If you've been staring at
bare paper-products aisles in distress, I have some suggestions to brighten your day. You can cut down or cut out your use of toilet paper while maintaining your comfort and convenience.
I recommend a mix of
family cloth, a bidet attachment, and, optionally, a much smaller quantity of toilet paper or wet wipes as needed, such as for guests -- in the future, when guests are a thing again. You might remember I first tried family cloth, or reusable cloth toilet paper,
several years ago after a lot of debate and skepticism. I'm glad to report I've kept using it, but I admit I didn't get my family fully on board until this coronavirus epidemic! Necessity is the mother of getting your kids to use less toilet paper, apparently. Happily, this transition is going very well. I think we can stick with it, so I'll share my updated thoughts on managing family cloth for a whole family.
Candles are traditional, and chocolate is fun, but
snuggling and spending time together is the perfect way to count down the days till Christmas.
Consider wrapping a
series of winter or holiday books and craft projects, then having your child open one a day until the big day arrives. You'll get to enjoy a cuddly reading time or an interactive project opportunity together.
You can
adapt this for Hanukkah by wrapping eight themed books, or as a countdown to Solstice or another celebration your family keeps.
You don't have to buy anything if you don't want to, so it's a frugal option to
keep the spending and clutter down as well. I store our Christmas-themed books with our holiday decorations so that I can find them each year and keep them off the shelves when they're less relevant.
I'd seen this idea before of doing a solely book-themed countdown, but with our small space, we don't actually own 24 Christmas books. This year, though, I got the idea to sprinkle in other items:
Have you ever tried to
pare down your belongings when you have no money?
It takes a steady hand and a brave heart, that's for sure.
I came across
Marie Kondo's book,
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, a little over a year ago, when Karsten was still quite small. I started implementing some of the techniques — picking up objects and determining whether they sparked joy, and even
folding my socks the KonMari way — and immediately enjoyed the increased serenity that came with less clutter, less crowding, less need to organize and cram and put away. I am a declutter-o-phile and reforming packrat, and the
KonMari options clicked with me.
Some examples:
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| How I redid the kids' drawers. I love how visible everything is. |
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My mismatched socks before. I'm NOT KIDDING. These are all SINGLE SOCKS with no mate.
HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE? These all went bye-bye. |
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| My sweet little socks and undies afterward, with socks organized and separated by color family. |
But … it was around this same time that we realized
how little money we had coming in. Sam and I work for ourselves, which means our "paychecks" are unpredictable, so things can sometimes coast for a bit before we realize there's been an income swing. We've always had a dip like this when we've had a new baby, but this one was perhaps deeper because the pregnancy itself was hard as well and we have — count 'em — three children now to care for and homeschool. I don't worry about telling you this, because I trust I've been honest that being self-employed is only for those who can handle some degree of risk, and we are such people. Our income has always been cyclical, so we tightened our belts while we devoted what energy we could to earning more money, and we have pared way, way, way down on spending.
And this is where
the KonMari giddiness took a nosedive.
Welcome to the December 2014 Carnival of Natural Parenting: Greatest Gifts
This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting hosted by Hobo Mama and Code Name: Mama. This month our participants have suggested go-to gifts and gifting experiences for the holiday season for all your loved ones.
I couldn't resist when the topic was gifts this month — my mind turned to my
sweet new baby, and I felt the itch to make a list of all the gifts we
haven't gotten him.
See, the grandparents have been asking us what they can give Karsten. They asked when he was born in late October, and now they're asking as Christmas looms. And we keep answering them truthfully:
We have everything.
This is the third baby,
and the third boy. We're set!
But that means I've been around the block a time or two, and
I know now what sort of natural-parenting baby registry I would make if we weren't living in Hand-Me-Down City and needed to start from scratch. My btdt experience can be to your profit! Just copy this list of must-haves and would-love-to-haves on over to your own baby registry or holiday wish list, and outfit your natural nursery
like a boss.
