Motherhood: Not Your Grandma's Cloth Diapering

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Hi guys! I'm excited to be sharing another awesome guest post in the "Motherhood Unmessed" series. One of my goals as a Mom is to try and simplify our lives as much as possible, to eliminate any unnecessary stress and clutter since parenting comes with so much of this on the side already. It's not easy but there are so many ways that you can contribute to creating a happy, healthy and sustainable life for our littlest loves so I jumped at the chance to get some insight on the process of cloth diapering from my beautiful friend Lindsay. Confession: Before I had Ronan, I thought this idea was absolutely asinine. I just kept thinking, how could anyone have time to do THAT MUCH laundry? It seemed so unrealistic, especially with the thousand other tasks I have to keep up with on a daily basis but after reading Lindsay's take and tips on it, I honestly feel like it's much more doable than I realized. Whether you think the idea of cloth diapers is crazy or have considered trying it out, this is a very helpful read from a loving Mom.

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Does anything promote fear and confusion in the hearts and minds of parents everywhere quite like the term "cloth diapers?" (Probably, but you see where I am going...). I am by no means a cloth diaper "expert." This is not a cry to save the world and switch to cloth. And this is definitely not an all-encompassing cloth diaper 101 one-stop-shop. Instead, I present for your consideration our experiences with cloth diapers and why it may be worth your consideration.

#1: Why? Why would we subject ourselves to the horror of cloth diapering?

To be frank, we needed to save the money. I wish the #1 reason was to save the world, but we were shelling out hundreds of dollars for disposables and we couldn't afford it. Our Montessori day care provided a parent workshop on toilet learning the Montessori way (more on that later) and mentioned cloth diapers. Our son was about 7 months old at the time. When I brought it up to my husband thinking he would pack up and leave, he said to me "Let's give it a try. I'm surprised you didn't bring this up sooner." (Color me surprised). We went with bumgenius (it was like the first brand we came across that looked kind of easy and had a ton of colors and prints). We went with the original pocket version (now known as the 5.0) basically by accident. I did some research on the styles and this sounded like the easiest to clean and maintain. We bought a bundle from the Green Nursery - thanks to Jessica from What I Wore (now Stars and Field) for the recommendation. This place makes its living providing eco-smart solutions for baby. They were super knowledgeable about cloth diapers and a great resource for us. I recommend them or finding another place like this to help you out when you have questions.

#2: Start Up & Clean Up:

Start by buying enough for 3 days. You will use up 2 days worth, then wash them on the 3rd day (or if you're fancy you can have a service pick them up, clean them and return them, but as you learned in our "why", that was not an option for us). You need to wash every 2-3 days to keep diapers functioning their best and to prevent whatever gross stuff might happen if you go longer than that. Cleaning is easy. It takes a few hours (3ish), but basically we would start the load once our baby went down for the night and we would hang the shells to dry before we went to bed that night. To clean them, the bumgenius way, there is a quick speed wash to get rid of any solid matter and then a super hot deep clean cycle to get really clean. Then you hang the shells to dry and machine dry the inserts. It may sound like work in the beginning, but it just becomes part of your routine. My husband is handy with our gadgets so he programmed the "custom program" on our washer and dryer so that the longer wash cycle and dry cycle are just "push-to-start". Directions for washing come with the diapers or are available from the diaper manufacturer. He would also deep clean them once a month or so to get rid of any stains (spray stained parts with diluted bleach, then wash on the long, hot cycle). Once you are in the flow, you will be saving tons of money, helping the earth and LOVING cloth diapers (I promise!!)

#3: What else you need and need to know:

-You NEED a diaper sprayer. This attaches to the side of your toilet and blasts off that #2 residue. Some people swear by the pail to help contain the spray, but we've gotten by without it. You 100% need the sprayer though.

-You will need a wet bag (large) for a hamper-like place to collect the diapers as you use them, and a small one for your diaper bag when you are on the go. We wash these with our diapers too. Trust me, you need these. You don't want to place your soiled diapers any ole place.

-There are other inserts (hemp, organic, etc) that provide extra absorption. This is good for when baby gets bigger and especially good for overnight. Our baby was just about 2 when he outgrew the inserts for overnight (regular leaking), but by then he was ready for overnight pull-ups. There are die-hard cloth diaper-ers who will make cloth work until the very end, but we felt we had gotten our money's worth.

-Cloth diapers grow with your baby. You can start from Day 1. They have snaps to adjust rise and waist. There are insert options for teeny-tiny babies to regular babies to heavy wetters. There is always a solution with cloth. You can ask your retailer (local place if possible) or a place like the Green Nursery to help you through any issue with fit or function that may come up. There are also Facebook groups to help with any manner of concern (how to clean with hard/soft water issue, fit issue, rise issue, etc). There is a great community out there ready to help! My biggest issue was stopping myself from buying ALL the new prints as they came out (they are so stinking cute).

-All-natural, enviro-friendly detergent is recommended (though some women swear by Tide). We use Nellie's and love it. You can use this as your regular detergent also. This tin lasts a really long time.

Cloth diapering is not hard or scary. It's fiscally responsible in the long term (up front cost), it is easy and it is so good for our environment. Disposables as I'm sure you all know are a bane on our earth and they take like 500 years to decompose. You can find a little more info on "why" here. I encourage all you moms out there still in the diaper phase to give it some consideration and just a little research. And if you are a soon-to-be-mom, you can put these on your registry! It may work for your family and you may (gasp) like it!

You guys can follow me on Instagram and feel free to comment below or on my IG with any questions! And thanks to Kaitlyn for letting me stand on my soapbox for a quick minute!