Granola. Crunchy. Tree hugger. Natural Parenting. I've always been environmentally conscience, but since becoming a family and having Harrison, I feel like I'm even more-so. Some of it stems from needing to save money since I'm now a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), but it's also because I really do want to reduce my carbon footprint. (Insert Sandra Bullock's line in Miss Congeniality: I really do want world peace)! Some of the decisions we've made so far include cloth diapering and using an amber teething necklace on Harrison to help reduce inflammation with teething, using Hylands teething tablets more often than over-the-counter when things get bad, and, when when we do use OTC medications, we give him the dye-free kind. Also, using environmentally friendly laundry soap (and I will soon be making my own when I run out of Ecos), using distilled white vinegar for almost any cleaning, using bac-out for other cleaning items, and line-drying our clothes in addition to Harrison's diapers. That being said, I'm not a crazy crunchy Mommy, either. I know I have limits and I understand why and that others do, too. For instance, I'm a huge advocate for cloth diapering. It's so easy, saves a ton of money, and is better for the environment by keeping all those nasty disposables out of the landfills. However, when we went to visit my sister in-law in Albuquerque, on our trip to Chicago, and when Harrison gets a bout of diarrhea, he's in disposables. Don't get me wrong here, because it's not that often. I still have the bag of 30 size 4 diapers that I bought for him about three months ago and I think I used one diaper from it. I also have some stashed in my car for "just in case" moments, although I've considered putting some "not as often worn" cloth in there instead.
Anyway, the line drying of clothes really stemmed from the drying of Harrison's diapers. You can dry diapers in a dryer but the best way to care for them is to lay them out in the sun to dry. Occasionally, the inserts of diapers will get stained based on foods eaten and the best, easiest way to get the stain out is to lay it flat in the sun all day. It's better than bleach! In Arizona, we certainly don't have a shortage of sun. So when I became a SAHM, I figured I might as well save money on our electric bill by hanging our laundry on the line, too. I bought a retractable clothes line for $19.99 at Ace Hardware and run it between the posts of our back patio. It's mostly shaded, so putting our clothes on the line also won't bleach them out. I have a separate drying rack I use for cloth diaper inserts which need a little attention. I also bought a plastic rope, for lack of a better term, at Dollar Tree. They have it marketed as a clothes line and, honestly, it works just fine. I tend to need some extra space when I have a bigger load and I run that line about 2 1/2 feet below the retractable one. Perfection!
All of this soap boxing (no pun intended) leads me to my newest absolute disgust. Why are we, as a nation, importing apples or apple concentrate from other countries? To read about that rant, see my next post...
No comments:
Post a Comment