I’ve been cloth diapering my daughter for about 8 months but I haven’t made the switch over to cloth wipes yet. Shocker I know! ha! This week I am finally finishing up the last of the disposable wipes I have and am making the switch to cloth! I’m excited! But I was curious as to how many wipes I should have. I was thinking around the same amount as dipes which is a little over two dozen. I’ve already bought some and I’ve made some as well. What do you think is a good amount?

Thanks!

Ash

Hi Ash!  I like to wash every other day, and have enough “stuff” that I don’t have to rush with folding/stuffing diapers to use.  So, I’d say a rough estimate would be one wipe for each diaper you’d use during that time, plus a few extra for messy diapers.

I often used 5+ disposable wipes on messy diapers, but it is very rare for me to have to use more than one cloth wipe.  I keep 19 wipes downstairs (where I change most of my diapers) and I don’t think I’ve ever run out.  I just have 4 upstairs, and though I don’t change many diapers up there, I often have to dip in to my original “wipes,” which were cut and zigzagged burp cloths!

I think 2 dozen wipes would be perfect!  You will love using cloth wipes!

Ash also says:

Hey Maria!

I was wondering if any of your dipes have gotten moldy. I have a couple of pocket dipes, some of which are only a couple months old that look like they have patches of mold on them that have recently showed up. I’ve been using Soap Nuts for a couple months now and I am wondering if that has something to do with it. Do you have any suggestions on getting rid of it? I just stripped my dipes with blue dawn and have used white vinegar in the rinse a couple times and been using a little oxiclean, but it still seems to be sticking around. Any suggestions would be great!!

Thanks!

Ash

http://www.adventuresofashandrowe.blogspot.com/
 
I haven’t had a moldy diaper…yet.  I’m just waiting for the day when I forget one somewhere!
 
Is the mold on the diaper or the insert?  If it’s on the insert, I’d suggest washing the inserts only with about 1/4 cup of bleach, then rinse until the water is clean and the bleach smell is gone.
 
If it’s on the diaper itself, I’d suggest a soak, then hot wash followed by some sun.  You’ve already tried vinegar and oxiclean, which would have been my other suggestions, along with perhaps some tea tree oil.  If you’ve killed the mold, you may just have a little staining, and some old fashioned UV rays would probably take care of that!
 
As far as the soap nuts, it’s hard to say.  I was using them with great success for about a month, then suddenly the diapers started coming out of the wash smelling like they hadn’t been washed at all.
 
How often to you wash?  I don’t recommend much longer than every other day, and you might even want to leave your pail or wet bag open a crack between wash days.