From Emily:
How:
- 12-24 covers and liners
- 1-2 reusable diaper pail liners
- 1-2 reusable wet bag
- Line or rack for drying (This is totally optional. I usually just draped the diapers over the backs of chairs and I remember Drea’s kitchen cabinet knobs were more often than not covered in drying diaper covers. Whatever works)
- Free & clear detergent
- Sprayer attachment for rinsing (neither of us used this but it seems pretty handy.)
From Drea:
Unlike Emily, I didn’t start cloth diapering right away. (Look at this four month old diaper butt!) I wanted too, but only picked up two diapers and debated on it. Two cloth diapers isn’t enough— cloth diapering is mostly an all or nothing thing. You can do it part time, but to have it work smoothly it’s best to do it completely so you can create a proper washing schedule. About two months in of the ‘raising a baby’ thing, I had had enough (with diapers, not the baby). I felt awful seeing our trash pile up from and with diapers. Diapers aren’t the most bio-degradable thing, it’s estimated they take about 500 years to decompose— and with billions of diapers making they’re way to the landfill each year, well, thats a lot of garbage. Anyway, this isn’t an environmental lesson, the point is, I had never had more than a grocery bag or so of garbage every month (unless you count food trash) so I felt bad. The other big factor for me was money. I like to be smart about money (cough: frugal) and I just couldn’t get comfortable spending so much money on diapers, when I was already struggling with money as is. So to literally spend money (to fill up with crap) and throw in garbage? No, I’ll pass. (Read more about my thoughts on that HERE).
So I started cloth diapering— and sure it takes a tiny bit more work than the disposable option, but it was one of the best decisions I made for our lives and my wallet. I should mention, I never even purchased a pail or liners for the pail. With it being only M and I in the house, I was able to just toss the (rinsed) used diapers into the washer— I never had to worry about anyone else ever needing laundry done, and once I had about 4 left, I’d run the load. I had somewhere between 12 and 14 diapers total.
Benefits:
-eco-friendly
-saves money
-diaper rash is less likely
-you never have to worry about late night diaper runs to the store, you always have them.
-they look adorable! seriously, who needs pants?
Tips:
-look at your initial purchase as a smart investment. The number is much larger than just buying a bag of disposables, but if you do the math, you’ll find yourself very, very pleased in the long run.
-decide to do it and commit. It takes a bit of adjusting if you’ve already started using disposables, but if you plan to do it, and buy all the things you need off the bat, you’re set!
-line drying your diapers outside will do wonders for stains and keeping your diapers bright! Emily is right, I did have diapers hanging in my kitchen—- basically 100% of the time during rainy season. But in winter I line dried them outside, insides up. The sun helps to bleach away stains.
-create a schedule. sure you can’t really predict the number of soiled diapers you’ll have in a day, but you can mostly guesstimate to create a weekly schedule between diapers and regular clothes.
-don’t wash the diapers with your regular laundry. keep it separate.
-speaking of which, follow wash directions carefully. If you want your cloth diapers to last up until potty training (or better yet, through to your next kid) then watching to take proper care of them is key. Over time the protective lining can wear, so properly washing will help them last longer and throughout the years!
-avoid creams, unless it specifically says it’s safe for cloth diapering. Creams can create a barrier between the absorbent layer and other problems.
-between the snap variety and the velcro variety, i’d personally recommend the snaps. They can be a touch tricker to close, but the velcro can wear over time.
-if you have your own blog, consider doing these posts when your child is still in cloth diapers, not two years later, it just makes more sense.
-Emily’s list of what you’ll need is perfect. Sprayer is optional, but a lot of people recommend it. Other than that, it’s not at all as hard or as messy as it seems, we promise!
Happy cloth diapering!
11 Comments
Love this post! I am due with my little boy in 2 weeks (eep) and I'm ready to cloth diaper. My husband is on board and my parents think it's cool… everyone else I know thinks I'm crazy 🙂
This might be 2 years late for you but it's right on time for me, Drea! Thank youuuu!
This comes at the perfect time! My neighbor uses bum genius and laid it out just like this post did, which is so helpful. I'm sending this along to my friend and hopefully we can be cloth diaper buddies too!
i just love the illustrations and the little baby is so cute!!
Great summary of using cloth diapers! I cloth diapered my three boys (littlest one still using them at 14 mos). I use FuzziBunz which are similar to BumGenius and some of them are still going on baby #3! I did everything the same as how you describe, the only addition is that I used a recycled paper liner (kind of like paper towel) on top of the diaper to help flip out the poo into the toilet (after I introduced solids). I can see how the sprayer would be useful too though – haven't tried that 🙂
I am currently 32 weeks pregnant with my first child and I am trying to decide whether to use cloth nappies (I'm English) My biggest stumbling blocks are the fact that I live in a small flat in central London and we don't have a huge amount of space, I guess the prospect of having them hanging all over the place puts me off a bit, but I am seriously considering it from an ecological and economical point of view… it's all so hard
If I ever have a child, I will definitely be referring back to this. I cannot imagine covering a little one in so much plastic–not only is it terribly wasteful but it can't be healthy. Kudos to you for taking a chance and living simply and healthier. 🙂
I'm cloth diapering my second. I wish I did it with my first but I didn't have a washing machine back then. I love cloth! It's surprisingly easy ????
These posts make me so sad that I didn't cloth diaper. Your blog was the only one I read where a mom cloth diapered (I didn't even have a blog before my daughter was 2 so I didn't really read many "mom blogs" until it was too late and yours is not that really). I had no idea people really even did that or what the pros of it was. It's so wonderful how much the internet and blogs can educate people and open their eyes to great options as this. For my next child I'll 100% be cloth diapering and it's posts like this that make it seem easy and important.
There's a lot of iffy things about the Internet, but I think this is def one of the good things. My mom always says when it comes to certain things, "there just wasn't an awareness about it then"— so with like baby food or diapers, people use them because it's what's known and 'standard' — like there's a million huggies commercials, but no commercials for cloth diapers— so unless you knew someone who specifically did it, it just never really came up as a question of an option til not that there's more public published options and resources out there 🙂 I totally would have done a lot of different things had I known about them, but ya live, ya learn, ya do it next time 🙂
Exactly! And your blog is one of a bunch that make me want to do better next time 🙂