Back when I began cloth diapering, new fangled products like Go Green Diapers, Rumparooz, and Lil Joey Diapers didn’t even exist. Now I find myself in green baby boutiques, playing with the vel...
Lately I’ve been dragging my family out the door every weekend for a romp in the woods. Why? Because for the last five years of our lives, we were so caught up in domestic life that we lost our...
The pile of towels we bought new eight years ago was perfectly viable, except for the dingy mint color that evolved through hundreds of washings. In my frenzy for a peaceful domestic space, I longed ...
A couple years ago I posed this question: Does gardening really save money? It seems like every time you read a magazine article about saving money on groceries, the author suggests planting a garden...
Ten years ago we choose Fiestaware dishes for our wedding registry and have enjoyed them ever since. They’re sturdy, classic, and scratch resistant. Amazingly, most of the eight place settings we ori...
About four years ago, I set off on a daring mission to get rid of plastic, one step at a time. In pursuit of this goal, I have amassed an impressive collection of glass containers and I do love them ...
About six weeks ago I woke up and suddenly craved order, beauty, and domestic peace. It’s not that I hadn’t longed for those things during the past six years of childrearing, but I realiz...
For the past five years, I have admired people who coax seeds into lush vegetable gardens but have never felt I had the gardening skills to take the leap. Instead we spent around $50 each year on sta...
On Monday, Joy wanted to know if we, too, struggled with spending our hard-earned cash on eco-kitchen gadgetry. She’s been wringing her hands and wracking her brain, trying to reach a decision. Shoul...
Mine isn’t. In fact, I’m completely plastic-dependent. A few nights a week, we tuck sandwiches and fruit into tiny plastic lunch containers to be toted off to four different locations the following d...
How did you spend Earth Day? I was hanging out at McDonald’s, sipping iced tea out of a gigantic plastic cup. This is how far I’ve fallen. It’s been a downhill slide since my first admission th...
Tightwad. Skinflint. Cheapskate. Penny Pincher. I’ve been called all the thrifty names in the book, and been proud of the way the reduce, reuse, and recycle mantra has fit into our family life. But w...
For the month of May, I’m thinking—just thinking, mind you—about slashing my grocery budget. The last time I tracked my expenditures, I spent $280 on food in a month on three people. (We also enterta...
Well, you called it. After bragging about my newest time-saving, energy-saving, water-saving contraption two years ago, you remained skeptical. Can’t you boil eggs in a pot like everyone else? Do you...
Pregnancy and breastfeeding motivated me to find safer, and often greener methods for cooking and storing food. But the recycler in me had a very hard time tossing the high quality Circulon skillet w...
Just five years ago, I was shocked to see that major manufacturers weren’t making more BPA-free baby products. Now, you can wander down the aisles of any big box store and find dozens of shiny ...
Do you wish for an affordable green disposable diaper made of milkweed? Are you thinking that your children’s boundless energy could be harnessed to heat your entire home? Do you long for organ...
When I was ten weeks pregnant, we excitedly stepped through the hospital’s revolving door to see our OB/GYN doctor. After a thirty minute wait, we met with a stressed out physician for ten minu...
After two years of research, editing, and writing (with spit-up on our shoulders and cloth diapers in the dryer) The Eco-nomical Baby Guide hit bookstore shelves in the spring of 2010. We packed the ...
Have you used cloth diapers? What would you tell a pregnant, overwhelmed friend who doesn’t know a pocket diaper from a prefold? If you have tips on buying diapers, laundering diapers or dealin...
On Tuesday I re-ran my classic post praising prefold diapers. Today I present Joy’s rebuttal, wherein she presents five compelling reasons to prefer pocket diapers. The gloves are off! #1 One ...
It can be tricky to transport large amounts of clean and soiled diapers back and forth to daycare as conveniently as possible–or to lug dirty diapers on a summer road trip without the smell inv...
Joy and I had a friendly little diaper duel a few years ago, which I am reprinting this week in honor of our cloth diaper week. (And because I am on spring break!) On Thursday, prepare to hear Joy de...
I first published this post more than three years ago, at the tail-end of my diapering days. In celebration of Green Baby Guide’s cloth diapering month, I’m running it again. Here’s somet...
My children were happily rash free while using cloth during the day, but we struggled with regular nocturnal yeast infections. I felt copious amounts of guilt, poured boiling water into a bathtub of ...
For those of you who theme-diaper your babies, here are the hot new looks for spring. We all know the rules: don’t dress the baby in tinsel and jingle bells after March 1! These looks will make your ...
Disposable swim diapers usually run about a dollar each, or more—and the cost doesn’t correlate with performance. They can end up in a soggy, leaky mess by the end of an afternoon in the pool. Thank ...
Cloth diapering saves a heap of cash (and garbage) over the years, but the up-front cost of using cloth is a barrier for some families. If you are willing to buy preowned diapers for your tot, you’ll...
I was a pretty hardcore prefold diaper enthusiast in my diaper-changing days, while Joy swore her allegiance to pocket diapers. Here is a basic list of the supplies I needed in the 2.5 years my daugh...
My husband perched our baby daughter on the toilet at about six months when he realized that she had bowel movements at specific times of the day. We had never read a book on infant potty training or...
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