gDiaper Review
A couple of months ago I posted a review about the green shopping site, Green Cricket. This is a great, green shopping alternative for Canadians and I highly recommend it.
Green Cricket sent me some gDiapers to review and I happily said yes because I had seen them in stores and was curious.
First, let me give you a bit of background on my diaper history. I used cloth diapers exclusively with my daughter, Katelin, until she turned one. At that point, I was working again and the poops were a lot bigger and a lot stinkier than I was willing to have anyone other than me deal with. My son, Jack, was in cloth until about 9 months. To be blunt, his poops were monstrous and I was a wimp and just couldn’t cope with cloth.
Then Tom was born. Already a touch overwhelmed at this unexpected blessing in our life, I was quickly blogged down with dirty laundry and a messy house. The cloth diapers didn’t even last a month and were shipped off to my niece and her new little baby boy. I at least wanted them to be used.
Enter gDiapers. These sounded like a miracle to me. Basically, they consist of a cloth outer wrap, a plastic liner and biodegradable inserts. The inserts can either be composted or flushed. The starter pack also comes with a plastic stick that helps with the flushing part. I’ll get to this little detail in a minute.
The diaper wraps are very cute. There are 2 in each starter pack along with 10 inserts. Mine are orange and off-white. They wash very well and still look quite new even after a couple of months of use. Once you purchase the starter kit, the inserts are a bit pricier than regular diapers, but not by much. A pack of 40 inserts costs $24. This is one of those situations where helping to reduce my footprint on the earth is worth the few extra bucks to me. At $36, the starter kit is certainly less expensive than the initial investment of cloth diapers. However, cloth will save you money in the long run.
I have a hard time getting out to my composter in the winter, so I have tended to flush my inserts. This has caused a few problems and made my husband a bit grumpy. I have also noticed a lot of signs in public restrooms lately asking people to please not flush diapers so I am guessing that my potties are not the only ones that are plugged. There is definitely an art to getting the insert to flush properly. Make sure you read the instructions that come with the diapers and use that little plastic stick that I previously mentioned.
These diapers need to be changed more frequently than regular disposables. Tom has often soaked through the cloth wrap. However, this can also work in your favour as you begin potty training. I’m waiting for Tom’s ‘Aha Moment’ to dawn any time now. I am really ready to be done with diapers!
Are you thinking of getting gDiapers? Here is my list of Pros and Cons.
Pros:
1. Very cute
2. Much more earth-friendly than regular disposables
3. Easy to use
4. Safe on your baby’s skin (no nasty chemicals)
5. Provide a good alternative if you are simply not able to cope with cloth
6. Less of a start-up cost than cloth
Cons:
1. You will have plugged toilets; I recommend composting whenever possible.
2. Pricier than disposables
3. Not as absorbant as disposables
I think that everyone should evaluate their family life and make a decision based on that. Diapers are not a one-size-fits-all prospect (pardon my pun). My own example gives testament to that. What worked for my first-born did not work for my third.
If you don’t think that you can handle cloth diapers but don’t want to see countless disposables enter the landfill, gDiapers would be a good product for you. They are well made and I would recommend them to anyone.
Have you had any experience, positive or negative, with gDiapers? Leave me a comment and let me know.
Filed under Easy Being Green, Reviews, Shopping | Comments (2)A Wake Up Call
For those of you receiving this post by email, please make sure to click on the blog link so that you are able to view the video. It is worth it! This post was written as part of Steady Mom’s 30-Minute Blog Challenge.
Janelle from Healthy Child/Healthy World has asked the mom community to help spread the word about a new campaign that they just launched centered on a video called “A Wake-Up Story.” They are trying to WAKE UP as many people as they can to the issue of chemicals in everyday products and encourage them to vote with their dollars in the marketplace and vote with their voices to governments.
Please watch this very short video (it is absolutely gorgeous) and then pass it on to as many people as you can. One by one we can make a difference together.
A Wake-Up Story from Healthy Child Healthy World on Vimeo.
Need some ideas for ways to share this very important message? How about…
…your blog
…on Facebook
…on Twitter (”Are you awake? Watch this and you will be. AWakeUpStory.org)
…on YouTube (you can comment on the video and/or share it on your playlist)
…on StumbleUpon (give the website a thumbs up)
…on Digg
…anywhere else you can think of!
I’ve Made It…Time to Enjoy the Ride
I was recounting this story with a friend over a cup of coffee this morning and decided it was worth sharing here as well. Every once in awhile we should pause to appreciate what we really have created in our lives.
- photo by mconnors
I remember visiting a friend’s house about seven years ago when my oldest was still just a baby. My husband and I were over there for dinner and to play some cards. When I walked through the door, I was immediately engulfed in warmth, savory smells and what sounded like a significantly sized pack of children tearing the house apart. After removing our coats in the mudroom, we headed for the kitchen where Kerry was simultaneously ladling what looked to be tuna casserole into a container while chatting on the phone. She smiled and gave us a quick wave to encourage us in further.
Meanwhile, their three elementary-aged daughters and friends pounded into the kitchen and asked for juice. While still on the phone she grabbed the pitcher from the fridge and doled out six cups, poured the juice, and popped a sippy lid on each one. She got off the phone and asked her oldest daughter to take the casserole, some bread and a salad over to the neighbor’s house.
“She’s sick,” she told us by explanation.
Then she proceded to ask us what we wanted to drink and offer us some snacks until our prime rib was ready. Prime rib??? Really? As my mind wrapped around the thought of prime rib on a weeknight, I heard a couple more people enter the mudroom behind us.
