$120 Cloth Diaper Package Giveaway - Bumgenius, Flip, Fuzzibunz, Kissaluvs, Thirsties, Grovia, Planet Wise (CLOSED 3/10)

As promised, I'm offering up an awesome cloth diaper package, to celebrate 1,000 GFC Followers, RSS Feed Subscribers, Facebook "likers" and Twitter Followers!  Someday, I hope to have 1,000 email subscribers too!  I feel so blessed to have made so many friends through cloth diapers, I've gotten to try lots of great products, and I hope I've helped a few of you as well.
 
All items pictured are my own, just to show what is included in the package.  The winner will choose colors/prints, closures, sizes and inserts where applicable.
 

 
First up is a Bumgenius 4.0 diaper in choice of color/print and closure.  (ARV $17.95-$19.95)
 

Next, a Fuzzibunz Perfect Size diaper in choice of size and color (ARV $17.95)
 

A Flip diaper cover and insert in choice of color and insert (ARV $16.95-$19.95.)
 

A Kissaluvs Kissa's Cotton Fleece Fitted in choice of size and color (ARV $13.95-$14.95.)
 

A 12-pack of GroVia cloth wipes (ARV $10.95.)
 

A 4 ounce bottle of Thirsties Booty Luster (ARV $6.25.)

 
and finally, a Planet Wise Wet or Wet/Dry Bag in your choice of size and color (ARV $9.50-$29.99.)
 
The combined value of this package is $93.50-$119.99, depending on the winner's choices.  All values listed are based on current retail prices at my Affiliate, Kelly's Closet.  In addition to my usual giveaway rules, I reserve the right to make substitutions in the event that an item becomes unavailable, and I will ask for a first and second color choice for each item.  I also reserve the right to purchase the items at the reputable online cloth diaper retailer of my choice, including my affiliate, Diaper Junction, or one or more of my favorite cloth diaper stores! 


Here's how to enter:  All entries go in the form below.  I love comments (great way to remind yourself that you entered) but comments do not count as entries.


Due to the nature and value of this giveaway, there are a few more entry options than usual, and the giveaway will run longer than usual.


The mandatory entries include your name and email address.


Bonus entries:

1. Follow this blog - You choose how you prefer to stay updated on new posts, including Google Friend connect, RSS, email subscription, "liking" me on Facebook or following me on Twitter.  I'd love for you to "follow me" everywhere, but you receive only one bonus entry.  Just let me know which method you've chosen.
2. Tweet - One time only please.  Leave a link to your tweet.  You may use this if you like: #win a $120 #clothdiapers package from @chgdiapers.  This #clothdiaper #giveaway will build your stash! http://bit.ly/eG65zS
3. Blog about this giveaway and link back to me.  If you do not have a blog, you may post in a relevant online forum or group, just leave me a link.
4. Grab my Button on the left sidebar.  Leave me a link where I can find it!

Please fill out the form only once.  You don't need to submit it separately for each entry.  If you forget something, just send me an email or use my contact form!


I will accept entries until Thursday, March 10th, 2011 at 9:00 P.M. Eastern. I will select a winner using random.org's true random number generator and notify him/her by email. Winner has 48 hours to respond before the prize is forfeited and a new winner is chosen. View my giveaway rules page for complete details.


This giveaway is open to residents of the U.S.  Please note that this giveaway is not endorsed by, sponsored by or affiliated with any cloth diaper company, manufacturer or retailer. 



# of Entries received as of Giveaway close: 1081




FTC compliance: I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.  This post contains affiliate links.

Mailbox Mondays 11/15/10

Every Monday, I will answer user submitted questions in a "Mailbox Mondays" post.  They don't have to be about cloth, anything you'd like to ask me is fine!  I love to answer cloth questions when asked, but if you'd like your question to be answered in a MM post, send it to Maria at change-diapers.com with "Mailbox Mondays" in the subject.

Sara Says:

Maria,

I'm using cloth wipes full time now, and am wondering if you have any suggestions on where to put them for ease of use and if you use a solution? Right now my wipes are by the bathroom sink where I can get one wet when I need to change someone. It doesn't work to have them on the changing table (top of the dresser with pad) due to lack of space, boys kicking them off the dresser, etc. I'm always trying to think of different places to do/put things to make it easier. Thanks so much!

~Sara

I think that cloth wipes are a must have when you cloth diaper!  When I first switched, I was using up some disposable wipes I had, and what a pain to remember to pick them out and throw them away. 

I change most of my son's diapers downstairs in the family room, so I just keep diapers, wipes and solution on a ledge by the couch. 

