Retired: the story of a diaper
Posted by Inexplicable Ways on June 15, 2010
A disposable diaper’s story would be a short one indeed.
Today I retired my first cloth diaper. The waterproof layer was done. This diaper served at least 4 babies. The mother who gave it to me bought it at a yard sale…so who knows its history from there. I used it on both my girls. It was an imse vimse cover with frogs on it.
Think about that. One diaper cover serving at least four babies for less than 15.00.
Do cloth diapers and disposables come out the same in terms of environmental impact? No way. I don’t care which study (subsidized by pampers) you look at, look closer and you’ll see the flaws.
And I’ve compared month for month my water and electric bills since Cedar was born. No significant change. My natural gas bill (we have a gas dryer) has increased by about 2.00/month. I have bought zero diapers. I purchased 2 containers of Charlies Soap, a 7.00 laundry bag, and a 6.00 bottle of woolwash. That is less than 50.00 in 10 months of diapering. How much is a package of disposables?
Today I also timed how long it takes me to fold and put away Cedar’s diapers. It took 11 minutes.
Does cloth diapering make you a better parent? Certainly not.
Does it save you some money? Heck yeah. Unless you buy designer diapers and throw/give them away after one child. Sell those things!
Does it keep poop, plastic, and chemicals out of landfills? You betcha.
I’m not writing this post to sound smug. I was simply feeling super proud of the little imse-vimse-that-could which we retired today. Your work is done tiny diaper.
Check my cloth diaper page for more info on choosing cloth.
Kathi Sprinker said
For us, our choosing to go cloth was because of an aversion to anything chemical. For Kevin it was a plus to save money….but I had wondered if there really was a substantial savings because of what it cost to do laundry more often. Thanks for the info….it’s much less than I would have thought! We purchased all our diapers and diaper covers new….but I think we’ll still come out ahead….especially if I can sell them later!
Jenn said
I love imse vimse covers! I still maintain cloth can be just as convenient as disposables, if not more-so sometimes. I’d rather wash a load of diapers at 12 am than have to run to the store and purchase a pack. Speaking of selling diapers, I’d be more than happy to alleviate you of that blue kiwi cover whenever you get ready to put it up for sale
Inexplicable Ways said
You recognized the kiwi from the picture?? You are my hero.
Tiffany Cook said
Thank you for such a great post about cloth diapers! I wish more people would consider it.