A Little Greener

Lately I've been more focused on the environment. I'm far from being a tree hugger and I'm certainly not an activist (although there is nothing wrong with either), but I'm concerned and trying to be more responsible.

Raised in a farming family, I've always been conscious of the earth; especially the soil and the water. Small family farmers generally have a very logical approach- if you contaminate soil, crops won't grow; if you contaminate the water, animals die. The use of pesticides and/or fertilizers are carefully considered; what will have the best results with the least negative impact.

Being from Iowa (a 5-cent deposit state) I have always recycled my aluminum cans. When my husband and I moved to Kansas, we discovered that our city had recycle service. As we already saved our cans (to bring in to our local metals recycling facility, where I am the office manager) it took very little effort to set-up a second bin for plastic and glass. Paper and cardboard went into the largest cardboard box we had available and it's been no problem to keep it going throughout the years. Our children have no problem with it (sometimes our three year-old gets confused, but big sister helps him out). They are going to grow up to recycle because it is just going to be habit. I actually feel taken aback when I visit someone's house and see aluminum and plastics in their trash; I want to lecture them. I don't even see recycling as "green", it's just responsible and it saves the community money*; it makes sense.

Almost out of the blue, a number of things have STOPPED making sense to me.
1. I got frustrated with disposable diapers. They cause so much waste, are so expensive and contain stuff that I really don't want next to my baby's skin: wood pulp and chemicals. Remembering the cloth diapers and rubber pants my mom used on my three half-sisters at home, I really didn't think I had an alternative.
2. Every time I go to the grocery store, I cringe when I realize I'm going to have to choose between paper and plastic. I really don't care to use either. Plastic is less inclined to tear, but I always feel slightly sick when I look at the empty bags and wonder how long it will take for them to break down.

Somewhere along the line, I had an epiphany; if something makes me feel guilty or ashamed, don't do it because it's not the right choice for me.

So following that line of thinking I:
1. started using cloth diapers at home. The new options are a lot cooler than you would imagine. They are so not my mom's cloth diapers!
2. am in the process of making a few market bags. It will give me a fun way to show off my creative sewing abilities and ease my conscience in the check-out lane.

I'm still not an environmentalist, but I believe I'm just a little greener than I used to be.

What about you? Are you green? Are there any small changes you could make? Are there changes you have made that you would like to share? Weigh in, people!

* The city is charged the landfill's tipping fee for all of the refuse brought to the landfill. Recycles are brought in separate loads, the tipping is free. Prisoners from the area correctional facility sort out the material for recycling and the solid waste facility is able to sell the material to processors. This not only keeps many tons of trash out of our landfill, it also helps to keep the city's trash fees lower as less refuse=lower utility costs.

Cloth Diapering Version 2.0

Theola has already spoken of her experience with cloth diapers. She's been at it for a few weeks already, using prefolds and covers.

Me, I intend to cloth diaper when Baby gets here in December, and I'm already collecting a stash. For my first experience with diapers at all, I've decided to go with a more expensive, but hopefully easier route of using pocket diapers, or All-In-Twos (which are the same as All-In-Ones, but with an optional insert). What's more, I'm being very picky about it and getting only One Size diapers, preferrably with snaps rather than Velcro.

The difficulty of all of this is that, well, by setting such restrictions on myself, I'm drastically limiting my options. Even worse, I'm buying all of this before Baby gets here, so it may turn out that the diapers I get don't fit her, or don't work very well for her, or leak, or perhaps she just won't like them. That's the risk I'm taking. Considering all of this, the plan is to collect a variety of types rather than just a bunch of one type. And since I'm still researching what's available, I'm continually finding more that I want to try.

Right now I only have 12 bumGenius 3.0 diapers. And I'm going to have to get at least 4 more, because they just came out with 4 new colors. It's a start.

I've also decided to go with cloth wipes, because 1) if I'm already doing the laundry, I might as well throw in the wipes with the diapers, and 2) disposable wipes are never substantial enough for me to do anything with, so I just know I'll end up making a mess, and no one wants that. So far I've got 12 bumGenius Flannel baby wipes.

