our journey with cloth diapering
9:05 AM
We've been cloth diapering for over six months now and we're still loving it. The amount of money we've saved is phenomenal and I can tell because we started with disposable. In order for it to work you have to come up with a system that is sustainable and we've been able to make the process as smooth as possible at this point.
I thought I would share what we've learned along the way and what we do to streamline everything and make it not so much of a hassle because, lets be honest, if we're just looking at ease disposables will win every.single.time.
Let's start by breaking down the supplies:
- cloth diapers - we use the bumgenius brand and I have zero complaints. zippy. we have 20 which last us a full week.
- wipes - we are 50/50 between the honest brand and huggies natural (for when I forget to order more honest wipes).
- diaper sprayer - I don't think I could cloth diaper without this. And I can attest to the fact that it was stupid easy to install so fear not non-handy folks like us!
- detergent - I started with soap nuts, which are awesome, but now that Birdie is eating more solid food I find that I need something with more elbow grease so I switched to honest's laundry detergent which does the job but is still gentle enough for a baby's bum.
- honest healing balm - I made the mistake of using other diaper balms with cloth diapers and they can really stain. Now I stick to this one and I might as well since it's the best anyway.*
- bumgenius odor remover - I occasionally spray really stinky diapers with this.
- bucket - I'll explain more about this below.
So that's the supplies. Over the course of six months we've tried different ways of storing/cleaning/washing these diapers and below I will outline the process that works best for us:
- Remove diaper and put on new one. Throw diaper in sink if it needs to be rinsed and in a bucket if it's just pee.
- Once hands are free use diaper sprayer to clean diaper (remove insert before doing this).
- Put diaper and insert in the bucket we keep in ours shower. Use odor spray if necessary.
- Once bucket is full (every five to seven days) wash diapers with hot water and dry.
Repeat again and again and again.
The reason we decided to keep the dirty diapers in a bucket until the wash is simple - laziness. We don't have room in the bathroom to keep a diaper pail in there, plus because they don't get any air in there it would get super disgusting by the time it was time to wash them. And I didn't want to have to drag sopping wet diapers all the way to her nursery every time. This way they get some air and the tub is right next to the toilet where we spray them down so it's really easy and quick. I will be honest with you some days it can get very stinky in there. If it's unbearable I don't wait until we've used them all up and I just go ahead and wash them, but most weeks you can't even really tell.
I will say that we do not use cloth diapers when we are traveling, it's just way too much of a hassle. We always have disposables in the car for those occasions.
tips:
If you're having some leakage issues just double up with a newborn insert
Get the snap closure ones, the velcro gets yucky eventually
If it's a really, really really stinky one I just wash it out with hot water before
putting it in the bucket
They do not absorb moisture as well as a disposables so you need to be on
your toes about changing your baby often enough
I didn't buy all of them at once (they're expensive), instead I would buy
two or three every few weeks while we were still on disposables
3 notes
I don't have kids but have always been curious about the Honest brand. I might have to try some of their products now! I've heard good things about their detergent and laundry soap!
ReplyDeleteapartment pants blog
They're absolutely fantastic! I have loved all of their products!
DeleteI would love to try one of these!! i like the cloth diapers.buthow to get free cloth diapers.
ReplyDeleteLet's talk!