The summer breeze softly blew a strand of hair away from my eye as I pinned a diaper on the line. I was filled with this sense of accomplishment. Like I was somehow connected to the women who came before me. The ones who built a homestead in an unknow land. Their strength coursed through my veins, and I felt empowered to make a thriving home.

As a young mom I ventured into the world of cloth diapers to save money and then fall in love with the health benefits as I used them. I am going to share with you all the hacks and tricks that I have learned over the years. I have used them with all three of my babies.

What Brand Do I Use

When you are first entering this unique version of motherhood, you are met with a tremendous amount of brands, prices, and reviews. It can be a little overwhelming. I didn’t want to shoot the cheap end and get crappy diapers, but yet at the same time, I was trying to save money, so I didn’t want to shoot the expensive end either. I ended up finding two different brands that I would highly recommend! Baby Goal and Happy Flute were fantastic cloth diapers for my kidos.

I started out with Baby Goal and had a great experience with them. They cost about $35 for six diapers. They are adjustable so they will fit your kido from birth to potty training.

I ended up switching to Happy Flute for our last baby girl, because she was six pounds when she was born. The Happy Flute diapers can size down just a bit more than the baby goal ones. Ther were slightly more expensive. I got four diapers for $28.

Now, both of these diapers tended to leak so I ditched the inserts they came with and bought Naturally Nature Cloth Diaper Inserts. Once I started using these the kids only wet through when they were overly full of potty, and I only had two poop blow outs total between all three of my kids (even with my son who would blow out of disposable diapers left and right).

How Many Do I Want

I always got 16-18 diapers. This would mean purchasing 3-4 different sets depending on which brand you go with. I got new diapers with each baby. The elastic will stretch as your kids grow so trying to make a diaper from a previous baby work, resulted in lots of blow outs and wet throughs. This was still cost effective for me because the diapers paid for themselves off within the first three months and every diaper after that was money in my pocket I was saving.

When To Start Cloth Diapers

As soon as my babies lost their umbilical chord, I would start them on cloth diapers. I waited until then, because you can fold down disposable diapers to keep from irritating the umbilical chord. More than likely you will start on the tightest setting a work out as your baby grows. You want it to be secure, but so snug that it is squeezing their little tummy. It should be very comfortable for them.

How to Know When to Change a Diaper

This is one that is different than disposable, because you do not have the handy blue line to let you know how wet your baby is. With my newborns I would change them every time a nursed them (every three hours), or whenever they pooped (which usually lined up with nursing). We would go through an average of 6-10 diapers within a 24 hour period. Then as they get older, I would change them every time they pooped, otherwise it was every four hours or so. You will get to know your baby and know how long they can go without a diaper change. Some babies are heavier wetters than others. I wouldn’t leave them in an unchanged diaper for more than five hours.

How to Store Dirty Diapers

More air equals less stink. Yes, you heard me correctly, if you stuff those dirty diapers in a wet bag or anything that limits air getting to them, they will build up ammonia faster than my German Shepherd chasing a rabbit. It was very important to me that my house did not smell like dirty diapers. What I ended up doing was getting an open air metal trash can. This allows my diapers to get sufficient air flow, plus it’s easy to clean, & makes storing dirty diapers easy. I keep this trash can on the counter in my laundry room. I would also usually run a wax melter with natural wax melts throughout times of the day to eliminate any unwanted smells that did linger.

I always rinsed and scrubbed my poopy diapers in my laundry room sink before throwing them into the trash can. The sooner you rinse them, the less smell they absorb and the less likely they are to stain. The wet ones I just threw right in though!

How to Wash Cloth Diapers

I always washed my diapers every three days. When you have a newborn it may be every other day just because they poop a lot more and you go through more diapers. I wash every load of diapers with 1/2-1 cup baking soda (just thrown in the drum with the diapers), and then I wash them on the heavy duty setting on my washer. I LOVE Melaleuca’s MelaPower Detergent. It is the only detergent I would ever use on my cloth diapers. Smells amazing, cleans SUPER well, and is very healthy from my babies. Also, it is very cost effective which I also love.

