Cloth Diapers: Our Decision to Switch, What We Have in Our “Stash”, and Our Routine

My family thought we were nuts for deciding to switch to cloth diapers. But I don’t regret it one bit, even though it was a bit of a process to get here. Here’s the story of how we arrived at this decision, what we chose to invest in, our diaper “stash”, and how we fit cloth diapers into our baby routine.

OUR SWITCH

Making the decision to switch to cloth diapers was not something that I took lightly. I researched every type, style, and brand that I could find online. I compared the costs of different brands of disposable diapers. I even reached out to strangers that I found used cloth diapers to ask for their opinions and recommendations. But we got here.

I have actually been considering using cloth diapers since I was about 17 weeks pregnant with Calvin. We were preparing for baby showers and adjusting our budget to allow for the new expenses that would be coming along with our little bundle of joy. I was wondering how many diapers I should plan on having on hand when the baby arrived. When I started looking into the numbers, I was floored. Babies poop and pee constantly! I was realizing that diapers and wipes alone were going to add something like $70-$100 every single month for the next 2-3 years to our expenses. And then to do it for every kid following!

I knew that cloth was an option because of some brief nannying I had done while up at college. One of my good friends was a full-time nanny for one 6-month old little girl. If my friend was ever sick or needed a day off, I would fill in. She was in cloth diapers full-time so I got some experience with changing, washing, and maintaining some pocket diapers. So I started researching to see if it would fit in with my lifestyle.

The financial comparison was the main reason that I was considering making the switch. There were other reasons too (better for the planet, earlier potty training, no chemicals on baby’s skin), but it was mainly a financial thing. (If you want to see all of the numbers research and math I did, head over to this post.) But what really turned me off was the idea of the poop. I did not want to have to deal with poop! I didn’t want to have to rinse it off or spray it off or any of that. I didn’t want to deal with it. I don’t know why the idea of poop stressed me out so badly. . .I worked as a CNA in both an assisted living center and at a hospital for years. Briefs filled to the brim with adult poop never bothered me, but the idea of cloth diapering did. Weird but that’s how I felt.

After stressing and obsessing and researching for a couple of days, I told my husband that I wanted to do cloth. He was on board as soon as I showed him the numbers. That night I literally could not sleep because I was regretting my decision so much. By the next morning I told Colter that I had changed my mind and we settled on disposables.

That’s where the story ended until late March 2020. COVID-19 was ravaging the entire world and people were unable to find necessities on store shelfs due to panic buying and the workforce taking a huge hit. Calvin was about 6 weeks old and had worn a disposable diaper (or ten) every day of his life. We had a good diaper stash in our storage closet from our baby showers and weren’t going to run out any time soon. But out of nowhere, an advertisement for a cloth diapering company showed up on my Instagram feed and I started thinking about cloth diapers again.

After having my baby and making it through the first six weeks, I reconsidered cloth diapers. Switching to cloth wasn’t going to change the fact that I had to change some sort of diaper 8-10 times per day, there were so many styles that I was sure that I could find one that could work for us, and if we switched to cloth diapers we would be able to donate all of the boxes of disposables to people who needed them. So the research began again.

ESEMBLY

After doing a bit of refresher research based on my notes from seven months earlier, I decided that either fitted diapers with covers or AI2/Hybrid diapers were going to be the style I wanted to try.

I was definitely a fan of the Best Bottom AI2 diapers as well as the Thirsties DuoWraps and Stay Dry Inserts. My hesitation was that I had read reviews for both systems that said the diapers leaked often when used with their long and lean babies. Calvin is in the 55th percentile for height and in the 9th for weight, so he definitely fits the tall and skinny profile.

The company that had originally reignited my interest was called Esembly. They are a fairly new sister company to the NYC based diaper laundering service, DiaperKind. Esembly makes fitted diapers with waterproof covers, which was exactly the other style I was seriously considering. Ultimately, I chose to go with Esembly, despite the price tag that comes with them.

OUR CLOTH DIAPER “STASH”

A diaper “stash” refers to all the cloth diapers, covers, and accessories that you have for the purpose of diapering your child. Some parents’ stash only includes the bare necessities for cloth diapering one baby. Other parents have all the necessities, plus a few accessories and extras that make life a little bit easier. Other parents have all the diapers they need, all the extras and accessories, and additional diapers and supplies simply because variety is nice sometimes and there are a lot of cute prints out there.

