We use our profit to support families. Even though we are small, we are mighty! Every day, business owners decide how to move their business forward. Simply put, we put people before profit, and it guides our every decision. Read below to see how every day we decide to spend our resources. Thank you for your support!
We are frequently contacted by other businesses, asking how they can model their business after us. It's a great question, and one we love to answer. We demonstrate year after year that it's possible for a small business like ours to offer a great wage, health insurance, paid time off, and more. If we can do, so can every other business. It's just about setting your priorities. Our priority will always put people first.
We are a small, mom-owned, local natural parenting store dedicated to helping you find high quality toys, baby carriers, shoes, breastfeeding products, nursing tops, and of course, cloth diapers! We aim to help parents find solutions in a supportive, non-judgemental way that empowers and helps create community. We absolutely love what we do!
We are a certified Tompkin's County Living Wage Employer!Â
Our full-time employees enjoy Paid Time Off! We start with 1 paid week/year for full-time employees (scaled for part-time employees) and add more Paid Time Off over time!
Our employees also receive as much time off as they need for their family. Is a child sick?  Or a fun family trip coming up?  We work around everyone's schedule so that everyone can support and enjoy their families!
We are lucky to have an online store, which allows some of our employees to work from home on certain tasks.
Our primary goal is to help parents who want to cloth diaper and to make it easier. Not to sell a lot of cloth diapers. If you see other brands, want to know where to find something we don't carry, or see some cloth diapers at a garage sale and want some honest advice, just contact us. There are many choices out there, and we understand that what works for one parent and baby may not work for another.
We have used many different types of cloth diapers, some with great success, and others that left us disappointed. We only sell cloth diapers that have worked well for us and continue to receive excellent reviews... from moms in our local town to moms across the world.
Founder, Mandi first opened her doors (literally, the front and back doors of her house!) in 2005 in East Lansing, Michigan. We started our business to help parents learn how to use cloth diapers, not realizing how quickly we would grow. Parents would stop by the house on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and we would chat, our babies would play together, and we would learn a little about diapering and lot about parenting!
The small box of diapers in Jillian's room expanded to take over her entire room, then moved to the basement. Mandi's family moved to Ithaca, New York, and made sure we had plenty of room to grow. Well, about a year later, we ran out of space again!
In January of 2008, we opened our first retail store in Ithaca, New York and moved our shipping center to the same building a few months later. In 2010 we expanded to our current 2,300+ square foot retail store, located on The Ithaca Commons.
In 2018, long time employee (12+ years!), Kelly, took over the business, expanding the Community Room space and retail space to its current arrangement.
It's been a wonderful journey, and we thank all the moms, dads, and babies who have made it with us!
We are parents too! We get it! And the only way to truly be family-friendly is to really understand where our customers are coming from. Want to know who is on the other end of all those Facebook posts, texts, and emails? Here's a peek at who we are.
Kelly, Store Owner & Manager
Every day I feel so lucky to have a part in what we do here at Jillian's Drawers. I started working with the founder back in 2007, when my son was only 20 months old and our kids would play in her basement while we packed online orders and answered emails and phone calls. My pre-child life was in the professional culinary field; I studied culinary arts and holistic nutrition and have worked in the hospitality field for over 23 years now. As a homeschooling mama, I was able to raise and educate my son at the store, in the lovely culture of community that we foster here. I love our customers and find so much joy in being with and getting to know parents in this exciting, scary, and exhausting stage of life. What others hats do I where? In order to balance out the craziness of every day life, I also take time to sing in a couple of local bands, practice aerial arts at our local circus center, play sports, sing karoake, garden, and cycle!
Jessi, Supermama Sales Associate
Jessi has also been with us for over 10 years!Â
Leo, Behind-the-Scenes Anchor
Leo locks down everything from packing our diaper service deliveries each week, to keeping the store clean and tagging all those awesome used items we buy from you each week. A super reliable and kind family man, we are lucky to borrow him from his wife and boys each week!Â
Liz, Community Room Coordinator
Liz helps keep our amazing Community Room classes running smoothly and makes sure you know what's going on here. From special events to core classes, she keeps it all well-organized on top of being a mom to her two boys and being very active in the community on many levels.Â
© 2024 Jillian's Drawers.
