Before Petra was born, I made the admittedly bold decision to switch from disposable diapers to cloth. Now, there were plenty of people who did and still do tell me that it's too much work, time, etc... but I'm a stay at home mom-I can do it. And the diapers I found are absolutely fantastic. They're called one size all-in-one pocket diapers. (I got Coolababy ones off of eBay and I love them.) Brilliant little things, if you ask me. They've got the liner attached to the waterproof outer layer, with a pocket that you stuff absorbent liners (and really any other absorbent material) into. Beautiful. It's such little work... I'm doing laundry constantly anyway, what's one more load, really? They're really very cute, too. They come in a rainbow of colors. Another thing I'm in love with is that they're one size fits all. That's right, you heard me. One size. They've got a system of snaps that adjust the diaper to every size the kid will go through in her diaper-wearing life. I'm sure I'll still use disposables for the few times we're out of town for a few days at a time and don't have access to laundry, but it's working for us so far.
But, I must admit that beyond the positive effect this has on landfills, my other reason for doing it is cost. Disposable diapers are ridiculously expensive. 20 bucks every time I go grocery shopping on diapers? No thanks. I'm done with that. I won't succumb to the consumerist trap any longer. For a one time investment of about 150 dollars, I'll have 2 dozen diapers plus inserts that I can use for the whole three years (roughly) that Petra will be needing diapers. That's in contrast to about 7 disposable diapers a day at about 20 cents apiece for about 3 years... that's $1533, which means over three years I'm saving $1383. Not to mention wipes. And I'll be making my own cloth ones. That's pretty great, and makes a big difference for us.
I've been doing away with all disposable things that I can in this house. Replacing paper napkins with cloth, using cloth bags at the grocery store, not using as many baggies and re-using them, I got a DivaCup, and we are being gengenerally less wasteful. Just about the only thing we're stuck with is toilet paper. Can't see another solution for that. I still need to break the paper-towel habit that we've acquired. We simply don't need to dispose of our income. It feels great not doing it, and it's better for us all.
One moment a pillowcase, the next moment (well, 15 minutes later) a dress! One of my favorite fabric sources is vintage pillowcases from thrift stores. They're basically free, have 3/4 of the seams in place already, and are generally very cool. I didn't do anything impressive to this one... just gave it some elastic for the top and some straps. It already had the ruffle around the edge... that's one reason I love the old pillowcases, they've got such character built in, eliminating time-consuming detail work for me! Voila! 20¢ and 15 minutes later... a baby dress. Not bad. Not bad at all.
