The Cloth Nook - Week 3 Spotlight

The Cloth Nook started in a wonderful woman's home in Fairfax, VA.  She later had to sell the business :(  But the wonderful (also Northern VA) couple and parents of 2, Gabriel and Hannah, bought the store to keep it running.  They had fallen in love with the little home grown store and did not want to see it disappear!!  You can also find them on Facebook!!

I met with Hannah last week (bum eye and all) to talk with her, see the store and pick up a GREAT diaper for review and giveaway!!!  You know me by now and NO you are not finding out what diaper til Wednesday!!!  Hannah has 2 wonderful, spunky, full of energy children!  Her little boy wanted to play in the car the whole time and his sister wanted to follow right along with him :)  The whole family (didn't meet Dad) were extremely sweet and wonderful to let me into their home.  Thank you Hannah for your willingness and generosity!

A little about the store

Welcome to The Cloth Nook, a little shop for naturally minded mamas! We are a local Northern Virginia family-run business, and our goal is to provide our customers a great selection of cloth diapers and natural baby products with superior customer service. We have chosen brands carefully after using them all with our own children. If there are products that you would like to see us carry, please let us know!   

Now for a couple questions for Hannah!!!

Did/Do you cloth diaper both of your kids?

When our son Eamon was born, we tried old-fashioned prefolds, plastic pants, and pins.  We were basically clueless, but knew we wanted to try cloth.  Our son had the world's chubbiest thighs and the plastic pants left ugly rings.  I also drew blood with the pins on more than one occasion.  We switched to a hybrid and had lots of leaks so we gave up and switched to disposables.  When our daughter Katalina was born, we tried hybrids again and had the same issues. Basically we just figured that cloth wouldn't work for us. It was only after I heard a cloth diaper talk from The Cloth Nook's former owner, Kim, that we decided to give it another go.

Why and how did you get into cloth diapering?

Kim came to give a cloth diaper presentation to a childbirth class I was teaching and she was so enthusiastic and informative.  I got to see what modern cloth diapering really looked like and I was impressed.  We jumped in with both feet and haven't looked back.  Katalina is now using cloth exclusively and we absolutely love it.

What made you take over the Cloth Nook?

Shortly after I met Kim, she let me know that she was closing the shop.  She had just had her third daughter and wanted less on her plate.  My husband and I just didn't want The Cloth Nook to die!  We were so happy that we had found it and we wanted to help keep it going.  Kim (who my son started calling "the diaper lady") thought it was a great idea and has helped us so much in the process of taking over.

What has been the greatest and worst thing about taking over the Cloth Nook?

The worst thing has been trying to become a bit more tech savvy.  I'm not a computer whiz by any means so running an online business has tested my abilities and been a bit stressful.  Luckily my husband has been super patient, the former owner Kim has been super helpful, and we have great tech support.  The best thing so far has been how excited my 4 year old son has been about our new business.  When I brought all the stock home for the first time he said, "Mom, you're the diaper lady now!"  He loves helping me open packages and even helps me count items and enter them into inventory.  It is a family business and I love that! 

What is your favorite item you carry and why.

My favorite item right now is the Bum Genius Lovelace pattern.  The Lovelace is a really pretty floral print and my favorite part is that they have used multicolored snaps.  It comes on the 4.0, Freetime, and Elemental diapers.  It is so cute and very Spring! 

How you chose the items you carry.

I chose items to carry that I want to use on my kids.  Most of them are just things that I really like.  I choose the products that appeal to me and that I think will appeal to other moms with some crunchy tendencies.  I like things that work well, make sense, help make my job as a mom easier, and that look good too.

What are your dreams for the store?

I never imagined that I would be the owner of a cloth diaper and natural parenting store, but it is so exciting.  It goes hand in hand with my  job as a childbirth educator and fits right in with my passion for helping parents and babies.  One of my favorite aspects of The Cloth Nook is the teaching I get to do.  I love showing pregnant moms and moms that are new to cloth what it all means.  So many have written off cloth like I did as being too hard, too gross, or too confusing.  I love seeing the light bulb come on and moms saying "I can really do this."  My dream is to spread the word about cloth and maybe one day to have a little brick-and-mortar store in Loudoun County where moms and dads can come to learn and shop.


Thank you so much Hannah for being SAH Cloth Diapering Mama's final VA spotlight!!  I appreciate all of your help and knowledge and I know that everyone appreciates the giveaway :)  Hannah and The Cloth Nook are sponsoring Northern Virginia's Great Cloth Diaper Change event April 21st in Chantilly, VA.  If you live close to the area PLEASE come out and join us!!!  Hannah and her whole crew will be there!  I will also be there representing SAH Cloth Diapering Mama!!!