Day 93: Cloth Baby Wipes and Homemade Wipe Solution

The Task: To switch from disposable baby wipes to cloth ones.

The Why:  It's cheaper, it's better for the environment, and it isn't wiping my kids butt with god-knows-what.  Besides, once we made the switch to cloth diapers, disposable wipes kinda become a real annoyance. Wipes that can get tossed in the wet bag with the diapers make way more sense than little poopy cloths than need to be carted to the outdoor garbage can.

The How:  I'm using some old receiving blankets cut into squares and some inexpensive baby wash cloths.  You can buy cloth wipes from most cloth diaper companies, but this seems to be working fine for us.   I make my own wipe solution and keep it in a spray bottle.  I labelled it "bum spray" but really we spritz it on the cloth before using it, not directly on the baby.  Used wipes just go in the wet bag and get washed with the diapers. 

Homemade Bum Spray (a.k.a Baby Wipes Solution)

 The ratios are approximate, I just eyeball it. In a small spray bottle combine:

• 1 part Dr. Bronner's Castile soap
• 1 part olive oil
• 3 parts water
• a few drops of lavender essential oil

(The oil and water will separate. Just give it a gentle shake before using it)

 The Verdict:  I like this so much better than disposable wipes. It works better, smells great, and avoids the whole wasted-pack-of-disposable-wipes-because-they-were-left-open-and-dried-out problem. The fact that it saves money and is better for the environment is pretty awesome too.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, greener, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 88: Kicking the Water Bottle Habit

I have a confession to make: We drink bottled water.

Or at least we did, until a friend (politely) called us on it this weekend.

Until recently, our well water was not potable. We couldn't even use it to brush our teeth.  Thanks to a battery cage egg "farm" that spreads it's massive amount of waste on a small plot of land across the road from us, our well water is dangerous to drink.  (Go ahead...ask me how I feel about factory farm eggs. I dare you....)

We were eventually able to put in a UV filtration system, which makes our well water safe.  But we were still in the habit of drinking bottled water.

When our friend brought the topic up while at our house on the weekend I decided to look into it a little bit. Up until now I've been convincing myself that bottled water is okay as long as we are careful to recycle all of the bottles.  Not so. 

Check out this video by Annie Leonard of The Story of Stuff:


So we are done with the bottled water (except for a case or two of it in the basement just in case the UV light on our filter dies or the power goes out) and I am learning to love our tap water.

The toughest part is to remember to always fill up our stainless steel water bottle on the way out the door instead of picking up a bottled water at a convenience store when thirst strikes while we're away from home. But I think we'll manage.

You know, we didn't start this project to become environmentalists.  Until this year, I've always just sorta kinda cared about the planet, with little passion to let it actually guide my lifestyle. But what I am learning is how intrinsically the well being of the planet is wrapped up with simple living, social justice, and loving one's neighbour as oneself.  We can't love our neighbour while throwing our trash in his backyard or polluting his children's drinking water or poisoning the air he breathes.   These seemingly little decisions you and I make really do matter, and really do effect the world around us.

 "Let all that you do be done with love."  

{1 Corinthians 16:14}

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, greener, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 87: Better than Disposable Dishware

Last weekend we hosted a potluck for nearly 45 people and it was great fun!  Lacking enough dishware to serve everyone, we had to decide what to do.  Ordinary disposable dishes are wasteful.   Eco-friendlier options, like dishes made from recycled products or compostable dishware are better than their originals, but still aren't great.  And they are pricey!

Luke had an idea that solved our problem and fit well with our goals and priorities (and budget!):  Go to the local thrift store where dishes are sold super cheap and stock up on white plates and bowls and mugs.  And, here's the best part: when we were all done, we just washed the dishes and returned them to the thrift store.  Yay!

I loved this solution!

• It was cheap.  At 10 to 15 cents a dish, I paid a total of 6.50  for all the plates, bowls and mugs we needed to accommodate our large potluck.  That is cheaper than disposables!
• It's environmentally friendly. Nothing to end up in a landfill!
• It supports a good cause.  The thrift store we bought them from funds great community services.
• It's nicer (and easier!) to eat off of a real plate than a paper one.
• It adds no extra clutter to our house.  Everything has been taken back to the thrift store to be sold again and well used.