I had only been to their home once before, and I glanced around now. It was clean, but had the lived-in clutter of a busy family. I turned back to the kitchen scene. Kerry seemed completely at ease as she chatted, joked and prepped our dinner. That night we ate well, played some poker and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Most importantly, everyone was at ease and felt completely welcome. Not everything went perfectly, but I don’t even remember what those little imperfect moments were. I just remember the atmosphere of a busy family that didn’t feel strained or stressful. It was fun.
Since that night, I’ve always held Kerry up as a bit of an icon of what I wanted to become. This was the family life I wanted. My baby was sweet and soft and quiet, but I craved the bustle and organized chaos that I experienced in this home. I craved the ability to handle that organized chaos with the same grace and obvious love as Kerry did. She was superwoman in my eyes.
Let’s flash forward seven years…
I am in my kitchen having just had our neighbor, Janet, over for dinner. She has dinner at our home every week after she graciously spends time working with our 5-year-old son on his speech issues. I had made a cider pork roast and Janet and I were sitting back and chatting at the kitchen table which is a near miracle because the noise in the house was deafening. My childrens’ friends from down the street had popped in for a short visit as well and were currently playing tag around the circular floorplan of our home. Every 30 secondsor so, five children ranging from age ten to two pounded through the kitchen followed by an exhuberantly happy jack russell.
I felt my blood-pressure rising. I started to feel anxious and ready to pop when my mind suddenly flashed to that scene seven years prior. And I realized that this was it. I had arrived. This was the life I envisioned for my family. At one point in my life I craved this.
I now realize that I have no idea what Kerry was feeling the night we had prime rib. She seemed calm to me. But she could have been having an absolute coronary inside. She could have been wondering what in the hell she could have possibly been thinking having kids over, caring for a sick neighbor, plus making prime rib for 6 dinner guests. I know I do. I realize that my Monday night pork roast with Janet was not at that level, but I also know that we have had nights that weren’t far from it.
I glanced around my kitchen. It was clean but had the lived-in clutter of a busy family of five. Some days are better than others with regards to how clean it is. This was a good day.
I found myself taking a deep breath. Just enjoy it. I turned and looked at Janet.
“Would you like a glass of wine?”
Filed under Food, Life in General, Up Close and Personal | Comments (7)Taking Paperless One Step Further
This post is part of the Moms’ 30-Minute Blog Challenge over at Steady Mom.
As I stumbled downstairs this morning to make a pot of coffee in hopes of getting my brain to begin functioning properly, I realized that there was one paperless aspect of our kitchen that I failed to mention in my last post (an amazing thought considering that I hadn’t had my morning coffee yet).
Behold! The reuseable coffee filter!
Your coffee maker may have actually come with one of these, which you immediately ignored and went out to purchase the traditional paper filters. In case you threw yours out, you can buy one of these in the grocery store for less than $10. It is easy to care for- just dump the used grounds in the compost and give the filter a quick rinse. You will save money and the planet before you’ve even had your first cuppa joe each morning.
Once you’ve used it, you’ll wonder why you ever used paper in the first place.
Filed under Cleaning and Organization, Easy Being Green, Saving Green | Comments (6)Cloth in the Kitchen
There is some serious discussion going on over at Simple Mom’s blog. She wrote a really informative post about How to Create a Paperless Kitchen and the comments are continuing to pour in. She obviously struck a chord with many people.
Our family has been paperless for about a year. This does not include toilet paper or kleenex. I will admit that the road has been a bumpy one. My husband has been nice enough to support my endeavors and not complain (too much), but I have noticed that he has tended to clean up messes and do the dishes a lot less than he did before.
I think that is why I loved Simple Mom’s post so much. She hammered in the importance of an organized system. While I did bite the bullet and go paperless, I wasn’t very organized about how I did it. The result is that my husband, children and guests are not quite certain how to go about cleaning up a spill. My parents visited for several weeks this summer and while they were gracious enough to not complain about a lack of a papertowel roll, they did tease me about its absence. “I thought a paper towel holder is like necessary furniture in a kitchen,” my dad quipped. I think the teasing helped cover up their uncertainty about how our kitchen operated.
What I need to remember is that not everyone understands my system and this can cause discomfort (and lack of helpers). I thought I would take a moment to pen my system here (and hopefully give you all some ideas to chew on) and then I’ll get things organized so it is easy to use for everyone. My family will know where everything is, and next time guests come into our home for an extended time, I will let them know how the kitchen runs as well.
1. I have a ton of terry cloths that I use for washing dishes and wiping up spills. I have a plastic bag that hangs at the top of our stairs leading to the basement that holds used cloths. These go into my daily load of laundry. If things go right, nothing has time to get moldy or stinky.
2. I have some old, ugly cloth napkins that are used for greasy stuff like blotting bacon grease. Some of the comments over at Simple Mom’s site also suggested using old newspaper for this job.
3. We use cloth napkins. I used to reserve these for special occasions but I now use them for all meals. Also, a very thoughtful friend now makes them for us for special occasions. Beside our every day cloths, we now have Christmas, Easter and Independence Day as well. She also made some adorable ones for the kids’ school lunches.
4. I use a combination of Norwex and Enjo cloths for window cleaning, spill wipe-ups, and general cleaning. I also have a cool toilet scrubby brush that goes in the washing machine after use. No more disgusting brush full of pee.
My goal is to make the location of the cloths and napkins very accessible for everyone. No more excuses from dear husband.
Filed under Cleaning and Organization, Easy Being Green | Comments (3)
