This post is just some basic information about cloth diapers, what I've used and how I used them. People have some pretty strong misconceptions about cloth diapers. Often, when I told people I used them they wrinkled their nose and made an "Eww, gross" face, or just assumed that I used them because I was so crunchy granola, and that they would never work for a regular person. But cloth diapers are not gross, time consuming, or complicated.
On the contrary, they are soft and cuddly. Your house is cleaner when you don't have stinky old diapers sitting around. It reduces your household waste, and the waste that builds up in our landfills. It keeps toxic chemicals away from your baby's skin. It is way cheaper. They have become a very chic thing to use, and there are so many choices now, but at the time it hadn't really caught on except for among the hippies and the very poor. We were both. So, here is how we did it, and it became a very easy, routine part of life.
With my first child, we used cloth diapers almost entirely from birth to potty training. We bought the Kushies brand from Sears. They don't require folding, and they have velcro closures. We bought two packs of eight and two plastic diaper covers. The entire set cost us less than $100. We didn't spend another penny on diapers until the next year, when we bought her the toddler size ($100 again), which lasted till she was potty trained.
We kept a five gallon pail beside the toilet. After a change we would throw wet diapers in the bucket. If the diaper had poo, we'd plop the poo into the toilet (or scoop it off with toilet paper if need be), rinse off any remaining poo in the sink, and toss it in the bucket. We didn't fill the bucket with water or soak the diapers, because that turned out to be messy, and made it harder to carry them downstairs to the washer. At the end of the day, we'd throw them all in the washer (regular cycle). Then we hung them up inside, and by morning they were dry and ready to use. The diaper covers were changed if they were wet. The wet one got hung on the towel rack in the bathroom, the dry one got put on.
There's really not much else to it than that. My sister, whom I got the "Eww gross!" face from the most, ended up using cloth diapers for her own kids, and commenting on how easy it was. All I can say is, you never know until you try.
