How to Buy a Natural Bed when You Have No Income

Note to readers: click HERE to read an updated version of this post.


I truly believe that if you are going to green one thing, you should green your beds, because people (babies and children especially) spend so much time sleeping.  About a year ago, we bought a full size bed for our 2 small children to sleep in together.  I couldn't afford my ideal bed (all natural materials, no plastic, no toxic chemicals), but I ended up with a decent compromise. Below you'll find information about my ideal bed, very affordable eco-friendlier options, and what I actually bought.

The Pièce de résistance.

But what if you aren't in the market for a new mattress right now?  Hopefully, you'll find the information below on bedding, pillows and mattress protectors useful.  Honestly, I chose not to research the mattress issue until I was ready to buy a new bed to avoid unduly stressing myself out.  I will say that if I had a new baby sleeping in a crib it would be my number one shopping priority to buy a 100% natural crib mattress (probably made of organic cotton and wool) with zero added flame retardants and a wool puddle pad for protection.

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Eco-novice Featured on Euphoria Blog

If you feel so inclined, head over to Euphoria Blog, where Rachel features Eco-novice as part of her Mommy Blogger Love series.

Rachel's store, EuphoriaBaby.com has great information about cloth diapers (she even gives out her email and phone number if you want to "talk diapers").

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10 Reasons I Love Pyrex

During one of my many moves in the last few years, my husband and I decided it was time to get rid if the old tupperware.  Some of it dated back to his and my childhood ("borrowed" from our parents when we moved out on our own).  I had always heard that you shouldn't microwave food in plastic or put plastic through the dishwasher, or use plastic that looked degraded, but I never really got serious about it until we had our first child.  Then I decided that I didn't want any of us eating plastic.  But, you know what?  Hand-washing plastic containers and transferring food into glass containers to microwave it got old really fast.  So I decided that we would ditch all of our mismatched plastic containers, and buy Pyrex.

Many years later, we still love our Pyrex.  Here's why:

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Cloth Diaper Tutorial - The EASIEST Way to Use a Prefold

My friend Nisha asked me how I use prefolds.  So here you go:

1.  Lay out your prefold cloth diaper flat.  Pictured above is an unbleached regular size prefold, which works well from a few months old until potty training.  Also pictured, the inside of my Thirsties cover, which is what I'm going to put the prefold into.  This is a medium-sized Thirsties that I had converted from velcro to snaps by Convert My Diapers (more on that in another post).  In addition to switching the velcro enclosure to a snap enclosure, she also added snaps on the front so that I could adjust the size.  Thirsties now makes a cover like this themselves -- take a look.

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What Do You Do with the POOP???

A big barrier in switching from disposables to cloth diapers is poop. I mean, as parents, we’ve all washed our share of pee, right? Pee on clothes, pee on sheets, pee on the floor because the diaper shifted a little too far to the side. But poo is another matter. We’ve all washed poo too, mostly out of clothes after a pooplosion. Most people do not relish the idea of dealing with poop anymore than they have to. Although all disposable diapers include instructions telling you to remove the poop from the diaper before throwing it in the trash (because that stuff belongs in the sewage system, not in the landfill where it may contaminate ground water), nobody does. At least no one I’ve ever met. So, just in case you are thinking about using cloth diapers, let’s discuss some of your options when it comes to poop.  (These methods all assume a dry pail, which is what I use.)

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My Favorite Green Conditioner

Does your child ever suck on your hair?  My first baby did all the time.  And so one of the first ingredient lists I scrutinized was the one on my bottle of conditioner. 

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I Love Hulu and Netflix (Goodbye, DIRECTV)

We have canceled cable!  Goodbye, DIRECTV.  Hello, $40 more per month in my pocket.  I've wanted to get rid of cable/satellite for some time now, because they charge too much and don't have a package small enough for me.  I really only want the networks and PBS, and not all those crappy kiddy channels.

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Top 10 Benefits of Moving into a Smaller Place

I recently moved into a smaller place:  fewer bedrooms, smaller living room, smaller family room.  Here are ten benefits of moving into a smaller place.

I love saving money.

1.  Lower rent

2.  Lower deposit

3.  Lower utilities

Yes, these 3 are all related to money, and they are all wonderful.  Lower cost-of-living was one of the main impetuses for the move, after all.  

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Non-toxic Antibacterial Soap

We have a stomach bug going around at my house.  What do stomach bugs make you want to do?  Disinfect every surface, product and person in your house, right?

Well, years and years ago, before I was married or had children, a smart conscientious friend of mine (who read Scientific American magazine on a regular basis) told me about the evils of antibacterial soap.  She told me that antibacterial soaps:

• Aren't necessary for regular folks
• Aren't more effective than regular soap
• Probably help create drug-resistant super bugs
• Contain toxic chemicals

So I stopped using antibacterial soaps and hand sanitizers a long time ago.  I didn't even use them when when I was an elementary school teacher watching my students put their pencils in their mouth and fingers in their noses and then hand me their papers.  I just washed my hands very thoroughly and often.  So what do I do now when there is a stomach bug going around my house and I really, really, really don't want the baby to get it?

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10 Alternatives to Synthetic Air Fresheners

I have never liked the smell of synthetic air fresheners. I have a sensitive nose.  Even when I'm not pregnant.  I can remember disliking the one in my grandma’s bathroom when I was a kid. I bought fragrance-free or unscented personal products and cleaning products years before I ever heard the word "phthalates."  When I got married, I had to wean my husband off of the spray air fresheners in the bathroom and the plug-in air fresheners throughout the house. I couldn’t stand the smell. And this was before I knew anything about toxins in household products.

I’m not going to go into all the gory details about why you shouldn’t use most air fresheners. Let’s just say that they contain many chemicals (formaldehyde, petroleum distillates, p- dichlorobenzene, and aerosol propellants) that you and your children should not be inhaling or eating (the droplets linger in the air and fall on the floor).

Here are some lovely alternatives:

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