Esembly has a feature on their website called Esemble Your System. You answer three questions: how old your baby is, how much your baby weighs, and whether you plan on using cloth full-time or part-time. From there, the company shows you exactly which products they recommend and how many of each you are likely to need. You can customize your “system” however you would like, then add it all to your cart at once. We used the program to get the basis for our stash, and then adjusted it a little to fit our needs.

For our two month old little boy, we have:

I know it may sound like a lot, but that list encompasses everything that we will need to diaper Calvin up until he weighs about 18 lbs. Once he hits that mark, he will have grown out of the Size One Inners and Outers. According to his growth curve, we are expecting him to hit that weight around 6+ months, which is also when he will be starting solid foods.

Rather than use a diaper sprayer to manage the poop of a baby eating solids, we will be using flushable diaper liners. These liners can be used in any style of diaper. You simply place them on the very top of the diaper, right against baby’s skin, whenever you change them. Pee will pass through the liner to the absorbent diaper underneath, but anything even remotely solid will stay on top of the liner. When you change the dirty diaper, all you have to do is remove the liner with the poop on it and flush it down the toilet. Boom. Done.

Anyway, when Calvin grows out of the Size One Esembly diapers and starts solid foods, we will be making a second investment and adding the following to our stash:

As we go, we will obviously have to buy more laundry detergent and flushers as we run out of them, but I really like our system. Many people don’t like systems that have two sizes, because it feels like more of an investment. However, we would like to have our second child when Calvin is around 2 years old, so he will likely still be potty training when the next baby comes along. With this system, Calvin will be wearing the Size Two diapers until he is potty trained, and the new baby will be wearing the Size One diapers. I have always wanted to have my kids close in age, so I knew I would likely have two in diapers at a time. This system works for us and works for that plan as well.

OUR INVESTMENT

We certainly did not choose the cheapest cloth diapering option. We actually chose one of the more expensive ones, but I didn’t want to spend the money on cloth diapering, unless I knew that I would 100% love our system and use it for all of our future kids. I also wanted quality products. Esembly knows that cloth diapering is an investment, so they have an option to pay for your system in monthly installments. You can read more about it on their website.

This is the breakdown of our initial investment (I didn’t include anything we already had from diapering in disposables):

  • 25 Size One Inners – $300.00
  • 6 Size One Outers – $111.00
  • 4 Overnighters – $28.00
  • 36 Wipe Ups – $42.00
  • 1 Large Pail Pouch – $35.00
  • 1 Petite Pouch – $6.00
  • 1 jar Everyday Balm – $15.00
  • 1 tube Rash Relief Cream – $13.00
  • 2 bottles foaming Wipe Up Wash – $37.00
  • 1 bag of Washing Powder – $18.00
  • 10 Laundry Agitators – $6.39
  • 1 Thirsties Wet Bag – $15.75

Esembly offers 10% off your first purchase, which we gladly took advantage of.

Esembly products – 10% off + agitators + wet bag + sales tax = $607.72

When we need to add the Size Two diapers and accessories to our stash, that will be an additional investment of:

  • 20 Size Two Inners – $280.00
  • 5 Size Two Outers – $92.50
  • 12 Additional Wipe Ups – $14.00
  • Flushers – $10.00

Additional Esembly products + sales tax = $425.25

OUR TOTAL INVESTMENT: $607.72 + $425.25 = $1032.97

If you’ve read my post, Cloth Diapers: All of the Math and Comparison I Did So You Don’t Have To, then you know that on average, families will spend about $1,329.35 on diapering their baby in disposables for their first year. So even choosing one of the more expensive cloth diapering systems, we are saving roughly $300 on Calvin’s first year of diaper wearing and then virtually diapering him for free for the following years.

OUR ROUTINE

One of the more daunting aspects of cloth diapers to pregnant me when I was first researching was how we would fit all of this into our routine. When would we wash them? How would we wash them? Would we use them when we were out and about? Would we use them at night? Where would we keep them? Well, now that I have a baby and I’m cloth diapering that baby, here are my answers to those questions.

When and How Do We Wash Them?

I wash my diapers three times per week: Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We share laundry facilities with our upstairs landlords, so we have assigned days that we use the washer and dryer. I work afternoons, so laundry has to get done in the morning.

On laundry days I bring our pail pouch up to the laundry room and dump all of the used diapers, wipe ups, and overnighters into the washing machine. Then I turn the pail pouch inside out and throw it into the washing machine too, along with my agitators. I sprinkle about half a scoop of washing powder over the laundry and run the shortest wash cycle with warm water. Once that cycle finishes, I leave everything in the wash, sprinkle 1.5-2 more scoops to the washing machines and run the longest and heaviest cycle with hot water. If the weather is nice, I line dry everything in the sun. If not, I throw everything in the dryer (including agitators) and run it twice on a low to medium heat setting. I can easily get it all done before I work at noon.

