The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers, Part III

Welcome back to the last and final installment of this short series, The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers (read parts one and two here). This concluding portion addresses the question of affordably laundering the cloth diapers.

The first thing to keep in mind is that your water usage will increase due to the baby. This is an unavoidable truth, whether you use cloth diapers or not. But, you do have some control over how much it increases.

If you have a washing machine, you will be needing to do a load every two to three days, depending on how much volume the diaper hamper will hold (my diaper hamper is a small/medium size trash can with a lid. The max I can go is three days before overflow and mildew set in. See picture below for reference). If you don't have a washing machine but can access laundry facilities without issue, plan trips accordingly so as to maximize washing (not to mention fiscal) efficiency. If for whatever reason you are unable to access the laundromat, handwashing cloth diapers is your most viable option and the one you have the most control over the water usage on.

My diaper hamper, with my husband's sippy cup and the rocking chair for scale

Regardless of what laundering options are available to you, there is one thing you will absolutely need: laundry soap. Laundry soap comes in the form of a large brick-shaped soap bar, and can be found with names like Zote, Lirio, Fels-Naptha, etc.  You can find them in retailers like Walmart, Dollar General, Family Dollar, etc. They are not expensive and depending on where they are sold, can retail for less than a dollar a bar (Walmart sells Zote for $0.97 a bar). I highly recommend Zote, not just for cost reasons, but also for purity and effectiveness too. If you can't find laundry soap near you, Ivory soap works well as a substitute or you can make your own if you have the time and materials to do it. Once you acquire the soap, simply cut off a chunk from the bar and set near where you will be rinsing off the diapers. Store the rest of the bar in a cool, dry place until needed.

My preferred brand of laundry soap. I've only used white Zote, but I do plan on trying other colors and brands in the near future for comparison. Picture found here

So, you've changed the baby and now have a soiled cloth diaper in your hands. What's next?

First, go to the toilet and shake the poopy part of the diaper into the water in the bowl. Do this to get as much of the crap off as possible, flush, and then toss the diaper into either a designated bucket or into the sink. Fill the vessel with water to cover the diaper, and then rub your chunk of laundry soap into the poopy stain. Stick the diaper back into the water and rub the sides of the cloth together, using the friction and lather to get the stain out. Rinse the lather, then repeat soaping and lathering as needed. When you've reached desired cleanliness, dump the bucket or drain the sink, rinse the diaper under running water, squeeze out the excess water and then hang the diaper to dry either in the shower (or tub) or on the edge of the sink or bucket. Pissy diapers don't need a toilet dunk and can be just thrown into the designated laundering vessel. For pocket diapers, remove the liners first before proceeding to launder the diapers, and then the liners. All-in-one diapers can be laundered as they are.

And, you're done!

If the idea of shaking a diaper into the toilet bowl gives you the heebie-jeebies, you may want to consider a special attachment to the toilet so that you can hose the poop off the diaper directly into the toilet. Some places sell specialty diaper hoses (they resemble mini shower heads), but they tend to be pricy so if you want one, I'd recommend getting someone to buy it for you. The other option, depending on your skill level, would be to rig a hose up and attach it to the toilet like a bidet (see diagram below). Unless someone were to give you a bidet, this would be your cheapest option, as you can cut an old garden hose down to size and get the necessary valves and hardware at home improvement stores like Home Depot.

Reference guide

For those individuals opting to machine-launder the cloth diapers, just soap and rinse to get the bulk of the crap off, and then put the diaper into your designated hamper. Even though the diaper is not clean, this preliminary wash cuts down the dirty diaper smell till laundry day. When I do a load of diapers in my machine, I combine the load with other whites or set the water level to run as a small load if there's nothing else to add to the diaper load. I also throw in a 1/2 cup of bleach and a 1/2 cup of Borax detergent booster in addition to the detergent in the load. Bleach and Borax are excellent disinfectants, as well as cheap (bleach can go for as little as $1 a bottle and be refilled by mixing swimming pool chlorine with water to desired concentration. Borax can go for anywhere between $3.00-$4.00 for a four-pound box) and are readily available at most low-cost retailers. I have no recommendations for detergent, so use what works for you (commercial or homemade).

This stuff goes a long way

I would always recommend letting the laundered diapers air dry. They'll last longer and it's far less costly than using a dryer to dry them (both in the laundromat and the resources needed to operate a home dryer). Living in Arizona, I had my husband string up a clothesline in the yard so the diapers (and our laundry in general) can take advantage of our plentiful heat and sun to dry. If it is not possible to set up a clothesline outdoors due to climate or housing restrictions, an indoor drying rack is a worthy investment. You can also temporarily string up a clothesline indoors if needed, using whatever materials you have on hand (when we first got married, my husband used string lights and clothes hangers to hang our laundry inside our trailer until we could afford to get proper clothesline and a washing machine).

The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers, Part II

Welcome back, readers!

Yesterday, in my first post for the series The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers, I described the different types of cloth diapers that exist, as well as a few pros/cons related to using them. Today, I address the question of where to find cloth diapers.

