Monday, April 19, 2010

Project: Earth Week . Cloth Diaper Report (the conclusion)

Back when Zadie was tiny Baby Lemon, I wrote a couple of posts on our experiences with cloth diapers. You can read my posts on cloth diapering a newborn: part 1 here, and part 2 here. I also wrote a guest post over at Surely You Nest on switching to cloth for a toddler. It's been a long time since then and I feel that we have it figured out.

We currently use a mix of pocket diapers and fitteds with covers. I was hesitant at first to try Goodmama diapers but I gave in to a print with rainbows and clouds and was immediately sold. And for good reason. These diapers are hard to beat. We have a heavy wetter here so we need something super absorbent. These last about 3 hours. Some people go coverless but I think they must not have rugs or furniture. We still love Thirsties covers.

We also have a few pocket diapers. Mostly we use the BumGenius brand stuffed with one of the microfiber inserts sold with the diapers and another hemp insert. We have a few Thirsties AIOs as well. These have the microfiber built in to a pocket system. They are surprisingly trim and we still add a hemp insert. The only downside to the Thirsties is that they take a long time to dry.

While the Goodmamas show absolutely no sign of wearing out, I don't see the BumGenius diapers lasting through another 2 years with a second kid (no this is not a hint. I am not, nor do I intend to become, pregnant anytime soon). The velcro is starting to pull off most of the Thirsties AIOs and we've already replaced the covers once. Always a sucker for something new, I bought the BumGenius flip system to try out and I didn't really like it.

We still hang our diapers on the line every chance we get. The sun bleaches out the stains and keeps everything so much nicer. The Goodmamas have been in the drier many times and it doesn't seem to bother them. We always hang the pockets and the covers.

At night and when we are going out for long periods of time, we use the Seventh Generation diapers. We could not get anything to work for nights. I wish I would have believed my friend when she told me not to mess with it. But I'm all type A and had to see for myself. I wasted a LOT of money on pricey inserts. A LOT. We go through a pack of diapers every 3 weeks (more if we travel). We are still using the same wetbags I bought when I was pregnant and even the same bags for the dirty diapers. While I will keep the wetbags because they are still in great shape, I can't wait to toss the laundry bags in the trash. They are spent but I know we're almost done with this. Welcome pullups! There is nothing more green than potty training.

So there you have it. This is what works for us. Every baby is different and every kid has a different body. It does take a little bit of experimenting to figure out what is going to work for you.

And we still love our changing table (above). Check out the monkey cup cozy! I love it. It's concealing a Mason jar of diaper dust. Mr. Lemon just punched a bunch of holes in the top with a hammer and nail. More on the cup cozy tomorrow when I'll be announcing two sponsors.

Don't forget to check out Sabra's Cloth Diapering 101 over at Sew a Straight Line. Tomorrow she will be writing a tutorial on sewing your own cloth diapers (really amazing if you have the time). I will be posting a tutorial on making your own cloth wipes and sharing my secret wipes solution recipe.

Project: Earth Week

Earth Day is Thursday, April 22. I'm thrilled to be joining Sabra of Sew a Straight Line in an entire week of green posts. Sabra has some amazing stuff lined up including a few giveaways, a special guest blogger, and some tutorials -- all centered around sewing projects. I think it's important to think about what we can do to be better citizens of this awesome planet and there is no better time than now.

I like to think that our household is pretty green but we can also do a lot more. This weekend I spent a few minutes tidying up the office and took inventory of all of my unfinished projects (see left sidebar). These are projects that I have the supplies for but have not completed. Some of them haven't actually been started but since I acquired the stuff for them, I counted them. My pledge for Earth Week is to finish 5 of these projects before I buy any new fabric. I know I won't finish any projects this week and I know that doesn't seem like much but that's my plan and that's a pretty big deal for me. Oh how I love to buy supplies...

Anyway, later today I'm going to post about my experience with cloth diapers: what has worked for us, what is working now, etc. Tomorrow I'll post a tutorial for making cloth wipes and a recipe for our solution while Sabra goes to the big leagues with her cloth diaper sewing tutorial. Wednesday I have a secret guest blogger planned and Thursday I'm going to talk about foamy soap. There will be some giveaways here too. I'm really excited about this week and want to send a special thanks out to Sabra for letting me tag along in the festivities.

Oh, and feel free to grab the graphic to post on your site or blog. Also, if you'd like to be a sponsor, shoot me an email and we'll set it up.