Green Living where Global Warming is considered a Hoax

Its summer time so I have been doing a lot around the yard.  Since I switched to cloth diapers, I’ve been doing a little bit more laundry.  To offset this increase in energy use, my husband and I put up a clothes line the other day. 

I really love getting out in the yard and laboring.  My dad is a cabinet maker and my mom is a yard bunny so I grew up working around the house with at least one of them.  I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty. 

Anyway, we dug two holes adjacent to each other; about 20′ apart and 2′ deep (give or take a few inches).  I reused two old metal clothes line poles that were left on our property and had my dad drill a few more holes in them.  I held those steady in the ground while my husband, alternating between concrete and water, filled up the holes.  We let the concrete cure for about 24 hours and ran metal wiring encased in plastic through the holes, tightening and securing them at the ends.  I couldn’t wait to hang my first load of clothes.  The sun is a natural bleaching agent so it is good for your clothes to dry in the sun from time to time; especially the little one’s diapers. 

A note on laundering cloth diapers: do not use fabric softener as this reduces their absorbency.  Dreft has softener agents in it as well.  I use All Clear Free.  It is biodegradable, dye free and perfume free.  There are a lot of biodegradable laundry detergents out there now to choose from.  I use All because it is the most inexpensive and it gets our clothes really clean.  I don’t use softener on any of our laundry, it’s expensive, unnecessary, and its use puts more chemicals into the ground water supply.  I haven’t used softener in years and don’t miss it at all.  I urge you to try to wean yourself off if you haven’t already. 

Now, back to my clothes line…  I have been really surprised by how quickly a load of clothes dries in the sun; I do have my line in an area that gets full sun almost all day.  Just to give you an example.  My husband and I have a King Down Comforter.  When I dry it in our dryer it has to be turned periodically and the dryer usually has to run through at least 2 cycles before the comforter is dry; this takes upwards of 2.5 hours. 

I washed our comforter today and dried it in the sun on the line.  It was dry and back on the bed in 4 hours with minimum energy use; plus it was bleached bright white again naturally by the sun. 

My other favorite thing about the line is how it looks.  There is a nice breeze blowing and I have sheets and a load of the baby’s diapers on the line right now.  It conjures up an image that harkens back to a different time.  It just makes me feel good to look at it.  If you’ve got the space, put one up and don’t use your dryer all summer long! 

We just celebrated out son’s first birthday!  He is such a rascal.  He is starting to climb on everything. 

When he was first born, I enjoyed (cringe if you like) the convenience of disposable diapers.  On occasion I would put him in a cloth diaper, struggling with diaper pins.  Usually, I would end up with my fingers pricked and he would have a loose, droopy diaper.  I hated the look, sound and feel of the plastic pants Wal-Mart offered as a solution to our soaked clothes.  

I grew increasingly aware of the trash we were creating.  As he neared his first birthday, his diaper changes were becoming less and less of a mess.  I felt confident that I could make the transition to cloth diapers with ease but I didn’t like my options. 

So, I started researching and found a vast sea of cloth diapering products online.  I was overwhelmed to say the least but so excited to find that I had real options.  I looked at diapers for days.  My husband said I was obsessed.  I was; I had to find the perfect option for us. 

When choosing cloth diapers you have a lot of options, there are the old fashion, Chinese prefold diapers (secured with pins), Pocket diapers, All-in-Ones, Fitted diapers, Contour diapers, and Diaper Covers. 

Diapering a child with a Chinese prefold usually consists of 2 diapers: one folded up as a soaker and placed in the other which is used to wrap around the baby’s bottom and secured.  You need a diaper cover (plastic pant) to keep leeks at bay.  You can get all this gear at Wal-Mart or you can find some cute diaper covers and closures online. 

I use Chinese prefolds with diaper covers when we are at home.  Instead of pins, I found this really cool closure device called a Snappi.  It takes half the time of pins and no one bleeds!  I will give you a link to a great site to get all this gear at the end of this post. 

Chinese prefolds are the most inexpensive diapering option.  You only need a few diaper covers since they don’t have to be washed every time you change the baby’s diaper, just wipe it off with a damp cloth and its clean (I throw them in the wash after a days use). 

Our little guy has some really cute diaper covers.  I like Thirsties and Bumkins‘ diaper covers.  They come in a wide range of colors and designs and are so cute.  I usually just let him run around the house in his diaper and cover now; he looks so cute. 

I also use Pocket diapers for outings and at night.  Pocket diapers consist of two layers, a waterproof outer and fleece or cotton inner with a pock in the middle.  You slide soaker inserts or Chinese prefolds into the pocket.  Pocket diapers dry faster than All-In-Ones (consisting of both layers with a soaker middle all in one) because you can essentially take the diaper apart and wash and dry the pieces separately. 

There are a lot of different brands of Pocket diapers and AIOs.  BumGenius is popular but they have velcro closures which my tike can get undone.  Since I like to let him run around the house in just a diaper (babies look so cute in just a diaper) this is not a viable option for me.  I found a great brand called Knicker Nappies. 

Knicker Nappies close with snaps, very convenient.  There is a row of snaps to adjust to my growing baby.  The size he is in now should fit him till he potty trains!  When folded up they take up about the same amount of room as a disposable diaper in the diaper bag.  I just toss a few in and take a wet bag when we go out.  You can buy fancy wet bags but I just reuse plastic bags for this. 

Knicker Nappies warranties their snaps and elastic for a year which is great.  Pocket diapers are more expensive up front but when compared to the cost disposable diapers, it’s a drop in the bucket.  The best thing about pocket diapers (AIO I suppose too) is that they are just a convenient as disposable.  If you have a baby, your going to have to be cleaning up messes when you change diapers, there is no getting around it; why not do something green in the process-that’s my theory.

You can find all of the products I mentioned at Nicki’s Diapers.  They offer free shipping on Pocket diapers and Diaper covers.  When you order Pocket diapers, they even give you a free insert, a great site.