Diaper Pail Deodorant Discs

The deodorizer discs are working, and not just for the diaper pail. I stuck one behind the kitty litter box (for 2 kitties) and the discs are working tremendously there too. So here is the "recipe" for making your own deodorant discs.

Ingredients:

2 cups Baking Soda

1/2 cup water

10 drops Tea Tree Oil

10 drops Lavender Essential Oil (EO)

(I suppose you could use 20 drops of some other EOs but I am going for the properties of these oils)

Hardware -

2 glass bowls

a spoon

1 12 muffin tin - I say tin, but I only have a silicone one. If you use tin, I would line the pans with something to make it easy to get them out later, like silicone liners.

Directions:

Pour 2 cups of baking soda in a bowl. Mix water and EOs together in a separate bowl. Add water and EOs to the baking soda and mix until well incorporated.

The mix should be like wet sand, but not too wet - you just need it to clump so you can put it in the muffin pan.

Take approximately one large spoonful of the mix in each cup of the pan. Press the mix into the cups. I had my 2 year old do this job and he loved it - mashing a cup into the pan forms.

Set the pan in an area that will not be disturbed and is not very humid for about 24 hours. Remove the discs from the pan and place in the bottom of garbage pails, or anywhere you need a little extra deodorizing power.

These discs are a little fragile so handle with care. If they stop working - you no longer smell the pleasant smell of the oils, then you can always add a few drops of oil to the disc to refresh it. I am storing the extras in a glass container (so the oil is not absorbed into a plastic container) and in the back of the pantry so they are not jostled too much.

Diaper Pail Woes

I have been having a battle with my garbage pail for what seems like an eternity. I have a liner in the pail, but I guess boy pee is just made to be super potent ammonia smelling. Maybe girl pee smells this bad too, maybe it is just toddler/baby pee but I can't seem to get the smell out of the pail. I wash diapers about every 2 days or so, I was the liner, and I wash the pail, then I leave it out in the sun most of the time to dry hoping the sun will bake the smell out - maybe the sun is baking the smell in. Then I throw about a quarter of a cup of baking soda in the bottom, and a few drops of tea tree oil. Back goes the liner, and we are off for another few days. Now mind you, this is not a cloth diaper issue - when we used disposables, we had the same problem, and moved the garbage can out to the garage. I don't want to move my cloth diaper pail into the garage. This cleaning method is just not working to my satisfaction, so I have tried something else - I really hope this works better. I made my own deodorizer "cakes" today from baking soda, water, tea tree oil and lavender oil. I mixed everything up, mashed it into a muffin tin, and set them out to dry. It should only take about a day for them to cake up. This way, I can put a cake in the bottom of the pail, as well as in the top of the little ball where you are supposed to put some sort of chemical deodorant that the company who makes the pail sells.

I took pictures - if it works after 2 days, I'll post the pix and the exact recipe.

Repurposed Receiving Blankets - Project 1 - Contoured Baby Diaper

I had (who am I kidding - have) several piles of receiving blankets ready to go before my son was even born.  I had no idea what they were for, but everyone (really.. everyone!) with a child told me you can never have enough receiving blankets.  I started to wonder after he was born if this is just some joke other moms play on new moms or moms to be to see how many blankets a new mom will collect.  I never found a use for them as a blanket or otherwise.  

When I started cloth diapering, I realized how silly it is to CD, but then use disposable wipes.  So off to the stash of receiving blankets I went with my pinking shears to make my own wipes.  5 blankets later, and I have plenty of wipes that have lasted over 2 years now.  I still have a large cloth grocery bag full of receiving blankets and now what do I do?  

Project 1:  Make my own contour cloth diapers

This weekend, I made my own pattern from one of my favorite pocket diapers and created a very cute reversible contour diaper.  I have just recently begun sewing so this is a relatively simple project that anyone can do.  I used 2 blankets, and 1 microfiber shop towel from a stash I bought a couple of years ago when we gave up papertowels.

1. Line up 2 blankets.  Fold the blankets in half (or thirds).  Line up the long edge of the pattern on the fold of the blanket.  You should now have an outer layer and an inner layer.  This is a contour diaper and will need a cover so it is okay that both inner and outer are absorbable material.
2. Cut out the soaker - I used a shop towel cut into a strip 4" wide by about 15" long.  
3. Sew the soaker layers together - I didn't bother turning them inside out on this one - I figure it is inside the diaper where no one sees so it should be okay, and it didn't seem to feel uncomfortable through the other layers, so I think it is okay with my son too.
4. Lay the soaker layer inside one of the cutout blankets and line up so the center of the soaker runs down the center of the diaper and is about one inch from the bottom of the diaper.
5. Top stitch the soaker layer in place.
6. Lay right sides of the blankets together and sew together leaving about 3 inches on the top side so you can turn the diaper right side out.
7. Turn the diaper right side out, then fold under the opening.  Sew together.
8. Voila! Contoured baby diaper!  I did not do it on this pictured one, but I will be modifying it after the next wash cycle.  I am going to go back and sew down the center of the soaker to reinforce the stitches and hold it together on both sides.  I am also going to reinforce the edges by doing a top stitch around the entire diaper.

Baby Wipe Recipe

We cloth diaper, so why not cloth wipe too?  I have been working on a wipe recipe for so long now and I finally have found one that does not irritate my son's skin, and yet kills/prevents any type of yeast.

Liquid Ingredients

1/2 cup warm water

1/4 cup white vinegar

1/2 cup Aloe Vera Juice

15 drops of Grapefruit Seed Extract (anti-fungal and a preservative)

5 drops of Lavender Essential Oil (or any flavor you like),

2 or 3 old receiving blankets cut into wipe size

old wipes container, or old casserole dish with a tight fitting lid

I tri-fold all my wipes, put them into an old wipe container, then pour most of the mixture over the wipes.  They should be moist, but not drippy wet.  Any leftover solution, I put into a spray bottle to use for a bottom spray during morning dipe changes.