During the Spring, Summer, and Fall I dry my diapers out on the clothesline. It is SO GOOD for your diapers to get sun as it is a natural bleach, and the fresh air will take away any stubborn stink that decides to stick around. I want my clean diapers to smell CLEAN!

In the winter I will dry them in my dryer if I am short on time, but the dryer will wear out the elastic quicker. I will hang them out along our dining room chairs or even on the floor in front of a big window where the sun can hit them. Even indirect sunlight is very beneficial!

When hanging diapers on the line, I do always hang them sideways, so the weight of the diaper doesn’t stretch out the elastic as they dry.

How to Keep My Diapers From Stinking

Sun, sun, sun, and fresh air. The sun and the outside air are your secret weapons against the stink of cloth diapers. Hanging them on a clothesline outside will eliminate any lingering smells. During the winter months, you can place your diapers in front of a large window. Even indirect sunlight is beneficial.

Washing every three days is also crucial to getting rid of that smell that can creep in. Letting your diapers sit dirty longer than that allows them to absorb the stink and build up ammonia.

Using baking soda when you wash helps remove soils and eliminate smells. I use 1/2-1 cup in every load.

How to Remove Stains From Diapers

Place the stained part of the diaper in the sunlight for an afternoon and prepare to have your mind blown! Full sun outdoors is best, but sunlight through a window inside in the winter will still have some effect. My jaw still drops when I hang out a wet clean diaper out on the line with a slight stain on it and then go take it down later when they are dry, and the stain is GONE! If you do have super stubborn newborn stains, it may take a couple washes and times in the sun to get it out. The newborn stains didn’t bother me so much, and I didn’t stress about removing them aggressively. Now, my youngest is one and her diapers show no signs of stains even though they did when she was a few months old.

BEST Hacks & Tricks

Doggy Bags! You know those bags you get to pick up your dogs’ poop at the park. Yep, that’s exactly what I am talking about! Using these radically changed our stink situation in our bathroom. You see, you flush the poop down the toilet, but you can’t flush the wipes, so you put them in the trash. This does not result in a lovely smell. I started putting the wipes in a doggy bag and tying it off before I threw it away. Stink GONE!
100% Bamboo Disposable Cloth Diaper Liners. I used these with each of my babies when they were newborns! It makes cleaning poopy diaper a dream. Especially when it’s that pasty or runny newborn poop. You simply place a liner in the diaper when you put it on your baby. Then, next diaper change, throw the wipes in a doggy bag and flush the liner and poop down the toilet. YES, you can flush these! They are also very inexpensive. As my kids got older and their poopy diapers got easier to clean and less often, I quit using them, but you don’t have to.
If you plan to travel with cloth diapers (I did with our first) you will want to get a few wet bags to have in your diaper bag to store dirty diapers while you are out and about. Then as soon as you get home, get the diapers out of it so they can breathe. Especially on hot days, those diapers and build up a lot of ammonia quickly.
Cloth Swim Diapers. These are awesome for pool or lake outings. A regular cloth diaper works, but it will get very heavy for your kido to be lugging around. These are very light weight and don’t absorb much liquid. They catch the solids very well though. HA!

Cloth diapering is not for the faint of heart. It takes extra work, but it is so worth it in my opinion. They save money compared to off brand diapers and substantially save money compared to the healthy brands of diapers! I also make my own homemade wipes to save money, and they are so much healthier for the tender skin on my kid’s buns!

Being a radical mama usually means extra work, and I am thrilled with that! I know it is impacting my family in very positive ways. With cloth diapers it saves my family money and is a very healthy diaper option for my babies.

When the summer breeze softly blows a strand of hair away from your eye as you pin a diaper on the line, I hope you are filled with this sense of accomplishment. Like you are somehow connected to the women who came before you. The ones who built a homestead in an unknow land. Their strength courses through your veins, and you feel empowered to make a thriving home.

Cloth Diapers 101