Dudes, my baby is ten months old now. She started walking! The last time I talked about cloth diapers was in October, when she was about 5-months-old.
A lot has happened since then.
The Inventory
I still have my original purchase of 24 Bum Genius 3.0 snaps and I still love them. I know a lot of people like patterns but I really LOVE my solid colors and would totally do the same color choices all over again. They look great under her clothes and photograph well.
Here, look at this shot of her at 3 months. That's a damn pretty diaper. (And, it's not distracting! It's still a picture of a baby, not a picture of a cartoony diaper.)
(Photo by Simple Treasures Photography, HIGHLY RECOMMEND to local DFW people.)
Some of the brighter colors have faded a bit, but it's really not that noticeable. They're still bright and saturated. All of the snaps are still on and the elastic seems to be holding up well. I'm still really impressed with these diapers. I haven't bought any extras (still just 24!), but I was VERY TEMPTED to get an aqua and that deep purple when the new colors came out. I didn't, because we don't need more diapers and buying more kind of defeats the point of the cost experiment.
(I have a mix of Blossom, Bubble, Grasshopper, Ribbit, White and Zinnia, with the mix heavy on Blossom/Zinnia because I really like pink.)
I also really like the snaps. They're holding up well and feel really secure. I've seen some reviews where people say they get a better fit with velcro but I have no problem keeping a diaper on my kid with snaps. They definitely take a little longer on a wiggly baby but that doesn't bother me. I've heard the velcro wears poorly over time (gets curly, less "sticky") so I'm really glad I got snaps to start with.
Laundry
Still use Charlie's. Still love it. I bleach the microfiber liners every now and then and sometimes stick it all in the sunshine to whiten, but really, the laundry part is the easiest part. I don't mind diaper laundry. I wash about every third day. I've never had a problem with stinky diapers or repelling diapers or any other laundry issues. I think it's dumb luck that my water, detergent, and machine work well together.
Diaper laundry goes like this: cold wash, hot wash, rinse. Line dry the covers, tumble dry the liners. Dump it all back in a basket on the changing table. I have a line in the back yard to hang them and I've used it occasionally, but if there is any humidity in the air whatsoever, they come in smelling slightly of mildew. This is so annoying because line-drying is faster and uses less energy, but mildew-y smelly diapers are kind of yucky.
Solid Food
This is the part where cloth diaper posts usually get a little graphic with descriptions and I have no intention of doing that. The gist is that I do not enjoy putting solids in the toilet and I enjoy even less SPRAYING any sticky or goopy solids into the toilet. But, I do it anyway and it's not too bad and it takes all of four seconds so...whatever. I don't think anyone LIKES this part of cloth diapering but I'll bet nobody likes taking a plastic bag of used disposable diapers out to the trash can either. There are unpleasant chores involved in each method. Pick your poison.
We have the Bum Genius diaper sprayer and that sucker can put out some serious water pressure. Like, the first time I used it I turned it on full blast, sprayed the diaper and....I will let you imagine what happened next. (A lot of Clorox cleaning product, that's what.) There's definitely some technique involved, but it's easily learned.
Leaky Diapers
We have had SOME. Not a lot. All overnight and none were a big deal or anything, her pajamas were just a little wet in the morning. We ended up stuffing the diapers with an extra liner and it seemed to solve the problem.
The Money
In October I had spent $503.43 on the whole setup. Since then I think I've bought one more bottle of California Baby Diaper Spray, for probably $10. So, we'll say that I've spent $513.43 so far. (I haven't included the cost of water or energy to wash the diapers because...well, that sounds very complicated.)
We are at Week 44 of cloth diapering, so if I guess we would have spent $20/week on disposables/wipes/etc, that's...$880 we would have spent so far.
That's about $350 more than what I've spent so far, and we have more than a year in diapers to go.
Ah-ha. Here we are. We're pretty much operating on FREEEEEEEEEEE at this point. We reached a break-even point some time last winter. I love that we are diapering for (very close to) free with more than a year to go. That feels awesome. If my diapers paid me I could go get myself a very nice purse with that much money. (Sadly, my diapers do not actually pay me.)
Hippie high-five!
So, YES, I would totally recommend this to anyone. It's not gross, it's not weird, it's not smelly. It's a super simple way to save enough money over two years to run away to Mexico for the weekend and eat nachos on the beach.
And, let's be serious. WHO SAYS NO TO NACHOS?
Previous posts about cloth diapers: 4 months, 1 month and everyone's awesome advice.

