The First aRRRR

Okay, I had to go a little pirate speak with the title which references Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Renew. Often, I only see three of these four, and the one that gets dropped is reduce.
With the current economic climate (geez, that phrase aint' gettin' old, huh?), reduce is paramount! Isn't it great, you can help your pocketbook and the environment by not getting that cheezy piece o' plastic crap?
Having a baby sure does add to the list o' junk, too. I have been working hard on getting by with the bare minimum and finding new ways of making that which essentially would fill a landfill otherwise.

For starters, of course, are the cloth diapers. These bad boys are all the rage now-a-days and the price reflects. Even a regular old flat fold can make you think twice and wrap your baby's butt in an old t-shirt. I did in fact do that when I made my own from recycled garb, but really, I need flat folds. How can I reduce and still get my flat fold?
Solution, I got some rags from the diaper service so danged cheap it'd make your head spin. Unfortunately, they were indeed rags! I washed them initially and there were little cotton hairs all over the washing machine! Little good they did in that state. Ingenuity to the rescue: they started their diaper lives as 4x8x4 but will live out the rest of their lives as 2x6x2 because I removed the top damaged layer. Now, used with her EC belt, Renée enjoys their slightly diminished size.

Her play area is currently decorated with the fabric crawfish boil, Louisiana felt book, doll houses, and gifts. But, she needed a bit more fun and after reading some theory of Montessori, we implemented the mirror from off our wall and mobile made of paper plate and ribbons. That mobile hangs from a heating vent and has a clip on the end. When we need a change, unclip and add-on. Phoebe is currently coloring in patterns for the next paper mobile. Beware, though, fountain pens get easily mixed into markers and cause messes.

Some other ways we reduce is to ask for glassware at restaurants instead of the kids plastic cups, use our stainless steel water holders instead of hormone altering, bad molecule leaching Nalgene (no, I'm not bitter), and use the library and Netflix more for our entertainment needs. What else can we do?