Note that, since I'm
constantly nak-ing a newborn, I'm going to veer toward minimalist (my preference for
our small space) rather than comprehensive and crunchy, as is my family's wont. So this list will be the
essentials we needed for breastfeeding, babywearing, cosleeping, cloth diapering, and other attachment parenting choices. If you made different parenting choices (and that's valid!), you might need to add and subtract to this list, but it can still be a good starting point as you consider your options.
Cloth diapering: Keep things super simple, and ask gift givers to pre-load gift certificates to a
diaper service. Not an option where you live? Keep things still pretty dang simple, and go with
prefolds and
wool diaper covers, plus some
wool wash and
lanolin. If you're buying supplies yourself, eBay is a good spot to look for
high-quality but reduced-price diapers and covers.
You'll want at least six covers in small or newborn size and at least 18-24 of the small prefolds. Then you can move up (probably relatively quickly) to medium and park there for awhile, so don't blow your whole budget on the smallest sizes. The good news is cloth diapers have a good resale value! Throw in some
wipes, use a
small daypack as a just-right diaper bag (reasonable size and easy to sling on your back to have hands free for baby), and store your dipes at home, both clean and dirty, in a
wet-dry hanging bag. I thought we'd need a diaper-changing pad or table, and I was wrong. You can (and will) change diapers any-old-where. If you want to throw in some elimination communication, add a
little potty — it'll come in handy eventually either way.
Babywearing: My hands-down (hands-free, ha ha!) favorite carrier is my
handmade mei tai (
tutorial here if you sew, and tutorial for a
no-sew option if you don't!). If you want something available for purchase, other magnificent options are commercial mei tais and soft structured carriers like the
Babyhawk,
Infantino Wrap and Tie (frugal option),
Ergo, and
Boba. Any of these will work well for little babies on up through toddlers, so despite the initial price tag, buying one is a thrifty choice. And might I recommend my book,
The Natural Parent's Guide to Babywearing? It will help you learn to wear your baby with confidence and ease.
Yesterday was the
Carnival of Natural Parenting, and we all gave a little home tour. Only …
my home tour turned into a loooong home tour (despite our small space — how is that possible?), so I'm posting the second half, the upstairs part, today.
Turning upstairs now! This was one of the safety fixes we had to make to the place when we moved in: making these dowel openings smaller so a baby head couldn't squeeze through. We've considered covering the stair treads with one of those
wood retrofitting kits, but maybe it's just gentler on our clumsy kids for now to have them be carpeted.
We're slowly making a gallery along the stairwell of vintage postcards, maps, and photographs. 1920s, ahoy!
Top of the stairs. That clock is cracked because it's such an antique. That's a joke. It's from Pier 1.
And, yes, we routinely drag home odd pieces of driftwood.
Turning the corner, you can see our linen closet. Yeah, we don't actually have one of those. This will do for towels.
I had this idea that the upstairs could be an amalgam of beach-cottage style with a more formal but still livable Swedish Gustavian-modern look. Hence my Pinterest boards:
Hobo Cottage and
Gustavian Modern, Hobo Style. We've been concentrating on the downstairs for now, so not much has been done, design-wise, upstairs yet.
Welcome to The Breastfeeding Cafe Carnival!
This post was written as part of the Breastfeeding Cafe's Carnival. For more info on the Breastfeeding Cafe, go to breastfeedingcafe.wordpress.com. For more info on the Carnival or if you want to participate, contact Claire at clindstrom2 {at} gmail {dot} com. Today's post is about products that have helped you to breastfeed. Please read the other blogs in today's carnival listed below and check back for more posts July 18-31!
I'm a big believer that
to breastfeed a baby you need … a breast. Preferably two for your own comfort, but I'm not choosy.
I'm not here to tell you you need to buy a ton of essentials to survive or thrive, and you don't need to spend a bunch of money to manage what's actually a very frugal activity at heart. That said, there are some
specific products that made a difference for me in making breastfeeding — particularly in the early weeks — more comfortable for both the baby and me, so I'll share those with you here.
Keep in mind that everyone will have different experiences and must-haves. If you have any medical concerns related to breastfeeding, please contact a certified lactation consultant for expert advice on what additional supplies and techniques might help your situation. I don't want to recommend specific troubleshooters for a general audience, since many are helpful only in certain circumstances. No recommendations in this post are intended as medical advice.
