TM on Cloth Diapers

When I was pregnant with GBaby, HandyMan and I had many conversations about the diaper options for GBaby.  He was an all-or-nothing cloth diaper side: start from day one, no need for disposables.  I, on the other hand, was a bit more wary because I knew realistically who would be doing the laundry and had been told by veteran mothers to give myself 2-4 weeks to get settled before taking on the task.

Everyone has an argument for or against the cloth diapers. Personally, I like that waste from the diapers would be headed for our septic tank and not the land fill.  We’re on spring water, so the extra laundry wouldn’t add to the water bill.  I have lines in my laundry/bathroom so I wouldn’t have to run the dryer.  I’ve heard that cloth diapered kids potty-train earlier.  That’s a big one!  I was leaning towards it but had to get around HandyMan’s black and white arguments.  It took some convincing, but we got there.

Now that we’re six months in, I’m glad we chose the cloth diapers. We started with the cloth diapers when GBaby was about three weeks old.  We’ve used the Seventh Generation chlorine-free disposables for day-trips and vacations.  Most of the time, GBaby is in cloth.

Once we decided on the cloth, we had to decide which cloth option to go with.  Cloth diapers have made so many advances and become so innovative that it’s not even the same league that my mom was in when my brothers and I were little.  There are covers and pre-folds and all-in-ones and pocket diapers and cotton and hemp and bamboo and the list just keeps going!

We finally decided on cotton pre-folds and covers – it seemed like less laundry in the long run as the covers can get used more than once before they head to the laundry bin.  HandyMan installed diaper sprayers on our toilets which are fantastic and have made clean up oh-so-easy!  HandyMan also gets lots of credit for changing diapers, but as I thought, I’ve ended up doing most of the laundry.  But that’s ok – it’s my job!

One day as I was hanging the diapers I began to think about how much we were actually saving.  It is estimated that the average family spends about $550 for diapers during the first 6 months of an infant’s life and another $450 by the first birthday.  So far we’ve spent $290 on cloth supplies, detergent, and disposable diapers and GBaby will be 6 months old next week.  We did luck out and get some of our supplies hand-me-down at a HUGE price-break.

Are cloth diapers for everyone? No.  Are they working well for us? Yes.  Would I do it again? Absolutely.  It’s been more work, but it’s been much more manageable on our budget.  I’ve chosen to invest time rather than earn money, so it works out well for us.