I'll be honest... I'm a lazy mom. If it requires a lot of energy, time and motivation... I typically can't/don't do it. This is why I vacuum upstairs *once* a week... instead of daily as hub would like. So... is cloth diapering something a "lazy mom" could do? What's the absolute cheapest/easiest route for cloth diapering? My hub is all about being monetarily and timely efficient. Anyone care to help me convince him? I've been trying since 2006. ;)

LOL! I know what you mean! I couldnt' convince my dh either - he thinks I couldnt' handle all the laundry, which may in fact be true!

BUT, you have older kiddos that can do the diaper laundry, right?

Diaper service ;)

We live a busy lifestyle and spend lots of time away from home so the cloth diapering never worked out for me. I do know others that just love diaper service, they deliver fresh ones weekly (or however often you'd like) and take the dirty ones to clean, that is the only way it would have worked for me! :)

ETA: this is obviously not the cheapest method lol, but it certainly is the easiest!

Well as for the monetary conservation part, you'll just have to argue for more kids so you can purchase some newborn sized dipes. LOL

I loved my newborn fitteds. Then I go to MotherEase one size. They are rather cost effective. Not nearly as pricey as many of the wahm brands and they are good. I have been pleased with them. I have some from when I started 8.5 yr ago, still in use! Worn, yes, very, but still usable.

I really don't find the laundry to be that big of a deal. Jen...you're already laundering for HOW many? Seriously. Would 2 or 3 loads of diapers a week really be THAT much more?

The only time the 'laundry' gets me is when their messes become...messy..and don't just plop out of the diaper into the toilet. I hate that stage. I mean, past the breastfed, liquidy stuff...the 'just won't clump and dump' stuff stage. :p

sorry, interruptions....

Seriously, hon, the laundry is not THAT bad. Like Tara said, what's 2 or 3 more loads a week?

If I had it to do over again, I would have done exclusively prefolds/covers at the newborn stage and upgraded to all medium fuzzi bunz with prefolds as backups when the laundry didn't get done.

The nice thing about the Fuzzi Bunz is that they hold their value well. If you take good care of them you can resell them later. Rach sold off my small FB's for me and I got nearly as much as I paid for them!

Seriously, hon, the laundry is not THAT bad. Like Tara said, what's 2 or 3 more loads a week?

For me 2-3 more loads is more than I want to take on. I'm only washing for 3 of us and I have enough to do. I think it has a lot to do with lifestyle as well, we are not homebodies and If I can find a way to cut out chores I most certainly will! :) To each their own :-D

the extra laundry doesn't bother me at all. The up front cost can cause some sticker shock, especially depending on the diaper. a dozen prefolds-around $20, fuzzy bunz $17 a piece, I can find used up here for $6 a piece though. a PLU cover runs $3-12 or a wool can be free (if you make it yourself) to $30. so up front you could easily spend $200. however in the long run it is cheaper if you think about a big costco box of huggies is around $30 for just 250 diapers that last how long?!
If you are going to have any more kids, DEFINATLY saves you money.

Ha! Well... hub just told me that he finds it Archaic and inefficient. HE says if I want to do it, then more power to me, but that he can't agree that it's more efficient, cost saving, or "cleaner". ::snort:: That's my hub for ya.

He says once we tally in the cost of electricity for washing, drying, and such... it's really not more cost efficient. Then tally in the diapers themselves... oy. He also REALLY doesn't like the idea of the diapers "leaking" while we're out and also what we do with the soiled diapers while out and about. His other major thing is that I say I don't have enough time in the day, as it is, and adding this in would only shorten my time even more. ::sigh::

I love the man, ya know? But this is one area that we just don't agree... which is really fine. It's such a small thing. Thanks for all the imput gals! Keep it coming, I'm still interested!

You can buy a wet bag for when you are out and about. Just a waterproof bag to store the diapers in til you get home. You should not have to much trouble with leaking. I think you just have to change a bit more often. I know my sister just uses a disposable if she is planning to be in the car or at the zoo for the whole day. You can decide to use them for part of the time if that works better for you.

Although I am spitting out info and I have not used them yet. :-D I am going to try prefolds and covers this time so I can be the guinea pig. :-D

Well, getting pricier dipes and using them for only one kid, ok, that might not be so efficient. But, buying the mid/cheap dipes with plans to use them for subsequent children, it pays off. The added electricity really is rather minimal and water, well, like I said before, a couple extra loads a week. You'd have that if the kids played in the creek everyday. :p Or ate spaghetti for lunch. heehee

I'm not saying there a HUGE difference. But, it almost sounds like he is seeing it as cost prohibitive, rather than cost effective. And it's really not. Like I said, with pricier dipes and less usage, sure, it very well COULD be cost prohibitive. But, I know you are looking to do it as inexpensively as you can and would plan to use them with any subsequent children. Therefore, it would be cost effective. Maybe not greatly, but still.

