When it comes to diaper options, I do have to admit that I was a reluctant adopter of the more eco-friendly and budget friendly cloth diapers. In fact, I didn’t use it for my firstborn, relying quite heavily on disposable diapers when I had him 6 years ago. Today, with an almost 1-year old boy following me around all day, I’m really glad that I finally did try cloth diapers.

So what are the perks of choosing cloth diapers over disposable?

• Waste reduction – Obviously, one of the main draws of using cloth diapers is the amount of waste you avoid piling on mother Earth. Looking back at how much disposable diapers I went through with my firstborn makes me cringe.
• Savings – The first time you go out to buy your stock of cloth diapers will probably make it seem more expensive than using disposable diapers. However, depending on the brand of cloth diapers you use (and there are plenty of brands out there!) and the number of diapers and inserts you buy, you’ll be reaping the financial reward in saving within a few months. And since a lot of cloth diapers are adjustable and will last for more than a year, just imagine how much money you’ll save!
• Fashion – Disposable diapers may have cute little drawings on them, but if you want a fashionable looking diaper, then it’s cloth diapers you should use. I admit to feeling like buying more cloth diapers than needed whenever I see a new design come out.
• Performance – The main reason why I was so slow to adopt cloth diapers was that I had misgivings about how well they work. I just didn’t believe that my baby’s little but would stay dry with it. Well it does. And if you use 2 to 3 inserts instead of just one like I do, you can even go all night without changing your baby’s cloth diaper.
• Organic Choices – You will also find many organic baby cloth diapers. Even if you do not use cloth diapers made from organic material, you only need take a look at the materials used for disposable diapers and feel happy and proud for reducing the amount of toxins that touch your baby’s skin each time you use cloth diapers instead.

Photo via Caleb’s Closet Eco Store Facebook Page

Rebecca Lacko from The Examiner featured hair washing in her environmentally-friendly column. She mentioned how “in our pursuit of conquering the unruly, straightening the tightly curled, curling the poker straight and tinting the color, our hair is repeatedly abused with countless chemicals, and stripped of its natural oils—and both are washed down the drain by gallon after gallon of water.”

As such, she suggests that hair washing should be washed less frequently. Here are some reasons.

Waste and expense
a. most use way too much shampoo and conditioner, too often
b. gallons of water to rinse it out
c. more bottles of product mean more packaging waste
d. less power used for blow dryers, curling irons and/or flat irons

Now that I think about it, it does make sense. It’s not just the water and the hair products that are involved here – the blow drying and other things associated with washing your hair also puts stress on the environment.

Allowing the scalp’s sebaceous glands to do what nature intended
The function of sebaceous gland is to secrete an oily substance to protect the skin from getting dried and scaly. Otherwise the skin after getting dry would shed off.

Maybe that is why some people have problems with dry itchy scalp?

In any case, if you wash your hair every day, you might want to reconsider that habit.

It isn’t too early to start holiday shopping, in fact, the more organized you are, the less likely you are to go on last-minute panic mode and make not-very-green shopping decisions. In the following weeks, here at Yurto we’ll be giving you some great holiday shopping tips which will make the yearly task fun, efficient and best of all, good for Mother Earth!!

Part One: Online Sales

To begin with, remember that online shopping is a fantastic shopping option for a few obvious reasons:

Beating the crowds
Saving on fuel and/or transportation cost
Being able to make good choices from the comfort of home
Having access to more products around the world (rather than in your local shopping area)
Being able to avail of other cost-cutters like free shipping, coupons, vouchers and so on…

In view of the current economic state of the world, it’s also key to watch your purchases this year and make your holiday budget go a long way. In a word: SALE!!

Online, its easy to simply click on the “sale” page of a website to view whatever items they have on sale, rather than scouring the crowded stores, which are more likely not to have things on sale as the shopping season draws near.

Here are some sites with special offers and sales worth checking out:

Nigel’s Eco Store: One of my favourite online stores with a superb selection of products. Buy anything from Nigel’s CHRISTMAS range before November 15th and receive 10% OFF. Just enter the code ECONOV in the checkout when purchasing.
Offer ends midnight November 15th.

Simply Fair – Great bargains on sale with this UK site. Also has a number of special offers for November.

Viva Terra: Stylish lifestyle shop with a lovely sale selection, including yummy gourmet food items!

Baby Pur: For the little ones and Mothers-to-be in your life, this wonderful site has some super organic items on sale at the moment.

Welcome to Yurto, the blog about eco-friendly living in the home. Inspired by the yurt, an ancient circular dwelling place built in tune with nature, we hope to explore the ways we can all make a change for the better in the world that we live in – beginning from our homes.

Why is it so important to go green? Al Gore, who woke up the world with his now-famous documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, puts it succinctly:

“…Some of the leading scientists are now saying we may have as little as 10 years before we cross a kind of point of no return, beyond which it’s much more difficult to save the habitability of the planet in the future…”

10 years??? Now that’s a scary thought.  If you have children like me, that’s enough reason to stop procrastinating and do something about NOW.

So from plastic to canvas, wasting to conserving,  lets find ways to care for the earth while we can and live healthier, happier lives.