Spring cleaning day 5

Man, it is so easy to just say "okay, clothes are sorted, I'm all good". But my motivation to continue is my daughters birthday party coming up. I would like the house to at least be clean for that!! It went back to cold weather and more snow here so it is hard to want to keep up my "spring attitude"!

Today I am washing and sorting all my kids toys. Anything missing pieces, or chewed up (by the puppies not the kids!) Gets thrown in a box to donate or throw away. Any toys not played with in a long time get donated or added to my rummage sale boxes.

Washing them helps is get rid of all the cold and flu germs either my kids, friends, or family have left behind on them. Plus the dirt and grime from baby drool and the great out doors. Toys that you forgot your baby dropped at the store and meant to wash but forgot, yeah, those get washed too. I have some toy wipes left from my Dapple product review so all my baby toys too big to wash, like the swing and the exersaucer, are getting wiped down with those. Sometimes I am amazed at the dirt and dust that collect on those!

Don't forget about the bath toys! Any toys that suck in water like some rubber ducks, unless you clean them out with a little bleach water on a regular basis and you've had them over 6 months, they might nerd to be replaced. Bath toys don't fully dry and mold starts growing inside of them.

I've also got a tote just for baby stuff I am keeping "just in case" of another baby that my kids have out grown playing with.

Now its easier to decide where to put all these toys once I realized how many we really don't need. So we have toys for storage, toys for rummaged sale, toys to pass on to friends in need, and toys to donate. Our house is going to be hundreds of pounds lighter after all of this! Haha.

Besides your average Goodwill and St Vinnie's (and storage, passing toys on, etc.) there are some great sites for toy donation. Like, http://www.secondchancetoys.org/ or http://www.donationtown.org/news/donate-toys.html

Hope you are enjoying your spring cleaning!
Teresa

Day 4 of Spring Cleaning

It's my daughter's 2nd birthday today! So I picked something a bit easier today...kind of...so I don't have to spend as much time cleaning. Today I vacuumed all our carpeting...again moving all the furniture this time getting rid of all those dust bunnies! (And I mean ALL my furniture. Anything on the carpeting.) My husband got me a new vacuum for Christmas and I LOVE it! I'm always vacuuming and in disbelief at how much dust is in the bucket when I empty it!

If you need yourself a good vacuum and can't afford a Kirby (which are GREAT vacuums), try the Eureka Air Speed. It is a bagless vacuum though, for those with allergies, so not the best for emptying. It's amazing. I vacuumed with my old vacuum then went over it with the Eureka and the bucket was F-U-L-L of dust and hair and lint...and...oh I felt aweful letting my baby play on the floor after that! I have cream carpeting too, and they looked clean before I vacuum. I mean, I just can't get over it.

I also need to vacuum to get my daughters room all cleaned up so we can put in her new birthday gift! It's a Thomas the Train table set with drawers, and a chest and TONS of track we found on www.craigslist.org! You'd be amazed the deals you can find there. Our table is well over $700 new with everything that is included and we got it almost a quarter of that!! Check it out for some great deals in your area. Also a great place to sell your used items.

Have a fantastic day and happy cleaning! (PS...SNOW STORMS here again the past two days *sigh* but I continued my spring cleaning...hubby thinks I'm crazy..but hey!)

Teresa

~FuzziBunz Review and Giveaway!!!!~

When you think cloth diaper, any specific brands come to mind? I know ALLOT of people who say the first brand is FuzziBunz. Whether they use them or not, almost everyone in the cloth diapering community has heard of them.

What are Fuzzibunz? Well here's a little excerpt I copied from their page, here: 
FuzziBunz® are innovative diapers for the new Millenium. Yes, it is a "cloth diaper" but there is nothing to remind you of the pins and plastic pants of the past.
FuzziBunz® are a diaper that offer parents a leak free, rash free and disposal free way of diapering. FuzziBunz® are easy to clean, care for and use unlike traditional cloth diapers.

