Thursday, August 5, 2010

Writers Workshop: If You Could Do It Over Again...

Well this Writers Workshop prompt seemed a great way to review my first (almost) month of cloth diapering. I would TOTALLY do the way I chose to start cloth diapering all over again!

A month into cloth diapering and I have learned that while I love my cloth diapers, I approached the beginning stages the absolute wrong way.

I went into cloth diapering head first (that part I would do again), but I don't think I researched it well enough OR took the advice of others.I bought 15 FuzziBunz, and then bought 12 BumGenius 3.0's thinking that those were the best and what I needed. I never thought to follow the advice that said "start with a trail pack of diapers so you can find the brand or brands you like best" and another piece of advice saying that I should buy one to two of each brand of diaper I thought I might like and try them out before committing my whole stash to one or two different types of diapers. In the long run, I ended up keeping my BumGenius 3.0's and buying some of their organic diapers as well as a couple of their 4.0's ( I still want more of those!). The 15 FuzziBunz turned into 20, and then I quickly sold 13 of them off. It's not that I don't love my FuzziBunz diapers, it's just that the adjustable elastic is a pain to constantly adjust, I would rather have the adjustable snap rise. I had bought a few random diapers to try as well as about 4 GroVia shells and 7 soakers, and 4 Happy Heinys diapers, and I ended up selling all of those diapers because I didn't like them.

If I could start cloth diapering all over again, I would purchase a risk free 30 day trial pack so I could keep the diapers I liked and returned those I didn't like. I would buy one or two of each diaper I was interested in, instead of just buying one of random diapers (and never using them) or buying lots of one diaper. I would have definitely found my favorite brands more quickly and would have spent A LOT less money. I know that the diapers I chose would probably be the same, but I think I would have been happier with the way I got there.

2 comments:

  1. I always wanted to try cloth diapers but it seemed like so much extra work. Good for you for doing it though!!!

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  2. It's really not too bad in the work department. We have pocket diapers so there's no folding and pinning like the old school diapers, and I think I only do about 2 extra loads of laundry a week. We just wanted to cut down on our landfill contribution, ands it's definitely not for everyone! Thank you for the comment! :-)

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