1. Nursing bra
I speak from the perspective of the large-breasted here when I say that a supportive nursing bra is a wise investment. It's entirely possible that other shapes and sizes might be able to make do with a regular, particularly stretchy, bra or camisole (with shelf bra) that can be pulled down at will. For myself, underwire is a must, so I favor the comfort of something like an Anita nursing bra or an Elomi, which I got through a review with A Mother's Boutique — Judy there will do virtual bra fittings and recommendations for you, which is priceless. Let me assure you, nursing bras in my size are not sexy. They just … are not. But they keep my boobs contained and my back supported, they come in my bizarre combination of band and cup size, and it's easy to undo the cups fully to latch on a squirmy baby with no fabric springing back into the way — and then redo them while still holding said squirmy baby. (If you haven't breastfed before, the baby needs to take much more than just the nipple in the mouth — the recommendation I always hear is to aim for the entire areola, which might or might not be accurate for a given person, depending on areola size and shape. Anyway, a good nursing bra will let plenty of breast skin around the nipple be fabric-free, which is essential for a comfortable latch!)
2. Nursing pads
In the first several months of breastfeeding, I would leak like a sieve when (a) it had been awhile since last breastfeeding, (b) there was any incentive for my breasts to have a milk letdown (e.g., crying baby, even if not mine), or (c) when one breast was being used to feed or pump and the other was free to just … drip. Or even squirt. I learned my lesson pretty quickly that big splotchy wet marks over my boobs were not the postpartum look I was going for. Nursing pads to the rescue! I find the reusable ones much more comfortable than the paper disposable kind, and they're obviously the more affordable and eco-friendly choice as well. I've had good experiences buying handmade ones from WAHMs off eBay
or Etsy, and you can also make them yourself. Good materials are flannel on one side, microfleece on the other, or all wool. The contoured ones are nice for a smoother fit under clothing. I also really love the brand Bamboobies (no relationship, though that's an affiliate link to their product on Amazon), because they're super thin (no noticeable bulk under clothing), dry quickly, are machine washable, and are deceptively super absorbent (given how thin they are).
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| Reusable bags are so versatile. |
A couple years ago, the city of Seattle voted to ban plastic shopping bags. Despite being proponents of the concept of encouraging reusable bags, Sam's and my first reaction was "Oh, noes! What will we do without our plastic bags?!"
If you're looking to make the switch from plastic to reusable at grocery stores and the like and need some pointers, this post's for you. This is how we've made the new lifestyle work with minimal fuss and bother.
To switch things up a bit this month, the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, and Joella at Fine and Fair is running a blog hop! Link up all of your old, or new, posts about money. This may be a post in which you talk about how you keep purchases in check to live a more simple life in tune with your goals, about your budgeting skills, how you talk about money with your children, or more. If it deals with money and finances, we want to hear about it. Simply add your link to the handy linky tool below before October 15, 2013.
I've added in a few of my favorite posts about finances and how we make things work, money-wise.
Here's a selection of
what I've written about money if you're interested in a particular topic:
And some
blogging-specific money posts:
Now go link up your posts!
Welcome to the Sunday Surf, a tour of the
best blogposts I've read throughout the week.
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This is not a boy sitting at home. Mikko decided he wanted to wear his
footie pajamas out. He garnered a lot of envious pointing from other kids. |
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I just can't believe how tall he's getting. He's been talking about his birthday party
so much, and I can't believe he'll be SIX years old in June! How did that happen? My baby! |
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We already knew Alrik was a powerhouse, right?
He insisted on wheeling our basket around at the thrift store. |
Time to read!
Plus bonus tips for using a whole chicken!
I’m the poster child boobs for coconut oil and its relation to breastfeeding! :)
Roundup of DIY baby carrier patterns and resources.
Cool idea to use the free app Evernote to keep up your homeschooler/unschool portfolio.
I’ve found the perfect diet! So easy to follow, too.
Love this wisdom from Simcha Fisher:
Good parents are the ones who try as hard as they can to do what seems right to them, but still allow themselves to say, “This just isn’t working. Let’s try something else.”
