Laundry: Cloth Part III

We've been on cloth diapers for four days now, and I think it's safe to say that I'm sold.

That being said, the last few bloggless days have not been without their challenges and important cloth diaper lessons. Lessons like, guess what? The gro-baby diapers that I thought were so super cool are not so great on Dave and leak all over his pants. Same story with the thirsties fitted diaper. Therefore today we had TWO clothing changes and ended up with this outfit. Isn't he cute? At least that never changes.

(Note the Ohio University socks. They won today in a super cool at the buzzer basket incident which incited incredibly loud shouting and stomping and jumping and clapping. Dave and I were not involved in the jumping, etc. but were excited for the jumper nonetheless).

All of this wetting obviously means that we have been doing a lot of laundry. While the super fun diaper trial pack we got has a good selection, it does not have enough diapers for more than one day. We've been doing diaper laundry every night as a result.

You'll recall that laundry was one of my primary concerns about this adventure. Do diapers really get clean in the wash? What about BEFORE they get washed ... do they smell really bad? And how about this nasty washer/dryer I have? Is it really going to work?

Answer: so far, so good.

To start with, I've been storing Dave's dirty diapers in a trash can purchased at Target for about $4. I planned to sew my own liners (using Alisha's sewing machine ... yes, I CAN sew, and I know the thought of me doing it is shocking. But how hard can making a laundry sack be? Not hard. I think. Who knows). Instead Luke dug out several Army issue laundry bags that we have to have but he never uses. Add an air freshener (.99 for two at the commissary) as recommended by a few bloggers, a shake of baking soda and we're set. So far this has been keeping the smell down.

Night one of washing the diapers I started (as recommended here) with a cold prewash, followed by a downy ball of vinegar in a hot, normal wash. That worked great ... except that at some point during the next day I remembered that I had failed to put in any soap whatsoever. Interesting, since the diapers smelled just fine after they were dried and before I realized the lack of soap. Oh well!

Don't worry, I remembered the soap the next night. I don't have any of the recommended normal Tide powder soap on hand (I'll be buying some Monday during my weekly grocery trip) so I've been using the All free and clear (which is NOT recommended and apparently is not as "free and clear" as it claims. Sneaky!).

Bottom line thus far: cloth diapers are no more or less gross (in smell or care) than disposable diapers and still cost waaaaaaay less. The every-other-day load of laundry is not that big of a deal. We still have disposables on hand for things like Luke's trip to Portland tomorrow to visit with my Mom and Dave in the airport during her layover (I'm not going thanks to lingering discomfort from Wednesday's super cool surgery).

And, bonus!, Luvs are on sale at the commissary this week (plus I have a coupon!), so we'll be stocking up on the next size up.