Lots of Laundry

A few people have asked me to post my cloth diapering system.  I feel a little silly posting it, because basically I e-mailed Rebecca to see what she did and I do pretty much the same.

My supplies:
22 Bumgenuis 3.0 diapers.
2 Planet Wise pail liners.
2 Medium Wet Bags
1 Small Wet Bag
Planet Laundry Detergent
California Baby Diaper Area Spray
30 homemade flannel wipes
20 homemade jersey wipes
6 circo washclothes
Little Spray Bottle
12 fleece rectangles

Here you can see my set up.  I keep the diapers on the second shelf of the changing table.  The clothes in the current size she wears is kept in the bins of the changing table.  I use a disposable wipes container to keep my flannel wipes in on top of the changing table.  The second shelf holds another container with the jersey wipes and the cheap washclothes(Literally jersey knit material cut into squares.  It doesn't fray, so no sewing is needed.  They're thin, and sometimes needed for clean-up, or for when I've used all the flannel wipes.)  Some people just use all cheap washclothes.  I wanted to make wipes because I'm not a very good sewer, but I can do squares!  The fleece rectangles are a liner of sorts.  I just place it in the diaper when I put it on her.  Most of the poo goes on to the fleece, so I don't really get stains on the diapers.  Now that she's on solid foods I just drop the poo in the toilet.  When she was just taking formula everything would just wash out in the machine.  I only have 12 fleece rectangles because I'm too lazy to cut the rest of the fleece up.  (Yes, I realize it would take all of 2 minutes.)

The wipes before I used them, they're a little stained now.

The spray bottle holds a mixture of distilled water and the California Baby diaper area spray.  The trash can is the kind that you push down on the top and it will pop open.  I can open it with my knee or elbow.  It's line with the pail liner.  I have two of them so when I do a load of diaper laundry it goes right in there with them.

There are two detergent charts online that helped me chose what detergent to use.

http://www.diaperjungle.com/detergent-chart.html
http://www.pinstripesandpolkadots.com/detergentchoices.htm
I decided on Planet because I can buy it locally at D&W.  I've also ordered Planet powder from Drugstore.com, but I think I like the liquid better.  CottonBabies.com offers free shipping on the detergent they sell.  All of it is recommended for cloth diapers. I've been tempted to buy some Nellie's because the tin is so cute.


I wash the diapers twice with 1/4 the amount of detergent the bottle calls for.  The first wash is cold, the second is hot.  I do an extra cold rinse after that.  I line dry my diapers because I don't want to worry about fabric softener build-up  from what could be lingering in the dryer.  Plus, it uses less energy.  In the summer I would dry them outside and it only took one day.  If I washed them mid-morning they would be dry after dinner.  Now, I wash them and it takes about 24-36 hours to dry.

Bumgenuis 3.0 are a one-size pocket diaper.  The come with two inserts, one regular and the infant/doubler. I use just the regular insert during the day. I have 5 white diapers and I stuff those with a regular insert and the doubler for bed.  She stays in that for 12 hours at night and doesn't leak at all.  Should she start leaking at night, I could add another doubler, or look into other types of inserts.  I've heard that bamboo is very absorbent.  The inserts I have are microfiber.  Right now I have them snapped down to the smallest size.  They should fit her until around 35 lbs.  I had to wait until 4 months to start using them because she was so small and had skinny legs.  A lot of people use prefolds and covers for newborns and small infants.  I may do that with future children, but I didn't want to deal with cloth at camp with my first baby.

The smaller wetbags I keep in my diaper bag for used diapers when we're out.  I do use disposable wipes for that, but she can wear cloth diapers for longer.  I rarely have to change her unless it's a long day our.  Trips to the mall or Target are just fine.

I think that's about all.  We really like them.  I haven't had a blowout  since we started using them.  I did have one leak, at my cousin's wedding.  But, that was because I forgot to change her diaper and she wore it for abour 6 hours.  Oops.  She hasn't worn a disposable since we started using them.  They were an investement, but I got a few as gifts, Rebecca found a bunch on sale for me and I bought some others in bulk.

Let me know if you have any questions or if it seems like I left something out!