Monday, August 18, 2008

Cloth nappy mayhem (not quite)

Well, i am starting my own cloth nappy business, something i have been thinking about for over a year now. Things seem to be going ahead quite nicely. I have been in the setting up phase for about 3 months and finally am going to just go ahead, register my business name and get started. Many people seem very keen to see my nappies and are very interested in modern cloth nappies. I put some of my samples in an album on facebook just to show my friends who were interested to see some of the fabrics that i had been using. I never in my life expected that it would work as a kind of advertisement. I have had several messages about people being interested and possible wanting to order some. This has thrown me a bit but in a good way as now i have no excuses but to get on and do it. I have been making them for myself and some friends for over 12 months and i really enjoy doing it. I'm not at this stage doing it as an income for myself but rather i thought that i love to make them and people seem to want to buy them, so why not make a little money out of a hobby. The market is very competitive though, only today have i really looked into how much people charge for similar products and how much it costs me to make them.
There seems to be a cloth nappy revolution taking place and there is a lot of interest in them, and why not. Apart from the small task of washing them, there are far more benefits for using cloth than disposables. Firstly there is the landfill that is saved, I am still amazed to this day about how many nappies (particularly newborns) use in a week. Secondly, disposable nappies are so expensive, even the cheap ones are expensive. A Reusable cloth nappy system has saved us thousands of dollars, especially since we set them up to be unisex so as to suit any child we might have in the future. I cannot understand how anyone can afford to use all disposable nappies. Thirdly the benefits to the environment and to the babies skin. Josiah has never had a nappy rash, and Anna only occasionally since using cloth nappies. Arguments against cloth nappies say that they use a lot of water in washing but in reality, just as much water is used in the manufacturing of a disposable as is used in the washing of a cloth nappy. The washing would be worse if you weren't using nappies at all!
SO i am a bit inspired by the amount of interest in my nappies, it is always a risk doing something like this, what if no one is interested, what if no one wants to buy any, what if, what if, what if...... I think this will be a good thing, and in reality, i don't really mind if people don't buy my nappies, as long as they think about using cloth.

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