Cloth Diapering - No Pins Required

Before I got pregnant, quite a few moms on my mom's boards started to use cloth diapers. Personally , I thought they were all insane. I mean, cloth diapers, pins, laundry, what about the smell??

Then I started seeing pictures of these cuties in their cloth diapers....wait a minute? Where are the pins? What about the folding?? As it turns out cloth diapering has come a LOOOOONG way since our mommas did it.

Back in December I started doing the math on what I needed to start buying and how the new baby would effect my current budget, etc. (hello, i'm a numbers girl). It was then I started thinking about cloth diapers again. How many do you need? What size? What kind?

It turns out for about $600 I can diaper my child infant to potty training. Say WHAT? It doesn't take an accountant to figure up THOSE savings. So then the real research began. I needed to convince myself that it wasn't nasty, too time consuming, stinky, etc.

Dirty Storage (my very first question): Turns out all you do is buy two of these PUL liners and put them in regular lidded trash cans. The liners have a spot for a cotton ball with essential oils to help keep fresh smelling. When changing a diaper, pull out liner (if using a pocket diaper - we'll get to this in a min), throw diaper in pail. That easy. Poop? If fully breastfeeding, poop can go straight to the pail. If solids or formula have been introduced you can buy these liner sheets (look like a dryer sheet) to lay in the diaper. Pick liner up after poop, flush, diaper goes to pail. THAT FREAKING EASY.

Washing: Washing occurs every 1.5-2 days depending on the amounts of diapers you have in your stash. Generally, you won't want to wait past that because it will smell eventually (heck, my diaper geniene used to stink). To wash, dump pail liner contents into washer, put pail liner on top. Rinse cold, full hot wash cycle, rinse, dry. Again...THAT EASY.

Prep: After drying, most people say to stuff pocket diapers with liners that day to have ready to use.

Now, types of diapers, I'm only going to focus on what I plan to use and why.

Infant Stage: For infant stage hands down my friends have recommended Kissaluvs Size 0 fitted diapers and Thirsties covers.

For these particular diapers you have to have two layers. You have the fitted diaper and then a cover. They are also sized diapers (you have to buy different sizes as baby grows). :( BOO! But wait, I found a website that rents you 24 diapers for three months....the only time that I'll be needing them. YEA!!! This is great for me as this will be my last child and I'm not really wanting to invest in something that will only last 3 months. For $219 and then you return them for a $120 credit toward new diapers. The covers cost about $11.25/each and I'll need about six of them.

3 months on: There are so many options, but I have narrowed it down to buying only One-Size pocket diapers. You need to have a good 12-18 diapers for full-time diapering and every other day washing.

Pocket diapers look just like disposable diapers, but they have a pocket insert that you stuff liners in for extra absorbancy. They are all one piece (well, except the insert). There are more brands than you can imagine out there on the net.

One-Size means just that, you buy one that is supposed to last the entire time. They have additional snaps that change the sizes.

Example of how pocket one-size diapers look:


After meeting with a "diaper lady" I have narrowed down my personal choices to 3 different diapers.

Rumparooz: I like these because they have two gussets by the legs to help contain messes. $23/diaper


Mommy's Touch One-Size Easy Clean: These have snaps of Aplix. The main thing I like about these is that the pocket opens in the front and back so that when it comes time to wash, you don't have to even remove the insert, it automatically comes out in the wash! YAY! $19/diaper


Bum Genius 3.0: I like this one because EVERYONE raves about them. No other reason! Ave $18/diaper



So, do those look very scary to you??? I didn't think so.

My action plan:
Rental $219
Covers for infant $70
Pail Liners $20
5 Bum Genius' FREE (with credit from return of rental)
3 Rumparooz $69
3 Mommy's Touch $54
3 Fuzzi Bunz (oops, forgot to cover them) $54
TOTAL Under $500
(I'm leaving room to buy more of whatever I like best)

Extra costs:
Charlies Soap (supposedly the best for diapers) $130 for 1280 loads (11 cents per load)
Liners (for when we start solids)
Energy & water expense