The biggest adjustment with cloth diapering both a newborn
and a toddler has been the amount of laundry I am doing. Clothes, towels,
sheets, etc. for our family have obviously increased, and now, with two in
diapers, I went from washing about every 2-3 days to at least every other day
and sometimes every day. It’s a good thing I have a little helper! ;-)
Let’s talk poop… Parker is 18 months now, so it has
obviously been awhile since I have dealt with newborn poop and I have to say,
newborn poop is AWESOME and a million times better then toddler poop. Since
Paisley is breastfed, I don’t have to spray the diaper that she poops in; I can
just throw it in the diaper pail or wet bag and then toss it in the wash with
the other diapers because breastfed poop is water soluble! As for Parker’s poopy diapers, we have to spray the
poop off of those before sticking it into the wet bag or diaper pail. Although
spraying a diaper is not as messy or as gross as many people would think,
toddler poop smells absolutely disgusting compared to newborn poop but luckily,
nine times out of ten, the poop is “plop-able” so it is a quick and easy task.
Pee diapers are the easiest because there is no thinking
needed and it literally takes two seconds to take care of. Just take the diaper
off and put insert into the wet bag or diaper pail and you can reuse the cover.
Piece of cake!
I also have to mention that I have an AMAZING husband, who
not only is on board with cloth diapering and has been since I first showed him
the numbers about how much money you can save, but he also does not mind
changing the kids’ diapers AND he even helps out with the laundry every now and
then. I created a little “cheat sheet”
for him that is taped to our washing machine with instructions on how to wash
our diapers. He also knows to ONLY use the detergent we have and to never use
fabric softener because that is a big cloth “no-no”.
Here is how we store our clean diapers. I know many people
have more creative ways to store their diapers but this works for us and it is
so quick and easy to throw the covers and inserts into one bin.
Between our clothes, sheets, towels and diapers, I felt like
I was doing laundry ALL the time at first but it has quickly became part of my
daily routine and now, it does not seem overwhelming at all.
