Should you rip up the rug in baby’s nursery, ship it off to the landfill, and replace it with sustainably grown bamboo hardwoods? Or would it be better to steam clean the thirty year old orange shag carpet and incorporate the color scheme into a homemade quilt? How do you balance your environmental ideals with aesthetic desires and budget restraints? Has anyone encountered this very dilemma?

In our old home, one of our children ended up in a carpeted room while the other spent her babyhood a nursery with hardwood floors. If I had a limitless budget, I suppose we would have donated the carpet to a charity and put in wood floors throughout, but the recycler in me couldn’t allow a perfectly usable rug to be dumped into a landfill. (Even though I know carpets are much less healthy in a home environment than hardwoods.) Did you struggle with issues like these while you prepared for baby?

In The Eco-nomical Baby Guide,we share that we felt pressured to purchase baby-oriented gizmos to be “prepared” for the transition to motherhood. When our babies actually arrived, we realized that no amount of gear could compensate for grueling work of caring for a newborn. Life wasn’t a hardship because we didn’t own wipe warmers, it was hard because living without sleep and showers for extended periods of time was an absolute shock.

In the months before my baby arrived, Rebecca’s input helped me bypass the baby aisle and look to consignment stores and craigslist. My husband and I also repurposed what we already had to outfit the nursery. In the end we purchased only one new piece of new furniture–a combination dresser and changing table from Ikea—and ended up with a beautiful nursery. It was outfitted with a used rocking chair with homemade seat covers, (which honestly turned out to creak annoyingly every night from 3-5am….) homemade curtains, a solid maple secondhand crib, a used boppy with a new cover, and art given to us at our baby shower. Stacks of gently used pre-folds purchased from a diaper service and a dozen secondhand diaper covers filled the shelves as we waited for baby.

And how much did all that cost? We spent less than a thousand dollars on my son’s entire first year..and relished every dime that we set aside for later. (Not to mention all the packaging that was saved by buying used instead of new.) We both sometimes reflect on baby gear that we could have splurged on, but at the time it was also fun to see just what we could live without.

So what all did we pass up? New baby clothes, a wipe warmer, a bottle sterilizer, lots of disposable diapers (although we did use them at night), and much, much more. What did we buy used? Almost everything!

What did you cross off your registry list and what did you buy used for baby? Did friends and family support your decision to limit your purchases? Did you even have a baby nursery or get creative with another room in your home?

I was sure we would simply slip our infant into a sink full of bubbles and save a large hunk of plastic from entering the landfill. When we found the kitchen sink bath to be far trickier than anticipated, my husband insisted on buying a baby tub.

Of course, now I realize that gently used infant tubs are everywhere! I do actually wish we would have searched for one while I was pregnant because I was too crazily exhausted to seek out anything other than food and showers in the months after I gave birth.

If I ever did buy a tub, I do think the Spa Baby Upright Baby Eco Tub is rather clever. It is made out of 100% recycled plastic without polycarbonate, bisphenol-A, or paint. Although it claims to be usuable for newborns to 10 month olds, I’m not sure how easily baths would go on either end of that spectrum.

Did you live without a baby tub? Do you have any tricks for sink baths? Did you end up just using the full sized tub with some sort of insert?

While we haven’t yet discovered a ceramic crib, we are happy to report that there are some unexpectedly eco-friendly, beautiful and affordable pieces of green baby gear. Rebecca and I both focused on minimizing with our babies to avoid being swallowed in a sea of plastic doodads. But the Growing Up Green product line would have also been a great alternative considering that it carries sustainable, simply designed products at reasonable prices.

My favorite is the Growing Up Green Wood Step Stool. It’s currently half off at just over twenty bucks and is both sturdy and beautiful. Made from pesticide-free, sustainably raised bamboo, you can also feel good about its sources. (In the interest of full disclosure, I do have to share that it’s made in China. Sigh..) My kids are now five and nearly three, and the step stool is probably their most frequently used piece of furniture. I would love to replace the blue plastic garage sale number with one of these!

