No, I don’t mean hiding those Huggies under the potato chips in your grocery cart so no one knows you’re not a 100% cloth diaper user. There are things you can do to make cloth diapering a little easier and avoid being overwhelmed.
Simplify the wash routine – Washing cloth diapers doesn’t have to be complex. Run diapers through a quick wash/rinse (unstuff pockets as you change them so this is a matter of shaking the pail in the washer & pushing a button.) Add the recommended amount of detergent and select a hot wash with double rinse. Walk away! Eat a piece of chocolate. Have a glass of wine. Don’t babysit the machine.
Ditch the pins – “Well duh,” you might be saying. Modern cloth diapers don’t use pins Maria, what are you thinking? I’m thinking that prefolds are affordable & awesome, but trifolding doesn’t always keep covers clean on a new baby. Try a Snappi or Boingos instead. Shoot, can’t find the Snappi? No problem! Use a snug fitting cover over a folded prefold. It won’t contain messes as well as a secured prefold but works better than a trifold.
Prune the Prep – Are you still washing a new natural fiber diaper 3 times all by itself? Cheat, cheat, cheat. Wash & dry with like color clothing, or even wash once and cross your fingers. Change baby more often until the diaper is fully prepped & wash it with your other diapers. Typically, the natural oils from just one new diaper won’t do a thing to a load full of other diapers.
Get the Best of Both Worlds – Some families find it necessary to use disposable diapers on occasion (or they don’t have enough cloth to use it full time yet), but can’t stand the smell, or the blowouts. Put a cloth diaper cover over the disposable, or consider using disposable inserts!
Skip the Sprayer – If you can’t buy & install a diaper sprayer, you might be wondering how in the world you’re going to deal with all the poop. When baby is young (breastfed) you can toss those diapers right into the wash. When baby starts solids, a sprayer isn’t your only option. You can dunk & swish without touching the water, or try disposable liners. If your baby is a predictable pooper you can use the liners when they are most likely to dirty the diaper – some brands are sturdy enough to wash & reuse if just wet!
Have you found any little tips that make cloth diapering easier?
Maria wants to live in a world where cloth diapers are the norm and moms can make parenting choices without judgement. When she’s not chasing her 18, 14 and 11-year old kids around, you might find her checking out the latest gadgets, organizing something (again) or exercising in the fresh air. 
I love this, we did dunk and swish for a while, also washed disposable wipes and used as inserts. These are all great tips though, We 100% CD now, but in the beginning did a lot of these due to a small stash/prep time and definitely had an over complicated wash routine. Wish we’d found you sooner 🙂
Thanks for posting, we have been trying for our third baby for a while now. Its been 9 years since the last baby! I want to cloth diaper the next baby and have been reading up on it. I’m looking forward to how much money we will save! And I still have a scar on my stomach right next to my belly button, from my Dad when I was a little baby in the 80’s! I don’t mind, he passed when I was young. Thanks again!
I believe there should be conversation amongst moms who are cloth diapering and the use of elimination communication. At least catching poops makes cleaning cloth diapers easier! It is also such a great way to connect with your baby from the beginning.I started my LO When he was 3 days old.