6 Impossibly Easy Things

The Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland liked to think of at least 6 Impossible Things before breakfast. Think that going plastic-free is impossible? No way man, its IMPOSSIBLY EASY. Here are 6 Impossibly Easy things you can do, right now, every day, to reduce your plastic use.

1. Don’t buy drinks in plastic bottles. I have been known to forgo a much-craved Coca-Cola in favour of say, a juice, using this method. This is why plastic is not only bad for our planet, it’s bad for your own health. This is fact. Alas, except for the invention of the can. Oh boy, that Coke in a can is a pal-o-mine. I love you canned Coke. You are sweet and frothy and sometimes make my eyes water if I slam your contents down too fast. I don’t wanna hear nobody sassing about how it rots your guts and cleans metal and dissolves severed fingers. I’m giving up plastic man, allow me this one simple pleasure. Sorry juice.

2. Do not accept plastic bags. Under any circumstances. Configure a makeshift tarp out of your t-shirt and wrap it all in that. Push your children in a pram and put your stuff in that. If you have no children, go the granny trolley. Buy those bloody canvas bags they peddle at just about every shop, and when you begrudge buying ANOTHER canvas bag because you forgot yours AGAIN, well now let that be a lesson to ya. Stuff those bags to overflowing if you didn’t bring enough bags, and lug those home, and skip the gym session.

3. Eat KFC instead of McDonalds. Buy the box set 2-piece feed and a canned drink. This is the only safe drive-through fast food. Trust me, I’ve tested it. Don’t even think about requesting no straw through a drive through speaker box, who knows what you’ll end up with besides a quizzical stare from the drive-through person. Eat your ice cream from a cone rather than a cup. Buy the block of Cadbury’s because it’s in a cardboard packet rather than the Mars bar. There is always an alternative.

4. Pack your own cutlery and straw. Come on ladies, like you don’t have room in your overly voluminous handbag for these guys. This is one of the reasons why its actually so easy to be a plastic-free Mama – you’re already toting all that crap as it is.

5. Eat in. Take your time. Smell the roses. Taste your food. Be late for work because you’re chilling in the coffee shop rather than grabbing a quickie take away. Go slow. Just please try not to lose your job.

6. Avoid being sold on conveniences. This takes on many forms. Buy a tub of yoghurt rather than 4 individual containers. Get a big bag of chips instead of the snack sizes. Buy a big bottle of your shampoo and squeeze it into recycled mini-bottles, keep a mini-bottle in the shower so that the big plastic one doesn’t take up too much space. All a bit too inconvenient for you? Well it may be said that all that plastic really is rather inconvenient to our planet. This is not hard to do, and it saves you moolah as well.

Oh gosh, I have learned so many other things you can do as well. And it’s easy!

Why YOU Should Try… Plastic Free July

Hi there,

I’ve had a realisation of late. Instead of being a damned fool and pledging to give up plastic for a WHOLE YEAR, I should have just been like you sensible people out there and tried Plastic Free July instead.

You’ll find all the info you need to get started here at www.plasticfreejuly.org

So you do the pledgy thing and it gives you options to give up ALL single-use plastic or just the top 4 (straws, plastic bottles, plastic bags, coffee cup lids). That sounds a little more achievable. And you can pledge for a shorter length of time, like a day or a week instead of the whole month.

You get heaps of awesome support from the lovely folks during July. And their website contains HEAPS of great tips for helping you do your plastic-free shopping, for gettin’ stuff clean around the house, fixing up the garden, and looking after your fine self so you don’t get stinky.

So… who’s coming with me?

Who’s coming with me, besides… flipper here.

The Shame Files: Month 4

Get those whips out, all you eco-warriors, and come flagellate me. It’s Shame Files time.

So, once again I say to you… My name is Rachel and I use plastic. This much plastic in fact for April.

The plastsick challenge: Month 4
“handsoap-graphic”

This month it’s 72 items across 31 days. Disgraceful. And yet pretty. It’s handsoap, and it signifies our recent switcheroo from pump-it liquid hand soap to good old fashioned bar soap. What a revelation, right? Genius.

Thanks dear readers for your helpful suggestions last month. We’s agonna crack this eventually 🙂

Medical Supplies Exempt

Just wanted to raise my hand and shout a little how-de-doo. I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately, but ashamedly I have something like 18 draft blogs waiting for me to write something intelligent.

It’s just that my “mummy blogger” life has been tipped more strongly in the mummy department of late. We’ve been transitioning the twinkles into daycare, work has ramped up, and we’ve been house-hunting. Yeek.

