Thousands of Wisconsin workers have lost their jobs during the continuing economic downturn. A few people who’ve received pink slips have responded by launching their own businesses. An east side Milwaukee woman joined that list of budding entrepreneurs last week. In her case, it’s a story of moving from a highly technical career, into one that cleans diapers. WUWM’s Marge Pitrof reports.
Marlise Kuehn lost her job a year ago. In fact, one of her final unemployment checks from the state is sitting on her coffee table. She’s depended on that money to pay the mortgage for her home near UWM, and to support her two grade school-age children.
“I decided that since unemployment is running out and I can’t find a job in my field, that I should start a business, and so here I am, starting a business,” Kuehn says.
Kuehn calls her new company, Milwaukee Diaper.
“I wasn’t really thinking about this because I was in the high tech industry. I was working with computers and digital displays. I was always concerned with the environment, but opening a diaper service and cleaning baby poop, was not something that I was thinking about,” Kuehn says.
Until her brother’s family influenced her.
“My brother had a baby recently, and they’re using cloth diapers. I really liked how they worked and I thought they’re great for the environment, so I decided that was an avenue I’d like to research. I started researching it and Milwaukee didn’t have any diaper services and I thought it was a great idea,” Kuehn says.
Today, Kuehn’s dining room table is layered with cloth diapers and colorful covers. They fit over the diaper to secure it. In the old days they were called rubber pants, but now they’re made of cloth and Velcro, so no pins are involved in the process.
“This is actually 100 diapers and this is going to one of my first clients. And she also ordered the covers that came from Baraboo. What you do is you take the insert and you fold it, and you put it inside, and then you put it on the baby,” Kuehn demonstrates.
Kuehn stuffs the diapers and covers into big yellow bags for delivery. In those same bags, customers will toss their dirty diapers for pick-up, once a week. For now, Kuehn plans to launder them at home.
“I have a sprayer that I’ll be using to spray them down and then after that, they’ll soak for about an hour. And then I’ll be throwing them into the wash at high temperatures,” Kuehn says.
What do your kids think of all this?
“My daughter’s already been telling her classmates that she’s got a new job, and that’s cleaning diapers. Wait until they smell it, we’ll see how that works,” Kuehn says.
Eventually, Kuehn hopes to purchase an old Laundromat and hire people to do the washing and delivering. That’s if her calculations are correct. She says less than one percent of Milwaukee households use cloth diapers because of the time it takes to launder them versus using disposables. But if people learn about her service and the fact she charged $10 to $15 per week, less than many disposables, Kuehn estimates four percent of diaper households would sign up. Four percent of the 12,000 babies born in Milwaukee every year could make her operation profitable.
This morning, Kuehn is delivering her first load of clean diapers to a home in Bay View. Rudy Krochalk answers the door, cradling her four week old son.
“Hi, how are you? Oh, look at the baby. So here is the bag and you can just put the dirty diapers in here and I’ll pick this one up and give you and other one,” Kuehn explains.
The Krochalks saw an online mention about the new diaper service and it sounded ideal.
“I’m going back to work in a few weeks and I have another son who’s two and a half, and I just didn’t feel I was going to have enough time to keep up with his energy and potty training him and with the new one and do laundry and work full time,” Rudy Krochalk says.
Why did you opt not to use disposables, they’re pretty easy?
“I used disposables with my first son, but then as I found out more about cloth diapering and how, just the new design of them, they’re so easy, there’s no pins involved. Why wouldn’t I use them, just with the environmental impact and what not? It seems like it’s a better way to go,” according to Krochalk.
Krochalk has taken to heart the information Marlise Kuehn shares, that to diaper a child for two and a half years, takes 24 trees and plenty of landfill space.
Kuehn continues to spread her message among mother’s groups and with ads, and she’s had more bites. So for now, she will continue pursuing two master’s degrees at Alverno College, but is halting her job search to give the diaper business a whirl. Kuehn needs time to learn whether the field is brimming with possibilities, or whether the last diaper service here closed more than 15 years ago, because there’s not enough interest.
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