This is probably the least favorite part of cloth diapering for most people – but I enjoy it. Maybe too much. It’s so nice pulling those fresh, clean diapers out of the dryer. I even smell them.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

I talked about pail liners and hanging wetbags in part three, and I actually use both. When Emma was a tiny baby, I had no problems carrying her upstairs into her room to change her diaper. But the older and bigger she got, the harder it became. So I started leaving some diapers downstairs so that I could change her down there.

So I use a white trash can with a pail liner in her room …

and a hanging wetbag on the bathroom door downstairs …

For wet diapers, it’s as easy as taking the diaper off and dropping it into the pail. But remember, if you use pockets, it’s best to pull the insert out before you drop it into the pail or wetbag – then, you won’t have to deal with it when you go to wash your diapers. And if you use something with aplix (velcro), go ahead and fasten the laundry tabs.

For poopy diapers, it gets a little more complicated.

In the newborn stage, breastfed babies have very runny poop, and you can actually just toss that straight into the washer. I know what you’re thinking — gross — but washers wash themselves while washing clothes, so I guarantee you won’t find any “leftovers” after you wash your load.

If you have a formula-fed baby, you might experience a little thicker poop, but it should still be okay to toss into the washer.

Once babies hit the solids stage, it can get quite nasty. And I have two words for you — diaper sprayer.

image courtesy of My Sigma Products

I got mine on eBay, and we haven’t had any problems with it — it works great! You just hold the dirty diaper over the toilet and spray down. It works like a charm with no mess and no dunking and swishing.

You don’t want to be carrying drippy diapers all over the house, though. I’ve heard of people leaving small towels in the bathroom to wrap the wet diaper in to take back to the diaper pail. But I’m too lazy to do that – so I have a smaller hanging wetbag from Leslie’s Boutique hanging on a hook next to the toilet. Diapers get sprayed and then tossed in there — then, I just take it down whenever I do laundry.

For particularly bad diapers, I use a little Bac-Out Stain & Odor Eliminator dilluted with water in a spray bottle. It also sits next to the toilet, and I just spray the diaper down after I’ve rinsed it off. You can get BacOut at any natural food store, but our local Bloom carries it, so I think it’s becoming more mainstream.

Okay, so you have a pail full of dirty diapers — now what?

Step 1: round up all the dirty diapers (don’t forget the poopy wetbag in the bathroom!) and dump them into the washer – you don’t even have to touch them. Turn your wetbag inside out and drop it in, as well.

Step 2: do a pre-wash with cold water – this will help rinse off any excess poop without setting any stains.

Step 3: do a hot wash/cold rinse cycle with the detergent of your choice. I have tried many detergents – Tide, Tide F&C, Purex F&C, Country Save, and my own homemade detergent. Unfortunately, Emma got rashes with all of those, so I found Bio-Kleen, and we haven’t had any issues. *knock on wood*

I use the recommended amount for any load – 1 full scoop.

Pinstripes and Polkadots has a comprehensive chart that is very helpful in choosing detergents, but sometimes, it is just trial and error until you find the one that works with your washer, your water, your baby’s skin, etc. And sometimes, you’ll end up with 5 kinds of detergent sitting in your laundry room. Honestly, I think finding a detergent that works for you is one of the hardest parts of cloth diapering.

Step 4: While this step is not absolutely necessary, if you have a child with sensitive skin, it’s usually best to do one more cold rinse to make sure all of the detergent is out.

Step 5: Dry your diapers. If we have good weather, I like to hang ours out on the line to save energy. They tend to get “crunchy” so I’ll run them through the fluff cycle in the dryer with some dryer balls to get them nice and soft. I also dry them in the dryer frequently. The only thing I don’t put into the dryer is the snap-in liners for Gdiapers. Other than that, it all goes in there on our super long low-heat cycle. I think you can pretty much dry anything as long as you don’t use the highest heat setting.

Step 6: Pull the clean diapers out of the dryer and take a whiff. Go ahead. You know you want to … now, don’t they smell good??? :)

Step 7: Fold diapers and put away. I don’t know why, but I really enjoy folding diapers. Regular clothes will sit in the laundry basket unfolded for weeks, but diapers get folded right away. Don’t ask me why.

See? That wasn’t so hard!

These are the basics of washing your diapers. You may find that you have to switch up your routine, but that’s part of the fun of cloth diapering – finding what works for you.

Please feel free to add comments with your routine so that those who are new to cloth diapering can see what others do.

up next … nighttime diapering and diaper rashes

Like Shanna said, who doesn’t love accessories? ;)

If you’re using prefolds, you can choose to tri-fold into a cover with no problems (that’s pretty much all I do) — but sometimes, it’s nice to let them go coverless, or if you want to put them under fleece or wool. Now, you have two options.

You can use pins (I prefer Dritz diaper pins) or a Snappi, which is T-shaped with grips on each end. These grips hook into the diaper fabric to ensure a snug-fitting diaper with enough natural movement for the baby.

