Tuesday, October 20, 2009

My Cloth Story, Part 3

So, I've told you how I came to love cloth (see My Cloth Story, Part 1 and My Cloth Story, Part 2). How I overcame my fear of things fluffy and jumped in with both feet to cover my Miss's cheeks in nothing but snuggly softness. Well, I thought I'd round out the story by telling you where I am now in my cloth journey.

I currently love my "stash". For those of you not familiar with cloth diapering lingo, this is what we cloth-diapering-mommas call our stock of diapers. It sounds illicit and edgy. It's just diapers. In my stash, I have mostly pocket diapers, including HuggaBuns, FuzziBuns perfect fit, Bum Genius, Green Acres Designs, Blueberry (minky and non-minky), Diaper Change, Tiny Tush, Rump-a-Rooz, and Tweedlebugs. I also have three sets of SoftBums All-in-twos and two All-in-ones (a Drybees and a Monkeez, which is locally made by a WAHM). I have recently acquired, but not yet tried a FuzziBuns One-Size, a Rocky Mountain Diaper, and two Wild Child for Babies custom diapers in the most adorable prints. I actually have a diaper for Miss with "Chillin' with my Gnomies" fabric!! I love it. I have a few fitteds that I use occasionally, BumGenius bamboo and GoodMamas. I don't use prefolds at all anymore, but I'm keeping them for potential use later.

My latest thing is getting pocket diapers with cute prints on them. I have gotten rid of or am getting rid of some of my solid-color diapers that weren't favorites. I am also moving more and more toward natural-fiber diapers with cotton, hemp, and bamboo, rather than microfiber and other synthetic fabrics. I have also really started to get into looking for more obscure diaper brands. Many of these are found on Etsy and/or are made by WAHMs, like the Wild Child for Babies diapers that I bought recently. Some are larger companies, but just not ones that are really prominent in the CD world as BumGenius, Happy Heinys, and FuzziBunz are for example. Some other brands I've become interested in but have not yet purchased are Prairie Tales, Blue Penguin, and Nifty Nappy. I have actually found out about these diaper brands by reading the blog Happily Domestic and entering giveaways on the blog for each of these items (the giveaways are still gong on so I'm hoping I'll win!!).

The other way in which my cloth diapering has evolved is in the way I do my laundry. I started doing just a cold rinse/full hot wash cycle/cold rinse. I used Seventh Generation Free and Clear at first, but quickly switched to Allen's Naturally. I learned that I need to use Calgon water softener because we have hard water. Then I experimented with a mixture of washing soda and OxyClean that I read some moms said worked wonders for their stink issues. I didn't really care for that though and decided to try Rockin' Green instead. This is a laundry detergent specially made for use with cloth diapers that comes in several amazing scents. So I tried some of that, and it's what I'm currently using, occasionally using the soap nuts I just got instead. I've also been experimenting with different wash cycles also. Right now I'm doing a short cycle cold wash with detergent/long cycle hot wash with detergent/extra cold rinse. I'm having lots of success with my current wash routine. I have always enjoyed washing my cloth diapers. Now that there are different detergents to experiment with, it's even more fun. And I know I'm not crazy, because I'm not the only momma who enjoys washing cloth diapers. I'm friends with a mom who raised her kids back when cloth diapers were the only option and weren't nearly as cute and fun as they are today, and she confessed that she used to love washing her kids' cloth diapers too! There's just something satisfying about getting them clean, stuffed, folded, and back in the stash for the next use. I will post some photos of Miss in her newest diaper couture as soon as I get them dried, stuffed, and into the rotation!

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