Haute Pocket One Size Pocket diapers are one of my all time favorite diaper! I have 6 of the old “breathable” version and 3 of the new “traditional” version. I’ve been using these diapers for quite some time and most of them have held up well. (I did have one diaper “melt” in the dryer. The plastic backing of the PUL melted and pulled away from the diaper, making that particular diaper completely unusable. However, this has so far only happened to the one diaper, though they are all washed the same and all washed together. Go figure. I did get a year’s use out of it, so I didn’t mourn its passing too much!)

The details. Haute Pocket claims their diaper will fit most babies from birth to potty training, specifying a fit from 8 lbs. to 35 lbs. My newborns are not 8 lbs, so that bit is out for me! However, they really do fit an 8 lb. infant! If your baby is on the rounder side, they would probably fit a 7 lb. baby! And they really do fit all the way up to 35 lbs. I have a 35 lb. 3 year old that can still fit in these diapers. They may fit a child weighing more than 35 lbs., if they child is on the tall and skinny end of things. My 3 year old has thunder thighs, and these fit her.

The interior fabric is a microfleece. It is very soft. It does pill a bit over time, but continues to remain nice and soft. The inserts are oddly shaped, but work really well! The doublers snap onto the insert, so they don’t slide around inside the diaper.

I’m not sure if you can tell in the picture above, but the blue diaper on the right is the old version and the yellow diaper on the left is the new version. The old version is slightly smaller than the new version (and is a very tight fit on my 35 lb. child). The old version is “breathable.” I like them, but they are not good overnight or traveling diapers. They don’t leak, but if left on for a long time (like over night) the water vapor will “breath” out of the diaper and cause pjs to feel damp when they wake up. The very good thing about the “breathable” version is that they let their little bums breath a bit. I like this feature a lot for daytime diapers. If your child has a slightly red bottom, put them in a breathable diaper and the redness clears up! I actually try to make it a point to put this diaper on first thing after they wake up. Seems nice to have a little air flow after a full night in one diaper. The inserts on the newer version are also a little wider. They will still work with the old version and the old version inserts still work in the new version.

The 15ish lb. Emery modeling a new version Haute Pocket for you.

This picture shows you my one and only complaint against Haute Pockets. The pocket opening gapes. It doesn’t effect wear or use, but it looks bad in my diaper basket. Like most pocket diapers, you have to make sure the interior is tucked into the diaper in the back. The opening is wider than most pocket diapers, which makes stuffing very simple (especially with the larger insert) but it creates this problem.

I really like Haute Pockets. I have never used the hook & loop version, just snaps. These are fabulous little diapers.

Who would I recommend these diapers to? Anyone, really! If you like the fit of bumGenius one size diapers, you would like these diapers. Or if you are looking for an alternative to bumGenius one size diapers, these diapers are for you! If you need a nice pocket diaper, you’ll like these diapers.

I bought 4 of these diapers because I just HAD to try them out. They are cheaper than most cloth diapers ($39.95 for 3). They boast that you can leave the insert in once it is dirty! I wasn’t quite sure how that claim would work out, I mean, if you have ever forgotten to unstuff a pocket diaper, you know how well that turns out. But for the price, I figured I would give them a shot!

So, here are all the diaper details! Smartipants are made in the USA, with decent quality materials and workmanship, in my opinion. Smartipants claims to fit from newborn to toddler years; 7 pounds to 35 pounds. Well, my newborns are smaller than 7 lbs, so that wouldn’t exactly be true for my children. Realistically, they would fit a 7 lb. infant, provided that infant was not very long and skinny. They do fit my 35 lb. 3 year old, though they wouldn’t fit her too much longer. (Luckily, they won’t need to.) I doubt you’d get them on a toddler much over 35 lbs, unless that toddler was tall and skinny. The interior of smartipants is suedecloth, with a PUL exterior. Unlike many pocket diapers, you don’t actually see the inside of the PUL because of the “smart sleeve” design. Unlike most pocket diapers with an opening between the PUL and the interior layer, Smartipants has the PUL layer completely covered and has another rectangle of suedecloth sewn on top, creating a “sleeve” for inserts.

Smartipants on my 2 year old, Aidan. Aidan is about 25 lbs.

Smartipants on my 3 month old, Emery. Emery is somewhere around 15 lbs.

At first, I had leaking issues with my Smartipants. I contacted the company and they quickly responded to my inquiry. I have to use two inserts in my Smartipants. No leaking now with doubled inserts.

