Cloth Wipes … why didn’t I do this all along?

When we arrived home from the hospital with our two bundles of joy, we were greeted by a very generous gift from a friend of two extra-large boxes of Costco brand wipes… I mean enough to last us 6 months. And in the first week home we were using disposable diapers along with these wipes. But sure enough, about six months in they ran out. For a few weeks I continued to buy Pampers wipes, whats a few extra bucks at the store anyway?

Then at Christmas, we received a wipes warmer as a gift, the Prince Lionheart brand that’s designed to work with cloth wipes. Now I had no excuse not to at least try the cloth wipes. We had purchased some when we initially bought the cloth diapers so I gave it a try, and I’ll venture to say I’ll never go back!

Here’s what I do… every 3-4 days I combine 3 cups of water, a few drops of olive oil and a squirt of California Baby Wash in a bowl and mix it up. I bring the wipes warmer to the counter, rinse and wipe it out, squeeze out the sponge in the bottom and rewet it with fresh water. I then dip all of the clean wipes in the bowl one at a time, squeeze them out and roll them up to place in the warmer. I do about 20 wipes at a time and it takes a total of 10-15 minutes tops. I love it. I think the wipes get the baby’s bottoms cleaner, are softer on their skin and I love that they’re warm to the touch. I have been ending up with extra liquid in the bottom so I still need to figure out the perfect moistness for the wipes.

And the best part is, we have zero trash at the changing station. I used to think, just a few wipes a day wasn’t a big deal but it was still garbage… sitting right in the middle of our family room; and poopy garbage at that! Now we are even considering moving the trash can we keep there back to the garage where it belongs!

Here is my set-up:

Prepare the supplies (all-natural baby wash, olive oil, filtered water, a clean bowl and the clean, dry wipes)

Mis the solution and dip the first wipe

Squeeze out the excess water and roll each wipe so it stays wet and warm in the warmer

Load them in

Close the lid and in 30 minutes you have warm wipes!

Decisions, Decisions … A New Washer

I’ve been telling my husband for the past two months that washing diapers was going to be the death of our 10-year old washing machine. And after 3 service calls over the past 2 months it finally died, for good! We use a warrantee company for our appliances since we purchased our home with 20+ year old furnace/water heater/air conditioner. After a week of negotiating the warrantee company they finally agreed to replace the washer rather than repair it.

FINALLY! It seemed like we had a poopy blow-out at least once a day with disposables and washing 12-16 diapers by hand was just a little too much for me. But now, what to buy? I thought our old washer did a great job with the diapers when it was working.

Being the dead of winter in Virginia and with flu season in full swing I didn’t want to drag the babies out all over creation to look at washers so I decided to do my research and price shopping online. The warrantee company was sending me a check for $454 (after arguing them up from $341) so that’s all I had to spend.

It seems these days all you can find are HE washers that save money and energy by using a fraction of the water of a traditional washer. That’s great and all…. but I think a good amount of water is needed to properly wash diapers. So after a couple of late nights researching different models after the babies were asleep, I settled on a GE washer that had a HE option and a high water option. The other options I was looking for were delicate cycle, pre-wash and extra rinse, stainless steel drum and agitator.

I found the washer I liked at Lowe’s for $600….hmmmm. Let’s check HHGregg … they have it for $600 with a $100 rebate bringing the price down to $500 but with a $79 delivery charge that’s still too much. After a little more research I read that Lowe’s does a 110% price match; okay now we’re getting somewhere. First thing the next morning I called my local Lowe’s to confirm if this was true. It was, the lady at customer service promised me. They will match the competitor’s price then take an additional 10% off! And they had my model in stock and available for free next-day delivery, SCORE!

So as soon as my husband got home I headed out in the cold rain with model numbers and prices noted down an a piece of paper. I found the washer immediately and explained the situation to the Lowe’s employee … I want a HE washer but I also need to be able to use a lot of water to wash diapers…. “You wash PAMPERS?!?” she replied … “well no not exactly but something like that” I say wanting to get in and out as quickly as possible so I can feed the babies and make dinner. I should have explained that we actually wash cloth diapers but her expression was just too priceless. She assured me I had chosen the best washer for my situation and I explained to her the price difference between Lowe’s and HHGregg.

Getting the price match was not difficult but getting the additional 10% off took some convincing. But after a quick call to customer service she was convinced and I got my $600 washer for $449 with free delivery the next day!

We’ve had it for 2 weeks now. So far, I think it does a good job with the diapers, I use a cold pre-wash then a hot “whites” wash with detergent. It takes a bit longer than my old washer but the diapers look, feel and smell clean when we’re done. As far as the HE setting when washing the grown-up clothes, it seems to pull and twist my clothes more than my old washer. Nothing has been damaged yet… but I’m waiting for the day when I pull out one of my beloved flannel shirts to find an sleeve ripped off. I will update in a few months if that happens!

The Cloth Diaper Situation

Here’s a picture of our original cloth diaper purchase.  I’ll get some pics up of our more current stock.

At 6-months old we are quite happy with cloth diapering but it’s taken some trial and error to get here.  Here is what works for me now and what worked for me at different times over the past 6 months.

Birth to 2 weeks – okay during this time I was in survival mode so we used the bag of preemie disposables my cousin very intelligently bought us as part of our shower gift.  My first thought when we got home – thank God we have some disposables.   It took about 2 weeks to get the cloth diapers we bought out.

2 weeks to 8 weeks – we used Modern Diaper service which dropped off 120 cloth diapers each week and picked up our bag of dirty diapers to wash.  While this service was okay ($100 per month) I think in retrospect I would have used the money on cloth diapers and figured out the washing situation ourselves.  I had a c-section so I was hesitant to do anything that required me to reach into the washer which is why we chose to go with the service at first.  It was ultimately a pain to deal with the service (they never dropped off the right number of diapers, the monthly bill fluctuated depending on how many diapers they thought I had, etc) and it was much grosser to have a weeks worth of dirty diapers sitting around rather than wash them daily.

The diaper service only provides pre-folds (the plain white rectangle diapers) and we used the Bummis super lite covers at first then Bummis super brite when the babies started to chunk up.  The smallest size Bummis super lite is the only thing that would fit my rather small babies for the first few months. We used the “bikini twist” secured with a stretchy plastic gripper rather than safety pins.

8 weeks to 4 months – deciding we were better off washing our own diapers we purchased 24 refolds (cotton rectangles) in small and large sizes.  We had outgrown the Bummis super lite covers but the Flip covers with refolds in them seemed too bulky for us and I wasn’t happy with how their clothes fit with the bulk of the diapers under them.  We also outgrew using the “bikini twist” and transitioned to the tri-fold.  At this point I purchased GroVia hybrids which are much slimmer under clothes and they worked well for this time.  We are using bamboo fitted diapers at night with a Flip cover and a GroVia booster which works well.  We very seldom get a poopy diaper at night and these absorb enough that they don’t even feel that wet in the morning.  They are bulky though!

6-months – we now almost exclusively use the pre-folds with Flip covers.  We purchased a few more covers and I really find that this works the best as far as absorbency and leak protection – both wet and dirty diapers.  The GroVia seem to leak too often – even when they are not fully saturated.  I need to do some research to see if I need to strip them.  But for now the boys are big enough that the pre-folds don’l look absolutely ridiculous on them and i like the simplicity of the diaper change when it’s just a wet diaper.

Anyway – I’m glad to answer questions if anyone is interested and I’ll post some pics of the diapers.