Just as a note: I ordered the bumGenius diapers and wipes from Cotton Babies. I placed the order on Monday morning, and they were at my house by Wednesday evening. Front what I've seen, prices on cloth diapers are fairly close everywhere you go, so there's no real deal anywhere (unless you buy used, which I'm not at the time), and Cotton Babies has pretty good package deals, and free shipping on orders over $75. They also sent me a detailed email about how to care for my new cloth diapers, which is good, because they do require special care, and I need all the help I can get. In other words, Cotton Babies gets a thumbs up from me.

Other diapers I want to try out include Rump-a-rooz®, which look fabulous to me mostly because of the double gusset, the option of either snaps or Velcro, and the option to upgrade the inserts to hemp fiber; Blueberry(TM) One Size Deluxe snap diapers, and a few of their Minky counterparts; and BumWear One Size pocket diapers, which have some adorable prints and colors available. There may be others that I try as I find them, and I definitely want to try at least some hemp product at some point.

My plan is to have about 30 diapers and at least as many wipes by December. I figure I'll end up buying a few more after seeing what works best for my baby, and I'll be sure to post reviews as I go.

Frugal Parenting: Lesson One

Hand-me-downs are a blessing. Say that to yourself, “Hand-me-downs are a blessing”. I’m not talking about “Brady Bunch” era Peter pan collar shirts and plaid pants (which are somewhat stylish again), I’m referring to gently used baby and toddler clothes. It is so easy to get carried away with all of the delectable clothes available. After all, your child is the most precious, beautiful person you’ve ever seen and you naturally wish to showcase your little jewel in the manner best befitting him or her.

Keep in mind though, babies and small children need a lot of clothes. There are constant messes and wet spots and it’s impossible to guess the direction of the next projectile attack. If you can afford to foot the bill for all the adorable outfits your child will wear three times before outgrowing then you have a far more lucrative career than I do.

I recently hit upon “The Mother Lode”. A friend (with excellent taste) asked if I would be interested in the baby clothes her son has outgrown. (Would I? Do bears… well, we know what bears do in the woods. Right?) One week later, she came to my house bearing four boxes of clothes, sized from six months up to 18 months. (Four boxes!)

As soon as I opened the first box, I knew I was in love. The brands ranged from Carters and Old Navy to Gap and even Sonoma Lifestyle! I was entranced by the softness of the sleepers (inside and out) and the charming prints of the sturdy play clothes. There were a number of impossibly cute sweaters which I never would have purchased on my own, although they assuredly would have caught my eye.

Imagine my surprise when I thanked my kindhearted friend and she acknowledged, “Some of those were hand-me-downs from [another friend]”. Being open to gently used clothes from others can free up the funds to buy a few special guilt-free pieces (for your child or for yourself)! And the best part- when your child has outgrown the clothes, you can pass them on to someone else. It’s truly a circle of fashion!

Next time someone offers you free clothes, graciously accept. Don’t allow pride to get in the way. Even if you aren’t as fortunate as I was, there would certainly be enough to suit your taste to make it worth the time to look through it. Likewise, if you have a friend with an older child, don’t be too timid to mention, “If you want to get rid of his (or her) outgrown clothes, I would love the hand-me-downs.”

Company picnic

My husband and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary a day early this year. We went out of town, to our favorite restaurant for lunch. The meal was fabulous. No fancy-schmancy food for us, the portions were generous and the overall feel to the food was Sunday dinner at Grandma's- if Grandma was a hefty German woman... who happened to live in a microbrewery.

Afterwards, we drove to the cabin owned by my husband's boss, Gale. It was the first time we had ever been there and my husband had left the directions at home. The drive took a bit longer than necessary and involved more frustration than I really wanted to experience on the eve of a monumental day, but oh, it was worth it.