And then in amongst all of that a couple of weeks ago we had a health scare with our little F-man. He spent a night in hospital after suffering two seizures, and lemejusay it’s something I never want to experience again. I cannot speak highly enough of the amazing staff at Gold Coast Hospital, my amazing mama who was there to help and scream at the 000 woman, and the rest of our fantastic supportive family and friends who have cushioned us through it all. Our May plastic tally will be a little bit skewed because in the face of all that, ya just gotta say to hell with it and load up on the plastic conveniences. Oh, how that plastic water bottle and plastic-wrapped sandwich in a plastic bag brought me joy when we’d been in waiting in hospital without having had breakfast, and without having had word from the doctors about what was wrong.

And, hooray for plastic medical supplies. We are so lucky to live in the first world where we receive excellent medical care for free. Because I now have an eagle-eye for all things plastic, as I watched my little boy all hooked up to all the drips and monitors and the like I said a silent prayer for all that plastic. It was helping keep my boy well and I absolutely loved the stuff. I went to Claire Bowditch’s concert last year with my lovely friend Bec, and as Claire introduced a song she talked about how when she became a mother, she felt as though she gave birth to her own heart. Which, she said, is lovely, until she realised that this made her more vulnerable as she had to watch her heart walk around and who knew where her heart would go, what dangers it might encounter. I dripped out a little tear as I sat in the audience and listened to that, but never before this incident had I felt the power of that statement. Man, just when I thought I was ready to be a mum. I’m not cut out for this kind of heartache, to watch my precious special little boy be so sick. Let me assure you all, he is well, but there was a while there where everything was confusing and scary and panicky. I had no idea what might happen to my heart.

Now, I don’t want to sop out too much, but I’ll just leave youse with some words from the man of the moment himself. Yes, he is a genius, but no, he can’t actually talk. A few weeks ago we had the Doreen Virtue pack of Unicorn Oracle Cards strewn around the place as the kids liked playing with them and pretending to read what the card said. F-boy kept picking up this same card time and time again, on a different day after all the cards had been packed up and scattered again, he kept bringing us this same card. It said, Relax – Everything’s Okay. And down the bottom, Don’t worry, it’s all going to be fine. Thanks bubby, you are precious beyond words.

The Shame Files: Month 3

Time to self-flaggelate again. It’s the Shame Files.

My name is Rachel and I use plastic. More plastic than ever in March!

The plastsick challenge: Month 3
“bag-graphic”

Hmmm, so it’s 93 items in 31 days, brought to you in visual form as a “bag-graphic”. More nappies, yes, but also a lot of rogue food packaging items.

I’ve been looking around, but… I like cheese. I like filtered water. I like Maltesers, for chrissake. And I can’t readily find alternatives, yet. Does anyone have any ingenious suggestions for doing the groceries plastic-free?

TIA. Now bring it on, April!

Inbuilt Octupescence

Dear Ikea octopus peg thingy: I love you. I honestly love you. So why you gotta be hatin’ on me?

I’m slowly getting the message that you want to break up. You’re breaking up all over the place. And I can’t deny it any more.

Oh, but I had such plans for us, you and me, together, forever. Or, at least I thought we would last longer than a year. Was I foolish for assuming that I could expect that I could rely on you, put my faith in you, trust you, that we would last? In the beginning you would delightfully hold my smalls as they dried on the line. I even tried to keep you out of the direct sun too much, as I thought that you wouldn’t appreciate it. I tried to keep you happy. I thought that we might last.

Vale, dear friend.
Your bright intact pegs in the foreground bely your shameful degrading pegs in the background

You know, I was even able to deny your slow withdrawal, a creeping quietness, a very steady and gradual decline in your responsiveness to me, so that it seemed that, just maybe, we were going to get through after all. Your metal links that held your pegs onto your legs would fall off, and I would scrape them off the ground and patch you up. I thought this care and attention would mean something.

Yep, I really didn’t see it coming.

But, it seems you weren’t alone. Your friends the plastic pegs just couldn’t hide it any longer. The jig was up for them. All within the space of a few weeks, one by one, the pegs started to snap. Like a great natural disaster, it started with a few isolated incidents, a slow drip feed, until all of a sudden, the onslaught. It was peg carnage, as at the tender age of only 2 years, I lost about half of the pegs to this terrible wasting disease.

A crime scene photo: The shocking death of 3 pegs that were never built to last.

