We teach our children with everything we do. Lead by example. That example could be helping a friend or helping future generations. We are destroying our world with all of our waste. That is not a lesson I want to teach my boys. I never really gave it much thought until I started researching Cloth diapering. That was when the statisics became a little more real. It was appalling, but I thought I could not afford to cloth diaper. But low and behold......
I was able to jump into the world of cloth in July of 2009. I wanted to use cloth back when #4 was born, but the start cost was so overwhelming ($400 for 1 child.) I had an 18 month old and a newborn. So, 2 times $400= Not gonna happen.
July 2009, I was at a church flea market. #4 was in a mei tai on my back and a mama approached me to tell me how beautiful the mei tai was. We got talking and cloth diapers came up.
Other mama (OM), " Do you use cloth?"
me,"no, the start up was to expensive."
OM," really? oh my goodness, it is not to expensive, if you do it right."
me, " Maybe, when I have one in diapers I could do it and my husband is out of work right now."
OM," Well, you are the perfect mama for this. Follow me."
She shows me a bin of 40 flats, 10 medium covers, and 10 XLarge covers. OMG!!!! What a stash!!! Perfection! The clouds parted, a light shone down, and I heard "aaaaaaa." Then she hits me with the price. Ready????? $10 for all!!!! Of course I dont have my pocketbook or any cash in my pocket. I find my husband and ask for the money. I go back and I am now officially a cloth diapering mom!!! I am am sooooo stoked at this point. I research a wash routine, I research how to fold them, and I am researching everything I can about cloth. I rinse, wash, and rinse. Then I hang them out, and as soon as I have 2 that are almost dry I slap them on Frick and Frack! I can't explain my excitement, but it excited me almost as much as when I got a positive pregnacy test. lolWhile doing my research I found some awesome CD sites (shopping, trading, & selling.) It was like a whole new world for me. I see all my options. For about a month I used the flats and covers. It was great!! My husband was not thrilled, well actually he hated it. He refused to change a single diaper. Well, our budget discussion was a little different the next month. We had an additional $150. Whoooo hoooo! My husband was fully on board. He was very willing to learn how to change "those nasty things."
Then I started browsing the for sale boards. I won a For sale for shipping WAHM diaper; it defintely changed my thoughts on sticking with flats. I started building a real stash. In 2 weeks I had 50 diapers. No money saved that month.
I had my boys in cloth! I was very excited. I do have to say the poopy diapers were overwhelming. All the information was overwhelming. The novelity wore off. I thought maybe it is easier to go back to sposies, but I could never go back. Way to many people made comments like, " You'll never follow thru", "You will be back in dissposables in a month" , and (my favorite, blech) "Before you know it diapers will pile up and the boys will be wearing dish towels." So, I needed to keep pressing through. 4-6 poopy diapers a day was killing me. But then the baby stopped nursing and he slowed to 2 poops and my toddler was a daily pooper, so that was better! Phew! 1 hurdle jumped. I still had to do diapers daily only because I was anal about them sitting. Then within 3 months it was just a part of life. I was no longer overwhelmed, no longer bothered by rinsing poopy diapers, and got the perfect wash routine for me. I felt I was doing them all along. I was happy , my husband was happy, and the boys booties were happy!
Cloth Diapering has been a successful venture for us for almost 2 years. I am in no way saying it has been a walk in the park, but anything new can be a challenge.
9 comments:
[...] it defintely changed my thoughts on sticking with flats. I started building a real stash.
Aww, have some love -- "real" stash seems a bit negative. Hell, until the last decade flats were the real deal! :D
I only just discovered flats and can't wait to add way to my stash. They're very practical, if a bit more labor. But in terms of putting them on the baby and washing? Hand me a flat over a prefold any day.
That said, glad you landed a good deal and were able to start cloth! :D
The original reason I wanted to CD our LO on the way was to get the stinky bag of sposies OUT of my house..then I realised just how much money it would save us. I do a TON of buying second hand and we have bought our whole stash for about $400. I spent about $5,000 in sposies for my first born. EVERYONE in my family gives me the whole "you cant do it," "You'll never follow through," "it's harder than you think," "You're just wasting money." It makes me more determined than ever to keep up with that laundry!
I started and am sticking with prefolds and covers. SO cheap and SO easy! Get the job done and from what I hear better then the AIO's (less leaking with covers) I talked my husband into it with the money aspect. He still won't use them, but that's okay he has never done much in the diapering department. In the long run the money saved is SO much more then money spent on sposies. I've gone back to sposies for vacations or if my son is going through a really bad diaper rash stage. I always am relieved to put a tried and true cloth diaper back on him at the end. I will NEVER go back to fulltime sposie use. Never.
http://happymoneysaver.com/cloth-diapers
Here is a link to a guest blog post I wrote about keeping the initial and ongoing costs of cloth diapers low, for those who are especially frugal or in a tight spot financially. It includes tips such as putting them on your baby registry, sewing your own, using cloth wipes, buying "seconds", etc.
That beginning time is always the hardest, but isn't it like that with lots of things? When I first said I would be cloth diapering, well, I got lots of negative feedback, so much that I went home and cried, it didn't stop me, but I knew I was "alone" for a little bit. But after I did it for a while, and I got into my schedule, well, I loved it, especially seeing how much money I was saving. Now, I'm helping other friends get into cloth diapering, and it's nice to know that they have someone they can call and ask questions to, and not feel all alone.
YEAH for you for sticking with it! I also kept it up when stuff got hard because of the comments people made. It made me more determined.
I too relate to the determination factor. I had a particularly bad wash day last night when I discovered one of my pockets with butt cream all over it - AGAIN - from day care. The rest of the laundry didn't smell great either ... but I've gone too far to quit now! Washing can be such a pain though :(
With 3 boys and the Mister seeming like they are always getting their clothes dirty- I do a ton of laundry anyhow. Whats a few more loads of diapers? Good job sticking with it. Im 15mns in and my only concern is having 2 in cloth! We've started trying so it could be a possibility!
Oh, my gosh, what a great deal!!! You are lucky! :)
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