The wipes are just in a stack, nothing fancy, but you can also fold them to pop up in a wipes container.  I made a quick video if you aren't familiar with how to do it:



Upstairs, I have just a few diapers and a handful of wipes (plus solution) in a drawer.  It's rather messy, I just have them stuffed in where I keep nail clippers, comb etc. 

If you don't have drawer space, and you don't have space on your dresser/changing table, I love the idea of a small shelf mounted on the wall, right above the dresser/changing table.  You can get inexpensive ones that are very basic but do the job, or you can get stylish, decorative ones that match your decor.  A small shelf just big enough for a few diapers, wipes and solution can be used later to store knick knacks, keepsakes, stuffed animals or decorations.

Speaking of solutions, I really liked the Thirsties booty luster I reviewed, but I'm cheap frugal, so I'm just reusing the bottle right now.  I've used booty cubes, Ruby Moon Wipes Bits and Lil Outlaws Rump Solution as well.  I use mine in a spray bottle, so my lasts seemingly forever.  I've used a booty cubes sample pack, I still have some Ruby moon bits left, and I've barely made a dent in a single pack of Lil Outlaws bits, so it's very cost effective for me.

I spray directly on my son, then wipe, so I use very little.  Now that it's gotten cold again, I've been spraying the wipes, which takes more solution to get the job done.  The cold spray didn't bother him last year, but it seems to this year!  If you make the solution and pour it over your wipes, you will of course need more.

I have seen some amazing setups where people have this beautiful, neatly organized shelf with all of their diapers, covers, prefolds and so forth arranged just so.  For me, the best setup/storage is out of reach of my kids!

How about you?  How do you store your stuff?

Ruby Moon Cloth Wipes & Wipe Solution Bits Review & Giveaway (CLOSED 9/13)

Ruby Moon is a Mom owned company that makes all natural cloth diaper detergent, laundry detergent, pail powder, cloth wipes, wipe bits and wool wash bars.  I received wipes and wipes bits to review.

The wipes are flannel and terry cloth, and have color coordinated stitching.

They measure approximately 6" x 6".

They are a little smaller than other wipes that I have, and also a bit thicker.

While I do prefer my diaper wipes slightly larger and thinner, the Ruby Moon wipes have been serving as excellent hand and face wipers for my son!  Wipes are available in feminine, masculine or gender neutral prints.  6 wipes are $11.95, 12 are $21.50 and 24 are $35.95.  Ruby Moon can also make custom wipes to match your nursery, theme or even use fabric you already have.

I also received a sample package of Ruby Moon Natural Wipe Bits.  They are made with Shea butter soap, oatmeal and lavender.  2 oz. of wipe bits (and a wipe) sell for $4.50. 

I think wipe solution bits are a great deal.  I use my solution in a spray bottle, and in about 10 or 11 months, I've used a sample pack of one brand, and barely made a dent in a pack of another.  Depending on how you use your solution, and how much you use, one pack could last months!

Dissolve 1-2 cubes in a cup of water.  I like my solution light, so I use just one.  I also prefer to use bottled water since it takes me so long to go through it!

Allow solution to cool, then pour into your spray bottle, Peri bottle, or however you choose to use it.

I found the scent to be very light, like a mild soap.  It did the job of getting my son's tush clean with minimal wiping, and did not irritate his skin!

While supplies last: Mention me when you order, and get a free wipe!

Want to read more about cloth wipes and solutions, including how to fold wipes to pop up in a wipes container?  Check out my Cloth Wipes Post on The Village of Moms!


Giveaway time!  Ruby Moon is offering a 6-pack of wipes in the winner's choice of girl, boy or gender neutral, along with a package of wipes bits; a combined retail value of $16.45.


How to enter: All entries go in the form.  Entries left in the comments will not be counted.  Feel free to leave a comment to remind yourself you entered.  I will also be updating the post daily(ish) with the # of entries received, for those of you who like to know their odds!


Mandatory entries include name, email address and your favorite product from The Ruby Moon Online Store.  Bonus Entry: "Like" Ruby Moon Laundry Wash on Facebook.


I will accept entries until Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 9 P.M. Eastern.  I will select a winner using random.org's true random number generator and notify him/her by email.  View my giveaway rules page for complete details.  This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.


# of entries as of 9/13/10 at 7:30 P.M: 111


FTC Compliance: I was provided samples for review purposes at no charge, and a giveaway winner will receive a free item as well.  I was not otherwise compensated for this post; I was not required or requested to write a positive review, and all opinions are my own.

Mailbox Mondays 9/6/10

Every Monday I will answer user submitted questions. They don't have to be about cloth diapering! I'll always answer questions via email, but if you would like your question to be answered in a Mailbox Mondays post, send an email with the subject "Mailbox Mondays" to Maria at change-diapers dot com.

