Family Cloth...

Well my new adventure is taking me down the path of using family cloth.  My husband lost his job back in January so I have been trying to find ways to save money.  One way I decided would be to use cloth instead of toilet paper.  I mean  you are literally flushing your money down the toilet.  I have visited other blogs to do my research, many say they were apprehensive at first (which I am) but all say now they love it (which I am hoping is my case).  My husband doesn't know if he is too crazy about it so I told him not to worry about using it for him but I am kind of excited to see if I really will like it. I am most nervous about using it for number two so I will start with using it only for pee then will go from there. Well wish me luck!  Here I go to cut my first family cloth!

Diaper Rash Cream!

If you use cloth diapers the 3 words that can make you cringe is DIAPER RASH CREAM.  I did my research when I started my journey of cloth diapering.  I knew that I could not use Desitin or any other well know creams with my cloth diapers so did I buy any of that cream?  NO!  I bought California Baby Calming diaper rash cream.  This was suppose to be safe for my diapers.  The only thing is... I had a major rash that happened earlier on and I kept using that rash cream that was safe and it didn't seem to relieve my little ones red bum.  Back to the drawing board.  Bought some Desitin and slathered it on his bum and put him in a disposable (I didn't want to ruin my cloth).  Now I needed a safe cream to use with cloth.  I invested in CJ's BUTTer.   This little stick has worked wonders on my little one! I would recommend this to everyone.

Now what happens when someone accidentally puts the non-safe creams on your cloth diapers?  It can cause repelling.  This past week I made a mistake when having a friend watch my little man.  I forgot to let her know to only use what I sent for a rash.  My little guy rarely gets a rash so I guess it just slipped my mind.  Well of course he got a rash and she did what she thought was the right thing. On went the cream (not cloth safe).  Now what do I do?  I have been scrubbing with blue dawn.  It is getting better but not completely gone.  My next plan of action is to soak the diaper in hot water with more Dawn.  Wish me luck!

Great cleaner

I have found a great recipe for a shower/bathroom cleaner!  I bet you might even have the ingredients in your kitchen!  I have know for some time the vinegar is a great thing to clean with I love adding some to my load of laundry to help get  the funky smell towels can sometimes get out. Vinegar helps to kill bacteria too.

Back to my recipe I am sure there were measurements out there but I gave that up so maybe it's not a recipe but a concoction that I use.  All it is.... are you ready?  Vinegar and dawn (blue) dish soap plus some warm water.  I squirt some Dawn in a bucket about a tablespoon then about a cup of vinegar then fill half an ice cream bucket with warm water.  This wonderful little concoction takes soap scum and hard water marks off like there is no tomorrow!  Plus our sink gets the red rust ring around the drain and it takes that off too! I make mine as I go but I am sure you could mix it up in a clean spray bottle and keep it on hand.  I do rinse it off after I clean with it.

Do you have any things you love to use vinegar on to clean?

Some other uses I have seen are:

Soaking your shower head to get the build up off
Running it through your coffee pot to clean it
Washing your hair out after being in the pool with it
Clean off tea/coffee stains in your mugs (I do this all the time)
Mixing with baking soda to clean drains

Here I go!

The further I go into my adventures of being a mommy to my little man the more I want to make sure his environment is safe.  This leads me down the path of making my life more green.  Some may even say I am crunchy.  I say I am doing what is right for my family and me if that makes me green; bring it!  If that makes me crunchy; crunch away!  This will be my adventures on the way to being the green momma that I am becoming.

I decided to cloth diaper before Mr. Man was here.  I had seen someone talking about their diapers on Facebook.  Which in return made me do some research.  I found out how much money I could save...Money was the big factor at this point.  Later on down the road I thought about the pros for the environment. I liked the thought of not having Mr. Man suffer with as many rashes and the idea of him potty training faster was a plus!  Now I needed to make my decision on what to pick for my first diaper.  GULP!  There are so many out there!  What's a girl suppose to do?!?!  Did I mention I was on bed rest for 10 weeks?  No?  Well I had time to kill and a laptop by my side. My poor husband got to hear my new discoveries every single night.  To say the least he wasn't as excited.  But he was a good sport about it and supported my idea to cloth diaper.  Hey it was to save money.   During those weeks I developed my obsession.  CLOTH!  I decided to go the route of covers and prefolds.  I placed my order with excitement and nervousness.  I ordered 24 prefolds 6 Thirsties duo wrap covers 2 snappis and some cloth diaper safe detergent. My package arrived about a week later.  Oh the excitement to receive a package!  I prepped them how the site had said now it was time to wait for Mr. Man to make his arrival.

Never having cloth diapered before I gave in and used some disposables in the beginning (I swore I was only going to cloth diaper).  We all survived... I even give in now and then and use them to this day.  I have yet to figure out night diapering.  I plan on trying my hand at making a wool cover (more on that adventure later).  My goal is to eventually get rid of disposables.  There were bumps in the road on our adventure but hey it's an adventure there are suppose to be bumps and even hills to deal with so off we go!