Here is a great video tutorial that my good friend Amy @ Peanutbutter & Ellie made to show how to pin the delicious organic bamboo velour preflats that she makes. The concept is the same for prefolds.

And here is a video tutorial on how to fasten a prefold using the Snappi

If you’re using cloth diapers, it only makes sense to use cloth wipes. I didn’t for a long time, but then I got tired of having to fish the disposable wipes out of the washer after I dumped the cloth diapers. So I finally invested in 12 cloth wipes, and then I started using them for everything – now I have about 5-6 dozen wipes. I make all of our own wipes now, but there are a ton of places out there to get wipes. You can also just buy cheap washcloths at Target.

Plus, they work a zillion times better than disposable wipes. I remember using 3-5 wipes per poopy diaper change, but with cloth wipes, I only need one (okay, maybe 2 if it’s really really bad).

I usually put about 10 of them into an unused wipes warmer and pour plain old water over the top of them – they’re wet and ready to go when I need them. You can use water mixed with a little baby shampoo or cloth wipe solution, but Emma has sensitive skin, and it’s better for her if I just use water.

So after you change the diaper, what do you do with it? Where does it go?

There are a couple of options here …

diaper pail liners – they are made out of waterproof PUL material, and you can get them in solids or prints. I just put a Wahmies pail liner in a white kitchen trash can in Emma’s room. It’s not the most attractive thing in the world, but it works.

You could also put one in a stainless steel trash can if you want it to look nicer.

hanging diaper pails -there are also many WAHMs making these, which you can find to match your room decor. This is our beautiful hanging pail that a dear friend gifted to us.

We currently keep this one downstairs since I change Emma’s diapers down there more than I change them upstairs. I’ll talk more about this later. ;)

I know of many WAHMs making hanging pail liners – RamieBaby Designs, Loving Touch Wetbags, Goodmama, Sweet Slings, VinhThi Designs, and that’s just to name a few.

So when you take the diaper off, just drop it into whatever you prefer to use. If you’re using pockets, it’s easier to take the insert out and then drop it all in so you don’t have to do it as you’re putting it all into the washer. Also make sure you attach the aplix to the laundry tabs for anything that has velcro so you don’t have to worry about it at washing time.

I know you’re thinking that the pail will stink, but I leave the lid off so that plenty of air gets in there, and I’ve never had any issues with a stinky diaper pail. I wash every other day, so I think that helps. Any longer than that, it does start smelling pretty bad. You could also close the lid, and you’d only smell it when you open it – but since there’s no circulation of air, the smell will knock you over when you open it. ;)

As for traveling, I use smaller wetbags that fit into my diaper bag. Same thing – just take the diaper off and drop it into the wetbag and zip it up. Just don’t forget about it when you get home.

A lot of people use disposable wipes for going out because it’s easier – I just use whatever I have on hand. Most of the time, I just grab a couple of wet cloth wipes out of the wipe warmer and pop them into a travel wipes container. Easy peasy.

Okay, I think I’ve touched on all of the accessories I think everyone needs. There are a lot of other accessories out there like pail deodorizers (the only ones I tried stunk bad), tushy spray (heiney perfume?), flushable liners (a great concept because you put them in every diaper and just flush it when the baby poops – but I just haven’t found that I needed to spend the $$ on those), and many other things. The great thing about cloth diapering is that you can try anything you want until you find what works for you!!

Continue on to Part Four – washing diapers

Okay, we’ve discussed prefolds, flats and covers – so now let’s talk about fitteds, pockets, all-in-ones [AIO] and all-in-twos [AI2].

fitteds: these are basically cloth diapers that look like disposables, have snaps and/or velcro, but are not waterproof, so they would need a cover just like prefolds and flats. This is where you can get your fix of patterns and prints if you so desire, but it’s pretty much only for you, because you can’t go outside of the house in fitteds without a cover. And it can get very overwhelming because there are about 742 different brands of fitted diapers, and each one of them fits and works differently. I won’t even get into my favorite brands, because they really are so different – it’s just trial and error.

Fitteds do require covers, so you can choose to use any of the types of covers I mentioned in the last post – I prefer wool or fleece over our fitted diapers.

pocket diapers: they consist of an outer layer of waterproof material and an inner layer of microfleece or suedecloth, which keeps your baby feeling dry and helps prevent diaper rash. You can “stuff” whatever you want in between the layers to customize absorbency.

I prefer BumGenius 3.0 one-size pocket diapers for Emma, because they fit from about 7lbs until 35lbs.

I really liked Fuzzi Bunz in the newborn stage, too.