I was too awestruck to take pictures and for that, I apologize. We turned off the highway onto a well-traveled path through a corn field. After a low clearance water-crossing, we found ourselves in a completely different world. I really didn't think we were in Kansas anymore! Acres of sunflowers guarded large hills. The gravel road curved along the edge of one such, limestone filled hill. Cattle grazed contentedly at the top and despite the beauty of the scene, I was frustrated and beginning to think the cabin didn't exist. Suddenly, on our way down the opposite side of the steep hill, the hidden valley came into focus.

My words can't express the awe I felt. A small, lovely cabin and matching garage seemed right at home surrounded by trees and lush grass. The large deck on the cabin's front stood sentinel overlooking a small pond festooned with paddleboats. The cabin itself had plenty of storage, yet was no more than a small family needed. Clearly, it was a get-away in the truest sense of the word. My husband was most pleased about the pool tables in the (heated and air-conditioned) second story of the garage. This was truly a place for resting, relaxing and entertaining. It had everything we needed and it brought all of us a little closer together.

I have never seen a more compelling argument for downsizing belongings and living a richer life and I look forward to future visits.

Decluttering 101

I've never been much of a packrat, or at least that what I tell myself. I'm not one to hold on to items for sentimental value, or even because I may need it one day (if I haven't needed it in the past 3 years, chances are I won't need it in the next 3).

But now that I'm in the midst of decluttering my home pre-baby, I'm finding that I have a lot more stuff than I thought.

Fortunately, when I do go through my collection, it's usually easy for me to let go of things. The bad part is that I don't let go of nearly as much as I need to. If I want to live the minimalist life I'm envisioning in my head, I've got to get serious about getting rid of all the junk.

And I am trying. I've even discovered a few tricks along the way.

The number one, most useful, easiest, best trick I've found is this: instead of pulling out items you want to get rid of, pull out only the items you really want to keep, then get rid of everything else.

I'm finding this tip especially useful for books, because I don't habitually reread books, so there are very few I actually need to have on my shelf. But if I go through looking for books to toss, I'll fall into the trap of thinking, "Oh, I liked that book all right, I think I'll keep it," or even, "I never got around to reading that book, I'll get to it eventually." WRONG. With Baby on the way, I'm about to have less time to read than ever before, so if I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, chances are I'm not going to.

But it also works for other things. Take clothes, for example. Most of us have more clothes than we really need, and I, at least, wear only a select set of them on a regular basis, and what's more, we know what that select set is (hint: look at your laundry basket for a couple of weeks). The trick is, which ones DO you wear, not which ones do you think you might wear? That's the tough part.

Of course there are going to be things you don't wear on a weekly basis, or seasonal items you won't wear for another few months. I'm not talking about those. I'm talking about the shirt that's slightly uncomfortable, or that makes you sweat, or that doesn't quite fit, or that you're not sure if it's really your color. All of those, out they go!

It's not as hard as it seems, and it's actually quite liberating. I'm looking forward to getting rid of more stuff this weekend.

After the football game, of course.

One Week and Counting!

I guess I can officially claim to be a cloth diapering mama. I’ve been at it for one week now and I can officially say- it’s gotten easier. Am I over the learning curve? No. No. And for good measure, heck no.

Although the process seems much easier now, I am still eons away from being an expert. I have finally stopped hearing a little voice in my head saying “you didn’t know what you were getting yourself into, just declare it a loss and put on a disposable” every time I change my baby’s diaper.

My baby has also gotten used to cloth diapers. He seems happier with them now than before, when he was clearly trying to figure out just what the new texture and additional moisture were all about.

Granted, I still use disposables at night. That may continue indefinitely. It works well because baby has his biggest “constitutional” in the morning. It can be kind of explosive and… never mind. It is kind of nice to get that out of the way, wrap it up and never deal with it again. (I know, except for the fact that it ends up eventually leaching into the earth and poisoning the land for future generations, but please, give me a break because I’m trying.) I also still use disposables at daycare. I just don’t know about switching them over, and too, I need to give my credit card a rest for a while.

Current Observations-Prefolds
1. As I previously mentioned, get plenty of covers. Get different kinds because they fit differently and you need to learn what works best for your baby. Invest in wool- even if it’s just one cover. It really is awesome! To keep costs down, I knit my own and it’s already my “go to” cover.