Please note: My intent is to get a queue of questions for the next several months, so it may be some time before your submission is posted. If you would like me to email my response so you don't have to wait until your question is posted, let me know!

Amanda says

I have never used cloth wipes. Do you a special spray with them, just wet them with water, something else....???

Thanks!
Amanda

Joy says:

Hi Maria!

Question: what wipes solution do you use? Do you find it easier to spray it on the cloth wipes or have them soaking?

Thanks!
Joy

I love cloth wipes!  I chose these questions for today because they are so timely.  As you know, I'm a regular writer at the Village of Moms now, and my post today is on cloth wipes!  I'd love for you to check it out, I wrote about wipes, wipes solutions and even posted a video demonstrating how to fold wipes to pop up in a wipes container!

If you don't have time to read it right now, I like to use the wipes solution "bits" made by various WAHMs.  I dissolve them in water, then fill a spray bottle.  I actually find it works better to spray my son's tush; a couple spritzes gets the job done easier than saturating the wipe for me.  It doesn't bother him, it usually makes him giggle, but who knows what another baby would think!  ;-)

I'm also double posting today (shocking I know) because my review and giveaway of Ruby Moon Laundry Wash is for wipes and solution bits!  So make sure you enter that as well, it ends on 9/13/10.

Winner of the Thirsties Fab Wipes & Booty Luster!

Congratulations to slang76!  I'm contacting you by email!

On another note (because I have to make even the simplest things long-winded, heh.)  I added an option to subscribe to the blog by email, via feedburner.  Look in the upper left corner of the page if you're interested.

Also, check out the new Bliss Congo on Hyenacart.  You can find several vendors there with products I've reviewed, including EllaBella Bottoms, Dypes By Dixon, Five in a Row, Heartland Dreams, Licorice Lane and Mobums.  Rumpsack is also there, I've heard a lot about her diapers and had gotten a request to review them.  I contacted her, but I don't think she knows the ins and outs of the whole blogger review/giveaway thing and was a bit leery of me.  Understandable!

Anyway, check out the Congo.  There is some seriously cute stuff, some FFS drawings and some low starting bid auctions.

Thirsties Fab Wipes and Booty Luster Review and Giveaway! CLOSED

When I started cloth diapering, using disposable wipes got real old, real fast.  I kept wanting to ball the wipe up inside the diaper like I did with sposies.  It was a pain to remember to pick them out and throw them away!

When I ran out of the disposable wipes I had, I cut up some burp cloths that were laying around.  I didn't like them as burp cloths because they were very thin and washcloth-like.  I doubled them over and zigzagged them.  Not easy since they were super stretchy!

Not only are they not pretty (LOL) but they're actually kind of scratchy compared to materials used in cloth wipes.  I also don't always have enough since I don't have to wash every day anymore.  I was finding myself using several for a diaper change and having to scrub a little bit, which isn't fun for my little guy.

I really wanted cloth wipes, but I was kind of scared to buy some and not like them.  I wanted to find a brand I liked, and buy a nice pretty stack of them, rather than have a mismatched collection!

I've heard Thirsties talked about in my cloth diaper groups.  Both the Duo Diapers and the Duo Wraps came up an awful lot when I was asking other cloth diapering mamas about night time diapering.  I haven't tried either of those yet, but Thirsties agreed to send me a 6-pack of their fab wipes and a 4 oz. (travel size) bottle of their booty luster wipe spray.  There's a giveaway too, so keep reading!

"Thirsties® is a small (but growing!) cloth diaper company committed to greener parenting and Eco Friendly solutions, not to mention 100% USA Made quality!  Erin, the owner of Thirsties, started this business with an old sewing machine and $100 5 years ago.  Through her hard work and diligence, her company is now one of the leaders in the cloth diaper industry.  Our diapers are now made by work at home mothers, and very close to our Canon City warehouse, reducing our carbon output. Erin and I are experienced cloth diapering moms, and offer our knowledge to our retailers and customers alike."

The wipes!  Oh my goodness, if you could feel these things.  Buttery soft is an understatement.  I feel bad for wiping my son's tush with those rough burp cloths.  :-(

The wipes are cotton velour on one side and microfleece on the other.  Both sides are super soft and the white side is nice to be sure you got the tushie clean.  They're 8 x 8 (after washing and drying) and will fit in a wipes warmer or empty wipes container.  The washing instructions say to dry on low, but I dried them on high with my diaper inserts and had no trouble.

It's been a while since I bought disposable wipes, but my rule of thumb was that I wouldn't buy them for more than 2.5 cents per wipe, and under two cents per wipe, I would stock up.  That was the "sensitive" brand.  (Add a scoffing "ha!" to that please.) 

I seemed to use a zillion wipes, but let's just say 15 per day for simplicity here.  That's a cost of about $9 for a month.  If you're buying smaller refill packs or tubs, not shopping sales and clipping coupons, your cost per wipe will be a lot higher.  For me, a 6 pack of thirsties wipes ($10.75 MSRP) would pay for itself in just over a month.  So even if I had bought three dozen wipes, they would have paid for themselves by now. 

I'll just skip right over the issue of ingredients in disposable wipes and impact on the environment and add that based on the reviews I've read, people continue to use these wipes long after their kids are out of diapers.  Wiping faces, cleaning the house.  Let's see you do that with a "used" disposable wipe!

The compulsive side of me feels the need to point out how nice and pretty they look stacked up all nice and neatly.

I had to run a quick load of diapers to avoid using those nasty burp cloth wipes on him!  I want to buy 3 more packs of these.  I think that would give me enough to have some upstairs and downstairs, not have to wash every day, and be able to ditch the burp cloth wipes!

The Booty Luster ended up being a whole lot nicer than I expected.  To be honest, I thought it was going to be a pre-mixed, overpriced version of every other wipes solution.  Sorry, I was wrong!

The ingredients are: Aloe Vera, Vitamin E, 100% Pure Coconut water, Organic White Honey, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Glycerin, Humectant Moisturizers, Avocado and other Organic Ingredients.

The "other organic ingredients" is a little bothersome to me.  Edit: Those "other organic ingredients" are just purified water, so no worries!  Anyone who has experience with food allergies will tell you how irritating listed ingredients like "natural flavoring" can be!  My son doesn't have any topical allergies that we know of, so I didn't pursue this.  I do like that it uses Grapefruit Seed Extract as the anti-fungal ingredient, rather than Tea Tree Oil.

I'm used to squirting away and wiping, squirting some more, wiping etc.  I had a hard time getting used to needing only 2 squirts of the booty luster.  My son's tush wiped clean easily, felt smooth and clean, no residue at all.  The spray came out with just the right mist, though we did have a few drips.  The scent was very light, but pleasant.  Like a very light, summery citrus.

The MSRP of the 4 oz travel size bottle is $6.25, and the 8 oz bottle, $11.00.  That's a little spendy for cough*cheap*cough, ahem, frugal me.  However, using the math I did earlier, this would most likely still be cheaper than disposable wipes and very convenient to boot.  I'm not sure how long a bottle will last, I'll have to update on that.  If I can get used to only needing two squirts, it will probably last a long time!

If you want to drool over all Thirsties has to offer (and maybe leave a not so subtle hint with some dog-eared pages), you can request a catalog on their website.  Just go to www.thirstiesbaby.com/catalog.htm.

Want it?  Find a retailer at thirstiesbaby.com.  Or, win it!

Thirsties is sending one lucky blog reader just what I got!  A 6 pack of fab wipes (your choice of boy or girl colors) and a 4 oz. bottle of booty luster!  U.S. Residents only.

Here's how to enter (the first entry is mandatory, you may do any, all or none of the rest as you choose!):

Please be sure to leave your email address in at least one of your comments if it's not visible in your profile.  If you win and I can't find contact info for you, I will choose another winner.

1. Visit http://www.thirstiesbaby.com/ and tell me what else you'd like to try. 

2. Follow my blog publicly.  Current followers count, comment saying you're a follower to get your entry.

3. "Like" me on Facebook.  Current, uh, "likers" (?) count.  Comment saying you "like" me on FB to get your entry.  (They like me, they really really like me!)

4. "Like" Thirsties on Facebook.  Same as above.  Current likers/fans count & leave your comment to get your entry.

5. Follow me on Twitter.  Current followers count, comment saying you follow to get your entry.

6. Tweet about this giveaway.  Please include @chgdiapers and link to this giveaway.  You may use this example if you like.  "@chgdiapers is giving away Thirsties wipes and Booty Luster until 5/14  http://bit.ly/dsSyLJ #clothdiapers #giveaway"  Limit one tweet per day, please comment with the permalink to your tweet for your entry.

7. Blog about this giveaway and link back to it.  Leave a comment with a link to your blog post for your entry.

Then do the hokey pokey and turn yourself around while patting your head and rubbing your tummy and...ok that one was just for fun!

I will accept entries until Friday, May 14th at 9 P.M.  I will use random.org's true random number generator to select a winner.  I'll notify the winner by email and s/he will have 48 hours to claim the prize!