I've had quite a few pregnant and new mom friends ask me how I do cloth diapering at home because we wash them ourselves and don't use a service. So for better or worse, I thought I would just put it all here for people to look at their own leisure and so I wouldn't have to keep repeating myself. Get ready for one LONG post!
Cloth diapers
We use the good ol' fashioned prefolds. I decided on this because they're way cheaper, and I like the idea that after our diapering days are done, you can use them as rags for cleaning. I have also found that they make fantastic burp cloths because they are so absorbent.
When my daughter was really small, we had 34 cloth diapers. 24ish for diapering and 5-10ish as burp cloths (and I have to sheepishly admit, I encouraged my daughter to use them as "loveys" because they're cheap and easy to replace), and I was doing about 2 loads of diapers a week. Not too bad. Basically, if you're not sure how many you want, I suggest starting with fewer and if you realize you'd like more, it's easy to buy more. The more you have, the less frequent you have to wash them (but then they also might get stinkier).
TMI about cloth diapers: I buy them from a place near us called Tiny Tots, which also does diapering service, because I'm trying to support local businesses. They are really friendly and know a lot about cloth diapering, so if you live in the SF Peninsula/South Bay Area I really recommend checking them out.
Cloth diaper covers
I like the regular Thirsties covers (v2) the best, which I bought off Amazon because they didn't sell this brand at Tiny Tots at the time. I think having 5 covers is the ideal number. For some time we had 4 covers, but there are phases when the covers are getting dirty with every poop, so I would always wish we had another. Now we have 5 and I'm pretty happy. I've read some sites that say to start with 6, but I think that's a bit much. Just like the diapers, just start with fewer if you're not sure, and if you decide you want more, then it's easy to buy more!
TMI about diaper covers: Thirsties also came out with a "duo" style with adjustable sizes that I have tried. I didn't like it as much as the regular, one size cover because sometimes poop would get caught in the snaps, which made it harder to wipe clean. Also, the small duo size says it fits up to 18 lbs, which is a big joke. My daughter is really small (5th percentile) and she couldn't wear it past 14 lbs. Having one duo cover has been handy though, as the extra 5th cover.
I also tried the popular Bummis Super Whisper Wrap, but after washing it only a few times it stopped being waterproof and wetness started seeping out. Maybe I got a defective one, but I didn't feel the need to try another one since I like the Thirsties covers so much.
Another thing I like about the Thirsties is that they have the leg gussets that make it easier to fit my daughter legs. And they come in so many fun colors it's fun to pick them out. The insides are also slick enough so if they get a little dirty, it's easy to wipe it out or wash it in the sink and hang it to dry.
Wipes
If you're going to go to the trouble of washing your own cloth diapers, it is really next to zero work to buy some reusable wipes because you just throw them in the pail and wash them with the diapers. I think I bought 24.
TMI about wipes: I bought the Prince Lionheart brand from Costco because I had a giftcard I was trying to spend. These ones are made from bamboo and are designed to go in their wipes warmer (which I don't have). Also, the instructions say to wash them in the delicate cycle. Forget that! I just throw them into the super hot laundry with the diapers, but I have to admit it has made the wipes look a little sad. When they were new they were really soft. Now they're a bit stiffer and the edges are fraying, but they do what I need them to do so who cares?
I keep the wipes in a little drawer in our bathroom and every time my daughter needs a change, we head their first to wet the wipe in the sink, then head to her room to change her diaper.
I also have a friend who said she just uses some old rags. Brilliant. Or I bet some old cut up t-shirts would work well. When you think about it, these things are to wipe poop off your baby's butt, so there really is no reason to buy anything fancy.
Liners
We use Imse Vimse Flushable Liners, which I also buy at Tiny Tots. They are really handy because they keep most of the poop from getting directly onto the diaper, thus making it easier to "peel" the poop off and clean the diaper. They're not necessary, but are a nice little splurge.
TMI about liners: I like the Imse Vimse brand because you can actually wash them with the diapers and reuse them a couple times. Don't get me wrong, if the diaper is poopy, that liner goes down the toilet. But if it's just pee, then it's easy to just throw it into the pail with the diaper and wipes.
I send the liners through the washer and the dryer and they end up looking like this:
We did try the Bummis brand of flushable liners, which are much softer, when my daughter was newborn. But the ability to wash and reuse the Imse Vimse ones eventually won out.
Sprayers
If you are going to wash your own cloth diapers, installing a sprayer on your toilet is really a must have unless you happen to be someone who delights in touching poop. Didn't think so. We bought the bumGenius one which works fine.
