Going Green

The slogan is everywhere these days. It's on T-shirts, bumper stickers, and even the topic of decorating shows on HGTV. "Going green" is very trendy right now. I guess whether it's a trend or not, it's still good for the environment. We're doing our part by using cloth diapers and cloth wipes and by taking full advantage of Shreveport's curb-side recycling program. We need to do more, I know, but any little bit helps.
Recycling-- It bugs me beyond measure when I drive past a blue recycling can filled with trash. How hard is it to throw paper, plastic, glass, and metal into the blue bin instead of the black one? You don't even have to separate it! We overflow our little recycle bin in the kitchen twice as often as we take out the trash. Soon we're going to start composting too. That should cut down even more on the trash that we produce.
Cloth diapers-- Tuesday, when our weekly supply of clean cloth diapers were delivered, it came with a note from CottonTails saying that we had already saved 547 diapers from being thrown in the local landfill. Isn't that amazing? We've been using cloth diapers for less than 2 months so far and have already used that many diapers. Crazy! We are really enjoying the cloth diapers, by the way. Sara Beth hasn't had any sign of diaper rash. I guess cotton is good for her little bottom. It's super easy once you get the hang of it-- not much harder than disposables. I definitely recommend using cloth diapers, with or without the diaper service, to anyone with a baby.
Cloth wipes-- At first, I was using disposable wipes. I mean, we had a closet full of them from our baby showers. Why not use them up? But, after I saw how quickly those disappeared, I decided to give cloth wipes a try. I looked into purchasing some online, but they were too expensive for frugal me. Then, while on the internet, I saw a post about how you could cut up flannel receiving blankets and make wipes out of them. Great idea! I had an overflow of blankets that I needed to do something with anyway. It was really easy. I just cut the blankets into 7 inch by 7 inch squares and sewed 2 squares together. Ta Da-- close to 100 2-ply reusable cloth baby wipes for free! It doesn't even add much to my laundry stack either. Even if I washed all of my wipes at the same time (which I never do), it would be like washing 8 baby blankets. No problem!