The Woolly Mom

Talk about an important Clean & Mean Tuesday for this woolly mom! With Lily’s first birthday party this weekend, I have to spend a decent chunk of every day this week cleaning different rooms of the house. Think, the “Hard Knock Life” scene from the Annie movie. So today’s tip reflects my wishes not just to do an everyday “eh, the baby can’t put anything in her mouth now” kind of clean, but a deep-down “company” clean. And since I have hardwood floors throughout my kitchen, dining room, and hallway, I think this tip will be perfect.

Super Sweeping

This is an old trick to get every last bit of dirt and dust off of the floor: Take a pair of panty hose, and wrap them around your broom head. Then sweep as normal. You’ll be wowed at the amount of dirt you pick up! When you’re done, you can throw the panty hose right in the washer and reuse (MUCH cheaper than Swiffer!), and it won’t matter if they get runs in them.

 Test Result - Since I’m a lean mean cleanin’ machine today, I figured I’d test this tip out for you. And it worked surprisingly well! First I swept an area with a regular broom. Then I added a nylon and swept again. Look at my broom, ain’t she a lady? I was surprised by the amount of pet hair I collected the second time through! The panty hose have a real static cling effect that I imagine Swiffers also do, but brooms tend to lack.

Then, as a further experiment, I decided to dampen the tip of the broom (with panty hose on) to see if a little moisture will  improve things still - a la Swiffer-type moistened pads. I just  added a teeeeeny bit of water - didn’t want to soak my hardwood floors and dry them out! The result was slightly better. I got a little bit more dust and dirt than before I moistened the broom. Perhaps down the road I might try spritzing a little floor cleaner on there - it adds a little expense to this “free” tip, but might elevate the level of clean, too.

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3.4

When you have a baby on the way - especially your first one - there is some kind of kneejerk reaction to run out to Babies-R-Us and buy every contraption and device on the market. Brand-new. Top of the line. Nothing’s too good for my baby!

Wow, then the shock sets in a few months later at how much you spent on all that - well, crap - for it to be used fleetingly by your baby. Then you start developing a facial tick. Some purchases were worth it. Others weren’t.

So how do baby swings weigh in?

The swing is a handy tool that my baby used sparingly from 2-4 months of age. You see, she had to be in just the right mood for it to work - not too tired, not too fidgety, but just in need of a little gentle solitary comfort (kind of how I feel about hammocks). Understandable then that we only got down on our knees and thanks the gods above for the swing’s existence 4 or 5 times total in her infancy.

But, there were those times when the planets aligned, forest animals danced in counter-clockwise circles, her mood shifted, and the swing was the ONLY trick that would get her to stop crying. At times, if you had suggested taking that swing away I would’ve chained myself to it and turned rabbid.

So should most mommy’s stock one for their baby? You bet, in a pinch they’re like angel arms sent down to save mommy and daddy’s sanity. Expensive angel arms.

But get yourself a used one (you can scrub and scrub until you’re satisfied they’re clean enough. I’ll loan you my 5-gallon tank of bleach!). Most retail swings will run you $60-100. And they’re just not worth that price for the tiny amount of use you might get. Instead, check with your mommy friends, go to mom-to-mom sales, and scour garage sales for a swing in good condition. Offer them $10-15 for it, and stand firm. Trust me, they’ll be glad to get that bulky contraption out of their way, because there’s NO storing these things. And then you can twist your moustache and wring your hands at what a fabulous deal you got!

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2.5

A lot of moms would absolutely guffaw at the idea of switching away from their easy-toss disposable diapers. Cloth diapers? Aren’t those the kind my great-grandma used to boil in a kettle? And safety pins? Really?

That’s the first thing that crossed my mind when a good friend of mine suggested I consider cloth diapers. She was using them for her baby and said I would be surprised at how amazing they are. So I listened, pessimistic, but intrigued nonetheless. And it turned out she really knew what she was talking about! I was as shocked as you are! 

So now it’s your turn. I’m your kooky, but wise friend telling you to open up your mind to an amazing new cost-saving idea for your baby. Seriously, just hear me out.