FuzziBunz® are made from one layer of soft waterproof fabric and one layer of lightweight 100% breathable poly fleece. The two layers form a pocket to place an insert or a pre-folded (old fashioned) diaper into. This ensures that ALL wetness is kept away from your baby`s tender skin. FuzziBunz® fasten with plastic snaps and are very adjustable to fit your baby`s growing needs. FuzziBunz® are professionally made with only the highest quality materials. FuzziBunz® are trim fitting and virtually leak proof. What more could you want in a diaper??


So I guess not much more is needed to explain WHAT a FuzziBunz is, BUT I CAN tell you how it worked for ME!

One new thing about FuzziBunz is that they have switched their manufacturer from China to Turkey giving us a different fabric for our diapers and the sizes run a little bit larger. I had the opportunity to use some old FuzziBunz a while back and I was a bit turned off. The fabric was coarse, the fittings ran small, and it just seemed a little bit awkward (for my kids anyways!).

FuzziBunz sent me one of their new OS diapers in Choco Truffle! (I LOVE natural colors!)

They also sent me their diaper with a new organic hemp jersey contoured insert I don't know if you are familiar with hemp in diapers but, not only is hemp super absorbent, it is naturally anti-bacterial and unbleached. The hemp jersey is the trimmest of the hemp fabrics, recommended for heavier wetters. (It's naturally more absorbent than micro fiber or most other inserts).

The hemp insert has a smooth surface with 6 layers of hemp jersey. These inserts are 55% hemp and 45% cotton jersey.

Unlike their diapers, FuzziBunz Hemp Jersey Inserts are made in the USA by Cloth Diapers, Inc.

My Opinion?
I love the color selection they carry. A wide variety of solid prints. You can see the colors here. They have a one size diaper, which grows with your baby or a perfect size diaper made to fit perfectly. I was sent, and prefer using the one size diaper. It can grow with your child from birth to potty training, which is a big money saver, BUT you CAN lose the trimness of a diaper but not having it in their exact size.

Their one size are a bit different than what you expect. Most cloth diapers have snaps on the front you can fold down to adjust the size for todler or smaller baby. FuzziBunz have an elastic band in each leg with a small button to size up or down to fit your child, and a band at the waist. You have much more options for sizing with these diapers and less bulk when you size down since the diaper isn't folded over.

They even provide a chart for sizing to help you out!

I am a bit more use to the sizing of snaps so this took some time to adjust to. It's still not my favorite OS style, but it works well and fits much trimmer than all my other OS diapers. You are suppose to tuck in the elastic tab to hide it after adjusting. I found this a little hard to do when adjusting it to fit my 6 month old since there was so much elastic left over. They did send extra elastic adjusters, which is very nice since we all know it can wear out after a while!

The hemp insert works GREAT to absorb. I have heavy wetter so it was a great product for me to try out. No leaks at all yet. The only down side to hemp is, because of it's ability to absorb moisture, it takes longer to dry after washing. That should make you feel good about it whisking away moisture on your tiny one's bottom.

Overall I think FuzziBunz are a great diaper. I have not had a single leak problem when using it. It's breathable and lightweight. It's cute and it's a one size diaper. No complaints here! I would highly recommend these diapers to my cloth diapering momma's.


BUY IT: You can buy your own OS Fuzzibunz here for $19.95. You can buy these diapers in packs of 3 or more for savings. They also sell their perfect size, which are about $17.95 a diaper, here. Also sold in packs for mroe saving. FuzziBunz also sells lots of other great products. You can check them out by going to their website, http://www.fuzzibunzstore.com

WIN IT: FuzziBunz has offered oneof my fans their very own one size diaper with a hemp insert! Simply fill out the form below. For US Residents only, per sponsors request. Giveaway will end 4/27/11

Helpful Links:
FuzziBunz Website
FuzziBunz on Facebook at Cloth Diaper, Inc.
FuzziBunz on Twitter at Cloth Diaper, Inc.

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Make sure you TAG us on facebook if you share using the @symbol then typing our name (no space).
Sample phrase to tweet: @TNSFamilyValues is giving away a #cloth diaper from @FuzziBunz on her blog, www.tnsfamilyvalues.blogspot.com