So, where do I go from here? How do I pick up the pieces of your tender little plastic bodies and move on? When a beloved pet dies do you replace them? How long should you wait? What is the proper conduct here?

The problem is, now I really don’t know if I can trust again. When I bought you, you were all shiny and new, you were not cheap, you seemed to display a sense of quality and durability. But I was gravely let down by your behaviour. It seems that it was all front. And, like a fool, I fell for your deception.

Well, never again. I can now see that your plastic parts are no good for me. I’m better than this. I know now that when I fall for the allure of plastic, I am buying into a lie of a product. You were never meant to last. If you break, I am expected to buy more of you so that the company that made you can make more money. It is inbuilt obsolescence at its worst. You will break easily but you’ll take hundreds of years to fully break down in landfill. Oh, you might seem to be easily and cheaply replaced, so that some people might not even care that you don’t last. But I need more from a peg than that.

See you later, mate. I’m going wood. Or bamboo. I think they’ll make me a lot happier.

Hitting The Right Note

This post is all about gettin’ your groove on plastic-free.

My Facebook followers will well know that we had a CD buying incident a few weeks back. I had bought the most recent Triple J compilation in all its plasticised glory. And I’d rationalised this purchase because I have a wee little collection going and I just wanted to maintain my cute little stack that sits on our bookshelf, rather than just download the digital copy.

I had not anticipated however that the bloody ABC would further thwart me in my plastic-free efforts. The CD case was double-packaged (cardboard cover over the CD case) and had the cutest little plastic google-eyes stuck on the cardboard cover. Freakin’ google-eyes people. Freakin’ cute adorably irresistible google-eyes on a hotdog. Well, they had me at “please buy me, I’m cute”. I bought it from the ABC Shop though and at least it wasn’t further wrapped in the weird clingy plastic you get from places like JB Hifi. And I’ll keep it long time. I promise.

The Infamous Insidious Triple J Incident

Well.

I should be a bit more careful about the example I set. Hubby came home not a week later with a new CD for him. Foals – Holy Fire. It’s a good album. I really like it. I did not like my husband at that moment.

I love the way that boycotting plastics has awakened us to just how ubiquitous they are. When we made the commitment, CDs and DVDs had not naturally occurred to me as being made from plastic. But they are. The disc, the case, the packaging. My good dear friend Ange quickly pointed out that this means my lovely husband can’t buy any more first-person-shooter X-Box games. I freely admit I was happy about this. But me, I loves me some good tunes, and I really like having The Real Thing rather than a digital copy and I struggle to correctly file and sort my iTunes. I know I’m not alone in this, seriously it’s like taking a second job.

So, here’s the story with CDs. Your disc is made from polycarbonate (#7), combined with other materials like lacquer, aluminium and other metals. And mysterious chemicals that nobody could know about or pronounce. I found this poster on the Cd DVD lifecycle from the US Environmental Protection Agency to be really informative, and I highly recommend the read. Your CD case, tantalisingly referred to as a “jewel case”, is made from polystyrene (#6). And you might get it all wrapped up like Christmas with a silky layer of polyethylene (#4). You can’t even go all retro and switch to records. They’re vinyl. Polyvinyl chloride. PVC. #3. Bad.

So, are us plastic-free souls banished to a silent and grooveless world? Or worse (gulp!)… FM radio?

Well, of course not.

So, how to be a greenie and still be a groover? Here are some ideas.

1. Digital downloads are the obvious choice. No disc, no case, no packaging. But don’t steal from the artists, use certified sites. I have heard dodgy things about the iTunes monopoly and Spotify having very low returns for artists. But I don’t know what’s better. Help?

2. Many artists (usually independents) will use all-paper packaging around their disc. And if you feel that it’s more ethical to support artists directly rather than the Apple juggernaut, or you would prefer to support your local independent record store, I say go for gold. The plastic is only one factor in the overall picture of being a responsible citizen of the world, after all.

3. Take care of your shizzle. Don’t just leave your discs on your car dashboard or within reaching distance of your biscuit-fisted toddler. And if you do get plagued by scratches, use toothpaste*, it works a treat. *Oops, toothpaste is usually packaged in plastic. What else you can use I do not know.

4. As Beth Terry urges us, THINK BEFORE YOU BURN. Aren’t these fantastical Clouds supposed to be saving us from ourselves in the form of cyber back-up? Am I right? I may need someone to come explain The Cloud to me. Or there are also flash drives, which yes are usually housed in plastic but at least they’re not single use and can hold heaps of music files.

