Using Cloth Diapers with 2 Or More Still in Diapers

Is it really any harder to have two in diapers than one?

It sounds like a common parenting dread is having two or more in diapers at the same time. When using cloth diapers, it sounds even scarier. It turns out that it’s surprisingly less awful than one might think. If anything, the advantages of using cloth diapers is even more apparent. Here are some things that I’ve figured out in my six months of having two in diapers.

1.) I’m avoiding dropping $80 or so a month at Costco on a couple of monster size box of diapers.  You hear a lot of commentary about how kids in diapers are so very expensive.  Granted I do spend a lot of money on buying cloth diapers, but that’s because I’m a crazy person who enjoys buying diapers.  I have enough diapers right now where I would never have to buy another one ever again.

2.) I never run out.  I did a little experiment.  I thought I was doing a less than stellar job of rotating through my cloth diaper stash, so I decided that I wasn’t going to put away cloth diaper laundry until I was out.  I went eight days.  Granted, I do have an obscene stash, but the point is, even if I had only half of what I’ve got on hand now, I’d still never run out of diapers for my kids.  That means that I never have to make an emergency run to the store.  Of course, that goes along with the not dropping $80 on diapers.

3.) It’s no harder to change two butts than it is to change one.  Sure, my boy fights diaper changes like no tomorrow, but that’s because he’s ticklish and hates wipes.  However, having a second butt to change in the form of a tiny Eudora bottom isn’t any extra labor.

4.) Just keep a huge wet bag.  Or better yet, multiples.  Since I have two in diapers, I have two diaper changing stations: one in each kid’s bedroom.  Then I carry the diaper into the bathroom and drop it in the wet bag after I’ve shaken out the pocket insert or dealt with poo.  I don’t have to wash Norton’s diapers differently than I wash Eudora’s.  They all go in the same Planet Wise wet bag, in the same wash cycle, and then get straightened out and sorted when I get around to folding the diapers to put them away.  I recommend three wet bags: one to use, one to wash, and one for back up.

5.) Do laundry a bit more frequently.  I’m still playing with finding out what the right ratio is for me to do my cloth diaper laundry now that I have so many more diapers to wash.  I have a high efficiency front loader, so if I let the diapers pile up for a full two days, it seems to be too much for my machine to clean effectively.  I’m still working on the soap ratios so that I get the right balance to my cloth diaper laundry routine, too.

The long and short is, everything gets bigger with two.  You do more laundry more frequently anyway, so doing some extra loads of diapers really doesn’t even figure into the equation.

Have you had more than one in cloth?  What secrets have you figured out for your success?

Disclosure: Some links in this post are affiliate links.  Should you purchase from one of them, I will receive a small commission that will be used to support Cloth Diaper Addicts.