The guy behind me and my cart full of dinnerware at the second-hand store clearly thought I was insane. His child even turned to him and said "That is a lot of dishes..."  But when I turned around and politely explained what I was doing I think he decided I wasn't completely insane. I hope.

P.S.  While typing this up I remembered this infographic and giggled to myself a little bit.  

 We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, greener, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 82: Making the Switch to Cloth Diapers

The Task:  To switch from disposable diapers to cloth diapers.

The Why: When we started having kids we used cloth diapers.  Cheap, leaky, crummy, flannel cloth diapers.  They were the only cloth diapers available in my local stores at the time, and because I didn't have internet at the time, I didn't know about the bounty of wonderful cloth diapering options out there.  When I was pregnant with our third child I was thrilled to discard our thread bare fitted cloth diapers and torn and stained plastic pants and switch to disposables.  I think I did a happy dance and everything.

But then all my posh friends started having kids.  And I started seeing the cute, functional, absorbent diapers they were choosing for their kids.  And I browsed online and my eyes were opened to the possiblities.  Cloth diapering doesn't have to be a miserable, horrible, what-smells-like-pee, oh-it's-the-rug sort of experience!

So we're making the switch back to cloth.  And this time around, I am loving it!

The Benefits of Cloth diapering:

•  Cloth diapering reduces the amount of trash going to our local landfill.
• It also reduces the amount of manufacturing waste involved in making paper products.  
• There are some serious concerns about toxins present in disposable diapers.  
• It can be a lot cheaper. 
• It can result in less diaper rash
• Plus, little babies with their colourful cloth diaper bubble butts are pretty much the cutest thing ever!

The How:  We are using organic cotton prefolds and cute little diaper wraps from this fabulous etsy shop.  Although it means that there is some assembly required at diaper changes, I couldn't be happier with this system.  I also have an assortment of All-In-Ones and pocket diapers that we like to use at night time and for outings.  I plan to try my hand at making some wool diaper covers as well.

I have a couple cute waterproof  wetbags that I hang on the bathroom door and stash all of the dirty diapers in until it's time to wash them.  So much cuter than the big yellow pail I used last time we cloth diapered!

The Verdict:  Because our three year old son is still in diapers at nighttime, our twins are 15 months and we are expecting our new baby in just 7 weeks (yikes!) we are going to soon have 4 children in diapers!  So spending a couple hundred bucks to start our cloth diaper stash seems like a mighty good investment.

The truth is that we were never really comfortable with our choice to use disposables.  It just seemed so wasteful, another symptom of our throw-away-and-don't-think-about-the-consequences culture.  We just didn't know the awesome options available to us.  I love cloth diapering!

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!

Day 81: Computer-y Clutter

The Task:  To finally sort through drivers, adapters and power cords that do who-knows-what and get rid of the things we don't need.

The Why:  Some of the tasks we've done have been deep heart-matters sort of stuff.  Not this.  I just want to have less useless junk in my house.  Period.

Why we haven't done this until now:  Even before this journey, I would consider myself a pretty avid declutterer.  I like to get rid of things, to organize and sort and streamline.  But I am almost always doing these things while the hubby is at work, and I am never confident enough that I actually know what a computer-y item does to discard it. So I hang on to it, just in case....

The How:  Luke was home with the flu today, so I cornered the poor guy with a stack of computer drivers, power cords and CD roms.  I asked him about ever item in the stack, and got the affirmation I needed to throw almost all of it out.

The funniest items we still had:  I swear I'm not a hoarder.  At least, I don't think I am. But for some reason I still had the driver to a dial-up modem we had years ago.   And the charger for a cell phone we got rid of last year.  

The Verdict: It was kind of fun to laugh at computer games we used to play and joke about how slow dial-up Internet was.  And now we have one less basket of junk in our house.  Sometimes minimalizing is easy.

We are doing one small thing (almost) every day for a year to create a simpler, quieter, more intentional life. Take a moment to read all About Us, check out The Rules of our year long project and sign up for our RSS feed or "like" us on facebook so that you can follow our journey to radical simplicity!