I've been using cloth diapers since Desana was five months old. When I was pregnant with her I wanted to start cloth right away, but the start-up cost was more than we could afford at the time.
As Desana is not yet potty trained I have TWO kids in cloth diapers. Argh. At least we have electricity and fancy machines that do all the hard work for us, so I don't actually have to wash everything by hand! I put the diapers in to wash probably every other day. I can be completely honest and tell you that I actually do not know how many I own as there are always some in the diaper pail, on the kids, or in the wash. They are never all together at once. If I had to hazard a guess I would say I probably have around 3 dozen.
Here's how it works. During the day I fill up a wet bag (the blue bag in the pic above) with the diapers the girls use, or I pop them in the diaper pail. Once I've filled up a bag it gets placed back here by the washer and dryer and the diaper pail. Once the diaper pail is full and there are two-three wetbags filled with diapers back here I put on a load. That is usually every other day, if I let it go more than that it's dangerous - we might run out! As far as what's in the diaper, if it's solid I just shake it out into the toilet. Everything else comes out in the wash.
Here's my fancy washer and dryer. They are energy efficient and work great with the diapers. When I started we had an older washer and dryer that came with the house. Eventually the washing machine literally died mid-cycle with the diapers. Not fun. Anyway, with this set-up the diapers wash on the 'sanitary' setting for two hours, then dry for an hour and a half in the dryer. That is a three and a half hour process.
This is the detergent I use. It's from costco and is a HUGE bottle so lasts a real long time. I like that I am using the same detergent with our clothes, towels bedding, etc, etc, and the diapers.
After they wash and dry, this is the result! A huge spilling over basket of diapers, liners and cloth wipes to be folded, snapped and stuffed.
Then when all that is over and done with, this is their final resting place.... until someone's bum needs changing! I love all the pretty colors. :) Oh yeah, I don't have a change table. No room for one, plus I haven't really found it necessary except for when I was heavily pregnant with Freya. Then it was difficult to change Desana on the floor.
I use Grandma Els diaper cream. My wetbags are from AMP diaper store. The pretty blue bag with flowers that you see there above is an amazing little mini wet/dry bag from Planet Wise. I love them since it means I can keep wet wipes in the big zippered pocket and dry ones in the small when I'm going out with the diaper bag.
For the wipes I use two old disposable wipes containers. One holds dry wipes and the other holds wet. I use Punkin Booty Bits with the wet wipes, one piece mixed with 1 1/2 to 2 cups of warm water to dissolve it in. Then I just pour it over the wipes.
For overnights I put Desana in a BumGenius 3.0 diaper (converted from velcro to snaps), first stuffed with a three layer hemp insert folded three ways (that makes 9 layers), then put a one-size BumGenius microfibre insert on top of that. She usually doesn't wet at night anymore anyway but this combination stands up pretty well.
For overnights Freya is in a Swaddlebees one-size Econappi stuffed with a cotton/hemp ecoliner insert with a BumGenius microfibre insert on top. Yeah I know it's quite a bit of jargon. :) For daytime they are both in the same Swaddlebees diapers.
Here's the deal on the diapers. I have 9 BumGenius diapers. They are pretty good diapers and the only reason I use them for Desana for nights is just because they were the most reliable of the other types of diapers I used to have her in. It's an old habit. She would do just fine in a Swaddlebee for night too. The rest of the diapers are Swaddlebees. Swaddlebees are just awesome. I like their fit a little bit more than the BumGenius, they come in a variety of gorgeous prints and colors. They also fit from roughly 10-35lbs.
The biggest advantage of using the one-size diapers is that when I'm packing up the diaper bag to go out it doesn't matter what diaper I toss in there. If I need one for Freya I just adjust the rise to make it shorter, or un-snap it to make it longer for Desana. Plus when it's hot I can just put my kids in matching cute diapers and let them run around shirtless. ;)
Pretty!
Update: I hope you have found this information useful. This has become one of my most popular posts, it seems a lot of people are interested in how to cloth diaper two kids! I'd be happy to answer any questions.
You might also like to read this post: The Diaper Bag for Multiple Kids in Cloth Diapers
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