With my first three kids, cloth diapering never even crossed my mind. When I was pregnant with my fourth back in 2009, everybody was ‘doing’ cloth. I joined a few pregnancy sites where I could chat with other moms who were due during the same month as I was and cloth diapering was the topic of conversation.
The only problem was that they all made it sounds so difficult. I loved the look of a baby in cloth diapers because they are so so cute! But the thought of the process really overwhelmed me.When you start looking into cloth diapers, everyone talks about these topics:
- Which kind of cloth diapers?
- How many cloth diapers to purchase?
- How much will it cost?
- How often you will do laundry?
- How do you do laundry?
It’s really not this complicated – trust me! Maybe it’s just me. But I do not go through all of this. For me, it’s really very simple.
The Diapers I Purchased:
I did not go to big name brand diaper sites to purchase my diapers. Those diapers can be as cheap as $12 or as expensive as $32 PER DIAPER! Ouch! I have heard from friends that they have spent $400 or more on their stash of cloth diapers… again, Ouch! I purchased mine from Ebay. I did a search on “pocket diapers” and I started looking at the cheapest first. I was able to purchase each diaper for $0.01 – $0.98 each, And yes you read that right, I said each! You need to read the listing because most of these pocket diapers come with 1 insert (that you stuff inside the diaper) and some come with 2 inserts.Shipping is a few bucks, so you end up with a super cheap, but adorable diaper! Better than spending $20 per diaper! AND this leaves you more money to purchase a larger stash if you want. I only bought enough diapers to last me about 2-ish days before I need to do laundry. If you want to go longer without doing laundry, buy more.
Oh and I guess that I should’ve mentioned that in the beginning I tried one diaper of each kind to see what I liked the best. I stuck with the pocket diapers with inserts. They are easy. Just a diaper with a ‘hole’ that you stuff with an insert. The insert is what absorbs the wetness. The cloth diaper covers with pre-folds seemed to be too much work for me and the AIO’s tend to be more expensive and they are harder to find for super cheap.
Laundry The Easy Way
I’ve never bought a diaper sprayer. I just dump the poop in the toilet. If it does not come off then I just toss the diaper in my bucket. I use a bucket with a lid because it keeps the stinky smell inside. When the bucket is full, I bring the bucket to the washer and dump ‘em in. No need to pre-treated diapers or soak them! The washer does a fantastic job! I wash about every 2 days, so my dirty diaper bucket never sits for too long with a bunch of dirty diapers in it.
I also never purchased any special kind of cloth diaper detergent. Like I said, I am simple. I use a non-toxic and environmentally safe detergent for mine and my family’s clothes which also contains no dyes, perfumes, fillers or phosphates. This is what I chose to used for my cloth diapers too. This way I do not have to run out, or make any special purchases – it’s detergent that I already have on hand.
As for going out, I just brought plastic grocery bags with me. When I changed a dirty diaper, it went into the bag until I got home and then it went into the bucket.
See how easy cloth diapering can be?
For me, I really made no special purchases besides the diapers and I only spent about $50 which is about the same price as 2 big boxes of Huggies. It’s really nothing to wash a little load two or three times a week, I never even noticed it being a hassle. I really think that moms do not know how easy it is to cloth diaper and if they did many more would at least give it a shot!
So what do you think? Doesn’t it sound easy?
This is a guest post written by Danielle from We Have It All!
Good for you! Cloth diapers are good for the environment and the pocketbook. And the baby doesn’t care whether the diapers it wears are cloth or disposable.
I have four children and I always thought it would be better to use cloth than disposable. For the first few months with my first child, I did. This was back in 1986/1987; I didn’t mind doing an extra load or two of laundry just to take care of the diapers. After the initial purchase of cloth diapers, diaper covers and pins, I didn’t have to buy diapers at all anymore. It was a lot less expensive for me to go the cloth route.
Sadly, I didn’t stick with using cloth diapers for very long. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to, or that I found it a hassle or inconvenient. The reason I stopped using cloth was because of my friends. Each and every one of them disapproved of the cloth diapers. My very best friend at the time, who was the most environmentally conscious, earth friendly, health conscious person I have ever met in my life, refused to ever go out with me in public or visit me at my home the one and only time she saw me changing a cloth diaper in a baby changing room at the mall and put the diaper in a plastic zippered bag I carried to hold the used diapers until I could get them home, rinse them out and then put them in the pail until I was ready to do a load of them.
I probably shouldn’t have caved to this very unfair peer pressure, but a few weeks later, when my friends stopped calling and visiting, I am ashamed to admit that I did.
I’m the only person I have ever known personally that ever used cloth diapers. I thought they were wonderful. I wish I had had more friends and family members that were more supportive of my earliest parenting choices. it cost me a lot more money and cost the environment a lot more, too, in the long run, that they all pressured me so unkindly to give them up.
Yeah for you that you can use cloth diapers with pride and confidence!