my top reasons to cloth diaper....

i've been thinking about why i love cloth diapering so much recently.  caleb is so.sick. of me talking about diapers.... winning diapers, reviewing diapers, laundering, stuffing, pros, cons, cuteness, softness, leaks, double inserting.... i can see why a man is not interested when i list it all out like that. 

but i am addicted.  i live for laundry day (what?!), i attend twitter parties, i scour blogs for giveaways, i anticipate fluff mail that i can write up delicious reviews for!  cloth diapering is such an integral part of my relationship with my daughter, and i love keeping her butt clean and fluffy!  i've decided to compile a list of reasons why i cloth diaper....

1.  i love cloth diapering.  wait... did i already say that? well, it's my top reason, regardless!  have you ever heard a huggies or pampers using parent say, "you know, i just adore disposable diapering!"?  no, probably not.  i know that i never have.  i can't think of anything associated with disposables that is cute and adorable like cloth.  we have wet bags with fantastic designs, they have diaper genies with plastic bag sausage links of used diapers.... not.cute.at.all.

{disclaimer: this is NOT my husband... but a random google search image... yuck}

2.  economical purposes.  yes, i said it.  we cloth diapered originally for the cost effectiveness.  granted, once you get going and addicted like i am, you spend more and more.... but, think.  the average family has more than one child, so even if you did spend, say, $1,200 on cloth diapers because you went waaaaay overboard and had to have ten different brands all with hemp doublers and about four different wet bags, you are still coming out ahead.  on average, you can cloth diaper a single child from birth to potty training for around $500.  birth to potty training with disposables - close to $3,000, not including wipes, which brings me to my next numerical bullet of why i cloth diaper....

3.  accessories.  cloth diapering is a package deal to me.  and in that package deal is alot of really fun, often cute, and very handy accessories.  cloth wipes are an absolute must for me.  i was so tired of using disposable wipes and having them end up in the dryer lint trap because i accidentally stuffed them in with the dirty diaper habitually.  once i changed to cloth, no problems! and, to be honest, it's not difficult to travel with cloth wipes - i can store about 8 wipes (a full day's worth for my 8 month old) in my Huggies travel case.  another great accessory that is a necessity to me - laundry detergent.  we use rockin green soap, which is a clean rinsing detergent.  we switched our entire laundry scheme to their detergent, so not even a tshirt is washed in Tide, because the residue that would stay in the washer would get on the diapers.  why is clean rinsing so important? because the residue that shelf-stocked detergents leave in your diapers causes excessive build up, which means repelling, which ultimately will lead to leaking.  and that is just plain no fun.  we also use dryer balls rather than fabric softener sheets.... i mean, if we are going crunchy, let's GO crunchy!  these dryer balls have no chemical residue and significantly cut down on dryer time.

4.  the clothesline.  how satisfying is it to see clothes hanging in the sun, getting dry and fresh in the most natural way possible?  take that satisfying feeling and multiply it tenfold when you are drying diapers in the sun.  we don't have the option to install a line at our apartment, but my boss has one so sometimes i dry diapers at her house.  if i don't have that opportunity, then i can hang them on my sweater drying rack on the back patio on a lazy saturday afternoon.  after line drying, i always toss them in the dryer with the aforementioned dryer balls for a quick tumble to soften up the hemp and get those gro-via inserts dry (they take a bit longer).

5.  no "OMG we're out of diapers!!!" moments.  i was recently reminded of how awesome this reason is when my friend lindsey told me she had been stranded at her friends' house overnight with her five month old daughter after a day of shopping.  she only had the diapers that were stuffed in her diaper bag for the day, but was able to wash diapers at her friend's house and reuse them.  i can go visit a friend and wash diapers if i need to, travel cross country and wash diapers if i need to, or just stay at home and wash diapers if i need to!  they are so easy to care for, and you never have a middle of the night "OMG we're out of diapers!!!!!" moment, sending your hubby to run to the nearest store for a $20 box.

6.  total icebreaker.  cloth diapers has been a way for me to make friends in a new place.  we move so much in the marine corps, and believe it or not, it's not always easy to make friends.  when we moved to jacksonville, i really struggled finding some good girlfriends to hang out with.  so i tried several different play groups, but none of them were the right fit.  i figured it couldn't be rocket science to start my own play group, and so i did.  i posted an internet ad on a local classifieds site for interested cloth diapering moms and i had a great response!  our group had some come, some go, but we finally got into the swing of things with a good core group of friends.  since starting my job as a nanny, i've had to put this group on hold.  my priorities of having friends definitely has not changed, but my ability to add extra hours to the day is not really working out.  choosing to start this group in the first place gave me girls that i can talk to, families that ours can hang out with and incentive to find a diapering solution that works better than what we originally had.  i seriously appreciate the different friendships i have cultivated with these ladies, all thanks to cloth diapers!