TMI about sprayers: My dad helped us install ours and it was not as simple as we hoped it would be. My dad said this was because the toilet pipe-thing sticking out of our wall was an unusual size, so it didn't fit the sprayer. As a result he went to the hardware store and ended up spending as much money on extra parts as the actual sprayer cost us! Then it took about 2 months of constant tweaking for it to not leak. Now I am glad to say that it doesn't leak anymore and works perfectly. The moral of the story is to check what size your toilet-pipe thing is before buying a sprayer to make sure it fits!
Diaper Pail/Wet Bag
For a diaper pail, we just bought a large kitchen pail at Target with a lid. I bought a wet bag from Tiny Tots (which was kind of pricey $30) and I can't remember what brand it is. This particular one has little tabs that you can drop tea tree oil on to help with the smell.
We use disposable diapers when we are away from home (I really like Nature Babycare as an eco-friendly choice) because it's just more convenient for everyone, so we have a small pail we bought at Target too and it works great. I found that dropping some tea tree oil in it doesn't hurt either. Or sprinkling some baking soda on the diapers every so often helps too.
TMI about diaper pails and wet bags: Before I had my kid I went to a baby shower where someone said that diaper genie-like pails were a total waste. I would have to agree. We just use simple, regular kitchen pails and everything is fine. Sure it smells sometimes, but it's not anything that taking out the garbage or opening a window can't solve. The tea tree oil and baking soda help too.
As far as I know, all diaper genie-like pails do is wrap the diaper in plastic to help contain the smell. As if disposable diapers aren't already going to be around for thousands of years, why do we need to wrap then in plastic to keep them around for another thousand? I don't want to get preachy, and I'm not going to judge anyone with a diaper genie, but I really think it's a shame that we're wasting so much plastic just because of a few odors. I'm no saint, but c'mon people. It's poop! It's supposed to smell!
Laundering
First of all, we have a pretty new HE washer that has a sanitizing cycle. If I didn't have this washer, I don't think I would try to wash them myself, but I guess it's up to you.
To wash the cloth diapers, we use Charlie's Soap which we buy straight from their website. But sometimes it still leaves leftover poop stains. In the summer I used to dry the diapers out in the sun, and the sun naturally bleaches them gleaming white. It's like magic I tell you! During the not-so-sunny months I used to use OxiClean with the Charlie's Soap and that worked really well. Since then I've opted to replace the OxiClean with baking soda and hydrogen peroxide instead, and I've really been pleased with the results.
TMI about laundering: The complicated (annoying?) thing about Charlie's Soap is that you have to "prep" your machine (by doing several washes with Charlie's Soap to strip the leftover residue from other detergents that are stuck to your machine) and you can't use other laundry detergents while you use Charlie's Soap. So this means I actually wash all our family laundry with Charlie's Soap which was hard at first because I really missed the smell of Tide (which is one of my favorite smells). At the beginning, we would also get these little grey dot stains on some of our clothes (I think from some of the leftover residue) that I could not remove. It only happened a couple of times, and does not happen anymore, but it was kind of annoying because you would never know when it would happen. Also, without the scented smell, I was never really sure how clean our laundry was getting. I think adding the baking soda and peroxide has really "boosted" it and now I'm really happy with the combination.
Another thing about washing your own diapers is that it does smell. It's actually the ammonia pee smell that tends to travel more than the poop smell. My husband came up with the brilliant idea to just leave the fan on in our laundry closet while the diapers were washing and it has totally helped with the smell. I bought a cute little reed air freshener to help mask any subtle odors, but I think the fan works the best.
Overall Impressions
Overall, cloth diapering was hard to stick out in the beginning, but I'm really glad that we decided to do it. I do remember after the first month, I was just so tired of changing diapers and using disposables seemed so much easier. Cloth diapers do take more time because you have to "clean" them when they're poopy with the sprayer, and thus have to touch the poop a little more. And when you are so tired sometimes it just feels like so much work, but it gets much easier and better with time. Also, every time I have to change my daughter's diaper two (or three, or four...) times in a row, I don't feel guilty about wasting disposable diapers.
Update 2/2013: Since having a second child, I am 100% glad that we chose to go the cloth diapering route. It has saved us so much money and waste on disposables and the second time around, it really is very easy. None of the doubts and questions on how to figure the whole thing out. And it's been an added bonus to share our diapers and covers with friends when we weren't using them. One set of cloth diapers can really go a long way!
More Resources
Here are some good sites to look at to find more info on cloth diapering:
Tiny Tots Info Center - I basically learned how to use prefolds by watching their videos. They're really simple and easy to understand. And the little baby they use in the videos for demos is soooo cute!
Green Mountain Diapers - This site has a lot of helpful info and pictures so you can see all the gazillion different brands of cloth diapers and compare them. The person in charge of the site also seems to really know her stuff.
Boy, this was a long post. I'm exhausted!