Good parents are the ones who say, “Wow, this system, plan, or attitude was effective with me, my siblings, and my other six children, and (as far as I can tell from the outside) every other kid in our church, school, and area shopping mall; but for whatever reason, it’s not working with this particular kid. Let’s try something else.”
Join the
Six Ingredient Challenge hosted by
Hobo Mama and
Anktangle!
We're on a six-week path to eat more whole foods, guided by one simple rule: Buy foods with six ingredients or fewer. And we're blogging about our journey on the way.
This week we're answering the question: How's your budget? What money-saving strategies have you been employing?
You can see all the responses to this question today at this link-up post at Hobo Mama and Anktangle. If you're a blogger who's published a response, please post the URL in the linky below so we can visit to read. If you don't have a blog or haven't published a response, feel free to provide your answer in the comments on this post on either Hobo Mama or Anktangle.
Next week's writing prompt is at the end of this post along with posting instructions.
To join in the Six Ingredient Challenge anytime during the six weeks, visit the sign-up page for a list of posts and to link up!
My answer:
I definitely agree that eating more whole foods is a hit to the pocketbook. When we first started pricing out even one discrete thing like organic milk, it was shocking to us the difference in price. When I priced out
raw milk … well! That just went over our limits there.
Wool dryer balls are some amazing balls of wool. For your dryer. Hence the name.
They take the place of dryer sheets or fabric softeners, and they do a really good job
softening up clothes and cloth diapers safely and gently. If you play your cards right (i.e., scent your dryer balls with essential oils), they can even
make your laundry smell pretty — and not chemical-y.
I've heard tell they can also
cut drying time and reduce static. I haven't officially tested the drying time deal, and synthetics or overdried clothes will still spark a bit — but any static dissipates quickly, which is good enough for me. Some people complain that having balls romp around in your dryer is rather loud, but I seriously never notice any extra ruckus. Plus, these balls can be reused indefinitely, making them a
green and frugal choice for any laundry-doer.
The great news?
You can make wool dryer balls,
tout de suite. And you can make them
look and smell lovely, which means they make an awesome, easy,
super-fast holiday gift for most any grown-up on your list.
I read a selection of tutorials before making my dryer balls, and
my go-to tute is Anktangle's, but then I honed my craft and put my own little decorative spin on the idea, so I'll present
my how-to here as well.
Materials
- Wool yarn (100% wool; see caption below) — I recommend a cheaper plain yarn for the cores, and then decorative colors and textures for the outside
- Essential oils (optional)
- Socks
- Washer & dryer (you can felt in a sink, but I don't recommend it)
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Look for wool that says 100% wool and tells you to hand wash.
If the label says it's a special wool blend ("wool-ease") that can be machine washed,
your balls won't felt together. Sounds convenient for other projects, but not dryer balls.
Forget that noise. |
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You can also use wool roving or felting wool.
It comes either in clumps or as a yarn; I used the yarn kind.
Roving gives a softer look to the finished dryer balls
and can be a nice choice for combining colors
or mixing roving with regular yarn for textural interest. |
Step by step
- Wind a small core, about half the size of your finished balls (which will be approximately tennis-ball sized).
As I mentioned above, I recommend choosing a cheaper wool yarn for the cores. It doesn't matter what color it is, since the second half will cover it completely. I bought a jumbo skein of plain gray Fishermen's Wool and used it for all my cores.
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When you get the core ball to the size you want,
wrap over the yarn end several times to secure. |
We've been inspired to create an
action-based Advent calendar this year to count down the days to Christmas. I've made a list of (at least) 24 activities that would be fun little activities throughout the season, and Mikko will get to open one each day to find out what today's adventure is.
Choosing simple and fun connection activities each day has many benefits that more traditional calendars don't always possess:
- Counting down "sleeps" to an important day like Christmas helps little ones manage the wait — and even learn numbers!
- Choosing an activity can be a healthier treat for young kids than something sugary, and it doesn't clutter up your home the way 24 days of small toys or gifts would.
- You can customize your activity calendar to match your family's preferences and schedules, including parties and events you already have planned.
