So E.M. and I have discussed the pros and cons to cloth diapers vs. disposable. We have been pretty set on cloth diapering for a couple of months now... I was origionally turned on to the idea while looking up exclusively breastfeeding our children.
One of the goals we have for raising our children is to raise them earth-conscious and as green as possible. We want our children to conserve, reuse, recycle, and regenerate. Niether of us grew up this way but since being together have both worked hard on all of this (Shutting water off while brushing teeth, reusing plastic bags, cleaning ziploc baggies and reusing, refilling jugs of water as well as water bottles, etc).
All of this combined made me think of cloth diapering. I began to really "search" for a good cloth diaper a couple months back, no real intense searching... however it seemed everything I found that had received good reviews on ease of use and cleaning we had to buy multiple sizes of and they were pricey! I read on a few different sites it is best to have 12 to 24 diapers if not more when you come home from the hospital with baby! That's a lot when you think that they come in sooo many sizes
not to mention you don't (for sure) know if your baby will be 5 lbs or 12 lbs! You could spend 200$ on diapers that won't fit 2 weeks after your child begins to use them!So I started looking for a solution and I found one! Well...I found two...
The first one I found are "Babie Boomer" diapers, one size fits newborn through toddler.... they adjust with snaps. Interesting. So I was pretty happy with this choice, the price seemed fair, etc. I bookmarked the below link in my "baby" folder and went on with researching breastfeeding.
So the other day I was scrolling through videos on youtube.com and I found a different one-size cloth diaper!!! This one made me feel like I can DEFINITLEY cloth diaper!
They are bumGenius 3.0! They are beyond neat and there are videos on youtube about them, they received excellent ratings in ease, cleaning, and no leaking! Also with the velcrow you can maintain a better fit than with the snaps!
So I believe those are the ones we have settled on....E.M. even watched a video on them and agreed that they look simply enough! :)
So as most everyone knows by now we are planning to stay in our 1 bedroom apartment.... the only concern we have had this far concerning that is reguarding laundry; especially with cloth diapers (understandably).
Well we no longer are concerned ...I remembered a few years ago a friend mentioned a small washer.... suitable for apartments, no hook ups required because it hooked to a sink head! I had looked at these previously, for our clothes however most of them were very very pricey and did not get good reviews with a load of adult clothes therefore I simply forgot about them. Anyway I was looking for one.... and I found one for under 100$. :)
It is small, only holds 2.2lbs of clothes and will sit on the bathroom counter!
It looks like an egg, doesn't it?!Link to the "egg" washer:
So since we found the washer aspect that way we can wash the diapers as often as needed without trudging to the laundry room 12 times a day (okay, maybe that's an exageration! Or not.) we had to find a solution for drying them. Origionally I was thinking we could buy a retractable clothes line from walmart for 15$ and mount it on our front porch and call it a day... however the more I look at the prices of the diapers the less appealing this sounds... the last thing I want to worry about is the diapers walking off to a neighbors home! >.<>
So this is how we plan to cloth diaper our baby....any suggestions or tips are appreciated! :) (We are very excited about the opportunity to do this so please don't spoil it with rude comments about diapering).
-Jess