The first thing that caught my eye was their modern look and fit - they’re shaped just like disposables! No origami required. You just place on baby’s bottom - just as you would a Huggies - and then fasten with snaps (thank gawd for no safety pins!). Then you place an outer leak-proof cover over the diaper, and velcro it snugly. Voila! Baby in cloth diaper.

Not as scary as you thought, huh? Look at that, you survived the description and everything.

Plus the diapers AND covers come in a whole bunch of vibrant colors: Pinks, purples, blues, bright oranges, greens, etc. And that makes them adorable, and we all love adorable.

And of course, it was hard not to listen intently when she told me about the big bucks we’d be saving by going the cloth route. (This is where I really start to get hooked on the idea and wonder how I could convince my husband that I’m not out of my gourd about this.) Cloth diapers are a big investment up front, you’ll pay about $600-800 on your first set of diapers (and if you order one-size-fits-all-ages, it’ll be your last set, too), assuming you pick up about before baby arrives.

But before your jaw drops too far, consider how much those disposables would cost you! The average kiddo will go through an average of 9,000+ diapers before being potty trained. If you multiply that times $.25 per disposable diaper, (starts pulling out mental calculator, and wishing it hadn’t run out of batteries years ago), you’ll be shelling out over $2,200! That means that the average family will save $1,500+ by using cloth instead of disposable. Wowwee! That’s a lot of bubble bath, chocolate bars, and bottles of wine for mommy.

On top of all that, the green side of me was pipin’ proud to think of how much good we’d be doing for the planet. Studies show that the average baby (not family - baby) will produce 7 tons of non-biodegradable waste in landfills - just from their dirty diapers alone. It makes me feel guilty that I was ever in disposables!

In contrast, today’s cloth diapers are available in a number of natural earth-friendly fabrics. I personally chose bamboo diapers (once I showed my husband the price tag and he started grinning) because of their great absorbency, affordability, and super soft feel. Plus, they’re BAMBOO, how cool is that? Cotton, hemp, wool, and other fabrics all also available and have different costs and pros and cons.

The last big question that I still had to tackle was cleaning. Diaper services are still around…but they cost money. And that cuts into your super duper cloth diaper savings. In fact, using a diaper service brings the cost almost even with disposables. So it was time to get down to the icky part - how do you clean these things yourself?

It’s not as bad as you would imagine. My friend demonstrated for me that you can place a thin liner sheet inside the diaper - it looks kind of like a fabric softener sheet - to catch the poop. So when your baby fills that diaper up with number two, you just lift out the biodegradable liner and toss in the garbage. Poop gone. The diaper’s left fairly unscorched. No toilet rinsing or scrubbing required.

Then, when the diaper pail’s full (which will happen once every other day or so), you take the whole shebang down to the washer, set it for a HOT temperature, and turn on the pre-rinse cycle (or you make your husband do it. Yes, that’s a much better option). Then add your super gentle biodegrable diaper detergent, and wash away! You can tumble dry on the delicate cycle, or hang them in the yard to line dry if the weather’s nice. The diapers come out looking - and smelling - April fresh and clean. Trust me, I gave them the acid nose test. Talk about brave. I should get a medal or something for that.

Well, that pretty much sold it for me. Ten months later I’ve got a load of diapers running on pre-rinse while I type this. It’s a lot of laundry to tackle (probably the biggest downside), but it’s really rewarding and simple. And boy am I relieved not to have to make any runs to the nearest CVS Pharmacy for a pack of Pampers in the middle of the night.

More than a couple friends of mine - and my mother - thought I was a bit touched for taking such a bold step in baby care. But when you think about it, it isn’t very bold at all. It’s just plain practical and affordable. And down the road, we’re going to see a lot more moms jumping on the cloth diaper bandwagon. And don’t we all love bandwagons?

If I’ve peaked your interest at all and you’d like to investigate further, here are some links to a few of my favorite cloth diaper sites. They’ll mail everything to you - diapers, covers, detergents, washable diaper bin bags, deodorizing diaper bin discs, etc.

www.naturesnappies.com

www.babycottonbottoms.com

I hope you’ll take this advice from your crazy friend and go check these out.

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2.8 (1 person)