Near the end of Michael’s recent deployment, the children and I spent a month with my family in Florida and I used my cloth diapers!
I took my entire stash of diapers and wipes (18 pockets and 4 fitteds with covers).
We drove from Colorado to Florida over a 3 day period (with a friend helping me out), so rather than trying to keep a stack of cloth diapers handy and having to figure out where to stash a wetbag full of soiled diapers, I chose to use disposables on the trip there and then again on the trip back home.
However, while I was in Florida, I used cloth the majority of the time. Over the course of that month (34 days, really), I only ended up using one small pack of disposables – mostly when Rachael was being watched by family.
I’ve come away from this trip with a few tips:
~ Pack your diapers in a space bag (the kind that have zipper tops and then you vacuum out all the air). It saved me a ton of space in a suitcase.
~ Check out the hardness of the water where you’ll be washing your diapers and research whether you’ll need to change your washing routine/detergent, etc.
~ Set up a diapering area in the space where you’ll be staying. For me, it was my old bedroom, so I just used the top of the chest of drawers to stack my diapers, wipes/solution and disposable liners. Then laid out a changing pad on top of the bed for diaper changes.
~ Invest in a large wetbag that will hold a full load of diapers. This will give you a place to store soiled diapers and will also keep any smell contained.
~ Purchase a package of flushable liners (unless your child is still exclusively breastfed). This makes it a little less intimidating for babysitters/family who might need to change a diaper. Typically, any mess is contained in these and can just be flicked into the toilet and flushed.
Extra frugal tip for the disposable liners – if they only have urine on them, toss them into the pail with the diaper. There’s no need to flush the ones that haven’t had poop in them. Typically, they can be washed about 2 times before they start to breakdown and need to be disposed of. Essentially, you can double or even triple the amount of uses you get out of one package of liners by washing them.
~ I found that it made washing a little easier if I went ahead and pulled the inserts out of the diapers at the time I placed them in the wetbag. I could then just dump the contents of the wetbag in the washer and throw the wetbag in with them and be on my way.
Have you ever traveled with cloth diapers? If so, do you have any extra tips?
This post is linked to Frugal Friday.
Great tips Laura! I took cloth diapers when we went to Ohio last fall for 2 weeks (staying at my parents’ house) and it worked out great. I did end up using disposables on the airplane there and back though.
What kind of pocket diapers do you have? How long have you used them and do you like them?
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Tammy, I use mostly BumGenius 3.0′s that I’ve converted to snap closure (using a professional snap press and commercial grade snaps) because I got tired of replacing the velcro. Most of them are about 3 years old – though some of them are only 18 months old. I have a few others (Happy Heiny’s, Mommy’s Touch, Thirsties and 3 Fuzzi Bunz) those are all sized, rather than being a one-size diaper. I use to use prefolds with Thirsties covers, but am very happy that I converted my stash to mostly pockets and have been very pleased with the performance of all of these diapers. If you’re looking for a one size pocket, I would test out BumGenius and FuzziBunz, for sure.
Yay! I travel with them too! Great tips!
Amy @ http://www.thecheapandchoosy.blogspot.com
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Great ideas. I use cloth diapers too, but traveling is always a toughie. Love the space saver tip.
These are great tips for traveling with cloth diapers. It can be a lot less convenient than disposables, but you have some good ideas!
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I almost always use cloth when I travel as long as I’m going to have access to a washing machine. That’s a good rule with the diaper liners and also having a BIG wet bag. I have an XL size one that will fit a whole load and I LOVE it. {Love, love, LOVE that Etsy seller.}
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PS also very impressed that you converted your BGs! I’m about to try to replace the Velcro on mine…but I have zero sewing/craft skills!
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I found a tutorial on allaboutclothdiapers.com for the conversion. I borrowed a friend’s industrial snap press and ordered some snaps. It was actually pretty simple. The hardest part was the removal of all the velcro… Once I got the velcro off one, I made a template and then just used that to set the snaps on the rest of them. After velcro removal, it was about 10 minutes per diaper and much easier than sewing on all that velcro again – I had already replaced the velcro on most of mine once and they were starting to need it again…
Can I ask how you would differ washing routines in accordance to water softness? Thanks!
By the way, I moved from COS last year. Isn’t it such a wonderful place??