To cloth or not to cloth
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That’s the sorta crunchy question.
There are loads of reasons to use cloth diapers. They are better for the environment, better for your bank account, better for your baby’s bottom.
There’s pretty much one reason that is holding me back on going to cloth for Little Sister. And that’s LAUNDRY. I hate laundry. With a passion. There is nothing I loathe (that’s serious stuff) more than doing laundry. It’s not so much the washing & drying. I can do that in my sleep. It’s the folding, putting away, hanging up junk that I dislike so much. And man, do the four of us go through clothes! Two little girls = 2 loads a week. My clothes is one load, J’s clothes are another two, then we have towels and linens. I wash atleast 6 loads a week. That’s just too much. Add in another two loads for diapers and it just makes me dizzy with despair.
Here’s a brief recap of the figures I’ve found:
Total money spent on cloth : $100-$400 worth of diapers [average of $250] + $436 spent on washing = $686, reused for each consecutive child
Total money spent on disposables : $1,757-$2,275 with average of $2,016, doubled with each consecutive child.
We could save close to $1,500 a year if we switched to cloth. That’s alot of money to be pooping on.
But alas, I’ve still not convinced myself to make the change. Part of it’s the laziness of it. Part of it is me not loving it when we briefly did it with Big Sister. And another part is that they are so frumpy, they make the girls’ clothes fit strangely.
Maybe we’ll do it part time. Maybe I’ll just buy some FuzziBunz again and have a go with it. When it’s warm, a cloth diaper, t-shirt and some baby legs are all we ever need. Little Sister would almost be in a medium and those will last (assuming she stays the same size range as Big Sister) until she’s potty training.
I’m still on the fence. One months worth of diapers is enough to get us started part-time. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and grab some off ebay. They are so stinking cute, ya know!
I will keep you updated though.
February 11th, 2008 at 4:29 am
1) To help eat the cost a bit, consider a website that lets you put them on layway and do three months of payments. They aren’t shipped until the final payment but still, it splits it up.
2) Don’t forget gently used. Join clothdiapering on LJ and become a member of DiaperSwappers.com. We’ve got almost half of LittleBrother’s medium stash in house already, never paying over $10/diaper. (I lied. I paid $13 for a train print, brand new. Sorry.)
3) The new style of FB’s are larger than the old style of FB’s. As in MUCH larger. You may want to get some gently used mediums from somewhere to assure that they’re going to fit.
4) Totally worth the money in the end. Don’t forget resale value. For EUC diapers, you can get 11-13 dollars and GUC go for 10 or less.
February 11th, 2008 at 5:31 am
Let me know how it goes. It would take me lots of convincing to do this!! at least that’s what I say for now :o)
February 11th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I used Fuzzibuns with my third and LOVED them! They don’t leak and are so stinking soft on their little bums. Only problem was when my fourth came along, I pulled them out of the garage and found they were no longer water proof…found that out after putting them on the new baby! Not sure if exposing them to extreme temps in the garage did something, or just the two years in between uses. Anyway…I would recommend them.
February 12th, 2008 at 2:57 am
It’s really not so bad (and trust me, I’m a laundry hater extraordanaire!). We have only one of our four still in diapers and I keep a bucket with water hidden in our tub to drop the used diapers in - and only end up doing a quick load every other day. I use pro-raps and ummm….Baby Love fitted softwear diapers (they have a velcro closure - love them)! Learned the hard way not to put the wraps in the dryer - they lost their leak-proofness. The newer wraps are so much nicer too!
February 12th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Oh, I could talk forever about cloth diapers. It’s embarrassing really. Anyway, I do love some Fuzzi Bunz. They have recently redesigned, you know. I haven’t tried the new ones yet. If you only have one in diapers, I wonder if you could get away with only two diaper loads a week? I usually do our diaper laundry every other night, or maybe every third night, but I am sorta nerdy and kind of like diaper laundry . . .