2. Buy a few different prefolds to find the best fit. If you can, try to purchase singles in a few different sizes. I had initially thought to buy a bit bigger than baby truly needed to maximize the investment, but they didn’t fit well and diapering was way more difficult and frustrating than it needed to be. Basic cotton prefolds are not terribly expensive; it’s worth it to find and buy the correct size. Both you and your baby will be much happier and it’s going to keep you from reaching for the disposable out of frustration.

3. Be realistic about your needs. Over the weekend, I found myself washing diapers daily. I wanted to rush right to my computer and order more. When I thought it out, I realized that 5 days a week, I’m only going through 4-5 diapers a night. Two dozen diapers meet our needs just fine. If I were to go to full time cloth diapering, I would definitely order another 1-2 dozen. I should also mention I grab cloth diapers when a spit-related emergencie arise (no pun intended). We go though extra diapers that way, but they absorb so well they are a must have.

And we're off!

The remodeling of the dining room has officially started! Most of the walls are stripped, with the final section getting stripped either this evening or first thing tomorrow. Also tomorrow, they're coming to install our new sliding doors. Then wiring, insulation, and drywall. And THEN . . . we're off to start the nursery.

I cannot possibly explain to you how excited I am about that.

Also of note, there was a bit of decluttering and rearranging done. In an effort to stay away from the plaster dust during the wall destruction, my mom helped me clean out the upstairs bathroom closet. I weeded out a ton of old sheets, expired medicines, and toiletries I'm never going to use. Plus we got my makeup and other currently used toiletries moved into the closet and the vanity in the spare room/soon-to-be-nursery cleared out.

More importantly, we moved the towels and sheets to the lower shelves in the closet, and the toxic-if-ingested stuff up and away from tiny fingers. It's won't be important for another year or so, but I figured we might as well do it now while we're at it.

And then on Sunday, I went through my closet and the two dressers in the spare room and weeded out clothes I no longer wear. They are now packed up and in the back of my car to drop off at Goodwill. It's harder to do it at this point though, because I can't judge anything on the basis of what fits, as nothing at all fits me right now except the few new maternity items I own. But it's also easier to declutter in a way, because I have a reason to get rid of stuff and make room.

Still left to do: go through shoes, handbags, the storage boxes under the bed, and the dresser in the master bedroom. And really, the shoes and handbags are the biggest part of that (which isn't saying a whole lot--I love shoes and handbags).

With any luck, that will be done this week, because next weekend we're setting up our baby registry.

Cloth Diapers: Financials and Figures and Shopping- Oh My!

I had been tossing around the idea of cloth diapering since my youngest was born. I have to admit, it’s only been three months, but in that time we have already spent far more money on disposable diapers than I could stand. At $17.00 per week, the expense adds up quickly. I realize that babies gradually start to need fewer diapers per day as they grow. Diaper companies realize this too; larger size diapers have fewer per pack. I’m still spending about $15-$17 per week.

My older two kids were in disposable diapers until they were a little over two, then I switched them to the disposable training pants. The training pants made cleanups simpler, but didn’t really do much to encourage potty-training because the children were so comfortable in them. The cost of training pants? About $15-$17 per week.

Josie and JR were both considered trained at 32 months. Multiplying 32 months by 4.3 (weeks in a month) brings us to an approximate age of 137.6 weeks. Multiply that by $16.00 (the average cost of diapers a week), and you’ve spent $2201.60 just on diapers. That doesn’t include wipes- $2201.60 on poop collection alone!

If that number does not seem staggering to you, I need to mention that I live in a tiny town in a not hugely populated area of the Western Plains. The closest WalMart is a 70 mile drive and the closest mall is 100 miles (sobs). Buying diapers in town is fairly costly, local retailers mark them up several dollars over discount chains. Running low on diapers invariably means a trip out of town to purchase diapers, wipes and a bunch of stuff we really didn’t need but couldn’t pass up because it was a good deal. Frequently, we also eat out once or twice. Suddenly, $75 for a month supply of diapers and wipes just quadrupled. I know what you are thinking, “Buy local, idiot”, but who wants to take the easy way out?

