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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

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How to Store Your Soiled Cloth Diapers

Is your current system of storing soiled cloth diapers not working? Do you have friends who are new to cloth diapers, or are thinking about using cloth diapers, that ask: “how do you handle soiled diapers?”

Taking care of soiled diapers and storing them until laundry day really isn’t all that difficult. You just need to find a system that works best for you!

Combinations for storing soiled diapers until laundry time: (priced low to high)

1. Average cleaning bucket - use this with or without a small pail liner. It can act as a small wastebasket! This would be easy to use without a pail liner since it would be quick and easy to wipe down, but, depending on the bucket, the amount of diapers it could hold would be more limited compared to the other options.

2. Cloth bag - (like a giant pillowcase) use this in some sort of container since this will obviously not prevent leaks. Just throw it in the wash with the diapers like your pail liners.

3. Plastic garbage can - with or without a pail liner, with or without a lid (wash container every once and awhile if not using a pail liner)

4. Diaper pail liner - by itself on the floor. You can keep the top loosely folded over to keep things contained, or depending of the brand you chose, some come with an elastic drawstring top.

5. Wicker basket - with a pail liner and with or without a lid. I don’t suggest going without a pail liner for this one since diapers can then leak onto your flooring and/or the wicker could snag your diapers (yikes!).


6. Hanging diaper pail - it fits on a doorknob or handle. These are easy to use especially if they have a bottom zipper that allows you to unzip and dump right into the washer.

7. Hanging Wet Bag - (think giant wet bag) These also hangs on a handle or knob and most have zippered tops making these great for travel.


8. Stainless steel or metal garbage can - with or without a pail liner, with or without a lid (wash container every once and awhile if not using a pail liner)

I have used a variety of these combinations to store soiled cloth diapers, and found what worked best for us: a wicker basket with a lid and a pail liner in the bathroom (for dirty diapers that need to be sprayed off), and a plastic garbage can with a lid and a pail liner in the nursery for wet diapers! I chose to have lids on my containers so that I, as well as guests, didn’t have to see soiled diapers.


TIPS
-Use what you already have! We rotated trash cans so that now our older plastic kitchen trash can is the trash can we use in the nursery (we just gave it a good cleaning). This comes in handy when you are on a budget.
-Swinging trash can lids are your friend! You can easily throw a diaper in. Snap shut lids can be used easily too, just leave the lid open.
-Use ventilation to your advantage. Wicker baskets and using the no-lid or open-lid strategy prevents moisture from building up in your diaper pail liner (these suckers are so good because they are water proof!) Ventilation is good for two reasons: helps with moisture not building up, AND it helps your diapers not to smell! I know! I didn’t believe it either until I tried it.
-Metal garbage cans can hold smells in. This is a good and a bad thing. When we tried using a stainless steel garbage can with a pail liner, this combination was so good at keeping the smell in that, no moisture could escape, leaving us with diapers that started to reek! However, there is the option of using odor removers such as baking soda, pail freshener spray, or diaper deodorizing disks.

Storing soiled cloth diapers requires nothing extra compared to a trash can for disposables, and actually, price out less since you would not need to purchase multiple trash bags!

Bio: Lindsey Baker is a stay at home wife and mama to 21-month-old cutie pie, Christian. She loves all things crunchy, photography, movies, books, and blogs at: A {Simple} Kind of Life



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1 comment:

Isaac said...

Great article. I know how to strip diapers but it's the problem to carry them around. I recently bought the Duo diaper bag at SkipHop which works wonders!