Cloth Diapering in a VERY SMALL Studio Apartment

It is amazing how the less you have, the more you realize how little you really need. When it comes to Cloth Diapering, I have learned that the same principle applies.

I still remember when I got my first cloth diapers in the mail...

I prepped the diapers and was ready to start by the next day. I was so excited to give it a try. I wanted to cloth diaper for 2 of the 3 big reasons… cost and cuteness, and boy did my baby look cute in his gdiaper. Of course I hadn´t made any preparations for what I would do after taking the dirty diaper off of my baby, and YES! That is very important! That day I learned what a wet bag was for.

At the time, we were in the process of moving from Puerto Rico to Spain, so I didn´t want to buy everything that I wanted and then not have enough room in my suitcase for clothes (Yes, I love them so much that I would have parted with my clothes before my treasured diapers). I reminded myself to be patient and make due, I would get everything I needed and wanted soon.

My hubby had shown me pictures of the studio he found, and told me it was pretty small; somehow it seemed much smaller when we arrived. Just to give you an idea, imagine a bedroom, with a bathroom, a small kitchen and thank God an enclosed terrace (This feature gives us a little more room).

We may have a very small living space, but we make it work; just like we make cloth diapering work. Our current stash consists of 10 pocket diapers (bumgenius, fuzzibunz and bottombumpers) 1 wet bag, about 2 dozen baby washcloths, and 1 bag of rockin green.

How do we do it?

Baby uses about 6 diapers a day, so we wash every other day and hang the diapers outside to dry. If I need a diaper before I have any dry onesize inserts, I stuff the diaper with a few of the newborn inserts that it came with.

Not having a diaper sprayer is not the end of the world. Yes I would LOVE to have one; but my shower head works great! I shake out whatever I can in the toilet, spray out the diaper in the shower, put the diaper in the wet bag and rinse out the shower with hot water and cleanser.

A diaper pail would only take up necessary space; instead, my wet bag hangs on a hook in the room.

We don’t use a changing table or station, we change the baby on the bed (the old school way), use regular baby wipes and make a homemade wipe solution. His clean diapers are stored in a shelf in his closet.

If I had a choice, would I live in a bigger place? Have an adorable changing area? Have more than 1 wet bag? Have a diaper sprayer? And about 2 dozen more diapers? YES! (Believe me, I have a pretty awesome wishlist) But you know what? That’s not gonna stop me from cloth diapering.

At the end of January, when my husband was laid off, it was such a relief not to worry about how we were going to buy diapers. My baby is almost 15 months old and not once have we had to make an emergency diaper run.

Cloth diapering has been one of the best parenting decisions we have made. Keep it simple, don´t let what you don´t have, stop you from using what you do have.


Rebecca and her husband have been married for 4 years, have a beautiful 14 month old boy and live in Spain. She truly is an imported mama. Check out her blog at www.importedmama.blogspot.com