Making My Life Harder

[callistra]

OK, so I am running around trying to get organized enough so that the cloth nappy thing is in place and can not be avoided. Bablon_93 has very kindly offered to sew some up so they are less bulky and annoying, and I am running around getting snappi nappi locks, nappy liners (disposable or not, managed to find a pack of 100 disposables, buuuut...) and getting everything ready so when the switch is made I can't just wuss out because I got sick and miscarried and got depressed and all those other excuses I had last time I tried. :-)

Buuuuuuut.... it just seems to me that there seems to be less and less of the stuff I need to be able to do this. I need about 2 or 3 days worth of stuff, 2 days for wearing and a day for wearing during washing, if that makes sense. So, if we average say 4 or so nappies a day, (we're going to stick with disposables at night) and I need a new pair of plastic pants each time we change nappies then I need 12 plastic pants. If I could get them in the right size. Or if they were there at all. Hmmm.

I also wanted a couple more snappy nappi locks. They replace the pins we used to use to fix the nappies on. I aint seeing any of these either. Hmmmm.

I bought another 12 pack of cloth nappies. The packaging is torn, and they were the last ones. Hmmmm.

When something is missing, I rather paranoidly think: ack! They're not stocking it any more! But then reason kicks in - why should they stock it anyway, if they're in it for profit, and if I get into the swing of this nappy thing then I won't be buying anything other than powder off them anyway. (Although, having just gulped down the last of my coke, I know one thing I can't live without any more. My thoughts about buying an 18 pack and then hiding them around the house means I may have a new problem there....)

So, on the tails of talking to various people about the way we exchange energy for money and money for energy and in the end companies are all in it for the profit but the humans are in it for the food, drink and clothing, does this mean that one day I'll be going into a tiny, dilapidated shop where they obviously can't afford to fix anything or employ a 14yo to dust anything to buy stuff which has a low profit margin and high re-use value?

I also don't know where it's going to be, since my suburb is getting a bit of a face lift! Our butcher moved a shop sideways into better, newer, shinier shop. The baker is crossing the mall into a newer, shinier, better shop, and we've just got one of the nicest and largest Subways I have ever seen. Everything is so shiny new! :-)

Comments

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

some random thoughts:
- plastic pants not so good - I tended to only use them if we ran out of anything else, or as 'training' pants, with nothing in them. we did have some fabulous plastic pants that breathed really well, but no idea where we got them, spent much time on two continents trying to locate them. I was pretty happy with the fluffies brand pants (don't buy target brand - no gusset) - they have more reliable elastic than most plastic ones.
- snappies are vicious.
- if you can't find what you are after in the shops, ask Freecycle - I gave all of my stuff away either there or to friends, I'm pretty sure that there would be other people out there ready to pass on.
- I always found nappy liners to be a nuisance. You can't flush them, you aren't supposed to put them in the bin with poo still on them, so you still end up washing the poo off, and they don't survive more than a wash or two. I have heard of people buying chux, and cutting them up to make liners, but never tried it myself. I just stuck with nappies with no liners, and it seemed to work pretty well.

[lauredhel.livejournal.com]

We were very happy with fleece liners (either separate, or sewn on to the nappy or booster), and terry, sherpa or flannelette wipes. I never could see the point of having to separate wipes and liners from nappies - it sounds like more work to me, not less.

(I know Calli knows this, but if there are other nappiers in the thread who are interested, please feel free to check out my FAQ and links collection at www.ozclothnappies.org - not an ad, we're non-commercial.)

Lara

[callistra.livejournal.com]

One of the million things I mised at Femmeconne was the nappy display. I thought about asking if I could still have a look recently, but since I have no idea where any one lives and I don't get out of the house so much recently, and babalon_93 offered to do something with stuff I already had...
:-)

I considered buying the ones that have all the layers already sewn in, but I already had all these other nappies, and it gets very confusing as to what does having everything sewn in mean anyway?

I did a lot of reading at Ozclothnappies the other day, which was a fantastic resource, by the way. :-)

[fred-mouse.livejournal.com]

don't know how I missed this one coming through...

youngest child is out of nappies, except at night. I've used disposables at night for a fair while, as I found the mix of disposables and fabric worked to keep the nappy rash away with eldest child. I never used a nappy bucket with a lid - I used two 10 litre buckets, in the washing trough (one for wet, one for soiled). Wet nappies went into the next load of washing, soiled ones got scrubbed and soaked (although I understand that soaking isn't necessarily part of the process these days, I had the habit and didn't stop). Sometimes used commercial nappy soaker, but usually just a heaped tablespoon of bicarb in the water. Don't soak for too long though - goes scummy.