I am pretty happy with Smartipants. Once you double (or triple for nighttime) up the inserts, they work well. And the inserts do indeed come out of the sleeve on their own in the wash. (This is a super big plus when you take these diapers out on the town and return home with a wetbag full of dirty diapers. No need to touch cold, wet insert- just put them fully stuffed and dirty into the diaper pail! Nice, right?) Smartipants work with Smartipants inserts, Nicki’s diapers inserts, bumGenius inserts, Fuzzi Bunz inserts, and any other rectangular insert you happen to have. I have not tried it, but I’m sure you could get a prefold in there as well.

Who would I recommend these diapers to? Well, I think any bumGenius lover that wants to move to snaps would like these diapers. I think anyone wanting a cheap, but functional one size pocket diaper would be happy with these diapers. I think anyone that likes the fit of a Haute Pocket would like these. If you like the idea of a pocket, but can’t stand the thought of touching and pulling out dirty inserts (or have a sitter or husband who refuses to pull our dirty inserts), you’ll like these diapers! Just make sure you buy extra inserts, since most likely a single stuffing won’t be sufficient.

It really was a bad start to an adventure. I compiled my tips, but I failed to completely organize before beginning. So, I am playing catch up at the moment. We implemented the wash by room sorting method. It seems to be going well. I now have my laundry sorted by the following: The Pastor’s stuff, my stuff, Emery’s stuff, towels and household stuff, and Imogene and Aidan’s stuff. To be honest (and why shouldn’t I?), I only combined Imogene and Aidan’s stuff because I didn’t have another hamper and I didn’t feel like pitching a 15 minute

The Pastor planned a fall outing for the gaggle of youths that he’s been ministering to. I decided to tag along with my kids, since I thought they would enjoy it. About half the youth (actually a litle less than half) we able (or desired) to make it. We went and wandered about corn “maize” for a while, then refreshed at the “corncession” stand. We headed back home for a bonfire and cook out at David & Christie Chandler’s home.  There were 14 of us at the farm. And, I think, 19 at the cookout/bonfire.

The youths and I, we spotted quit an interesting site. A site that really begged to bed shared with the world. Just take a gander at the gentleman with the platinum skullet ponytail. Yeah, I just made your day, didn’t I?

Ah, the power of quotation marks! There is really nothing vintage about this smock. Unless fabric that has been sitting in my stash for a year counts as being vintage. I guess the only vintage thing about it is that the pattern is modeled after a vintage pattern. So, it is like, 5% vintage.

I found this adorable smock pattern a very long time ago. I printed out the 5 page free pdf intending to make it then, but just now got around to it. You can make one too, just visit Mayfly for the info! I made mine a little bigger than the actual pattern and you can see it fits Miss Imogene perfectly!

Here the diva models side A! I made my smock reversible. The diva here hates to be dirty or out of sorts, but doesn’t resist getting dirty. With a reversible smock, she can get one side dirty, then with a flip over she can look fresh and ready for more photos!

And here she poses to let you see side B. This smock adds pizazz to a plain tee and jeans. It was incredibly quick & easy to make. In fact, I’ve got 3 more cut out and waiting for me to sew ‘em up! (I’m sure The Pastor will be stoked to see my using some of my beloved fabric stash!)

My cousin, Jennifer, had a new baby girl (her second daughter). I decided that since she had two girls, I would make them matching twirly skirts! I also made her a couple burp cloths, because you can never have too many of those! Since the package has now safely arrived in California, I can now post pictures!

A couple tattoo print burp cloths

Matching skull & bandana skirts for big sister and new baby sister.

Imogene was jealous and wanted a skull skirt for herself. So, I made her one with the scraps. Then she decided she would not model her skirt for me. Luckily, Aidan volunteered. Such a sweet boy!

Socks are a huge pain in my rear! 5 people with 5 different sock stashes that go in 5 different place- it becomes more than a pain to get socks in their rightful place. To add to my troubles, Imogene and Aidan take joy in playing with socks- thus spreading socks all over the house! They put them on their hands and wear them as gloves. They layer them on their feet, paying no attention to matching. On any one given day, each child can dirty up to 8 socks! Of course, these creative toddlers never put their socks where they belong, they just throw them where they happen to take them off. I have found socks in toy bins, under the couch, under beds, stuffed INSIDE toys, lying around, and back in the clean sock buckets. Clearly, I need help with my sock problem!

Tip #1: Place all of each person’s socks in a small plastic bin. Don’t sort. Just put them in the bins.

Okay, so we solve my matching socks problem, but that’s it. And inevitably my kids will be wearing mismatched socks, which is already pretty typical. Let’s see if I can find some more tips!

Tip #2: Buy each person in the family a zippered mesh bag and have each person place their dirty socks into the mesh bag. Launder the socks in the mesh bag.