Since they have an outer layer of waterproof material, they do not require a cover. So once you stuff the diaper with the absorbent insert and put it on the kid, you are good to go.

all-in-one [AIO]: this is similar to a pocket diaper, but the absorbent material is built-in to the diaper, so you don’t have to stuff the diaper – all you have to do is put it on the baby! I actually have no experience with these diapers, so I don’t have any personal pictures or recommendations. I’ve heard great things about BumGenius AIOs and Bum-Ware AIOs.

all-in-two [AI2]: this is similar to a pocket diaper, except instead of stuffing the absorbent material in between the layers, you snap an absorbent soaker into the waterproof diaper cover. I have had a very positive experience with Baby Softwraps AI2s.

photo courtesy of Baby Softwraps

Well, now that we’ve discussed all the different types of cloth diapers and covers, you’re probably VERY overwhelmed and still wondering what system is right for you. I wish I could magically tell you what will work best for your baby and your lifestyle, but I hope that these definitions and pictures will help at least narrow down your choices.

Continue on to Part Three

I have a lot of friends who have become interested in cloth diapering, and instead of emailing or messaging each one individually, I thought I’d post about it here. So this is the first in a series of cloth diapering 101 posts. :)

I began researching cloth diapering while I was pregnant – really, just for the fun of it. My mom used cloth diapers on me and Chad, so I thought it would be interesting to see what it was all about. I think it was also about saving money and the environment – but it was mostly on a whim.

So let’s start with what is out there …

prefolds: rectangular pieces of cloth with thicker layers in the middle. There are a bunch of different kinds of prefolds, including the Gerber ones you can buy at Target. Don’t ever buy those – they do not work well at all. The most absorbent, softest prefolds I’ve used are by Green Mountain Diapers, but I also love and use Little Lions unbleached indian prefolds.

GMD has two different types of prefolds – 1| chlorine-free white (bathed in hydrogen peroxide to remove the gumming that naturally occurs in cotton) and 2| unbleached Indian (no hydrogen peroxide process).

I prefer the unbleached Indian because they are so soft and so absorbent. They do have to be washed in very hot water anywhere from 5-8 times when you get them, or you can boil them on the stove once and wash a couple more times.

You put them on by “folding” them around your baby. There are a bunch of different folds, but I prefer a combo of angel wing and jelly roll.

flats: large squares that are made up of one-layer of fabric that can be folded to create absorbency. These are by far the cheapest diapering system out there because they fit from the newborn stage all the way through potty-training, depending on how you fold them.

Again, you have a bunch of different fold options, but I just fold ours to be the same size as a prefold and then use my favorite prefold fold.

covers: now this is where it can get pretty complicated, because I use several different things, but I’ll do my best to narrow it down. First, let’s talk about the different types of covers.

>>>> PUL [polyurethane laminate] – this is a waterproof polyester material. This is probably the most widely used type of cover, and they are becoming cuter and cuter. My favorite PUL covers are Imse Vimse organic cotton, Bummis Super Whisper Wrap, and Gdiapers (which are actually a knit outer with a PUL snap-in liner).

What I love about these is that I can just tri-fold a prefold or a fold a flat into the same size and just lay it into the cover. Then, when it’s diaper-changing time, it’s as easy as putting on a disposable.

GMD Red-edged unbleached prefold inside a medium Bummis Super Whisper Wrap

GMD Red-edged unbleached prefold inside a medium Bummis Super Whisper Wrap

GMD Red-edged unbleached prefold inside a medium Imse Vimse organic cotton cover

Little Lions unbleached infanat prefold inside a medium gDiaper

Little Lions unbleached infanat prefold inside a medium gDiaper

Now, you can just put normal clothes over this combo, and you’re good to go! Also, these can be wiped out with a wet cloth and re-used in between washings, unless you get baby poop on them. ;)

>>>> fleece: all fleece has an absorbent quality that makes it a great diaper cover. All fleece is NOT the same, and I use only high-quality fleece for my covers. I make soakers, shorts, capris, and pants. I just started making overnight pants, which are pants with a built-in soaker for overnight protection. If you don’t sew, there are tons of places to get these, especially on Hyena Cart.

soakers look like the little diaper covers that come with dresses, but boys can wear them, too

shorts are used as part of the outfit, so they need to be cute

and pants are great for overnight!

The huge pro about fleece is that it can be washed with regular clothes, so these make great playtime diaper covers.

>>>> wool: I know what you’re thinking. Why would my kid wear a sweater on his butt? But wool is highly breathable, so it’s not any more hot than regular clothes – and it also absorbs moisture, which makes it an ideal diaper cover. The wool I use is hand-knit into shorts and pants.

knit by Kim @ Western Sky Knits

knit by Andrea @ Dwell Wool Knits

There is also interlock wool, which is usually a 97% wool and 3% lycra/spandex interlock fabric.

made by Peanutbutter & Ellie

We happen to really really love wool, and it makes up the majority of Emma’s wardrobe thanks to some very talented friends who knit them for her. It is probably the hardest diaper cover to take care of, because you have to handwash it, but thanks to some amazing wool wash from Ewe Need It, it’s really not hard at all.

Update: unfortunately, Emma developed a terrible allergy to wool, so we had to give it up. One of the saddest days was having to sell all of our wool.

Okay, that’s part one. Anyone could cloth diaper full-time with the prefold or flat & cover combo. I will honestly say that after all the things we’ve tried, we prefer this combo above all because it’s so easy.

Continue on to Part Two