I store my agitators in the bottom of my pail pouch so I never forget to add them to the laundry. I also like to do up the buttons on the inners and outers up once they’re dry just because they store nicer that way.

Do We Use Them When We’re Out and About? How?

Yes, we use them everywhere. How do we do it? Pretty much the same way that you do it with disposable diapers. I do have a few things I do to make it easier though.

  1. Every night before we go to bed, I repack our diaper bag with 4-5 inners, 1 outer, 12 dry wipe ups in the petite pouch, and our wet bag. I also make sure that there is everyday balm in a little cosmetic jar and foam in the wipe up wash bottle. We use the diaper bag throughout the day, even at the house, so most of the diapers usually get used.
  2. When we need to go somewhere, I always make sure to change Cal’s diaper right before we put him in his carseat. I do this to help ensure that he stays dry and doesn’t have any issues with compression leaks on the drive to our destination.
  3. I always, always, always make sure to check Calvin’s diaper every two to three hours especially when we are away from home.
  4. I keep an extra set of clothes in the diaper bag at all times in case of messes of various unpleasant varieties.
  5. I have a wet bag that almost never leaves the diaper bag. And if I somehow left the wet bag at home, I also have two gallon freezer bags with double ziplocks that I could use to contain gross diapers.

The only time that I still use a disposable diaper is for well baby visits or other doctor’s appointments. For example, when we had Calvin’s two month checkup and vaccinations appointment. Before we left the house I changed Calvin out of his cloth diaper into a disposable one. Having him in a disposable makes getting his weight much easier and more accurate. It’s also more comfortable for the pediatrician to do the exam with a disposable diaper. He wore the disposable for his weight check, other measurements, and for the doctor’s exam. After the exam, while we were waiting for the MA to come back with the vaccinations, I changed Calvin’s wet disposable diaper to a clean cloth one from the diaper bag. I knew that I wanted to change him before we left, so I made sure to do it before he got his shots because I didn’t want to make a baby who just got poked even angrier with a diaper change.

Do We Use Them Overnight? How?

Yes, we use cloth overnight. I don’t mean to brag, but Calvin is a good sleeper. Not a very good eater or napper, but definitely a good overnight sleeper. He has been doing 5-7 hour stretches of sleep at night since he was about 5 weeks old. I’m sure that will all change with his 4 month sleep regression, but I’ll enjoy the sleep now.

Since Calvin sleeps overnight, I don’t get a chance to change his diaper at the usual 2-3 hour mark, unless I want to wake him up. Which I really don’t. So, after Calvin eats for the last time (usually between 11 p.m. and midnight) we take off his whole diaper, clean and dry his bum really well, rub a thin layer of everyday balm onto his bottom to protect against moisture, and then put a new clean inner and outer on him, with an overnighter added to the diaper as well. The overnighter is a thick, absorbent liner with fleece on the top. The additional absorption helps prevent Cal peeing through his diaper overnight and the fleece gives him a nice, dry feeling against his bum and protects his skin from excess moisture.

Once Calvin has his diaper on, complete with overnight liner, we put his jammies on, swaddle him, give him a pacifier, turn on his white noise machine, and lay him in the Pack N Play next to our bed. He usually falls asleep within ten minutes and will stay asleep until 5:30-7:00 a.m. the next morning, without waking up uncomfortable from an overly wet diaper.

Fitted diapers are a common preference for overnight use, because they absorb so much liquid before leaking. We use them all the time because Esembly’s fitted diapers don’t seem to be as bulky as some other brands.

Where and How Do We Store Them?

Some people get really cute with their cloth diaper storage. Others just keep everything in a drawer. I am currently storing our diapers in my rolling diaper cart. I am able to keep them all in one place, but that place can move all over my house. For a more detailed look at my diaper cart, check out this post.

Once we have both sizes of diapers, I plan on keeping the current size in the diaper cart and the other set in a drawer of the nursery. If we have two kids in diapers, I’ll keep the baby’s diapers in the cart and the toddler’s in the nursery next to the changing table.

SPACE

I have found that cloth diapers have been just as simple to fit into our baby routine as using disposables was. It only added two loads of laundry to my week which kids usually do anyway. I love not having to worry about buying disposable diapers or finding the right ones in a store. I love that I am reducing my family’s waste and reducing the chemicals in my home.

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