Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Born Beta Tester


Since I am the eternal cheapskate,when I read an article a few months ago about the rising price of diapers, I knew something had to change. I also can't stand the giant pile of trash at the end of my driveway every Friday.

When a friend of mine asked me to test a new kind of cloth diaper on Prospector in exchange for some feedback and help spreading the word, I jumped at the chance.

Turns out, they work at least as well as disposables. They are made out of organic hemp with some organic cotton with snaps instead of pins so that my clutzy hands don't poke my precious little beta tester.

From a money perspective, they also passed my test. At current prices, I'd spend about $800 per year on disposables, whereas my hemp diaper stash would set me back about $150-$200 and last through a few years (and a few kids for that matter.) I am still working out how much it costs to wash, but I think I would be hard pressed to exceed $600/year in laundry costs, especially if I throw them on the line to dry now and again when the weather is nice.

As far as saving the world goes... I'm still not sure.

I do wait until I have a full load, use minimal detergent and those laundry balls , but which has more of a footprint? Washing water or diaper manufacturing/waste? I'm leaning towards the latter. But I do know that I feel a whole lot better on trash day.

The diapers are made by BabyKicks, and there are special deals listed at the BabyKicks eBay Store.

4 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Plus you can smoke the diapers if you get really stressed!

Anonymous said...

Hi Dana,

Thanks for posting about this. Me and my wife are very interested in this.

By the way, where did you get that shirt? I need one for my future arrival...

Thanks

Unknown said...

Hi Dana, It's been a while. We met at training at Perks Ruetter in NJ the summer of 2007. Anyway, I remembered this post and was wondering if you stuck with the cloth diapers. I've looked into them and there are a few different choices which really confuse me. Since you're the only person I know that have used them in recent times I was wondering if you could let me know how you made out using them. And if you liked the type you wrote about as opposed to the prefolds, etc.

Thanks, Michelle

Dana said...

Michelle- i just saw this comment needed to be moderated! I have no idea when you posted it- ping me at civil3diva at gmail.com if you see this and we will talk!