The Wonderful (yet sometimes messy and a little confusing) World of Cloth Diapers

Ah... Cloth Diapers. Where this wonderful adventure of life changes began.

I was spending somewhere between $40-$50/mo on diapers each month... PER CHILD! That's in upwards of $500 per year, and on average in total from birth to potty training somewhere around $1500. Sure in the grand scheme of things that may not be HUGE, but thats $1500 that's sole outcome was to be thrown away!

So being as that could now all be multiplied by 2 with the arrival of baby brother and already being tired of watching that money disappear each month, I started paying a little bit more attention to a friends consistent posts about cloth diapering on Facebook (and how stinkin cute her little one looked in them!)

So I checked them out. WOW. So many different types and options. Talk about a little bit overwhelming. So I made a list of things I wanted:

1. Ease of use. I wanted it to go on and off similar to disposables.
2. I wanted them in a single size that adjusts from birth to potty training more or less.

Ultimately I decided I wanted pocket diapers. While it does require the stuffing and unstuffing of inserts, I liked the fact that it would be easy to add another insert to up the absorbancy at night vs buying specific nighttime diapers (or for big brother).

Soooo... back to look at all the different brands of Pocket Diapers. Yikes.

I wasn't a big fan of the look of all the snaps down the front to adjust the "rise" of a diaper as baby grows... I wanted a cleaner look no matter what size I had it set at.

And with that I had it down to two... Charlie Banana and Fuzzibunz.

Both have the marvelous "rise" adjustment INSIDE the diaper via elastic, both have raving reviews, and both run approx the same price. Make the final decision more difficult why don't we!

So I decided to order 3 Charlie Banana diapers and give cloth diapering a shot.

They arrive, and I was in love. PRETTY COLORS!! Lol.

So I prepped them with the multiple washes and gave them a try. Took a few days to get them adjusted and fitting just right, but ultimately, I was hooked. So I ordered some more and never looked back.

Best part? For about $200, I'm set on diapers with a little over 2 days between wash cycles (which is how often I do laundry anyway). That's over $1000 in savings from birth to potty training!


Want to know other reasons to consider the switch besides the savings?!

Disposable Diapers contain harsh chemicals that are potentially hazardous to baby such as dioxins. For more information on whats in disposable diapers read this: http://www.livestrong.com/article/111348-chemicals-disposable-diapers/

Cloth diapering greatly helped my LOs mild eczema and he's yet to have a diaper rash since!

Still not sure if you want to make the switch? That's fine. It's certainly not for everyone. But I do implore you to buy a couple of them and give them a shot! I wasn't sure, but once I had them I fell in love and the same might just happen to you!

How it all Began...

So, to start, let me tell you what made me make the decision to take the steps to live my life a little bit greener...
There are 2 main events that sparked this whole new lifestyle in me:

1. Divorce. Odd reason, right? I know, but bear with me. For years I put my own life on the backburner to stand by and assist my (ex)husband in succeeding in getting where it was he wanted to go with his life. This? Is something I can do for ME, and is honestly probably not something he would have jumped on board with anyway. But anyway, with my entire life changing anyway, why not make these changes for a greener, healthier life NOW?
2. I have 2 kids. Boys! Gavin is 2.5 years old and Parker is 5 months old. For one, of course I want a nice healthy lifestyle for them, but Parker is the one who really got the ball rolling and made me ACT on what it was I wanted to do. My awesome little guy has really sensitive skin & mild eczema. Disposable diapers? Weren't going so well with him. I had a friend who was always posting on Facebook about cloth diapering and picture's of her little one's in the cutest diapers I had ever seen... so I figured why not give it a shot and see if maybe it was the solution I was looking for. And once I got those (I'll post more on Cloth Diapers/Diapering later), I was hooked and I wanted to do MORE.

Plus, the money saving is definately a win. :)

And that right there is how it all began.

On here I will post about each step on my road to green and try to include as many tips, tricks and little hints as I can as well as what works and doesn't work... but of course keep in mind, what works for me may not work for you, but I welcome you to give it a try with me!