2011 has been another banner year for Dirty Diaper Laundry and my family. I have finally succeeded at making my blog a source of revenue for my family and can now justify the time put into it! I hit a LOT of bumps along the way, including one bout of malware, a completely deleted blog, and an update to my blog that turned into a domino effect of problems that almost made me end DDL forever!
In 2011 my babies turned One Year Old and Three Years Old.
In the cloth diaper world we have seen another great year full of new products and innovations. One trend I noticed was that most big companies came out with new prints and/or training pants, which was covered in the Trend Alert post.
In the blog world I was very busy building the world’s first and only searchable cloth diaper database- the Cloth Diaper Finder. I also released an Android and iPhone app that lets you view all of my cloth diaper videos. If you are stuck nursing a baby and have a smart phone this might be your new best friend.
Let’s relive the past year on DDL. I’m going to recount my favorite or most viewed posts in no particular order.
[box]Take the Flats and Handwashing ChallengeIn April 2011 after reading many stories about families struggling to pay bills and afford food that took to reusing disposable diapers I decided to challenge myself, and YOU, to scale back your diapering supplies to JUST Flats. Not just that- I asked you all to HANDWASH your diapers for 7 days. I expected 5-10 people to sign up. Instead, I wound up with close to 900 interested individuals and 200 who actually participated. This was one of my most viewed posts of the year and I am still receiving thoughtful emails and comments from people thanking me for the challenge and proving that you don’t always have to have the fanciest diapers. Sometimes the simple things are the best. I may be thinking of a new challenge for us for 2012 so keep an eye out! Read More…[/box]
The hardest post to write was this one. I’ve been strugging with my decision to circumsize my first son. After writing this post and receiving many heartfelt comments I am finally starting to feel some peace. As so many of you wrote, “When you know better you do better.” Read More…[/box]
[box]Newborn Cloth Diaper ReviewsA few months after my youngest son came into the world I finally managed to do a vlog of my newborn cloth diaper reviews. It remains a popular post here on DDL. Read More… [/box] [box]Pampers Prints: You Can’t Polish a Turd
Pampers always seem to know how to push my buttons. When they re-released their “designer” prints and marketed them as being hung on a clothesline I got angry. This was following the many articles about families reusing disposables and I felt their depiction of that was tasteless and misleading. Read More… [/box] [box]I Love Cloth
This photo only post is one of my favorite photos of Everett. I happen to think it is pretty clever too. Check out the photo… [/box] [box]What’s a Cloth Diaper? An Animated Video for Newbies
In an attempt to make a non brand specific video explaining the choices in cloth diapering I decided to “animate” one. Frame by excruciating frame. I spent days on this video, hand drawing each scene and stringing them together like Walt Disney did in the old days. At the time I didn’t have software that would key frame animate so every image is something I drew. I know… there was an easier way. Still, I am very proud of the 1.5 minute video that took 12 hours to make. It didn’t get near as much attention as I had hoped. Maybe this post will give it a resurgence of popularity? Wink Wink. Watch the video…[/box] [box]Who I am and Where I’m Coming From
After writing a “controversial” post about the Lifetime Show “One Born Every Minute” I had a few commenters that were upset with my take on the show. I really try hard not to step on toes with this blog. I decided to write about where my posts are coming from. I’m not a pushy activist but I do have a desire to help people see that certain things in life are worth doing, such as using cloth diapers, breastfeeding, babywearing, and giving birth at home. It doesn’t mean I expect you to, or think less of you if you don’t. Read More… [/box] [box]The Introduction to Cloth Diapers Series
Because I like videos and how they help the visual learner more than just reading a list of cloth diaper styles I took to filming a video explaining each type of cloth diaper. Pockets, All-in-Ones, All-in-Two, Fitteds, Swim Diapers, and so on. I still have a couple of types to film before the series is finished. Go to the Series…[/box] [box]Introducing the Cloth Diaper Finder
2011 was HUGE for productivy. My dream for many years has been to create an all encompassing cloth diaper database that would be searchable by many criteria. To those families looking for a pocket diaper under 16$ that closed using snaps and had a natural fiber lining I wanted a search engine for that. I came up with the plan, created a giant spreadsheet, and hired a developer to make it a reality. Sometimes I wonder what I was thinking. Thisdatabase is so complicated it costs a lot of money to run and even more to fix when things break. Slowly it is getting more popular. I love when I see people sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and Messageboards. Please keep sharing it and tell more families about this great way to find cloth diapers. Read More…[/box] [box]A Look Back: 100 Cloth Diaper Video Reviews
In June 2011 I made it to my goal of 100 cloth diaper video reviews. A proud moment to be sure. I don’t think any other blog or single YouTube user has reached 100 cloth diapers. I am now over this number and have not set a new goal. One day I won’t have a baby to film in diapers and I will have a decision to make about the future of my videos and my blog. For now I am going to keep on chugging and get as many under my belt as I can so that I have a video library legacy. Read More…[/box] [box]Make Your Elf on the Shelf Bendable and Grippy- Tutorial
I knew when I came up for the idea to make my Elf on the Shelf bendeable that it was a good one. I just didn’t know how good until I saw my tutorial all over Pinterest. It is the 4th most viewed destination on my blog for the YEAR and it was just posted last month. Who knew such a creepy little Elf would bring so much traffic to my blog? Read More… [/box]
So there you have it! My Top 11 Posts of 2011. If you’d like to travel back in time I also have posts for my Top 10 of 2010 and Top 9 of 2009. I have big goals for 2012, including a new web design that will make finding the cloth diaper resources even easier.
I hope everyone has had a great 2011. If you haven’t then I hope 2012 is your year! Cheers!
