No Soaking, No Scraping

Whenever I am talking to a mother who has a baby or is planning to have one in the near future, I always bring up cloth diapers.  Anyone who knows me knows that I sing their praises day in and day out, from the convenience, to the savings, to the ease.  Often times I am met with the same reason why someone would not use them: "I just don't have time."  Now, I admit that cloth diapering may not be for every lifestyle, but I think their is a misconception about how much time they actually take.

Here, I would like to walk you through how I care for my cloth diapers on a daily basis to help you make a better decision on whether or not you could find the time or, if you are all ready using cloth diapers, perhaps help you streamline your methods.

I'll start off by saying that I wash my diapers everyday because I find it is cheaper than buying a larger stash to wash every few days.  This obviously depends on the efficiency of your washer, your brand of detergent, and whether or not you machine-dry your diapers.  You will have to work those numbers yourself.  If convenience is a factor over price, perhaps a larger amount of diapers to make less of a washing load may work better for your lifestyle.

Every morning, I take the diapers off the drying rack (we have a location indoors for those yucky weather days) and toss them in my cloth diapering station which is located in the central most area of our house.  I do not "pre-stuff" the diapers since mornings are chaotic in our home.  Rather, I stuff them when I go to use them. 

When my daughter needs a diaper change, I grab a shell and an insert from the station, assemble it quickly (usually as I am walking over to my daughter) and change her like I would if I were using disposables.

I then take the dirty diaper and toss it in our odor-trapping diaper bag in the laundry room.  If it is soiled, I first dispose of the mess in the toilet.  I use a completely "dry" diapering system, so I do not rinse my diapers nor do I use a wet diaper pail for fear of potential drowning if not properly monitored.
At the end of the day, I toss the diapers into the washing machine (along with the diaper bag) and wash according to manufacturer's instructions.  I use Econobum diapers most often because of their ease and affordability.  These need to be washed in one cycle, hot water with a second rinse, with less than one teaspoon of dye-free, fragrance-free detergent.  Once the cycle is complete, it takes less than five minutes to pull them out and hang them to dry.  By morning, they are dry and we start the process again.

When compared to using disposable diapers, the work load is not increased by much.  Stuffing a diaper takes less than 15 seconds.  Tossing a dirty cloth diaper in a diaper bag is as simple as tossing a dirty disposable diaper into a Diaper Genie.  At the end of the day, I would empty the Diaper Genie into a trash can outside to avoid the built-up odors.  Now, at the end of the day, I empty a diaper bag in the washing machine and push a button.  The only added time is the five minutes of hang drying.

Some people have visions of scraping, soaking and bleaching cloth diapers, but in my experience, this has not been the case.  Most of the mess falls right into the toilet, no scraping or rinsing necessary.  If your child tends to make quite a mess, they do make diaper liners that are much cheaper than disposable diapers and make tossing the mess in the toilet 100% effortless.

I never soak or bleach my diapers since that only shortens their lifespan.  Rather, I remove stains and odors by hang drying them in the sun every month or two.  It is amazing how a little fresh air can restore a diaper.

As you can see, cloth diapering in my home is fairly simple.  I'll trade the extra five minutes of diaper care a day for the $60 a month savings any day.

Do you use cloth diapers?  If so, how do you care for them?