As most “crunchy” moms know, cloth diapers tend to be the gateway drug to green living. We cloth diaper our babies, happy to be saving the earth, and then BAM. We’re sucked in. And it all boils down to these questions:
How can I save more money?
For stay at home moms (like me), saving money is often pivotal to allowing us to continue to stay at home with our kid(s). Being on one income doesn’t leave much wiggle room, so we learn to trim the fat where we can, as best we can. Because I’d rather #putacupinit than cancel Netflix, know what I’m sayin’?
How can I be more “green”?
For earth nuts (like me), decreasing our trash volume and increasing our recycling and reusing opportunities makes us feel better about the ecological footprint we are leaving on Earth. It also allows me to feel less guilty for continuing to buy tiny pints of ice cream in non-recyclable containers every week because White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle ice cream is a necessity for mommy’s sanity…
How can I improve my/my family’s health?
Honestly, I didn’t give much thought to the effects that my everyday products were contributing to my overall health…until I got pregnant and suddenly everything was “NO! DON’T TOUCH THAT! DON’T EAT THAT! THINK OF YOUR BABBBYYYYYY!!!!” Suddenly, lunch meat was the devil incarnate, and God forbid I wash my face with the same product I’ve been using since I was 12. My morning routine contained deadly chemicals and carcinogens, and I couldn’t even use mouthwash without checking the label first. Not to mention, I’d been inhaling toxins every time I cleaned my house and probably gave myself migraines from doing so without realizing it.
And I used to think those people were crazy, those health nuts, those people who believed that you couldn’t do anything “normal” people did without increasing your risk of cancer. I used to poo poo their beliefs as being over-reactive and overly-sensitive…until I had a baby.
Because then it was my responsibility to make sure this tiny little thing grew up to be healthy and happy and not “that kid” who never napped or was a picky eater or was constantly emitting a river of snot from his face. So, I exclusively breastfed, fed him organic fruit and vegetable purees, did baby led weaning with anything that would fit in that mesh-teether-thing that was SO IMPOSSIBLE to clean. I did what I could to make sure he was as healthy as possible. And it worked out. He’s not a picky eater. He loves green beans. He even eats salad. He could eat fruit for the rest of his life and be a happy boy…
…but the older he’s gotten the less organic we’ve been because…toddlers. They’re an expensive time suck that leave little time for detailed cooking and overpriced apples.
However, I knew I could still impact him greatly by cleaning out what really affects him most: his environment. I cleaned house of the chemicals I didn’t want around my kid.
I’m telling you, before I got pregnant and decided to cloth diaper, we were a Scrubbin Bubbles, Tampax, Velveeta, Tide, Downey, Cover Girl, Ice Mountain kind of family. We went through reams of paper towel and toilet paper every month, spent half our budget eating out at fast food and restaurants, and gave no cares about what we put in, on, or around our bodies. Having a baby changed that.
What Green Living Looks Like In My House:
Food/Drink:
-no bottled water
-organic milk and yogurt
-grocery shopping the perimeter of the store
-grow a lot of our own vegetables
-buying produce in bulk and canning/freezing
-buying local produce
-cooking at home as much as possible (the toughest one to do in my opinion)
Cleaning House:
– white vinegar to clean everything
– Method brand cleaners for more heavy duty cleaning
– cleaning cloths instead of paper towel
Laundry:
– EcoNuts liquid for cloth diapers and Ecos for our clothes
– clothes line for drying
– wool dryer balls to speed up machine drying and soften without chemicals
Hygiene:
– reuse bath towels for a week+-
– cloth wipes for messy faces and hands
– cloth wipes for diaper changes 80% of the time (I only wet them with water)
– cloth wipes for myself (for #1 only because frankly I don’t want to spray off wipes)
– cloth rounds for face toner
– unpaper towels in the kitchen (mine pictured are a different brand)
– minky cloth nose wipes for my baby (I love the Booger Bashers by Rockerbye Baby)
– super soft hankies to replace tissues for myself
– cloth menstrual pads and a reusable menstrual cup (best decision ever)
– bar soap instead of body wash
– face wash, toner, and make up with fewer ingredients
– alcohol free body wash and lotion for Lucas
Recycling:
– collect and send in squeezable snack pouches (applesauce, fruit smoothies, etc) using TerraCycle program
-requested a second recycling can (turns out, it was free!)
-fill both cans with accepted paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, glass, Styrofoam, and foil
Reducing:
-buying in bulk
-packing foods in reusable containers for lunches (like reusable snack bags or glass containers- my fave are Wean Green)
-keeping bath water levels low and showers short
-not wearing make up every day
-switching to CFL lightbulbs
-keeping things unplugged or turned off when not in use
-keeping the fridge and freezer well organized so as not to overload it
-only running full dishwasher loads
Now, I’m not saying we don’t have bad habits or fall short sometimes. We do. We aren’t vegan or vegetarian or paleo. I love Arby’s and McDonald’s Sweet Tea. My son could eat his weight in fruit snacks. Pretty sure my husband would leave me if I took away steak in this house. I buy a few individually packaged things like BabyBell cheese and granola bars to throw in lunches. I love the smell of Dove soap. But we try our best and do what we can, and I think that counts for something.
