Baby Buys – Part 7: Preparing to cloth diaper

I decided a long time ago that I wanted to try cloth diapering. Once I started researching it, I realized it’s kinda complicated. There’s so many options and I didn’t know where to start.

A few weeks ago, I visited a local baby boutique that specializes in cloth diapering for some advice. This boutique is known for their excellent customer service. They are in business to help women, rather than try to upsell them. The associate ran me through all of the different style options and costs. In the end, it was obvious that prefolds are typically the least expensive option.

Later that night, I was browsing my favourite local online classifieds and found a Bummis Organic Cotton Infant Diaper Kit for sale, never used for $180 – $40 off local retail price. This kit is for infants 8-15 lbs and is the prefold + cover style. The kit includes:

• 24 Organic Cotton Prefold Inserts (infant)
• 6 waterproof wraps: 1 Simply Lite, 1 Duo-Brite Wrap, 3 Super Whisper Wraps, 1 Super Snap
• 3 rolls of Bio-Soft Liners (small)
• 5 Fleece Liners
• 1 Fabulous Wet Bag (large)
• 1 Snappi
• User Guide

I decided to pick it up to begin my adventure into cloth diapering. The woman also threw in a few extra rolls of the Bio-soft liners. 

I also connected with another amazing friend who is a big cloth diaper and baby-wearer. One night a few weeks ago, I stopped by her place to view her stash of diapers. She compiled her cloth diaper collection through gifts or buying used, and a combination of trial and error. She explained what she likes/dislikes about each one. She loves prefolds personally, but finds they are more difficult for her husband and other family members to use. She said they like pocket-style better and her preferred brand is Bum Genius. She also explained the pros/cons of snaps versus velcro.

I was excited to hear that buying used is an option. I didn’t realize there was such a market for used cloth diapers. The thing is with proper care, they can truly last for years! My friend tagged me in a classified post of a huge variety lot of diapers, but they were gone immediately. After I realized how much you can save buying good condition used diapers, I decided to start my own hunt.

I found a used Bum Genius and Flip lot for $250. Although this seemed like a big dip in my pocket book, the lot was worth well over $700 brand new retail price. It included not only diapers and inserts, but the diaper sprayer for the toilet, 4 wet bags, and a 2L container of laundry detergent. I sent the ad to my friend for her approval. She confirmed that it was an excellent deal.

The total lot included:

• 6 Twilight Velcro Bum Genius 4.0 pocket diaper
• 6 Grasshopper Velcro Bum Genius 4.0 pocket diaper
• 6 Albert print Snaps Bum Genius 4.0 pocket diaper
• 4 Mirror snap Flip diaper covers
• 2 extra large wet bags
• 1 small travel wet bag
• 1 wipes wet bag
• 1 Bum Genius diaper sprayer
• 21 small inserts
• 28 large inserts
• 9 Flip diaper inserts
• 2 L of cloth diaper detergent

I contacted the poster and hoped this would work out for me. When you purchase used items, there’s always that fear that 1) the house will be super sketchy, 2) the person will be super sketchy or 3) the product won’t be as advertised. All my fears disappeared when I heard back from the seller a few days later and arranged a time to see the diapers. This woman, her husband and children were all adorable. She explained how to use each item to me and how she handled washign them. She even threw in a few extra covers and liners that she had at no extra cost (not listed above as I pulled those numbers from her ad).

She had also recently replaced the elastic in a few covers and threw in a few extra elastic/velcro replacement kits for me. Bum Genius actually sells replacement elastic and velcro kits. I may consider replacing the elastic in a few other covers just to ensure they are a tight fit for our baby. I watched some tutorials online and it seems like an easy fix. Although the velcro and elastics were going in a few covers, that is regular expected wear. The rest of the lot was in very, very good used condition with no stains. I paid well under half of full retail price per diaper. I have no problem putting in a bit of effort for maintenance if it means that much savings to start. Another plus about Bum Genius is that they adjust to fit almost all sizes. No need to upgrade once baby reaches the toddler stage!

So far, we are $430 invested into cloth diapering with a combo of brand new/used styles. I have MORE THAN enough diapers to last me right through to potty training. I’m debating just using the wet bags and not getting a diaper pail which may save us even more money.

One thing my husband and I have agreed upon is that if our baby is too small to fit cloth right away (which is highly likely), we will use disposables for the first few weeks. I’m also open to using disposables for convenience when travelling. I’d prefer to use a more eco-friendly disposable diaper, but those options are so expensive.

We’ve also agreed that if we end up truly frustrated, we will just resell our cloth diaper stash, but I do really hope this venture works out for us. I’ll be sure to let you know as we go. 🙂

Check out our other purchases:

• Baby Buys: Part 1 – Highchair, Playyard, Swing, Bouncer, Changing Pad
• Baby Buys: Part 2 – Bassinet, Stroller, Bathtub, Monitor, Diaper bag
• Baby Buys: Part 3 – Car seat and adapter
• Baby Buys: Part 4 – Nursery furniture and storage
• Baby Buys: Part 5 – Breastfeeding basics 
• Baby Buys: Part 6 – Nursery bedding