My Cloth Diaper Routine

I've been wanting to share a little about cloth diapering lately. This is something I've become increasingly excited about since I bought my first cloth diaper almost a year ago. Cloth diapering is not only a great option for the environment, it's also a wonderful option for your pocket book. I think there are some misconceptions about it, so hopefully I can shed some light on the subject and maybe even offer a few tips along the way.

Cloth diapering does require more time and energy. If I were still working full time, I definitely would not be able to do this. I probably do an extra two to three loads of laundry per week. Since I work at home, I don't mind this. I make time for it and even try to find some joy in it along the way.

Some people I've talked with think that cloth diapering is gross. My opinion is that it's no more gross than regular diapering. In either case, there are going to be times when you get your hands dirty, and stink up your bathroom. I've learned a few tricks that have helped keep the gross factor at a minimum.

This roll of wonderful-ness is my first trick. They're called "nappy-liners" and they are marvelous. They look similar to a roll of fabric softeners. I use these to line my diapers, so when my child poops, it catches everything and can be neatly thrown into the toilet and flushed. These work about 90% of the time to catch everything. I've heard that they can be washed and re-used (considering your child only peed and did not poop in them), but since they are only about $5 or $6 for a roll, I just dispose of them each time. I buy mine on Amazon.

I purchased a sturdy, stainless steel garbage pail to keep the dirty diapers in. (Of course I had to decorate mine, especially after I visited a friend's house and saw how cute hers was!) It works pretty well at keeping odors in. A friend of mine even puts drops of tea tree oil in hers, and swears the oil smell overpowers any odor from the diapers.

I line the inside of my trash pail with a special liner for cloth diapers. I also purchased this on Amazon.

I have sort of a love-hate relationship with this little gadget. It loves me and I hate it. Mostly. Remember when I told you the nappy-liners take care of the job about 90% of the time? I use this little contraption the 10% of the time the liners don't get the job done. It's a diaper sprayer and it hooks up to your toilet to spray mess into it. The only problem is that the trigger is way sensitive and I usually end up spraying poopy water onto my bathroom floor. Grrr. I didn't say cloth diapering was perfect, people. ;)


Finally, this is the wonderful, all-natural detergent I use to clean my diapers. It works with HE washers and really gets everything squeaky clean. Have you had experience with cloth diapers? I'd love to hear about it, both good and bad!