The Growing Up Green Potty Seat is simple, elegant and priced similarly to it’s plastic counterparts at just twelve bucks. If you try infant potty training, as we sort of accidentally did, you’ll be getting years of use out of this investment. (Plus, having a seat that fits on the toilet means that you won’t have to clean out a small potty on a daily basis…)

The Growing Up Green Bamboo Booster Seat is the most expensive of the three at nearly sixty dollars and the one I’m least sold on. Somehow all the right angles give me anxiety about applesauce and pureed yams becoming encrusted in the cracks. I cannot count the hours that I have spent cleaning my daughter’s high chair. It’s curved and has as few angles as possible, and yet…it can be horrifying what lodges in the corners. So if there’s a place for a secondhand plastic product, I think perhaps it’s highchairs and boosters.

Would you consider any of these bamboo products? Do you own any new or used wooden baby gear? Have you had success with the Bamboo Booster Seat?

This month we’ll be exploring how to outfit a green nursery with high quality baby gear on a budget. Of course, our favorite green strategies involve those old school R’s: reduce, recycle and reuse. But it can be tough to score all secondhand baby gear if you are the first one of your friends and family to have a child. You may end up being showered with so much loot that it’s hard to find your way out from under the pile of ribbons. If that’s the case, heading off to the consignment shop is a bit futile until your child grows out of all those gifts.

On the other hand, if you’re the last one to welcome a baby, herds of relatives and friends may be thrusting their gently used Boppy pillow and Ergo Carriers into your life. You may even be slightly bummed out that you won’t be unwrapping a single new toy, as you have grocery bags full of wooden cars stored in the basement. (Note to readers, Rebecca and I wackily loved all things used and never had the urge to purchase new gear. This may seem weird, but it’s true.)

I have to say that I belong to both parts of the hand-me-down system. We supply expecting friends with deliveries of sturdy secondhand cloth diapers and tiny denim overalls, most of which we bought used. But my daughter will probably never own a piece of new clothing as we have endless tubs of beautiful girl’s clothes handed down to us by my four nieces. It’s fun to be on both ends of the cycle!

So are you the one handing down the goods or are you receiving the secondhand baby gear? Are you buying secondhand gear online and hoping to stumble into some gear exchanges later on? Do you prefer to buy new items for your first child and save them for your future children? Do you loan out gear between the births of your children and ask people to return it?

In my life before kids, I was much too cool for furniture. I had been a world traveler and wanted to live out of my backpack for the rest of my adult existence, even when I moved back to Oregon. Eventually I settled in enough to buy a great quality used futon for $100. It was functional, it was uncomfortable, and it was going to be temporary. That was exactly fourteen years ago.

Later my husband and I waited to buy furniture because our house was small. Then because our kids came along and slid half chewed bananas along the surface of everything we owned. Our futon is still solidly sitting in our living room and has survived nauseous children, early potty training, and dozens of guests who have graciously attempted sleep on its lumpy surface. (My co-blogger and co-author Rebecca is one of them…)

At some point last week, I came down with a feverish desire for a couch. Now that our kids are a bit older, it suddenly seemed possible to move beyond combat furniture. I didn’t give a whit about style, I just desperately wanted a soft space on which to rest my 39 year old bones. For the last two years I have searched craigslist for the right fit, color and frame and haven’t been inspired. After a visit to a few local furniture stores during their January clearance events, we have opted to buy a new couch rather than wait for used.

If you have followed this blog, or read our book, The Eco-nomical Baby Guide, you know just how shocking it is for me to splurge on anything new. But unlike baby furniture or clothing, this couch is going to sit in our living room for the next decade or more. (Remember how long that futon got stuck there?) Our favorite model is made by Stanton Sofas right here in the state of Oregon with a hardwood frame and an extensive lifetime warranty that will ensure our kids don’t destroy it within the first six months. (The picture below isn’t from Stanton, but it’s the type of small sectional we’re buying.)

Although I’m a bit shocked that we’re finally moving out of our spartan furniture phase, I have to say it feels great to have scrimped all those years so that we can finally appreciate owning a good piece of furniture. Having spent the last decade flopping down on a lumpy futon, it will be glorious appreciate the comfort of a soft sofa each and every time we collapse at the end of the day. The futon will be moved down to playroom to officially become “the jumping couch.” I think our kids may end up taking it to college in about fifteen years….

Some people avoid the futon phase altogether and buy a great couch before their children ever arrive. Maybe their offspring are much calmer than mine or perhaps better trained to respect fine furniture. What has your experience been? Do you have any couch advise for me? Are you still living in futon-land?

Ahh elastic. During the months leading up to my children’s births and the long struggle to find my waistline afterwards, I leaned on the magical stretchy waistline to clothe my ever changing body.