5. Buy all of your music second-hand. Now, if you are sourcing a groovy little record player you just have to score maximum hipster points by buying up all those irresistibly dodgy albums. Just think, you would be rescuing them from landfill and that makes you a hero.

6. Get thee to the disco. It is a form of resource-sharing (like car-pooling) where that one record will service the purposes of several music lovers all at once.

Ooh, well now I’m finding myself a little bit partial to number 5. Just think of the potential…

You could become the proud new parent of this,

Or this,

Or even…

this.

Yes, that says Let Me Touch Him by The Ministers Quartet. Happy listening everyone!

The Shame Files: Month 2

So this is where I self-congratulate in a public forum. Or not. We reduced our plastic use by 5 items this month – hurrah! Ok, so I’m a little disappointed that we haven’t seen as much of a change as I’d like.

Here is the continuation of The Shame Files…

My name is Rachel and I use plastic. This much plastic in fact for February.

The plastsick challenge: Month 2
“bottlegraphic”

It’s 72 pieces of plastic. Admittedly, a good 30 or so of these were nappies, which only accounted for about 4 out of 77 from Month 1. So, yes, we definitely have gotten better. And hey, if we didn’t use all those I wouldn’t have such a fancy “bottlegraphic”.

We here in Brisbane and the general surrounds have had atrocious nappy weather of late (read: devastating floods), and I will need to admit that after all the chest-beating in the last post about cloth nappies, we were struck with an atrocious case of genital pustulas. Yes, that’s the technical term. Both bubs sprouted little red sores on their wing wangs and the only cure was a good week or so of disposables. This was after two visits to the doctors who didn’t know what it was and didn’t suggest swapping nappies. But mama’s instinct overcame my plastic avoidance instinct (this, however was a toughly fought battle) and after a quick trial on disposables, we are all better again. The F-man keeps getting a bit of a recurrence if he sleeps in cloth nappies so we’ve continued to use the disposables overnight for him. Hmm, it’s a nappypalooza at the moment, I still have to get going on two blog posts that are drafted and awaiting an attack of the mama-had-lots-of-coffee-and-stays-up-late-frantically-writing. One on all the ins-and-outs of cloth nappies, and one on choosing more ethical disposable nappies.

And not to mention keep up the vigilance about plastic and single use crap.

Phew, wish me luck!

How I Cloth

There’s a trend here. Even outside of the blog [ie., in my “actual” life], I started to get the feeling like I was an unofficial and unremunerated nappy saleslady. I carted around spare copies of the business card for Nest Nappies, a dedicated cloth nappy store in my hometown of Brisbane. I pocketed a bunch on my last visit because people everyone from the grannies outside Woolies to the teenage mums in the mother’s rooms all started asking me about cloth. Benny tires of the repeated questions we attract as parents of infant twins, but this particular question we welcome.

And then, as I typed off the 4th reply to an [actual] pregnant friend asking me about cloth, and made another coffee date to meet a friend along the Paddington cafe strip and then take them on a visit to Nest Nappies, I realised this blog post was inevitable. So, if you read this post and you like it, well you still have to take me on a coffee date as payment for my advice.

Of course, you can just google or look up some of the information on the advertised brands, but I found my friends were asking about my real learned experience with using cloth nappies. This is just my experience. But I did nappy two babies at once, so yes, I’m an expert.

It’s probably best to start by reading the Why I Cloth post. This, then, is the How. Or the What. For there is an entire cloth nappy vocab to learn.

The Terminology

MCN: Modern Cloth Nappy. They’re shaped like a disposable nappy and do up with velcro or clips.

AIO: All In One. The nappy has no removable parts and does not need to be separated for washing. Usually the insert is sewn into the outer nappy.

AI2: All In Twos. Uh, comes in two parts. It might be a pocket nappy (see below), a nappy with a clipable insert, or an all-absorbent nappy with a pilcher-like cover.

PUL: Polyurethane Laminate. A non-biodegradable but extremely durable waterproof plastic-backed fabric. PUL fabrics are made with funky patterns and are used for the outer covers of MCNs.

Minky: Means a soft fleecy fabric which forms the outer of the nappy. It’s better for overnights as it’s kinder on skin with accumulations of wee.

Pre-Folds: These are usually referring to the old granny style nappies made from towelling fabric. Modern pre-folds though are made of bamboo or other MCN material and can be used as boosters or used on their own with a wet-proof cover.

