You are not seeing things. Those are cute cloth diapers on Boy! That’s right, we are going green-er around here! We have swapped our disposable poop catchers for the more economical and eco-friendly alternative, cloth diapers! These are NOT your Mama’s pins-and-service diapers. These use snaps, and can be washed in the washing machine!! I was a skeptic too. Read on to see what made me go for it!

So, what? Are you a hippy now? Just how crunchy granola are you?!

Seriously. I am not about to stop shaving my pits, and you won’t find me protesting against “the man” any time soon (although some of our government really is full of wackadoos well past their appropriate term length, or who don’t have a clue, or both. just sayin’). I am getting greener, but I actually consider that more trendy and educated than hippy or fringe. If you want to consider me ultra-green or hippy-dippy – you go right ahead. I just figure I’m frugal and these diapers both look and work fantastically. Oh, and btw? Granola is DELICIOUS! You should try it once you stop being the mayor of Judgyville :).

Why in the WORLD?!

I have many reasons for going this route. Here are a few:

  1. It’s way cheaper in the long run than disposable diapering. For just about $500 I purchased all of the diapers and equipment I will need FOR THE REST OF BOY’S DIAPERING CAREER (other than ongoing detergent, water, and electricity to wash them, and the possible future “too cute to pass up” purchase). I spent well over $4,000 diapering Girl for the first three years of her life. Serious. Savings.
  2. It’s better for the environment. I don’t like the idea of putting bag after bag of non-biodegradable panties in the landfill. I totally don’t judge anyone else on their decision in this regard.
  3. It is cuter than the alternative. More colors and choices to stylize baby’s bum.
  4. Boy gets fewer rashes and blow outs with this style diaper than the others.

What changed your mind?

  1. Boy has more blowouts and rashes than girl did.
  2. This  Styleberry post made me realize that it was possible, and countered my “I can’t travel” argument.
  3. When I did out the cost analysis on my Girl diapering long term.
  4. When I realized that I wash clothes that have poop on them every time Boy blows out or Girl has an accident, my “I don’t want THAT in my w/d” argument failed.
  5. I wanted to see what the hype was about. I live in Washington, which is a HYPER green state.  Cloth Diapering is VERY popular here, and I wanted to say that I’d at least tried it before I ruled it out. I attempted it with a very small number of diapers on a part time basis before “taking the full plunge”.
  6. Hubs came on board (previously was NOT) when we potty trained Girl. He realized it wasn’t going to be so gross… And if I can master it while he’s out of the house, he agreed to help once he returns.

Isn’t it a disgusting process and a ton of work!?

Check out this Styleberry post/video and this maintenance instruction site that shows you why it isn’t!


Why should I consider it?

Because of the reasons that I did! It’s cheaper, and more fun. The extra laundry really isn’t that much more work. I am not one of those people who loves doing laundry, in fact I HATE it. But this additional work is not at all a big deal.

What if I work?

Some day care facilities do take cloth. My drop-in sitter does! There are disposable inserts that you can use in the place of the standard pads that you can use with hybrid diapers that many day cares will work with. OR you could try  for while they are at home, so that you use only disposables when you are not with your child.

OK, so what equipment do you use?

I use FuzziBunz (Medium sized) and BumGenius (one size) pocket diapers (see this site for how they work) for my mainstays. I supplement with Flip Hybrids for travel, diaper bag backups, and “crap, I need to do laundry” situations. I have 3 fuzzibunz, 15 BGs, and 2 Flips with 6 inserts. I also have 7 KnickerNappies hemp doublers to double stuff during the overnight situations. I have two buckets for holding “dirties”. One is upstairs in Boy’s room, and the other is downstairs in my utility room. They are both lined with Wet Pail Liners. I also have two travel wet bags for diaper bags and in the car. I also use diaper liners to guard against skid marks (see “isn’t it gross?!” video above). I bought all of my supplies at the Simple Cloth in Olympia, WA. I chose them based on research for chunkier boys using cloth diapers. Boy is BIG and I need to be sure that the diapers are wide enough for him :).