At a certain point though, I peered into my closet and saw not a single thing I wanted to wear. My maternity clothes were baggy, my pre-baby clothes were impossible, and I was tired of looking at all of them on a daily basis.

Since we’re focusing on eco-nomical solutions this month, we won’t recommend burning your old clothes—though I have to admit that I have had pyromaniacal fantasies about setting fire to those black stretch pants that I wore three times a week for almost a full year. There are less drastic ways to make your closet a more refreshing place without fire–and without tossing your skinny jeans, or your hopes of wearing them, into the wind.

Step One. Pull everything out you hate. As a frugal, green soul, I always got hung up on this step. I would contemplate how much that hot pink plaid flannel jacket with hideous vertical stripes cost or who gave it to me and grudgingly hang it in the back, where I would catch a glimpse of its woodsy ugliness every single day. Eventually I learned that if I hate it on a gut level, it’s time to let it go!

Step Two. Organize everything else. Once I had a giant pile of loathed garments on the floor, it was time to actually arrange what was left in a way that made my life easier. I made sure my favorite pair of jeans were easy to access and the lovely floral sundress I wear once a year at summer weddings is stashed in the back. Nail up some hooks or invest in some hangers if it makes getting dressed even the least bit more fun.

Step Three. Determine what you might need. Would your life be infinitely better if you owned a pair of black yoga pants? (Mine is..sigh.) Do you need more work blouses that button down for easy nursing access? Make a concise list of what you need.

Step Four. Go buy it! You can certainly head off to Macy’s with credit card in hand, but our favorite eco-nomical solution for post partum clothing is buying used. Consignment shops or thrift stores often have top quality brands for a fraction of the price. Since your body may be fluctuating a bit over the next few months, it’s best to forgo expensive clothing that may not fit in the short run for high quality used garments. (Note..buying clothing at thrift and consignment stores may become habit forming. I began hitting used shops after my baby was born, and am now fully addicted four years later!)

Step Five. Decide What to Do With Your Rejects. Stay tuned to an upcoming post about establishing a clothing exchange with friends to swap out clothes and get new ones without spending a dime. You can always donate the lot or sell them at a consignment store to earn some cash for the clothes you’d like to have. The pre-baby jeans can be packed away out of sight for a later time so that you don’t have to view them on a daily basis.

Step Six. Enjoy Getting Dressed! Every day that you open your closet doors to see comfortable clothes that fit, is a day that starts out just a tad bit better. Celebrate your body where it is and realize that it takes time to shift back to your former shape. In the meantime, make your closet a friendly space!

Have you pulled out those maternity jeans yet? Are you still wearing them? Have you managed to attack your closet while caring for a newborn?

January is a great month for reorganizing your bathroom or decluttering the kitchen counters but I remember that both my pregnancies spurred my (limited) organizational tendencies into overdrive. At the time, our house was a thousand square feet and we wanted to evaluate how we used every inch in the days before our babies arrived.

But instead of rushing out to buy hundreds of dollars of bins, shelves, and baskets to hold our stuff, we started with what we had. (This is mostly due to our green ideals, but our tightwad tendencies were a factor as well.) So where do you start if you are overwhelmed, without an organizational system, and pregnant? With tiny, tiny steps.

Start small. It gave me great happiness to attack the medicine closet or a spice cabinet. I simply pulled out everything, tossed it into a box, and was very selective about what we put back in. Having these small, but really important areas organized spurred my motivation to move onto the next zone in my home that was driving me crazy. (We are currently living in a much bigger home and I am not pregnant, but I had the pleasure of sorting through my medicine cabinet and bathroom shelves last week. I still have to open them regularly just to admire the neat, labeled pull-out tubs made out of empty kleenex boxes. One is for cold and flu medicine, one for first aide, etc. Order, even in small spaces, is bliss when life with kids is such chaos.)

Play Furniture Tetris. A friend of mine with a similarly sized home coined this phrase and I loved it instantly. For awhile we kept baby in our bedroom and gave up the nursery altogether. Then we shifted the office contents into the living room and moved everything about once more. We were constantly asking ourselves how to repurpose what we already had. Could the baby’s dresser also work as a changing table? Could our small shelf be a spot to stash towels in the bathroom?

