Best Practices in Cloth Diapering

We all have our best practice and tips that works for us that we follow religiously in our daily lives. Especially when a chore or task becomes a routine, we tend to build our own practice that works best for us!

With a growing number of cloth diapering mamas out there, I see (read & hear too) many questions and doubts on how/why/when/what/who all about CD. Believe me, I have been there too, 8 months back when I took my first step in cloth diapering my then 2 month old Sanju. And with my experience (and wisdom) I have established my own best practices in managing cloth diapering my little one, which I thought I will share here. These practices not just proved to help in effective CD laundry management, it also helped me to 'spend' smart on those pretty and irresistable dipes!

1. After use, always rinse the CD with water before placing it into the wet pail, to avoid creating a stink that can bring the house down, especially if you don't wash your CD laundry on daily basis.
2. Wash CDs with baby clothes, to reduce the amount of laundry you need to do for the little one. Since you have already rinsed the CD prior to washing, no worries about hygiene here.
3. Always put your CDs in a laundry bag before putting them for wash in the washing machine. It helps in preserving the elastics and avoid the velcro from spoiling the rest of the clothes.
4. Keep a stash of mixed type of diapers, eg pocket, all-in-one, all-in-2, fitted. This way, you have the flexibity of choosing the type for home use, outings or travellings. Plus, what is a stash without some variety?
5. For your all-in-2s, it is good to have a set or 2 of extra soakers to fully maximise the AI2-ness of it.
6. For those pocket diapers, always keep extra inserts. It helps especially on a rainy and wet day when laundry takes longer to dry. Pocket covers dry much faster than the inserts. It is also useful when travelling and hotel stays.
   
7. Buy one-sized (OS) diapers to be able to use it from baby to toddlerhood. This is indeed money well spent.
8. But hey, one can't resist those pretty, luxe, minky and oh-so-adorable sized diapers... so if you must, buy sized diapers once your baby is above 7 or 8 months, as they are almost over the rapid growth phase.
9. Use less detergent, more water, for the laundry.
10. It is recommended not to soak the CDs before washing. Therefore, you can soak the rest of the clothes in the washing machine first, and dump in the CDs only when you are about to resume washing.
    

In the mean time, here's a shot of Sanju's new Bumgenius Artist Series diaper to feast your eyes: