Mad about Freecycle

See.. if I weren't already a Freecycle nut, and hadn't already signed up for the emails and gotten used to scanning them for goodies...

I would have missed a really cool epiphany.

Some background first. I have never been a cloth diaperer.. not since the moment where my mother said... you put it in the toilet and then swish it around (with your hand).. have we even considered using cloth diapers regularily. The most I've done is for an occasional rash to air them out.

I have a now three year old son who is NOT potty trained, but is very interested and will toddle off to the bathroom with his brothers on occasion and even be productive about it. With a new baby, I'm dealing with enough diapers, and have been feeling the urge to train Squeaker to use the potty, but have been waiting til I could afford some good training pants, since my new plan was to fool him into thinking they were underwear like his brothers (who.. don't wear pullups all day long, do they???).

Back to Freecycle. Someone posted some cloth diapers, and in a weird reflexive moment, I decided that I wanted them, dashed off an email asking for them, and promptly forgot about it. Imagine my surprise when I was offered them! I picked them up this evening and my head was full of thoughts like, 'You stupid hoarder.. why in the world did you ask for these? Somebody else is sure to put them to better use" "You know you'll never be a cloth diaperer, this is a waste of time!". etc.

Even after the very nice Freecycler explained how they work (how hard can it be??? You obviously haven't seen modern cloth diapers, they have more snaps that a roll of shipping bubbles, and do you even know what a Fuzzibunz is?), I was still thinking.. (IDIOT, give them back, don't bring more clutter in your house!!). And then.. in a frugal, penny pinching moment.. I had my epiphany.

Ready? Are you sure???

Cloth diapers equals training pants.

That's it, really. So, I came home, told Squeaker that tomorrow he gets to wear big boy pants and doesn't "have" to wear a pullup, and that was that.

Which all goes to prove something, but I'm not sure what. Oh.. maybe that Freecycle is cool, but having sharply honed frugal make-do-ed-ness is better.