Oh and the leaking while out, not a problem. That all goes back to your diapers and their fit on the babe. I've never had a problem, other than with some of those newborn explosives which would have slaughtered a disposable just the same. LOL

Soiled diapers out..you just pack a 'dirty duds' bag and stick the wet ones in there. Drop 'em in the pail when you get home. Or, you could just choose to do disposables when out, if that's easier for you. I got tired of packing cloth and bags around real fast. But that's just me. Others do it w/o issue. Hopefully someone here will chime in on that regard for ya. Maybe someone has some tips to make that less bothersome.

Shoot...I'll be thinking about selling you my newborn stash if you're really interested and Tommy's ok with the idea. I don't have any newborn size covers, just a couple dozen fitted dipes. I'll get back to you on that and you do the same...seriously...if interested, let me know. ;)

*I'm* super interested in cloth diapering and am trying to gather as much positive info as possible. Hub's also worried about the smell upstairs (where the nursery is) having a pail up there... so I would have to REALLY stay on top of it. I guess I'm now just praying for hub to be on board. When he says, "Sure you can if you want, but I don't want you to..." It really means, "Please don't." Ya know? I know he has reasons stored away in his head... but I Wish he would just give it a go. Even just a trial. So, maybe pray with me, when and if you think about it... that he'll get on board~ ;)

hmmm.. well you could open the whole what is in a disposable can of worms? I know that is why alot of people choose to cloth diaper. That gel stuff that gets on babies skin from a disposable can have some really yucky stuff in it. They are starting to come out with some unbleached disposables here and some of them are not that much more expensive, but I am not sure what is inside? If you research that you might have another tick on the positive cloth side. :-D My Dh is not super excited, but since I do the laundry he is ok with it.

For what it's worth...I've not had huge stinky pail issues. The only times it's been bad is when the kid gets older, when we go longer between diaper changes and thus taking longer to fill the pail...leaving a urine soaked diaper in the pail TO stink for longer periods of time. This also happens when I have lazy days and alternate with disposables...any time even just a few cloth diapers are left in the pail for a few days.

Washing every 3rd day is about par for us when I'm consistently using cloth. And generally, we are just beginning to have any smell on that third day. And I do NOT have a lid for my pail. Just an open 'dry pail'.

And yeah, you could enlighten him about the chemicals in disposables. I mean, not in a spiteful kind of way, of course. Just show him THAT side of the coin, ya know? Didn't know if you had really talked to him about it in light of that argument.

No, I haven't brought that up... simply because we're a "ya gotta die from *something*" kinda of family. I dunno. I'll do some researching and bring it up to him... see where that leads. Thanks gals~ :D

we cloth part of the time out and a bout. I have a small wet bag that has a little snap to keep it closed. I use it all the time, for diapers or clothes that I have changed. It does great, and I have never had a stinky diaper bag or dirty. I will use my AIO or pockets more for when we are out since there is less "parts".

As for the stinky pail, with one in diapers I wasn't very diligent with doing diapers regularly, usually when I was about to run out, so every 4 or so days. with 2 in diapers I find I am doing them every 2-3 days. I have a regular trashcan with a pop up lid that pops up on its own all the time. I also have a large wet bag liner that lines the trash can which makes it easy to pop the diapers in the washer without having to touch them. just turn the bag inside out and pop it in with the diapers. anywhoo, I have more of a stink issue with the trashcan we put the spossies in (it also has a lid to it) I can barly stand that trashcan, but as for the cloth it is not bad at all! If you do do cloth, you can also do cloth wipes which are really easy to make yourself and use. You will save even more money by not buying wipes all the time.

OH and for leaks, I don't have leak problems anymore then I do with spossies. Mine will only leak on Josh if I let them go too long. and Sarah leaks less in cloth then she does in spossies. We do do spossies at night since I don't feel like getting kids up to change in the middle of the night. We used to do cloth at night when Josh was little but once his bladder became bigger he would wake up wet, so now we just do the spossie at night. I have never had issue with poo leaking except in newborn blowouts.

I also enjoyed fuzzibunz and I was able to resell them and recoup most of our money back. Also, I line dryed them on a clothesline which saved that extra electricity too. They are so cute and so practical. So I'll admit, the cute factor more than made up for the extra laundry. I already do upteen loads anyhow. But, even though I had a beautiful wetbag (Rach made it) and always had adequate supplies ladies or anyone else watching the baby did not appreicate it. Even though I inisted that they just needed to drop it in and ignore it, it seemed to bother them. So we used 'sposies for church and the occassional babysitter almost immediately.

Just thought I'd chime in too...

We're planning to do CD and are super excited about it. It all started when my mom suggested we do a service for the first bit. I liked that idea and looked into it. But I wasn't sure i could justify the monthly expense. Then I realized that sposies have a monthly expense as well. Hmmm... Upon closer inspection (from what others have told me), even doing a CD service is CHEAPER than doing sposies for one child!!! There are websites out there that have the price breakdowns and it's amazing.