How do you try to live “green”?
What’s your best kept secret for green living?
What things might you change in your life to be more “green”?
Share your answers in the comments below and enter the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win some great green living products from Marley’s Monsters!
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Mommy Sincerest 
We use unpaper towels and gotten rid of regular paper towels completely. Even though my dad sneaks toilet paper at the dining table sometimes lol because he hasn’t 100% gotten used to it yet. We cloth diaper. Cloth wipes all the way! I use punkin butt cloth wipes for makeup removal…. But one thing I would want to do. Is make my own garden next spring! I am hoping to get that going:)
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We use cloth diapers and cloth wipes. I am trying family cloth currently and I really like it! I plan on using cloth pads after my second daughter is born.
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So true! Cd were our gateway drug… we went from Clorox wipes on the regular to vinegar with cloth towels, energy saving, momma cloth using, natural soaps and body products. .. and I am TOTALLY with you. I went from poo pooing those that did it to advocating everyone just give it a try! Now if only I didn’t kill everything green I could make a garden! Lol
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Cloth diapering is my new venture in green living, we garden to reduce our food miles and eat healthier. We recycle as much as we can too. My biggest tip would be to search the Internet for new ways to reuse items we normally throw away.
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I do a few things….use bamboo perforated towels SOMETIMES, mama cloth, recycle, reusable water bottle, etc. I think my best “secret” is mama cloth. It seems like hardly anyone knows about it and it saves me from creating so much trash! I just bought a house and I’m hoping to have a garden next year in order to be more green 🙂
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We use cloth diapers for multiple kids and cloth wipes. I use a more natural baby wash and clean with vinegar most of the time. We also do cloth napkins and tru to stay away from paper towels.
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We love our unpaper towels. I never realized how much paper towel we went thru till we switched and I had to start washing these! We also use cloth diapers, cloth wipes, mama cloth and a diva cup. Not ready for family cloth yet but will def try the postpartum mama cloth the next time around. I also want to switch to cloth napkins. I already got some unpaper towels to give as xmas presents to help spread the cloth love!! 🙂
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I cloth diaper and we recycle at home. I use reusable bags. I’m just getting into mama cloth.
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We use cloth diapers and wipes. We try to recycle, reuse, and repurpose things that we can. I’m starting to garden and we use cloth bags at the grocery store.
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We use cloth diapers and cloth wipes- love them!
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Cloth diapers/wipes are our gateway drug 🙂 So far most of our green living involves trying to buy used but I have unpaper towels on our Xmas list!
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We cloth diaper and eat unprocessed food. We are starting to move into family cloth and unpaper towels!
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I cloth diaper and use cloth wipes! I’m hoping to switch to family cloth and unpaper towels soon! I’ve started looking into making my own mama cloth!! I’m all about the green life!
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We live green by using cloth diapers, cloth wipes, and making some clothing items for my kids. I’m not sure I have a secret to living green but I’m learning a lot and figuring out what we can change realistically at home. What I will be changing to be greener is using vinegar for cleaning, using unpaper towels, and switching to mama cloth/cup. I’m also going to attempt to make strawberry jam since we go through so much. Yay to being greener!!
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We cloth diaper, a decision we made way back in the late 90s when we were first dating and talking about the one day having kids… but added in cloth wipes when we actually had our daughter 20 months ago. I haven’t bought a roll of paper towels in years, I just use my kitchen towels; and cloth napkins have been in the rotation for just as long or longer. I’ve recently started using cloth pads which having pcos probably doesn’t add too much to my load. I recycle everything possible. I have a garden that we try to maintain but given our jobs it is often a flop. Hey, at least we get some tomatoes and pumpkins from it! Well, we live on a dairy farm so milk and meat come from our own farm. 🙂 As soon as I use up the last of my tampons I have in the house I’m buying a cup.
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First off, I seriously cracked up at cloth diapers being “the gateway drug” to green living! Haha It’s so true! Aside from cloth diapers, I started cleaning with rags instead of paper towels, I don’t use my washer as often during the week, we use dryer balls now and have stopped using fabric softener and I use vinegar to do a lot of cleaning as well.
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I use mason jars for things like almonds and candy and refill them at the bulk sections. And use old milk cartons for planting starters. We hang our laundry and Love our cloth diapers and wipes.
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I need to work on cleaning my house of chemical cleaners. I have adapted to using essential oils for headaches. I also use cloth pads and cloth diapers for my daughter.
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We use cloth diapers and wipes, and I use mama cloth and a menstrual cup. I recently switched to mostly vinegar for cleaning and am hoping to soon switch to unpaper towels.
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as they run out, we’re slowly replacing all health & beauty + cleaning products with “green” products and things safer for our health!
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We use cloth diapers and wipes and I love MM’s cloth rounds for my face. I’ve love to start using unpaper towels, at least part time. We go through way too many paper towels.
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