Pocket Nappy: Means a nappy with an inner liner which is inserted along the body of the nappy. Imagine a super-absorbent cloth panty liner that goes inside your knickers. The liner does not touch the skin, and is removed for washing.

OSFA: One Size Fits All. This term is not particular to cloth nappies, but in this case it means you can use the one nappy from birth until toilet training. Some brands do sized nappies, some are OSFA. Unless you have major fitting issues, I’ve used OSFA and they’ll be cheaper as they will last the whole of your nappying life.

TT: Toilet Training. Der.

China Cheapies: A generic term for nappies purchased on eBay or similar, for around a tenth of the price of the reputable brands.

Bamboo: A fabric made with bamboo fibres. Comes in many different forms, but used a lot in MCNs because it holds moisture very well and is gentle on skin. And it is a more renewable resource than cotton.

Strip Wash: Nappies accumulate soap residue with repeated use, which limits their absorbency. A strip wash helps restore them to brand and spanky new again.

Dry pail: What most nappy brands recommend. Nappies aren’t soaked, just plonk them in a big bin and wait until wash day.

Swim nappy: A reusable cloth nappy they can swim, bathe, and luxuriate in at their local spa.

Inserts: The bits that go in the nappy. It’s a good idea to have extras of these (boosters) to add into the nappy for overnight or if you’re likely to be out for a long time and it won’t be easy to change the nappy.

Liners: You can purchase single-use or reusable liners that go in the nappy (next to bum) to catch stray poos. The idea is that these are then flushed down the loo, or with some brands you can put them through the wash for re-use if you only catch a wee [hats off to my friend Jo for this tip].

The Outlay

Nappy brands charge between $20 and $35 (AUS) for each nappy.

You will need about 15 nappies I reckon.

You can purchase additional absorbent inserts or boosters, and flushable, biodegradable liners.

We should have bought a Little Squirt or something similar, but instead just scraped poo with our hands, or with some toilet paper, or with a spatula. This is not a joke. When the poo is solid enough it just falls into the toilet, but there are many a times it is too soft to lift but too solid to rinse. This device in hindsight would have come in very handy.

You need a good bin with a tight-fitting lid.

Cloth bum wipes are da bomb, but I’d recommend making your own. Blog post to come.

Wet bags made from PUL are a must for the nappy bag.

The Cloth-ing Process

To prepare: You’ll need to sort your nappies out of the wash and with some if they are AI2s you’ll need to construct them together. At a pinch, you can just assemble as you go but I prefer to have them ready to go and they’re neater on the shelf.

To use: I’ve never understood why trashy Rom Coms and suchlike try to make out like nappy changing is some big feat. It couldn’t be easier. Lie baby down, undo the clips, wipe, fold the nappy and place in bin, clip on the new one. Your cloth wipes and wet bags also go into the nappy bin for washing.

To wash: To protect the fabric and extend their life, use the following guidelines.

• Not too hot: About 40 C
• Use half the usual amount of detergent
• No fabric conditioner, bleaching agents, Napisan etc.

To dry: Hanging outside in the sunlight is preferable as the sun bleaches any stains and kills bacteria (it’s true! like magic!).

All of the websites where you can purchase your nappies have a section on nappy care, so it’s worth checking these out.

Where To Get ‘Em

You can order directly through the following websites, or there are heaps and heaps of other online stores nowadays (like EcoBabe and The Nappy Bucket, but really there are too many to mention) which sell a range of products. Baby and kids’ markets are also great places to find smaller and excellent brands. And of course in Brisbane, there’s Nest and Biome.

Here are a few of my favourites for buying online:

Issy Bear Nappies

Green Kids

Baby Bee Hinds

Pea Pods

Cushie Tushies

Bambooty

And Finally, A Picture Diary

Here is a sample of our personal stash…

From Top to Bottom: Issy Bear. China cheapy. Pea Pods. Issy Bear. Chloe Toes. Baby BeeHinds. Baby BeeHinds. Issy Bear. Green Kids. China cheapy. Nappylicious. Bubble Bums

And out little soldiers awaiting use under the change table…

Ooh gets me all tingly on the insides

Some of our wetbags…

Even the wetbags are purdy

And the upgraded nappy pails. Yes, they are empty protein powder bins, with thanks to our mate Joe who is a semi-professional muscle maniac and passed these on to us. They look ghastly but work better than our original bins.

Repurposed plastic! nappy pails

I think that about *covers* it. Feel free to *leak* this post to others. Using your com*poo*ter please Like and Share! Ok, I’m off to go die now in Bad Pun Land. Hope this makes you all happy nappy chappies!