So I started looking into our own CDs and started to get excited about this idea. The more I learned about it, the more I realized it really is the cheapest way to diaper a babe. I know I read on one of those sites (I'll try to find it so you can compare your own personal numbers to it) that the average family will spend about $2000 on sposies for one child over the years of diapering. With CDing you can spend a fraction of that amount on one child or multiple! Obviously, the more kids that use them the more cost effective it becomes.

Anyway, that was all my hubby had to hear to convince him! LOL!

Of course, everyone keeps telling us we're crazy and we'll give up on it right away. But ya know, I think with the right mindset and support, anyone can do this. It's WAY overwhelming at first but the more digging and learning the easier things start to become (OK... I haven't started yet, but at least with understanding CDs and all the different types and how to care for htem etc).

Hope that helps somewhat... I'll try to find those cost breakdown sites for you. :D

Here are some comparisons I found. Mind you, I have nothing to base this off of since I am a FTM. You have a few kiddos you could compare the numbers with and see how accurte it is from these point of views. HTH!

http://www.diaperdecisions.com/cost_of_cloth_diapers.htm

This one is a lot more Pro CDing. But it also has a price breakdown.
http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5-diap/45-diaper-cost.htm

Coooooool!!!! Here is an actual calculator for diapering!! I'm going to go play with this. Hee hee! Again, i hope this helps somewhat.
http://www.diaperpin.com/calculator/calculator.asp

speaking of websites, have you heard of www.diaperswappers.com (http://www.diaperswappers.com) It is a forum that you can buy/sell/trade new/used diapers. there is a lot of "hype" about this diaper or that, that is a bit annoying if you aren''t there for the that, but there is a lot of good info about what people think about different diapers, how people wash them, and trouble shooting different problems with the diapers. When I first started CD'ing I went there a lot. I also have bought diapers there used for cheap. I found my favorite diaper (babybehinds OS) used and cheap there!

IMO, it is a lot cheaper, even if you get the more expensive CD's such as Fuzzi Bunz. You can resell them when you're done, or pass them down to future children.

Personally, I change the baby really frequently, so for me, the cost of disposables adds up very quickly. I started out Micah in disposables this time and I was only too happy to switch to cloth and stop buying all those diapers.

I haven't found the odor to be a big problem. I have two diaper pails, both with lids. Just throw them in and wash them in a couple of days.

I have found CD to be a whole lot cheaper and easier than using disposable. And when it comes to leaking in public I always had problems with DS and no problems with my CDs. They are so much thicker and absorbent. And really the cost of washing them isn't very expensive. Plus you get the added health benefits of wearing cloth- Did you know that the ingredients used in DS actually can GIVE a baby diaper rash. Yeah that wicking gel is not good for babies bum plus it is known to be a cancer causing agent.

All in all I never thought that I would be able to use CD and now I am head over heels in love with them. We even plan on using them when we finally get around to having baby #3. Plus if you get the right tools it makes it even easier, like we invested in a diaper sprayer for cleaning off messy diapers. So far I have found it just as easy as using DS and baby's bottom has been loving it too.

ohhh I diaper sprayer!!! I have wanted one of those!!!

Here's my 2 cents... we're using mostly cloth- cd in day and sposie at night. On occasion, we use sposie for travelling when no access to a washing machine. I use Bum Genius one-size and whamies os. On occasion, I use some cotton fitteds... but they need changing far more frequently and leak more than the bg's or whamies.

I sometimes find the extra washing a bit of a pain, but it's not a huge endeavor.

d:)

if you are truly as you put it 'lazy' on things such as this, then no, I don't know if it would work for you. I have a friend who really wanted to do cloth. She tried 3 different times. She just didn't want the extra burden.

BUT...

Think about this... how do you shop and when do you buy dipes? For me, it takes longer to get the kids ready, go to the store, shop, and come home than it does to do a load of laundry...

As for cost, I agree with Tara and Ruth, the laundering is a couple of bucks per week max. and the resale value is high. Definitely more cost effective to use cloth.

As for leaks, we have used cloth for 6 years now. We had more leaks with our sposie use than we ever did with our cloth. We took a vacation and decided to use sposies... UGH. blowouts, leaks, yuck, and these weren't the cheapo dipes either... Pampers premium... we were so happy to get back to our cloth.

My dh hated the idea at first, too and did not help... until I hid all the sposies... and now he's a cloth diaper advocate. [clapping]

also I forgot to add... when we went to Disney last May, we used cloth (for 2 kids no less, 1 night/nap time, 1 full time). No problems. Almost 2 week vacation. We are like pros or something. Did the wash in our villa. I love washers and dryers in your hotel :mrgreen:

I also send cloth with Willie to school (well the last 4 years anyway... I think by fall he will be ready to wear underwear to school!!!!!)