Now here is a tip I love! Solves my sorting problem entirely. Now if I could only get them to actually put the socks in the bags!

Tip #3: Buy all kids all the same kind of socks with no variations.

Okay, if the size were not a factor, then I guess this could work. But they’d be wearing boring white socks all the time. Not to say it isn’t tempting and if my sock woes continue, I’ll be at this point before long. I’d prefer a solution that lets them keep their fun socks. It does solve the matching socks issue, since all the socks match.

Tip #4: Sew snaps on the inner top portion of each sock. Have kids snap socks together before placing them in the wash.

You could also use “sock locks” to secure socks to one another in the wash.

You could also use small clothes pins to secure socks together before they go into the dirty clothes. (May be loud in the dryer!)

So, I have seen this done and the snaps are barely noticeable on the sock. It would solve your sorting issue with finding matching socks. The problem for me would be the time it would take to sew snaps on every single pair of socks! I guess if I had a snap press, it wouldn’t be too much work- but the snaps would be much more noticeable.

Tip #5: Buy each person only one style of sock, but each a different style or brand. (E.g. Child A has white crew socks, Child B has white ankle socks, Child C has white fold over socks. OR Child A has white Gold Toe socks, Child B has white Hanes)

Buy each person their own color of sock. (Child A wears pink, Child B wears blue, Child C wears grey, etc.)

Okay, so we’re going a step further toward being Sock Nazi. I’d prefer to leave the kids with options. I don’t like wearing plain white socks, so I hate the idea of forcing them toward that. Plus, at some point you run out of options for each child. (With just 3, I’d be hard pressed to find 3 styles or brands that were different enough to tell which sock is which.)

Tip #6: Take individual sorting out of the mix. Sort socks more generally instead of by each individual family member. (Older kids can sort their own from the general pile of kid socks.)

Quite obviously, I don’t have older kids, they can’t sort their own. But Aidan and Imogene do wear the same size socks, so maybe I could implement this tip with a general “toddler” basket of socks! And in a few months when Emery’s feet catch up to him, I’ll have one basket for all the kid’s socks. That might be helpful. Although, The Pastor may not appreciate his son walking around in the pink floral socks he picked out, but I could maybe convince him to get over it. (I did convince him pink diapers on a boy are no big deal.)

Tip #7: Make sure you get all socks out of the washer and dryer. Make sure all socks end up in the same load of laundry. It is much easier to match socks when they are all in the same load and don’t get intentional or accidentally place in different loads.

With my current non-method method, this would be impossible. There is no way I can currently ensure that each and every sock pair ends up in the same load. However, with the proper sorting method, I can do this. Makes sense that if they get washed and dried together, they are easier to put away together.

Tip #8: Label each sock with a magic marker. You could use a “dot system” (e.g. Daddy has one dot, Mommy has two, Child A has 3, Child B has 4, etc.) or write small initials on the bottom of the sock (or inside cuff if you prefer.)

So, the dots and initials in our family would prevent socks from being passed down. (I suppose if I used dots, I could just add more dots as socks got passed down.) Also, stains on socks may make it hard to differentiate between dots. Plus, it would still take me quite a while to sort socks, even if they were all marked with the owner somehow.

Tip #9: Buy Old Navy or Circo children’s socks with the label on the bottom.

This is pretty clever. You’d match sizes since the size is clearly marked on the bottom. Smart. But you’d be limited to Old Navy or Circo socks, but at least you could have color! If all else fails, I’m throwing away all our kid socks and stocking up on Old Navy socks!

Tip #10: Ditch socks.

Yes, I really did come across that tip. I suppose if we lived where it was always warm and could do sandals all the time, I might. But it does get cold a few months out of the year here in Georgia, so socks must stay. I will not , I repeat, WILL NOT! allow my family to wear their tennis shoes with no socks. It grosses me out. Plus, how could I ever hand shoes down from child to child if they are wearing them sockless? Yuck! So, clearly this is not an option for me.

I do hope to implement several of these tips! Hopefully, you can find one or two to help you out as well!

I had the most fabulous idea the other day! Really, it was fantastic! But my spirits dampened a bit when I realized I could not follow through on said idea because it was just too “odd.” I was very disappointed. I mean, really, who makes these rules of what is “normal?”

This discovery left me quite sad. My world has to be a shade of beige because that is what someone else has determined to be “normal?” I’m only allowed silliness in certain things? No wonder so many people are unhappy.

Well, I have decided that life is far too short to worry about being “normal.”

If pink pants, an awesome flower head band, a large cigar, and a pair of sensible kicks make you smile, then go right ahead and dress to tickle yourself!

If you want a horse statue surrounded by flowers in your yard, go right ahead! I’m sure that pony will bring a smile to your face each and every time you drive up to your house.

