Adventures in Cloth Diapering: The Diaper Routine

Most people would assume that cloth diapers = a ton of extra work.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it that. There is a little extra work involved, but really I barely notice it.

When changing the diaper a cloth basically is just like a disposable. I take the diaper off, clean the bum, put a new diaper on. Only difference is with E. Since she has “big people poop” (aka “I eat solids so my poop is disgusting” poop) I always put a liner in her diaper (except when I forget — and I always regret that). So after taking her diaper off, cleaning her bum, and putting on a new diaper, if there is poo I dump the liner out in the potty and flush. I then plop the diaper in the diaper pail (which happens to be a OU 5 gallon bucket. Awesome).

Then to the wash. Since I mainly use pocket diapers (think Bumgenius — love!) I take the inserts out of the diapers and throw everything in the wash. I put in a teaspoon of this detergent (in Smashing Watermelon flavor — yums) and run the rinse cycle in cold water. After the diapers are done rinsing, I put in 3ish tablespoons of detergent and run a full wash in the hottest hot water.

Then I dry on low heat.

That’s it. That’s the routine. Not much to it and nothing to crazy. It works and I absolutely love saving $80 bucks a month that would be spent on said diapers (ok, not that much right now because we’re still currently using disposables during the night — and sometimes when I’m lazy and we’re planning on being out all day, but I’m getting better I promise).

I can tell you that I am so ready for my toddler to finish being potty trained so that I will have one less in diapers. I don’t mind diapers, but I am absolutely loathing the potty training. If anyone has any good tips let me know. For now I’m just kinda letting her figure it out on her own.