I’m on an ever-evolving journey to reduce waste in our three-person, 1,000-ish-square-foot household. We’ve gone plastic-free, we are cutting out chemicals and other toxins from our personal and household products, and I’m considering starting a home compost pile (stay tuned). We’re trying to live a cleaner, simpler life.
So why, after 15 months of momming, did I decide to start using cloth diapers instead of disposable??
Because I’m clearly a masochist, that’s why.
All jokes aside, I finally got fed up of literally THROWING AWAY our money in the form of disposable diapers that will sit in a landfill for 400 YEARS. Yuck!
So, I reached out to my fellow mamas and started asking questions. How hard is it, exactly? Where do I start? What brands do you like? What do I do when he poops??
Turns out, his poop goes where poop belongs. In the toilet. Let’s be real, if you’re going to become a parent, you’re going to have to get up-close-and-personal with your child’s poop at some point. Why not let it be for a good cause??
When it comes down to it, cloth diapering is just more laundry. When you think of it that way, it’s much more accessible. What’s one more load of laundry?
We’re lucky to have several friends who cloth diaper, and one incredibly generous friend who was willing to loan us a dozen or so diapers, so we could get a feel for it before making a big investment. With a few leaks here and there and one potentially disastrous event at a restaurant bathroom with no changing table, we’ve managed to make it 30 days!
It felt so good to throw out that “last” bag of disposable diapers. We still use one here and there, but we’ve significantly reduced our waste!
And boy, does my boy’s booty look cute in cloth. It makes this crunchy mama’s heart happy to see.
Are you a cloth-diapering mama? What are your cloth-diapering tips or tricks?