Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Minimalism

Ok. Really? You think... On a cloth diaper blog? Yep. On a cloth diaper blog. I know I for one have way. to. much. STUFF. And cloth diapers is a part of it. Yes, I actually said it! I have too many cloth diapers! But, I am so not ready to go to the minimum number of diapers I can get away with. Not yet, and probably not ever. I did though, start with getting rid of some random pocket diapers, some way too big prefolds, the gDiapers I don't use, some wool that doesn't fit, etc. Not all of it has sold yet, but I am trying! Its a start right? I think so.

But anyways this brings me back to the rest of the STUFF. My house is over run with it. What is it you ask? Well its just that, its STUFF! Small appliances we rarely use, too much clothing, WAY too many toys, knick knacks stored away in boxes, shoes, extra dishes and those plastic cups from restaurants. Yes, we have those, they make great bath time cups for rinsing out shampooed hair, but do we need all of them? Naw.... So I have challenged myself. Get rid of all the excess STUFF! It's going really well so far! I have been moving slowly, because I have to do it during nap times, and still run a household, but I have gained perspective on life. While I have been cleaning, reorganizing, cleaning and reorganizing again and again, of the same old stuff, I could have been spending more time with my family! Some one out in the internet world calls it the Sh** Shuffle. Yes, you read that right, the Sh** Shuffle. And it's so true! So as I go through my house, I think about each item I go through, Do I NEED this, will I USE this? Or is it something that I may use, or that I may need somewhere down the line? This has greatly helped me, in letting go of things.
My hang up though, is the sentimental stuff. Toys I had as a kid, old birthday/holiday cards. Someone had the great idea, of keeping those things for a year. Then the following year, toss the old ones, and keep the new ones. That way (now this is especially true from the cards from older relatives and friends), if someone happens to pass away, you have the last card they sent you, and that card can become something you treasure. Another idea was to keep those cards that had a special note written in them, because its not the card itself you will treasure, its that note that means something to you, because it was from someone you loved and cared about.
This goes for all places in your home, why are  you hanging on to all that stuff? For me, its because we could need it somewhere down the road, and I don't want to have to buy another of it. But chances are, I got a good deal on it, picked it up at a garage sale of thrift store, and it is replaceable. Getting that mentality down has significantly helped me to see that we do not need all these things taking up space, and our time, in our home.
So I challenge you, to do the same. Start small. go through your DVD collection, because chances are there are a couple DVDs in there you have no interest in watching, and are just taking up valuable space. Then move on, do your closet, look at each piece, does this fit? Will I really ever wear it again? If those answers are no, get rid of it!
Now you ask, ok, I have all this stuff, what do I do with it now? Well, the volume of things I am getting rid of is so large, that we are going to have a garage sale. With that money, I am going to buy a really nice stroller, that will serve as a double, or a single, so I can get rid of all my other strollers, because right now, I have 4 in my garage! EEK! yep, 4 strollers. I would rather just get rid of all of them, and get 1 stroller that I really like.  So you see, there is a reward for me at the end of all of this. And whatever does not sell, I am doing to donate. There are many charities around me, always looking for donations, so that's where everything else will go.
I want to feel liberated from all my STUFF. Don't you?

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Gifted

Warning, sad post.

So very recently I experienced an early miscarriage. The baby passed away at 7 weeks, and I didn't find out until 12 weeks. I don't need to go into any more details than that, but its been rough and we are all very sad at our house because we were looking forward to a new baby.
Anyway, a friend of mine in another state was selling some Goodmama fitteds for a super steal of a deal, and I asked her about 2 of them because I loved the prints! Sadly she said she had mailed those two out an hour earlier. I was bummed. Well lo and behold, I received a package 2 days later with those 2 diapers in it! So I messaged her and told her I had gotten those two diapers in the mail, and was it a mistake and does she want me to forward them on... I had recently bought some other diapers from her, so my address would have been fresh in her paypal queu. She said no, they were a gift and she hoped that they would bring a smile to my face. I cried instantly. Here was a mom who had lots of littles herself with her own struggles, paying a kindness forward, to a friend who was down in the dumps. Those diapers DID indeed bring a smile to my face, and while they won't bring my baby back, it gave me a renewal in humanity, and a refresher in kindness. 

So I encourage you to pay it forward. You never know how a small little something you do for someone else will affect them. Hopefully they will continue the chain and pay it forward. God bless people like my friend, for they are truly special.

Not a great pic, I used my iPod, but #3 looks so cute in his Goodmama cd diaper!


Monday, July 16, 2012

MIA

So I know I have been MIA for awhile. We have been incredibly busy and have a lot going on. We went on vacation the whole 4th of July week and it was HOT HOT HOT! And super miserable unless we were at the lake! So you want to know, did I bring my cloth?! Kinda! I used covers and disposable Flip inserts the whole week. At night, I used my Super old fuzzibunz fitteds with flats inside. And I handwashed. It sucked. I only had cold water, unless I wanted to wait to fill up my bucket in the bathroom, but I didn't and washing in cold seemed to work ok. I just brought my bucket and plunger with. Thankfully the kids helped me with plunging :) I used about 2 packs of 18 inserts for the whole week. Mind you, we spent ALOT of time at the lake, so #3 was in a swim diaper half the day. And we also cheated and went home 1 night because it was so hot and we were all so miserable, so I used cloth that one day we were home. So does cloth work while camping? Sure. Would I want to do that whole experience again for an entire week? No, not when its that hot out. The disposable inserts were absorbant enough and they are super trim. My consenus is that they work great for vacations and long day trips away from home.