If you want a turtle car, why not?! Life is too short to drive a boring old silver minivan like everyone else.

I mean, really. Why not spice up my life with things that make me smile? Life is too short to surround myself with boring off the rack items intended to be serious. Why can’t my grand idea be brought to life?

Life is far too short to be so serious about everything.

The first step in cleaning my clothes, is putting the dirty clothes somewhere. Currently, my dirty clothes end up in a couple places. Dirty diapers, wipes, and uh-oh panties (thank you, Miss Imogene) go into the dirty diaper pail. That is simple. Dirty clothes and towels (everyone’s) end up overflowing out of a 3 compartment hamper in the doorway of my room. It is 3 compartments, so you’d think it was a sort as I go system, but typically I just throw clothes over into it without paying attention to which compartment it falls in. Then, I have to dig through and pull out what is to go in each load, inevitably leaving something behind that should have been washed with this load or that load.

So, obviously this part of my laundry system does not work. From my research, I’ve decided a sort as you go method makes more sense. The benefit would be that it removes the sorting step, saving me time.  Also, it will hopefully prevent my problem of leaving one or two items out of the load. (How annoying is it to keep forgetting that one white shirt in the bottom of the hamper every single time you wash whites?!) There are a couple sort as you go methods.

Sort By Instructions

In this method, you would sort each clothing item by the instruction tags. Things with like instructions go together. I’m not too good at following the washing directions on tags and we don’t own a lot of special care items, so I’m thinking this method is not for me. It would also take me way too long to sort by this method. I know I would eventually memorize most of the tags, but I would never memorize all the tags, we have far too many clothes for that.

Sort by Color

Clearly, most of us sort by color. Whites, lights, and darks. That is my typical sorting system plus towels go off alone. (For some reason I do not like my towels to wash with clothing. Odd, I know.) This system leaves me with 5 piles. White clothes, light clothes, dark clothes, light towels, and dark towels. I could use my regular system as a sort as you go system. I think this will be my fall back if all other things fail.

Sort by Room

In this system, you sort your laundry by the room in goes in, taking no interest in the color or instruction tag. (Exceptions would be clothes you know bleed, or whites that you are wanting to bleach.) This way, it is sorted by where it belongs the entire way through the process- eliminating the after wash sorting! Genius. I typically wash most everything the same way anyway (exceptions are towels and diapers). The downfall of this method would be for households with smaller amounts of laundry. You’d either have to wait a while to get a full load, or combine loads- eliminating the sorted advantage. Clearly, I have plenty of laundry, so that shouldn’t be an issue for me.  I’m going to try this method first. If it works, I’ll stick with it! If I follow this method strictly, I’ll have 4 piles. However, I am going to make a slight tweak and put Emery’s stuff on his own rather than with mine, so I’ll have 5.

No Sorting Method

In this method, I would not sort a thing. I would wash each day what we wear and dirty each day. Somehow, I end up with multiple loads each day, so this method wouldn’t provide me with enough organization. I yearn for organization. However, this method would be great for people that accumulate piles and piles of dirty clothes- instead of sort as you go, it is wash as you go. With this method, you could eliminate the hamper if you only accumulate one load a day. Off your back and into the washing machine awaiting you to turn it on in the evening. Once again, you’d ignore instructions and colors and just wash your stuff.

I do an unbelievable amount of laundry. I know no one is really surprised by that. And I know what you’re thinking, “You’re whining about laundry, yet you willingly choose to use cloth diapers.” (If you weren’t thinking it, you would have been.) But my diaper laundry is really only a very small fraction of the laundry I do each week. Really. Don’t believe me? Today is Tuesday and I have done 6 loads of laundry in the last 2 days. Only 1 of those loads were diapers. My laundry monster is really out of control! I need to do SOMETHING to take my house back from this menace.

So, for the entire month of November, I will be having the Great Laundry Adventure here in my house and sharing it with you, my world. If you’ve got your own laundry monster, you can participate with me if you’d like. I’ll be rounding up laundry sorting, washing, folding, hanging, putting away, etc. ideas for the next week and a half and then- we’ll be off on our adventure! And for fun, I will keep track of how many loads of laundry a family of 5 with 3 under 3 go through. I’m sure that count will be interesting.

So, if you need laundry tips, check back in! If you want to see the Adventure, check back in! If you just have an odd fascination with how in the world a woman with 3 small children could ever be what would even remotely be considered organized, check back in! We’ll see how this goes. I very well may completely fail in front of my entire world, but it will perhaps get me over my fear of failure. (Or fear of failure will be enough to catapult me over each hurdle in the adventure!)