Zero Waste Tissues: Swaddlers Make Great Snot Rags

“Wow!  Look at you!” she said with a slight giggle.

Not the response you want to hear from the doctor looking at your allergy test results.

But that was me, with 35 red bumps on my back from 40 different injections.  If it has leaves or legs and lives in New Mexico, I’m allergic to it. 

Because of this affliction I’ve enjoyed since high school, I’m quite familiar with the Kleenex.  I use the proprietary eponym Kleenex because that’s what I ask for when I’m panicked and about to go on a sneezing binge.  Even though my house is smaller than a convenience store, I strategically place boxes of Kleenex in every room and every car, just in case.  It finally occurred to me, that by reacting to them, I was going through a lot of trees.

Enter pictures of babies.

See those blankets around my youngest?

Those are the delicious swaddles from Aden & Anais that my aunt lovingly purchased for me.  They are muslin, they aren’t cheap and I swore I would be buried in them I was so touched by the gift. 

My littlest is now walking (egad!) and if the heavens are on board with it, I’d like to keep her my littlest, if you catch my drift.

Now, I’m not especially sentimental.  I relish any opportunity to shed belongings, especially kid stuff.  Bye bye breast pump!  Won’t be seeing you anymore Pack ‘N Play!  But my swaddlers – no way.  Too soft and snuggly and full of my baby’s DNA (theoretically anyway until I wash them).  So where am I going with this?  Allergy season. 

Spring is nearly here in Albuquerque and to protect the actual trees we do have in our desert town, I dropped off the swaddles at my favorite seamstress and for a few bucks I got enough of these to last me the week ‘til laundry day.

The swaddles are large - bigger than the Carter's variety - so I got about a dozen hankies out of each swaddle. They are about 9.5 inches square, un-ironed.

I may not have a burial shroud anymore, but I've got less snot, less enviro-guilt and a Zero-waste win.