So after months of comparing and researching, I decided it was time to tinkle or get off the potty and I invested $150.00 into cloth diapers. It amounted to 15 prefolds, three covers, wool yarn to make a few of my own covers, 5 diaper liners for bedtime or excursions, a Snappi and a few cloth wipes. I had the weekend to experiment with cloth diapering and overall, it went well but I am still very much in the learning curve. I did decide that the diapers I had were a bit full to fit in the covers the way I wanted, I really wanted to fold the diapers in thirds and lay them in the covers, and then just secure them when I wrapped the cover onto my baby. Unfortunately, I got the diapers so big they would not fit well in that manner. I have since ordered a dozen smaller diapers, another Snappi and a wet bag. Total investment at this point is $200.00.

I have been using cloth diapers at home for the whole week. Since I work full time outside of the home, I have been using a disposable diaper at bedtime, just for the convenience of guaranteed dry sheets in the morning (providing my breasts did not leak in the night). The first few evening of cloth diapering were fraught with mistakes. There were several times all three of the purchased covers were in the wash because I didn’t manage to get enough coverage to the necessary locations. But it has been getting easier with every passing day.

My biggest recommendation is to get plenty of covers. I would have done less diapering laundry if I had gotten just a couple more covers off the bat.

I’m still waiting for the smaller diapers to come in, and I’m getting more proficient with the larger ones while I wait. I will still use the larger ones as a back-up to be able to space laundry out an extra day and they really do make excellent burp cloths and changing pads! Besides, he will grow into them. They are still worth every penny. (Not to mention the fact that I'm not positive I'm done having babies and I will be able to use them for another baby later.)

I haven’t progressed to the point where I’m positive I’ll be doing this at daycare. I would prefer to switch over completely, but I want to have enough experience with it that I can present it to the attendants with more knowledge. I want to make it simple enough for them that it would be considered “just another diaper change” and not "a completely unfair task demanded by the dragon lady". Provided I make the switch, I would probably invest in some one-sized pocket diapers for their convenience. It would mean a pretty heft investment, so I want to make sure it will be a wise one.

Yes, I will still make occasional trips out of town. I would go mad if I didn’t! But hopefully I could spread them out a bit more and spend significantly less overall. If my predominant purpose for going were removed it would no longer be a “shopping excursion”, it would just be a happy family outing. We would have a lot more time for museums and events instead of trying to navigate a wobbly shopping cart through narrow aisles. My husband is already breathing easier.

New Ride

I just got a sweet new ride!

At various times in my life, those words would have evoked different images. In college a “sweet ride” would have made me think of my friend Doug and his shiny red Dodge Daytona Turbo Z. It was fast and it looked great with my hair. It was an incredibly cool car for college students in the mid-90s.

Several years later, in the mountains of Colorado, my friend Shannon had a “sweet ride” with her Audi Quattro. She also had a trust fund.

Doug’s mom is now the Lieutenant Governor of a certain state and Shannon still has a trust fund and I’m just grateful to be further up the food chain than the ’78 Ford Fiesta I drove fifteen years ago.

My newest acquisition is a used Chrysler Town & Country. I traded off my All Wheel Drive gas guzzler for a vehicle where my 9 year-old daughter would no longer complain about her brothers’ car seats taking up too much room. I would be free of my three year-old son yelling that his sister was touching him. I would have plenty of cargo space for the stroller for my 3 month-old son, with enough space left over for diapers, wipes, toilet paper, school supplies and bargain clothes. There would be enough room left over for weeks of groceries!

(As it turned out, “weeks of groceries” lasted approximately 5 days. I will be grocery shopping this afternoon. I can show off my vehicle locally.)

I love my minivan, which is good; I’m going to be driving it for a long time. I won’t even mind if they start complaining about the van. I will be able to drown them out with my steering wheel mounted audio controls!

Decluttering, Part I: Baseline Analysis

In my heart, I am a minimalist. I have only what is absolutely necessary. There is no clutter on my countertops or tables, there is only one bottle of body wash in my shower, and I don't have any clothes in my closet that I don't actually wear.