- Kids don't need the activity to be anything fancy: Snuggling with you to read a special book or toasting marshmallows over the fireplace can be just as special as a trip to meet Santa or going ice skating.
- You can adapt the activities to fit particular ages and multiple kids.
The calendar
First your kids need
something to open each day. There are so many options for calendars!
For the discount DIYers among you, you don't need to get super fancy. You could use a
wide-mouthed jar filled with 24 scraps of paper; your kids reach in each day, pull out an activity, and hey presto! This does mean the activities will be sorted randomly, however, and I wanted to make sure some events fell on specific days, and that I could
rearrange activities to suit my energy level, without Mikko cottoning on. You could even just have a simple
stack of notecards that your kids turn over each day, or
place each one inside a little envelope sealed with a holiday sticker.
Other options are
24 small gift boxes (perhaps even festively wrapped!), 24
little bags (paper lunch bags, thrift shop bags, plastic baggies, whatever you've got), or 24
other teensy containers. You could set up a display and number them, or do the randomizing thing by setting them all in a box or basket to be pulled out one by one.
You can also buy or make something much fancier and longer-lasting.
If you want to decorate, you can buy an
unfinished wood Advent tree with 24 doors, a
cardboard calendar with drawers, or an
MDF Advent calendar
with a wide middle section for creating a scene.
If you want
something ready-made or further craft inspiration, I was considering these options at Etsy, for instance
(I've chosen to link to my pins in case the listings are removed so you can hopefully still see the images; the pins do link to the current listings):
magnetic tins (love these!) to stick to the fridge or a baking sheet,
mini cardboard boxes labeled with the days and hung as a set,
clothespin tree for clipping notecards or envelopes,
decorative cotton or
simple muslin bags clipped onto clothespins and strung on a jute line across the mantel or shelf,
decorated paper bags, or a
wall hanging with pockets for each day.
But here's what we did, because we're like that. We
went to Target and got this adorableness:
Fair Isle Wooden Advent Calendar
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[Updated 2016 with most current listings and what I have tried and loved.]
I want to buy
pettipants
or bloomers or pantaloons or something similar: like divided slips or long-legged underwear. I feel like I've entered the nineteenth century admitting such.
You see, I have this problem where I want to throw on a light skirt or summery dress … but then
my inner thighs rub together when I walk. I know I'm not the only one with this problem, but it's hard to find a solution!
Some ideas I've heard to halt the chafe:
- Let me just get this unhelpful one out of the way: Lose weight. Even assuming this was possible or sustainable, it's not a viable solution, because no matter what weight I've been as an adult, my thighs are just built to touch! I honestly didn't realize for many years that some women had thighs that didn't touch when they walked; it didn't seem anatomically possible to me. Secondly, I never think it's a useful idea to dress a body you don't have (even in your mind), when there's a perfectly good body you have that you could dress instead! Everyone deserves to have comfortable, appealing, and functional clothing, regardless of size or body shape.
- Wear pantyhose or tights. This is what I usually resort to, but (a) this is unpleasant and should be unnecessary in warm weather, (b) I have trouble finding tights and hose that fit my height plus weight (they often droop in the crotch, which doesn't help the problem at all!), (c) this does not make me want to wear skirts and dresses (quite the contrary).
- Wear pantyhose with the legs cut off. This was my go-to solution for years, but I still had to wear a slip because otherwise my skirts catch and ride up on the hose fabric, which means the idea of "throwing on" a skirt is nil since I now have a required four layers (counting undies). And as I've said, I've lately had trouble finding hose that fit. All the larger sizes seem to think you want to be as stuffed as a sausage in casing. Control top can go and die a fiery death.
- Wear bike shorts. This also requires wearing a slip over but is an option if you can find some that fit. I used to have a comfortable cotton pair and am not sure where they got to — though they probably don't fit anymore, anyway.
- Wear regular shorts. Too bulky.
- Wear boy-cut panties or boxers. I haven't found any women's styles that don't ride up, rendering them useless for chafing purposes.