Recycle for profit. Taking boxes of rarely read novels to the used book store or selling our loot on craigslist earned us the money to buy what we really wanted for our home. Plus we scored space on our shelves to display what we really love.

When in doubt, donate. Even if I think I just might someday use that ugly turquoise fish pitcher, I’ve learned to toss it in the donation pile. I feel it improves my personal thrift store karma and of course it scores us a lovely tax write-off as well. Also, by recycling something I loathe we recover precious household space.

When I was in the midst of parenting a newborn, any change in our environment took approximately sixteen times longer than it normally would have. But when I was pregnant, I could organize three cupboards of tupperware in less than fifteen minutes. (I so wish that crazy organization drive was still with me today!) Where are you in the parenting spectrum? What do you plan on being able to organize this month? Stay tuned for upcoming posts on tackling your closet…maternity jeans and all!

While I loved that traditional composting turned old onion skins into rich soil, I did not enjoy the colony of mice who had taken up residence in our compost bin. They waited with entitled patience for me to deliver their daily meals of table scraps by sitting atop the heap, not even scattering when I opened the bin. It was gross. It was unsanitary. But it was also impossible to quit. How could I possibly toss corn cobs into a plastic trash bag with a clear eco-consience?

Now maybe if I would have had a turning bin, or if I was less of lazy composter, I wouldn’t have had this rodent infestation issue. But for years mice kept popping up in our compost bin while I wrung my hands over a solution. Finally, I discovered bokashi bins and life became infinitely easier.

The word bokashi sounds like a type of sushi or a kitchen appliance, but it’s actually Japanese for fermented food waste. Developed in Japan, bokashibokashi is a substance made of rice bran, microorganisms, and molasses that greatly speeds up the decomposition process. And since you can toss anything in a bokashi bin including meat, dairy, eggs and fruits and veggies, it’s far easier to slash your overall trash production while producing beautiful soil for the garden.

So how is Bokashi different than traditional composting?

1. You can compost anything, including meat, dairy, eggs and even pet waste!
2. The bokashi compost bin stays in your kitchen or garage for two weeks before you take it out.
3. You need to have bokashi bran to sprinkle on the compost to make sure that it breaks down quickly without smelling bad. It essentially pickles the food waste to eliminate rotten scents while the contents disintegrate. (Honestly, a bucket filled with a chicken carcass, bacon fat, old casserole, and scrambled eggs smells lightly of pickles—and nothing else. It’s amazing!)
4. It’s an anaerobic process, so you must pack it down and seal it rather than trying to turn it regularly.
5. Ideally, bokashi compost is buried in the ground after two weeks
to help it finish decomposing.

Overall, I find bokashi composting easier and more gratifying than traditional composting. It’s a little more hands on, but I love that none of my food waste goes into the trash. And I’d much rather bury the contents of a bucket every few weeks than trek to the compost bin on a daily basis. I’ll share more about my bokashi revelations in some upcoming posts–including how to make your own bins and get started on a very small budget.

This month Rebecca and I are focusing on reducing household consumption and waste. As we’ve both shared, we’re probably considered tree hugging hippies by many, but our thrifty, green fervor has slacked off a bit over the years. Even though I no longer hang out every load of laundry, I have to say that giving up composting altogether wasn’t an option. I simply couldn’t dump moldy melon rinds into the trash without chest pain caused by eco-guilt. Plus, since we’ve had kids our household production of half eaten macaroni, expired yogurt, and soggy grapes has drastically increased.

So why did I want to stop composting?

1. Often there were dairy products, eggs or meats mixed with food waste, which meant it couldn’t be composted.
2. Our compost bin is a huge distance from our kitchen.
3. We were constantly besieged with clouds of fruit flies.
4. MICE! Lots of them, who happily nested in the bin while food was delivered to them on a daily basis.

The last factor eventually grossed me out so much that I began researching another solution. Bokashi Bins have been fantastic and greatly lessened our overall family garbage. (And fruit flies, and mice, and the trek to the compost bin!)

You can read my post written nearly three years ago entitled, Do Bokashi Bins Work?, to find out more. But also, stay tuned to my series of upcoming posts on how to start your own bokashi system, how to build your own bins, and how to rapidly change table scraps into rich soil.

Despite the fact that my eco-nomical efforts may have slacked in some areas, I feel like bokashi composting is a huge victory that actually makes my life a tad bit easier. Do you use Bokashi? Have you ever even heard of it?