Why I Cloth

For hubby and me it was a no-brainer. You know how every now and then the Red Sea of marital debate and discussion parts and you find yourselves on exactly the same page at exactly the same time?

That’s how it was for us when we took a stroll one Saturday morning after breakfast, and our hearts thumped and our hands clasped as our gaze rested on this bad boy at the Eco store.

The “bad boy”. As modelled by Inez c. 12 months of age

Isn’t he the cutest? Still my favourite. So, my predilection for cute badass undergarments aside, it was settled from the start for both of us that we would do cloth. Which is lucky, seeing as though the bulk of the poo-scraping falls to my dear Benjamin.

So, here, as I see it, are the reasons to cloth…

Please note, I have tried to not make this sound like propoganda. There are some downsides.

1. They’re cuter. Obviously. See justification above.

2. They’re cheaper. Seriously. The maths has been done. Around $2000 per year, anyone? And then you can hand them down, use them for the next kidlet, or sell them. Ka-ching!

3. They’re better for the planet. Every now and then some cynic pops up on their soapbox and they’re all like, what about all the water you are using when you wash? what about the detergent? To me, these people are a bit like climate change deniers. The research is in, people. The major brand disposable nappies sit in landfill for ever. Consider using a more eco-friendly detergent. And you use half as much detergent with clothies than for a normal wash.

4. They’re better for bums. Now, you might need to change them more often because dispos apparently contain some gel that draws away moisture. Picture the pad ads with the blue water. And now refer to point 3 above, and remember that plastic, like diamonds, is forever! Cloth nappies can benefit from an antibacterial wash every now and then, and you’ve got to avoid mould and nasties accumulating on them. But personally I’d rather wear absorbent underpants than a plastic and paper chafing undergarment.

5. They’re not needed for as long. Kids toilet train sooner on cloth. An added bonus! They learn to associate the feeling of being wet with having just gone wee wees, and this helps them build the association and anticipate their wee wees. Even better, give the kiddles as much nappy-free time as you can. This saves your nappies, saves their bums, and helps kiddies learn to use the toilet. Yay!

6. They’re heaps better than the good ol’ days. No more pokey pins and pilchers. This I find to be the biggest myth I get asked. No, things have evolved past the terry cloths people.

7. They’re not that much [extra] work. Bubbies make a lot of mess. They puke and smear food and upend their drinks and snot and sometimes, even disposable nappies LEAK POO! Yes there is more washing with a bub in general and I find the nappies are not noticed as an extra burden. You might need to rinse away the poo before washing (we’ve found we have to do this), and there is no denying that this sucks. We just tell ourselves points 1 through 6 above and that it’s an act of love. Luckily, you will not be disgusted by your own child’s poo. It’s not gross, it’s just work.

And lastly, ok, I’m going to spout all high-and-mighty from my mouth orifice for a minute here. What an indictment on our society it is that we consider disposable and single use objects to be the norm. People would think it absurd that we would use plastic plates and cutlery for all of our meals. No mess! No fuss! Just schlep it all into the bin at the end of your meal! No more dishwashing in an old-fashioned sad old kitchen sink. Think of all the pollution from water use and detergent! What a load of rot. We normalise something like dishwashing because there hasn’t been some massive campaign by major corporations to convince us using disposable options are its easier, more hygienic, somehow the better option. We confine “party plates” to where they belong, parties and events where it is impractical to cart around ceramics and stainless steel. Disposable nappies should be the same. When we went travelling in Japan, we used disposables. For home and everyday, we use cloth nappies. Let’s all help to make this the new norm.

The clever marketing toward “harried housewives” works extremely well, and when you think of it is actually quite insulting. Yes, taking care of babies is extremely hard work. But it’s hard because most of that work is confined to the home, it’s repetitive and often thankless. Children are relentless in their need for attention and comfort and stimulation and care. Cloth nappies do not add to this burden. Parenting is hard for many reasons, but an extra load of wash every few days is NOT one of them. End rant.

The next blog post will talk about some of the ins and outs of cloth. But whether you use them all the the time, or only for a bit, I can not for the life of me find a good argument why you would NOT use cloth nappies. I think they are more awesome now than when we first fell in love with them on that breezy Saturday morning when I was only 13 weeks and really hoping I was about to start showing [be careful what you wish for, ay?].

Go on, I DARE you to tell me something to spoil my rose-coloured view on cloth.