- Wear men's boxers or boxer briefs if you can find a size that fits snugly on you. (If you were really petite, you could even try boys' sizes.) I might try this at some point by purloining a pair of Sam's. Men's undies tend to be cheaper than anything specialized I could buy, so there's a plus!
- Wear footless leggings. I endorse this for those who can carry it off. However, in the summer leggings are still hot, and my skirts catch and ride up on them. In the winter, I have to wear shoes (not sandals), and that means I have to wear substantial socks, for I have wuss feet. I don't think that really works with leggings. I can pull off the look with boots (and knee-highs) over leggings, but sometimes I want to wear shoes. UPDATED: Tara adds the idea of shortening a pair of footless leggings for summer wear.
- Wear a thigh-length girdle. I can't stand control-top pantyhose. I think a girdle is out. UPDATED: Organic Patchwork says Spanx are bearable.
- Wear a running skirt (which is actually a skort) underneath. Running skirts (which can serve a double purpose, obviously) are super cute and are a short skirt attached over a pair of tight-fitting bike shorts. I even found one in my closet that I forgot I bought because I figured it wouldn't fit, and I tried it on and it does fit — woo! So I wore it running and was so excited that it would become my clear solution to the chafing-under-skirts problem. Only: no. Because the inseam is short enough that the legs ride up, still, and I was tugging at them the whole run. I've determined if I wear shorts of whatever kind that they need to reach longer than the widest part of my thigh, or there's no way they won't just ride up as I walk or run. (Wait, don't Miss America contestants glue their swimsuits
in place to prevent wedgies? Maybe that's what I need!) UPDATED: Anna recommends Skirt Sports and the Happy Girl Skirt ($70) in particular. I actually had been looking at this company a couple months ago and debating whether to order one of their skirts — they look wonderful.
- Rub antiperspirant on your inner thighs. Helps a little because of moisture control but doesn't eliminate the problem. Also troublesome to rub chemically laden product near sensitive areas.
- Use powder. Doesn't last. Also troublesome near lady parts, depending what it's made of. UPDATED: Shae recommends corn flour. Sounds nice and natural! Laura recommends Gold Bond Powder. I've heard good things about that brand in particular.
- Use diaper cream. Works to heal the irritation but not prevent it. UPDATED: Kara in the comments suggests trying lanolin or Aquaphor over adding layers in hot climates.
- Vaseline. Tried this. Ineffective and messy! If anything, it made the stickiness worse.
- Use a commercial anti-chafe product, such as hard-core cyclists and runners use. Haven't tried this but can't buy it this month! Not convinced they'll work as well for thighs, since most of the reviews mention feet (blister prevention) and nipples (for male runners; I just use a bra, yo), and since I had a bad experience with the Vaseline. I worry also about questionable ingredients and that it will rub off on and ruin my clothes. UPDATED: Anna recommends Bodyglide
and says she loves it.
Wear Chafe Shield Anti-Chafing Underwear
— bwa ha ha ha ha! I seriously can't imagine how uncomfortable and embarrassing I would find these. [Edited: Apparently, everyone agreed, because I can't find them any longer!]- Then someone online suggested: Try pettipants! And bloomers! So I've been wanting to try some, but I can't decide (a) what fabric to get (slippery nylon? breathable cotton? a mix? and what can I find, anyway?), (b) what length I should choose (my skirts vary in length and include knee-length options, so I'd rather have shorter if possible, but not at the expense of having them ride up and allow continued chafing), and (c) which brand (the reviews of the commercial ones are all over the map, and not everyone is buying them for anti-chafing purposes, which means I have to read the reviews carefully).
The other problem is, I also wear some skorts (scooters?) in the summer months where I'm having the same problem. I guess the inner legs of the shorts are too gappy/flappy or just too short an inseam. I don't know if there's anything I could wear under those that wouldn't show? Or any way I could alter the shorts legs to be more form-fitting?
Since I'm not spending money on the above possibilities,
anyone who wants to test drive a solution, go for it and then
send me in your report for a follow-up post!
Some options for pettipants I was considering buying:
I came across Marie Kondo's book, 
I'm Lauren Wayne, writer and natural parent. I embrace attached parenting with an emphasis toward green living. 
