to for AGES, but yesterday I actually go around to it. I followed the recipe that Trent at The Simple Dollar has here (http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2008/04/09/making-your-own-laundry-detergent-a-detailed-visual-guide/) and was pleasantly surprised that it was not a lot of work. I used an old bar of soap that was just sitting around, and I had purchased the borax and washing soda back in Indiana. I love that the soap is more natural and old fashioned than commercial detergent, so I truly hope it cleans as well as Trent says it will.

As geeky as it sounds yesterday some of my frugal, domestic, and environmental dreams were realized. I know it is just doing a small thing to try to keep trash out of the landfills and save a little money, but I feel really good about it.