Friday, August 17, 2012

Why I Switched to Cloth Diapers

I'm asking for prayers for my husband's job that more work will come in.  I have 244 followers and would love the prayers to be lifted to heaven.  This economy is not that great and work tends to dip drastically in my husband's field.  I'm praying that God will bless my husband's job with more projects.  His boss is Christian and it's such a blessing for Charles to work there.  Ohhh, I wish our economy would stabilize.

Did you know I switched my babies to cloth diapers?  I spent an hour with a lady (thank you, Rosemary!) I met on Craigslist who was super nice and she had almost every brand of cloth diapers out there.  She showed me each one so I could see the differences.  A lot of it is about preference but there are just some that function better.  Functioning by not leaking!  I wanted to cloth diaper 9 years ago but there wasn't as many options and I hated the constant leaking.  Maybe there was good ones out there but I just wasn't good at finding them. Anyway, the selection is HUGE now and we're lovin' it!  I can afford to buy the disposables but being that I spend $700 a year on the Target brand, lets not even mention the more expensive brands, cloth just makes sense.  


I used the excuse that you have to also use electricity and water and you have to count in that cost.  Well, in just one load I can wash several days worth of cloth diapers.  I have a front loader so even better.  Sweet!  I have been changing diapers nonstop since the year 2000 without even a month break.  Do you know how many diapers that is?  Around 50,000!  Whooooaaa.... You know you love kids when you don't mind changing THAT many diapers.  I wish I could see all the diapers I changed in a big mound to really understand how much I added to our landfill.  That is just me alone that used that many and threw away. Eek.

I made sure to go to Sprouts and buy Country Save which is safe for cloth diapers.  It's 80 loads for 10 bucks.  I asked Rosemary why it was important to use this kind of laundry detergent and she said because regular laundry detergent will break down the material that keeps diapers from leaking.  Okay, I make my own laundry detergent but I might just figure out how to alter it to be able to make it safe for cloth diapers as well.  I've been noticing lately that I have this desire in me to learn how to do everything the hard way.  Not sure why but I just like learning how to make things myself.  What if I couldn't go to the store and by the top brand out there?  Isn't it nice to know your options?  Save money?  To actually know what you need and how to make it?  Maybe it's the frugalness in me, I don't know.  

It really is important to protect your cloth diapers so if you are curious about brands, just click on this link HERE to know which ones are safe and the cost differences.  

By the way, I'm trying THIS next!  Keep one in the shower filled with a mixture of half vinegar and half Dawn dishsoap.  Use it to wipe down the shower while you are in there and your shower will always be clean.

2 comments:

Rosemary said...

http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html Here is a link for detergents :) I still maintain you should test your soap, then market it on hyenacart :) lots of WAHM sell and shop that ite for homemade eco-friendly products :)

Zsuzsanna said...

We also use Country Save for our clothes, but for diapers, we do Rockin' Green Hard Rock (for hard water). I have tried the homemade detergent, but it was not working well for us - maybe because our washer is a top load, and our water is super hard.

Anyway, if you order the Country Save through Azure Standard (www.azurestandard.com), it is quite a bit cheaper: $7.30 for the size you bought, $13.80 for a box twice as big, or $58.35 for a 50 lb box (ten times the size you bought, which works out to $5.84 for the same amount you bought). Delivery is free if you order to one of their drop points in the area. You can find out where the closest one to you is by calling the number on the website. There are several sites in the east valley. They deliver once a month.