Today's Stunning Saturday feature is on cloth diapering, specifically, how to get started if you're on a budget! Cloth diapering is so hip these days. How can it not be? Gen Y makes covers so fun and stylish that they would make even the most die hard disposable diaperer convert in a hurry. Bum Genius makes diapers so easy that even daycares are willing to use them. The diapering options are limitless, and pretty freaking amazing, and it's all because it's become very popular among parents in the know, especially in major cities. It's very fair to say that cloth diapering isn't just for po' folks and hippies anymore.
As the lone cloth diapering mom among my friends, I'm always asked how much it cost to get into it. I hate answering that question because I own about 8 dozen diapers, 3 dozen of which are ridiculously expensive. In all honesty, someone could get into cloth diapering for a fraction of what I spent (which, I will reiterate, is still drastically less than what disposables would have cost!) Thak was deployed and past the 12 month mark when I bought most of our diapers, so we were not really on a budget when we bought ours. At our new post, a great many people do not deploy, and those who do certainly don't do it much, so the cost of getting started in cloth diapering is prohibitive to some. This is totally understandable, and it's not a reason not to use cloth. There are budget-friendly ways to get started!!
The easiest and cheapest way, I'd say, is to buy used. Let's get it clear right now that used cloth diapers are not nasty. They come clean after every use, the majority of stains will bleach out just by putting it in the sun for a day, and there is really absolutely nothing nastier about buying used cloth diapers than buying used baby clothes at your local children's consignment. There. Now you know. Used dipes are good. I would say the best way in which they're good is price. If you go on diaperswappers.com, the best-known site for used cloth diaper exchange (buy, sell, trade), it is common to see very elite brands of pocket diapers which retail for as much as $35 per diaper, listed there, gently used (looks new to me!) for $5-10. The more mid-grade brands, which maybe retail for $20 per diaper, are even cheaper.
There is also Craigslist. This is kind of a shot in the dark, but I have found some truly great deals on there. In fact, I found one right here on my side of El Paso just this morning. If I needed any more diapers, I'd have jumped right on this deal. It was a mom whose babies were done with diapers for good, and she was basically selling off her entire huge collection dirt cheap. This, for a parent who's thinking of getting into cloth, is a goldmine. Granted, there won't be this type of thing on Craigslist every day, but keep looking, and maybe you'll find one! Better yet, place a "wanted" ad, and call all the cloth diapering mommies out of the woodwork to sell you their babies' outgrown dipes at deeply discounted prices!!
The coolest thing about this is that prices are always negotiable. We cloth diapering moms are always very eager to help anyone use cloth, whether they're doing it right from the start, or making the switch somewhere down the line. I've loaned out diapers to friends who were wanting to switch so that they could have some to tide them over while they bought their own collection, or saved up the money to do so. When it comes time to sell my huge collection of diapers (which will probably grow with the next baby, even though I keep telling myself it won't), I can tell you that it will be more important to help someone get into cloth than it will be to make money off of them. Honestly, I'd rather give them away for free to someone who will really use them, and has an actual need for them, than I would to sell them to someone who's iffy. I have found that a great majority of cloth diapering moms are the same way. We want to help you get into cloth, so if the price of something is too high for you to pay, offer what you CAN pay. You might be very pleasantly surprised to find that your offer will be accepted more times than not.
So in short, this week's Stunning Saturday tip is for would-be cloth diapering moms on a tight budget, who feel trapped in the Pampers aisle. Buy used! You'll be a proud cloth diapering mommy in no time flat, and your wallet will thank you.
I leave you with this parting shot of my West Texas clothesline, full Indian cotton prefolds, my own budget-friendly option.
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