Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Dirty Little Secret

I have found that the accessory aspect of cloth diapering, while not mandatory, can be extremely helpful and oftentimes serves other purposes. That’s just me being wordy instead of just saying, I use my wet bags and pail liners for more than dirty diapers. Swim lessons, vacation, and clothes hamper are all alternate uses for my wet bags. I love knowing that I will be able to put these items to good use when my cloth diapering days are over. In fact when adding up cloth diaper costs, I really don’t consider the extras into it since there are plenty of other uses for items like my wet bags.
I currently have 2 wet bags and 2 pail liners. All are GroVia brand. The wet bags were a gift, and they became my only method of storing dirty dipes. This became an improbable solution as my baby grew {think  Mr. Stinky Pants} and my stash of diapers increased. Two wet bags were not enough to hold all the dirties in between wash days. My solution {this is gross} was to stack the wet diapers on the floor of my laundry room. Honestly, there was hardly a stink. Pee doesn’t bother me, and since they stayed in one small spot on the floor, no one walked there and no one noticed except me. I had to save the two wet bags for poo pants and outings. Soon this became a problem because of too much poo and too few bags. I had to talk to the Hubs about getting something bigger. He never knew of the dirty little secret on the floor in the laundry room, and once I outted myself he was grossed out. I purchased two large pail liners and a 13 gallon trash can with a lid from Target, of course. Ahhh, life became easier. I now I have 2 wet bags to use when I leave the house, and no more hiding wet diapers in my laundry room. Laundry days are even better because all the dirties are in one place. And to be even more specific that one place happens to be in the bathtub in the downstairs bathroom. The pail is located where I do all the rinsing off of diapers, so for me it is easier to have all the dirties in one spot. About 98% of diaper changes happen downstairs at my house. The 2% of the changes that occur upstairs are then brought downstairs into the pail in the bathroom. Another plus to having the pail in the bathtub is that I can shut the shower curtain and no one knows it is there.
Storing dirty diapers work differently in different households. Maybe a pail is needed upstairs and downstairs. Maybe a hanging pail that can be on a doorknob or hook would work better than a trash can with a pail. The key is to find what works for you. Luckily, Green Baby Elephant stocks wet bags, pail liners, and hanging pails. So find what works you’re your fam and get those dirty dipes corralled while waiting for wash day.
Tell me what works in your house. I’d love to hear how you manage stinky dipes between washings.

2 comments:

  1. Currently I have 2 small wetbags for the diaper bag, one hanging wet bag, 1 XL wetbag and one pail liner. I love the XL wetbag cause I can put almost 2 days worth in it. I have 2 little boys in cloth diapers right now. I love that I can use it later also.

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  2. 2 boys in cloth = a lot of diapers & wet bags :) I'm sure you'll be putting the bags & pail liners to good use as your boys get older. think stinky, middle school boy socks. maybe we'll look back on poopy diapers and think that it wasn't so bad!

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