In my reality, things are a bit different. My countertops and tables are cluttered about 3 days after I make the effort to clear them off once and for all, I have about 6 types of body wash (most of which I actually use, but none of which I would call "absolutely necessary"), and most of the clothes in my closet haven't been worn in months (if not longer).

My heart leaps at images of clean, open spaces and sleek, crisp lines. My inbox is clear, my To Do list is short, and my desktop is as free from icons as I can reasonably make it.

My house, however, is inhabited by two large dogs, two fluffy cats, a packrat of a husband, and hand-me-down (i.e. not in any way minimalist-looking) furniture. Not to mention any number of remodeling projects and other assorted tasks.

And then there's me, somewhere between ready-to-throw-out-everything-I-own-and-start-over and I-don't-care-what-it-looks-like-I-just-don't-want-to-think-about-it-right-now. Throw in the standard allotment of not-enough-hours-in-the-day, work a full time job to which you commute 40 minutes to and from each day, add a baby girl due in December, and make sure that approximately nothing has been done to ready the nursery (which still needs such basics as wiring, drywall, and new windows), and you'll have a pretty good idea of where I'm at.

Yet I still read decluttering and minimalist blogs on a mostly daily basis. I still go through spurts of throwing out boxes and bags of stuff I don't need. Occasionally I even manage to convince my husband to get rid of a few tee shirts I've never seen him wear in the 4 years we've been together, or pants that haven't fit since his college days, or the rollerblading gloves he hasn't used since high school. And in those very rare moments where the longing for a minimalist abode is so great I'm willing to give up anything, anything at all just so I don't have to have it on my conscience any longer, I'll even clear a shelf of my greatest treasure: books.

Today is significant in that we've had to clear most of our dining room in preparation for remodeling. We're replacing a set of windows with sliding doors and adding a patio and stairs outside (so we can actually get into our yard without having to walk all the way around the garage), updating the wiring, and replacing the cracked plaster walls with drywall. I'm still undecided on whether or not to refinish the floors (they need it, but we can't really do the living room at the same time, so they won't end up matching).

The problem with all of this is, what do we do with all of our stuff? There is simply too much of it. Our house, while not huge, is a decent size (about 1650 square feet plus a full basement), and yet there is more clutter than two relatively young people would ever have a need for. We did manage to get rid of an extra desk (technically, it's sitting on the front porch until we can figure out exactly how to get rid of it), but everything else just got shuffled around. And the china cabinet and buffet are still in the dining room because I don't have anywhere to put them in the meantime. I could not, however, manage to convince my husband to let me get rid of the "puppy couch," or the torn up, stinking, 1987-patterned bachelor couch he had long before we met that the dogs are allowed on (hence the term), even though my grandmother recently gave us a perfectly decent sectional. Both of them are still in the living room. Along with all of the furniture from the dining room.

I'm blaming my current mood partially on my pregnancy. I'm over halfway through (22 weeks), and I feel like I haven't accomplished a single thing. Sure, I've got about $400 worth of baby clothes that various people have bought me (I myself spent only about $23 and bought exactly ONE dress), and my mom has crocheted 4 afghans and unearthed a bunch of stuff from my own babyhood, and we have finally secured the financing to start the remodeling which will start with the dining room and eventually include the nursery. But as of right now, I have not cleared a single item of my clothing from the dresser that will be the baby's. I have not begun to clean out the bathroom closet that will house my toiletries instead of the desk in the spare bedroom, which will be the nursery. I haven't bought a single diaper, or chosen a fabric or pattern for the diaper bag I intend to make, or selected a crib, or anything.

It's all so overwhelming, and I don't know where to start.

So I'm just picking something. Obviously, the dining room, which is waiting for the hired help (i.e. my father and brother, who actually are professional construction-ers) to show up and do their thing, is one step. As for the nursery, it will begin with the cleaning of the bathroom closet to make room for the rearranging I have to do.

Step 1: declutter (i.e. get rid of junk I don't need).

It begins tonight.