It makes me sad that I don't find the time to update my blog anymore but I can't even find the time to clean my house so unfortunately the blog isn't going to be a regular thing anytime soon, unless I go all crazy and hire a cleaning service or something. Hahaha. Maybe.
Anyway, I have had a lot of people asking me how cloth diapering is going lately. I'm sure as soon as they ask they regret it because I tend to not shut up about it once the door is opened. I LOVE cloth diapers. Crazy, right?! Except its not. Let me tell you all about it 😉
How and why I started CDs: I never in a million years would have thought I would be the type to cd. EVER. I mean its terribly gross and time consuming and why would you ever want to add to your work load just to save a few bucks?! But then they are SO cute! That's what piqued my interest in the very beginning. I hadn't ever actually paid attention to them before, but I joined a co-op for a great deal on an Ergo carrier and they were running CDs as well. Picture after picture of adorable diaper prints. They didn't phase me much at first but they were always there being adorable. So I started to research it. I had never considered it as an option so I knew NOTHING about them. I called my lovely sister-in-law who had tried it and talked to her, I called my wonderful friend who was still doing it one year later and talked to her. They both told me the same thing, it's not nearly as bad as you think it will be. Hmm, maybe. But the upfront cost is appalling, especially if I hate it and decide not to continue. Then what? 1. CDs hold their resale value well. You don't actually lose much money if you use them for a bit and then sell them. 2. I have an amazing friend who had more diapers than she needed and offered to mail me a trial package. Risk free!? Really?! Definitely worth a try. If I hate it, I just pay to mail them back. I can handle that.
As much as I hate to admit it, I'm not very environmentally conscious. I rarely recycle and I'm not all too worried about the amount of garbage in the landfills (please spare the lecture, I know I'm terrible for it) so the environment was not my motivation behind starting this. What was? The cost effectiveness of them (ok, and if we're being honest, the adorable factor). So I took the plunge. My package of diapers came in the mail and dived right in. My trial pack contained 9-10 diapers all of them pockets except one. That one was a cover with a pre fold so I could try another style that I thought might be easier. That amount of diapers meant doing laundry every day and I totally thought that alone would make me hate it.
Why I continue CDs: I didn't hate it. Even doing laundry every single day for over a week, I actually kind of loved it. I was excited to try it in the beginning and I think that helped A LOT. I loved how cute they were and I REALLY wanted to like them and not have to buy disposable diapers anymore. And I found that I did. I think what deters a lot of people is the perceived mess. Pee diapers are nothing, you take it off roll it up like a disposable and (in my case) put it in the wet bag in the bathroom. That's it, done until laundry time. Poop ones are obviously a little more involved but still not nearly as bad as I thought. Firstly, did you know they make diaper sprayers? It's like a kitchen sink hose that attaches to the toilet (at the wall where the toilet water hose attaches) and you can literally just spray the poop off into the toilet. I do not have one of these ingenious things and I still don't mind the poop. A poop change looks something like this, take the diaper off, wipe the bum (sound familiar?) replace diaper with a clean, dry one and send baby on his way. Take soiled diaper to the bathroom, dump poop into toilet and then roll up diaper like a disposable and put it in the wet bag. Just like that. Does my bathroom stink? Nope. Not at all (I can't say if it would if you went the diaper pail route, I haven't tried it) the waterproof bag with a zipper contains it all, even the smell. Now when I open the bag that's a different story, but easily fixed by a spray of air freshener once it's closed again or in the wash.
What about washing you say? I take my wet bag to the washer and dump them in (this part is the worst by far, because it smells terrible but it luckily can be done I under a minute). Once all the diapers and wet bag are in the washer I turn it on cold and let it do its thing (no soap this time as its just to rinse them out and loosen up the solids that may have held on). When it's done I start it again with a hot wash and soap (I make my own, equal parts baking soda, washing soda, and oxyClean) depending on load size I do 3-5 scoops and once every three days or so I add a squirt of original blue dawn dish soap to help keep my inserts fully absorbent. Once that cycle finishes I rinse rinse rinse until there are no more bubbles. Then I dry everything on low for about 15min, and then pull out my covers and wet bag and finish line drying those. The inserts usually take two dry cycles and by then my covers are dry and I can stuff them. Easy peasy. For a lot of you some of the words and phrases won't make sense in their context but if you're considering a switch you'll soon discover just what I mean. My favorites are pocket diapers and diapers are only as good as their inserts. Hemp has been good for me as well as microfiber/bamboo blends. I don't love microfiber by itself and I find bamboo by itself to be much too floppy and shift around a lot. I haven't tried a lot of other options so that's as far as I can recommend. Please don't hesitate to ask questions and let me know if you've tried it, are currently using them, or just thinking about it.
P.S. I love preschool days when the "babies" also take a nap. I probably should have done some housework with my alone time. Oh well...