For the low income mother who has decided to use cloth diapers, options on where to find the cloth diapers are varied.

I highly recommend taking advantage of the internet when looking for cloth diapers. With sites like Craigslist and other classified ads sites, you can browse your local area and see about acquiring cloth diapers secondhand or like-new for cheap. If you have a little money, there are sites that sell cloth diapers where you can purchase them brand new (though they tend to be a bit more expensive than Craigslist).

And it's totally fine if your computer area looks like this. Nobody's judging

If the internet is not available in your home and there is nowhere else you can go to use it, ask about and see if there is a store in your area that sells cloth diapers. Babies-R-Us is a good starting point. Walmart sells cloth diapers as well, though not all stores carry them. Check ahead before making a trip there. Some children's boutiques carry cloth diapers too. Call and ask if there are any in stock and what the price range is before you go. Since cloth diapers generally aren't on the baby horizon nowadays, some proprietors may be willing to negotiate prices with you to clear out existing inventories.

Don't be afraid to ask friends, family, or members of your community if anyone has cloth diapers they are willing to give you or sell to you for a small price. If they themselves have nothing, they may know somebody who does. After telling friends at church about our quest for cloth diapers, one of them hooked me up with another family she knew whose children had outgrown their cloth diapers and they were looking to be rid of those diapers. We happily took up their donation. The bulk of our cloth diapers came from that wonderful family. Asking around should be your first step, as it's usually the quickest way to get lots of cloth diapers in a short amount of time without having to spend any of your money.

You can never have enough cloth diapers. You'll never know when you'll need them

Baby showers are a great way to acquire cloth diapers. Depending on where you register, you might be able to add them to your registry. Or, if you're like me and didn't bother with a registry, let your hosts/guests know of your wishlist before the shower date. My daughter's godmother bought me several packs of flat cloth diapers, as well as pins and plastic pants for my baby shower. Another family friend gave us gift cards that we used to buy cloth diapers at Babies-R-Us. Another friend bought me flat cloth diapers and covers from a local children's boutique. If nothing else, request gift cards for your shower. They're probably the most versatile gift you can get.

Diaper cakes, like this one, are a cute way to gift cloth diapers at a shower

Alot of baby items can be acquired for cheap at flea markets, swap meets, and yard sales. Check out what's in your area and stop by to see if anyone is selling cloth diapers.

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the upfront cost of cloth diapers are greater than disposable diapers, and many impoverished individuals, myself included, find that upfront cost intimidating. On this topic, my best advice would be to start buying early on in your pregnancy if there is no other way you can get cloth diapers cheaply from others. Optimally, this is the last resort when it comes to acquiring cloth diapers, as donations or gifts help minimize what you need to spend out of pocket. You don't have to buy the whole supply at once. Buy a little here, a little there when you can. When baby is born, they go through an average of about 10-12 diapers a day. Plan accordingly.

Remember, there is no shame in getting secondhand items if that's all you can afford. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. And if they do, well, that's what the middle finger is for!

Stay tuned for tomorrow's final posting in this series. Tomorrow, I cover laundering as well as storing the diapers.

The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers, Part I

Before Darija was born, my husband and I debated about whether to use cloth diapers or disposable ones. While disposable ones are readily available and have the perks of convenience (not to mention keeping pee off of baby's bottom better), the costs of buying packs and boxes of diapers every other week adds up pretty quickly. Cloth diapers, while notable for their eco-friendliness and long-term austerity due to being reusable, have a higher up-front cost and are guaranteed to result in higher water/utility bills due to the frequent laundering required of them.

So, what to do?

While we landed on a compromise of using disposables while out and about and cloth diapers at home, living in poverty has a way of educating you to take advantage of whatever life hacks you can find to stretch your limited resources further. I've found that the use of cloth diapers has been an essential part of keeping our baby care expenses lower than the average.

Like alot of millenials, especially ones with a conservative background like myself, I initially scoffed at the idea of cloth diapers. In my mind, cloth diapers had a stigma in that it was only for hippies, granola yuppies, and rich/middle class suburban stay at home mothers, while "real", hardworking, and/or impoverished people like me used disposables. But, after doing some research, I found it actually WAS more beneficial in the long run to use cloth diapers, environmentally and financially. Some of my mommy friends who'd used cloth diapers at church also encouraged me to use them as well. That, plus help from my husband who'd had experience in both childcare and cloth diapers, convinced me it actually WAS possible for a low-income mother like myself to keep my child adequately diapered and not go broke in the process!

But then came three big questions-what kinds of cloth diapers to acquire? Where do I find them? And can I afford to launder them without breaking the bank?

With those questions in mind, I've come up with a practical guide to cloth diapers for the low-income individual. Each of the three questions above will be addressed in a separate entry for this short series I'm calling The Ghetto Guide to Cloth Diapers. Cloth diapers shouldn't be something associated with the affluent segment of the population. They're for everyone regardless of income levels, and I can help you decide if this is a truly practical option for your wallet and your baby.

Let us begin.