Learning the Ropes for Round Two

I cloth diapered my daughter starting from 3 months until she was potty trained. I am now cloth diapering my newborn. The cloth diapering isn't new, but the house is. We've moved since my last cloth diaper change and I've had to create a new storage routine. The biggest difference is that the baby's room is upstairs and the washer and dryer is downstairs. At our previous home, the bedrooms and washer were on the same floor. So what's going to work?

I still had my diaper pail, which is just a lidded trashcan. It became a laundry hamper once we finished diapering. Now it's all set up with a pail liner in it ready for dirty dipes. There's a perfect spot for it in the upstairs bathroom and the diaper sprayer is hooked up to that toilet. The changing table is upstairs as well. So the best choice is for most of the diapering to take place upstairs.

But what about downstairs? I don't really want to run up and down the stairs each time I change a diaper. (I guess I could call it my post-partum exercise.) I also didn't really want another pail and sprayer. Plus the downstairs bathroom is most often used by guests.

At first there would just be a little stack of soiled diapers on the bathroom counter until I ran them upstairs. This obviously was an unsightly solution. What we eventually did was hang a wet-bag from the doorknob and keep them there until laundry day. It's worked nicely. I know it isn't going to last forever, though. Right now the diapers don't have much of an odor. And the newborn sized diapers make it easy to stuff in the little wet-bag for laundry every other day. The diapers are going to get bigger and the smells are going to be stronger. So we'll see what works once solid foods are introduced.

Once the diapers are clean, there's a basket upstairs and downstairs for them. There are also dry cloth wipes next to each basket of diapers. So far just sink water is my wipes solution (even out in public). There are also disposable wipes for my husband. He really likes not using cloth wipes, so I'm not making it a big deal. But I've seen him use a cloth wipe, so we're making progress to not having to buy anyone.

I think diaper organizing is like laundering cloth diapers. It's changing, getting better, trying to new things, and making the most of what you have.

For now it all seems to be working.

Bio: Alicia is an 8th grade English and Drama teacher and is a pretty crunchy momma. She shares her Arizona home with a wonderful husband, energetic 3 year old, sweet 2 month old, 1 crazy dog, and 7 happy chickens.