What am I getting into?
This was one of my biggest questions which prevented me from jumping in to cloth diapering. I am constantly overwhelmed by laundry- which seems to reproduce in my house. That was my biggest hangup. By taking a chance, I realized my fear was giving a small thing a big shadow.
Time:
The washer takes care of most of the work, so it does not take that much of your time. On average I do an extra three loads per week. This may sound like a lot, but it is not the same as a load of clothes. I chose to have a smaller set of supplies, so I wash more often than some other cloth diapering parents who may wait 4 or more days between loads.
Once out of the washer, I can deal with a load of diapers in 90 seconds to 10 minutes depending on what I want to do with them. If I just want them cleared away, I separate the inserts and the covers, stack and stash. If I want to put in a little extra time, I pre-snap the front snaps to adjust the fit for my baby and place an insert in each diaper. I can have a two to three day supply of diapers ready to go in 10 minutes or less.
Care:
All parts of the diapers should run through a rinse cycle before a hot water, warm rinse cycle. Some people like to add an extra rinse on the end, but I haven’t found it necessary. Inserts can either be air dried or can be put in the dryer, while covers should be air dried to help ensure their expected lifespan. After drying, some diapers need to be stuffed- which simply means putting the inserts into the diaper.
On occasion diapers need to be stripped which is a deeper cleaning, often done with vinegar.
Cost:
Yes, it takes electricity to run the washer and dryer. And yes, it takes water too. Ohh…and detergent. But this does not come close in comparison to a box of diapers. You can really save yourself money if you decide to use cloth wipes too.
The major thing to consider is cloth diapering comes with the upfront cost. It can cost between $200- $500 to get started with a large enough supply to cloth diaper full-time. The cost depends on how many you want (which is directly related to how often you want to wash) and which brands and styles you choose.
If you are really looking for cost savings, you can often find them used online and in mother/ parenting groups.
