New to Cloth Winning Essay

"Well, are you going to have time to clean up the world?"

On April 22, 2010, my daughter came bursting through the door after her morning kindergarten class jumping with excitement. She had a reusable grocery bag that her teacher had given her in honor of EARTH DAY and an "assignment" to figure out ways we could help to make our world a cleaner place. Oh, this was going to be fun! So I packed a picnic lunch for my 6 year old daughter, my 4 year old son, and my 8 month old baby girl. We headed to the nearby park to eat, with my 6 year old toting a notepad and pencil, soo excited to begin! We got to work on our list: From now on we would bring our reusable grocery bags along every time we shopped, we would replace our weekly case of Ice Mountain bottled water with reusable aluminum water bottles, get books from library more often than from the bookstore, and a few other ideas when my little one pooped in her disposable diaper! I pulled another disposable out from the bag along with disposable wipes and a plastic bag to throw it all away in, when I realized that THIS was where we could really change our ways. And so began my research into cloth diapers...

It took about a month for me to research and save up the money for the initial investment required in converting to cloth diapers and wipes. During this month my children, husband and I were astounded at some of the facts we came across. For instance 7.6 billion pounds of diapers are thrown away each year in the US and they take up to 500 years to biodegrade. Yikes. That was enough to make our stomachs churn. I felt so guilty for all those diapers I had thrown away throughout the years. But washing diapers? Was I going to be able to do that? I was super excited to learn that the days of soaking dirty diapers in a bucket of water were gone, along with pins and rubber pants. I started getting very excited! I got my first batch of cloth diapers about a month ago. I was nervous! I went with some all-in-2s, since these seemed the most economical, and easiest to wash in my HE washer. Oh My Gosh, I am so happy we made this switch! I feel great that we are reducing our carbon footprints, saving money, educating my children, and I just cannot resist the cuteness of a fluffy butt!

My beautiful 6 year old daughter inspired me to switch to cloth diapers, and together we try to inspire others! We are constantly telling our friends and neighbors with babies why cloth is the easy and sensible choice. We have gotten three friends to make the switch!! A couple weeks ago we were at a wedding and my daughter came to the bathroom with me to change my baby's diaper when a woman approached and began asking questions about "that kind" of diaper. I explained that they were cloth, along with the wipes, and she smugly replied that she would NEVER have the time to wash diapers, to which my 6 year old responded, "Well, are you going to find time to clean up the world?"