Thursday, May 22, 2008

The cloth diapering continues...

(day 143)

I'm really getting the hang of this thing and it feels completely normal now... I really thought I would struggle to keep up with washing them and having new ones ready to wear but I'm not having a hard time at all! And I am not one that has been good at keeping up with laundry normally. Just ask Steve. ;)

I have had several people ask me to do a more informative post about it and show my setup and what I do. So, here we go! :)

I keep a stack of Scarlett's clean diapers in her dresser with the last of the disposables I still have. As you can see, I'm getting low so I had to throw in a load of diapers today.
Here is the fuzzi bunz pocket diaper and the contoured insert that I chose to use. There are a few different options for inserts and I've been really happy with this particular one.
It goes in the diaper, like this through the back at the top.
The diaper before I put it on Scarlett.
Here she is mid-change... happy enough to even let me snap a picture. ;) The lower set of snaps are for the size of the child's thighs. I snap those first and then do the top ones which are for the waist.
And here she is! All done.
For nightime, I put an extra insert in so it can hold more. These rectangle inserts actually came with each diaper I ordered. I didn't realize that at the time, but it's been really nice to have extra inserts for this reason. I use these ones for the extra insert at night. This is just my stack of them I have yet to put away.
Here is my laundry room. You can see my diaper pail on the left.
This is just a large kitchen sized garbage can. I bought a red liner to go in it and when you throw the diapers in, all you have to do is pull out the insert and throw them both in. I've had some questions about when it's a poopy diaper. Those are pretty easy for me at this time because Scarlett is totally solid now. I empty her diaper into the toilet (as you can imagine, Kanyon MUST be present everytime I do this... he thinks it's hilarious) and flush it and then treat it the same as just a wet diaper. I have yet to experience any kind of staining at all. Now if you've got a newborn, their messy diapers are so watery at that point that you don't even have to rinse those... just do an extra rinse cycle when you wash them. If they are eating solid foods but it's still not a solid diaper, you can either just dunk it in the toilet until it's pretty much clean or they sell these sprayer attachments for your toilet where you can just spray them off in the toilet.
Then you just pull the liner up when you are ready to wash.
I just turn the liner inside out inside my washer. All the diapers and inserts fall out and then the inside of the liner is exposed to be washed as well.
I set my washer to sanitary cycle. I do this because it washes it with extra hot water. As long as you're washing with hot, you should be fine. You can also do an extra rinse as well.
This is a bottle of Tea Tree Oil that I bought with my diaper supplies. I use it in my liner to keep it smelling fresh. There is a little swatch of fabric sewn into the liner (you can see it, the little white square of fabric in the picture above of the liner in the washer) that I drop a couple of drops on after washing and it smells kind of woodsy.
I also have dropped a few drops into the wash before I run the sanitary cycle and I think I smells better that way too because you aren't supposed to use fabric softeners with your cloth diapers. I guess it builds up on the diapers and they aren't as absorbent. I just dry my diapers in the dryer like I do any other clothes and they are ready to be stuffed with an insert and put away.

So, that's it! :) I'm really amazed at what an easy transition it was for me. I'm looking forward to trying other kinds of diapers besides the Fuzzi Bunz because I've heard some good things about some others.

**Also if anyone is interested, I have a coupon code to use through www.diapershops.com (it's good for all 4 stores) and it's for free shipping on orders over $25. Just use the coupon code: BLOG They've got fuzzi bunz like I use there as well as lots of others. :)

7 comments:

Jill said...

They call her crunchy, crunchy she is ..... LOL !!! You know I love ya & lil girls look WAY cute in CD ;)

embee said...

What kind of detergent do you use? In the same line of thought about fabric softeners, it is better for you to use a powder based detergent without the oils. But, you probably already knew that.

Also, if you use oil based liquid detergents normally, your washing machine can actually collect a bit of build up on the inside. Although you may not realize it, it can actually get on the cloth diapers and make them lose some absorbency. So, a good idea is to simply wipe the inside of your washer with a 1/2-vinegar, 1/2 water solution once a week or every other week.

And if you get any stains, you can simply sun them on a clothesline or just outside - the sun will help the stain fade.

Sorry if you knew all this already! Thought it might help :)

Alex (and Trevor!) said...

Hey! In response to your comment on my blog, we had two young couples at our table and they found out pretty fast that we don't drink... so we didn't have problems with that :) Actually, dinner was one of my favorite times of day because we thoroughly enjoyed the people we met!

Also, in regards to the cloth diapers, WOW! Go you! :)

Meghan said...

Thanks Embee! Yes, I had heard some of that info before. I do use liquid HE detergent, but thank you for the tip on wiping it out every so often. I'll have to try that! :)

Anonymous said...

Have you ever tried soap nuts for cleaning cloth diapers? I find them to be the best for getting the smells out.

Anonymous said...

i love cloth diapering too! i'm glad you posted about it. it's good to show that us "normal" moms do it too! ;)

A.KatzmarkPhotography said...

HEy heheh i love to see people coming over to the "dark side" come visit diaperswappers.com and it iwll suck you check account dry;)