I think my awareness of taking care of the environment started out by watching the '90's TV show
Clarissa Explains it All. The main character, Clarissa, always had awesome earrings and crazy bright colors to go with her outfit. One of the episodes was about
recycling and reusing waste and for that episode Clarissa (played by actress, Melissa Joan Heart) wore these cool globe earrings.
Sigh. Clarissa was so cool; anyways, that's really when I started taking notice of the environment and the impact I have on it. Fast forward a couple decades and insert one baby and well, you've got quite the dilemma. Now I need to think about the impact I'm making on the environment not only for myself but for my children who will (hopefully) be here longer than I will be. When my husband and I decided to use cloth diapers on our son it was purely for monetary savings. Neither one of us was thinking about the fact that we would be helping out the environment by producing less waste sitting in a landfill. Shortly after I started using cloth diapers I started to see waste, garbage if you will, differently. Suddenly I felt guilty about mindlessly throwing anything away; had using cloth diapers altered my view on waste this much? Some may argue that it didn't but let me share with you the ways that I've become greener since we made the decision to use cloth on our babies' bums: *
Switched from disposable swim diapers to cloth diapers.
*Started using environmentally friendly household cleaners like white
distilled vinegar. *Stopped using tampons and switched over to a menstrual cup that can be reused. *Started using reusable shopping bags, Ziplock bags, cleaning rags and reusable
Swiffer sweepers and dry jet. *Choosing to use safer, eco-friendly laundry detergent. I could go on and on but this isn't about me and the greener choices that I've made. This is about you! Think to yourself about the changes that you've made since you started using cloth diapers on your baby. Have you made any changes? If you have, tell me about them! I love being inspired by others. And for more information on Earth Day please visit
this website.
My family has always tried to recycle, but my wife really helped me see the value in being green. I thought using cloth diapers was going to be difficult, but after a week of helping change diapers, it is really not an issue. It is time consuming to wash diapers at least 2 times a week, but it is much better than having to take out a trash bag full of disposable diapers 2 times a week!
We used to go to the farmers market often, as it was relatively close to where we lived, but have fallen out of the habbit since we moved. We started using a service called greenling which delivers fresh produce to your door, but we also have found a few farmers markets we are going to be trying out.
Cloth diapering was our first major step towards becoming more environmentally conscious. We are now also eating clean and trying to reduce our carbon footprint in all areas of our lives.
We don’t make much trash either and we are a family of four. I wish I had been brave enough to cloth diaper my first 7 years ago – it is so much easier then I thought it would be!
Oh.my.gosh. Cloth diapering has had the SAME effect on me. It’s been a huge lifestyle change in many ways for us!
I loved Clarissa!
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