Cloth diapering the modern way

So many people ask me about cloth diapering, like it was something just recently invented. Trust me, I'm not the early adopter of new technology - that would be my hubby, who is still trying to talk me into using text messaging and a laptop!

Anyway, I just wanted to share the mechanics of what works for us and hope that you may either gain some insight into WHY we do this or see that it may be something that can work for your family as well.

First off, I will welcome you to the "cloth diapering place of happiness and peace", also known to our household as the "laundry room" or also as the "blue bathroom". (What you can't see any blue? Well, there used to be blue walls, which I am still in the process of covering over with white paint. It's taken 3 layers of Kilz and two of the white so far, and I still see that bright country blue color. Fortunately it comes across as pretty nice via these internet pictures!)

Come on in (and notice my hubby's amazing carpentry skills as you enter and pass the cabinets on the right that he built from formerly unusable empty space!)
Ok, here's the big deal - I put the changing pad on top of my dryer. I don't like those little changing pad sheets, so I just use a clean blanket. Right now it's got a sweet little 4 patch quilt made for Maggie by our neighbor where we used to live. They were amazing. The mom encouraged me to look at homebirthing and was a homeschooler too, and had 6 children. Her daughter made this when she was 13. Thanks again, Olivia! Anyway, it's soft and pretty and makes me think happy thoughts, so here it is right now.


You can see that the washer and dryer don't sit side by side, which is weird to me, but our house is about 80 years old and I love it, so it'll do. At least it's not in our kitchen, which is where it used to be before we got here. I don't think that the dirty diapers and the kitchen would work out for me. Just saying. You may have figured a way around it! Anyway, our dirty clothes basket is right between them, which works and is convenient for baths. You can see the bathtub to the right of the washer, which has it's own special purpose. Ideally, there is a basket in the bathtub (just a regular mini laundry basket) that I toss the dirty/wet diapers into. No swishing in the toilet, no diaper pail, just pop them in the basket. Really, I wash them at least every other day, usually every day, so there isn't any odor build up. And if they make it to the basket whoever needs to use the bath or shower can just move the basket instead of a pile of diapers. I said there was ideally a basket in there, right?


Let me say I wasn't too keen on the cabinets above the dryer when we moved here. I don't use that many cleaning supplies, and they didn't seem to be in the right place for the bath linens. But now those cabinets have found their special purpose above the changing pad/dryer. They hold all my cloth diapers. Actually, since I'm pretty short, I have the current diapers on the bottom shelf, and the next batch to grow into are on the top shelf. Actually, there are even more cloth diapers in that pretty set of cabinets I showed you earlier, ones the baby just recently grew out of and yet another size after we grow into the top shelf ones. So on the bottom shelf, from left to right, there are the diapers, a box of flannel squares for wipes, a bin of pocket diaper covers, and then a pile of wool covers.


See, the big bonus about those cabinets, and diapering in the laundry room, is that the dirty diapers don't have to travel about the house for changing and cleaning and putting away. They come off, shortly go into the laundry, and then I can put them away as soon as they are dry up into the cabinet above the dryer. Oh, and another big bonus, for wipes I used flannel squares that I serged the edges of, then I just use plain warm water on them for wiping. The sink is about 3 feet behind me when I am standing at the washer, so I can keep a hand on the baby and get a wipe wet in the sink. I can't show you the sink because I piled all the extra laundry clutter on it so I could take these pictures for you! But it's very nice!

And since I'm not a big chemical cleaner user I keep all the chemicals I usually use for cleaning in the cabinet next to it, laundry soap, fabric softener for regular laundry, not diapers, bleach, borax, and baking soda. I keep vinegar for cleaning in the kitchen because the giganto bottle I get at Sam's is too tall for this cabinet!

Anyway, there you go. And you know that my laundry room is always this tidy, right? And I never ever have to move a pile of laundry off the changing pad so that I can change a diaper, right? Yeah, well. Most days it works great! Now I need a roomba-type thing that puts up all the laundry! Like Rosie from the Jetsons! Wasn't the 21st century supposed to come with fancy robots like that?