Reducing and Reusing in our Household of Three

Our little bundle of joy is nine months old now, and our garbage levels have still not increased. Our recycling may have gone up a little bit due to toy packaging (from gifts) but overall, not much.

The key to this has definitely been in the diaper area. We chose to do cloth diapering coupled with Elimination Communication (helping the baby to eliminate into a toilet, not a diaper, whenever possible). We have about 30 diapers, and we started off having to wash them every day. By the time he was two months old it was down to every other day, and now we wash them once a week.

By communicating with Holden about his elimination needs as much as his eating/nursing needs, we now have a baby who rarely wets his diaper and mostly does his business into the toilet. I can honestly say that we haven’t had a poopy diaper for a couple of months. Now that is waste reduction!

Most people have a hard time believing that this is possible. If you want to read more about it, visit the Diaper Free Baby website

Another way that we are reducing and reusing is by making our own baby food. I make food in batches and freeze it, often in some reused baby food jars I got from a friend. This way I always have
food on hand, but I can still keep his diet varied. We haven’t had to buy any prepackaged baby food yet! So with a little effort and planning, even a baby doesn’t have to be an excuse for waste production.