So I wanted to use cloth diapers with Oliver and am glad I made that decision. With so much going on his first few months of life, I didn't use them too much. It also took awhile before they fit really good, without swallowing him. They are pretty puffy. My mom says they make his bottom look huge, and they do. It's cute though. I bought one size fits all and glad I did- Here's my routine that seems to be working good- First, the diaper I would continue to buy is the Lovely Pocket diapers, the $7 ones. Cheap! I also have every style of the Bum Genius and my favorite BG is the free time diaper with snaps (velcro doesn't make much sense to me), but again I would just buy Lovely Pocket diapers over those. (They wash and dry great and fast!) The LP diapers have the inserts so you have to stuff them, but that doesn't bother me a bit. I thought it would- but it doesn't. It's actually better because with poop, it's less messy because other diapers have layers and it gets everywhere- at least Oliver's does! The other thing I use are the Bumkins Flushable Diaper Liner... love those. If they catch all the poop and the diaper really isn't very wet- you can just lift the liner and flush it and keep the same diaper on. I will try a couple other brands- which I saved on my Amazon wish list to see which ones I like best. But I think they are a must- unless you breastfeed I guess. I change Oliver on the twin bed in his room and so under his bed or two bins- one with disposable diapers and one with cloth diapers ready to be put on. They are stuffed, have a liner sitting in them, and laying all in the same direction. His nightstand has a drawer and the drawer holds wipes, liners, baby powder and my favorite poop sacks from BRU. When I change him- I put the liner and wipes in the sack and throw away. I do not actually flush them unless there's no poop. I guess it's because I have the dirty disposable wipes with poop on them- so makes sense to tie them up in the baggy and toss. I have finally gotten it down fast enough- that it's just maybe a few seconds longer than changing a disposable diaper. Definitely took a system and practice though. Not gonna lie. I wash the wet diapers in with our loads if it's just one, maybe two. But I have a wet bag- they all get put in and washed every 2 days. That's the part I will change soon. I don't like the wet bags, except for in the diaper bag when I am out and about. I am going to switch to a pail and pail liner- seems easier and I hate unzipping the wet bag to put diapers in. A pail would make more sense. I'll either do this one: Odorless Cloth Diaper Pail (7 gallon: 1-2 days) or try a cheap one from lowes- the metal pails with the lids. I just can't stand smelling them- and it seems we have the odor problem regardless if we use cloth or not. The cooler weather certainly will help a ton! I'll just use a planet wise pail liner or something similar. I am still trying to decide which detergent I like best- typically I wash the diapers twice with the medium size wet bag. The larger one holds too much water in the washing machine so I tend not to use it at all anymore. I do not have a fancy washer- the most basic one you can have in fact, so the water temperature stays the same from beginning to end I believe. Either hot, cold or warm. :( One day I will buy a bigger washer and dryer, but still love my roper top loaders. And love the white :) Oh and I keep the diapers until wash time in the laundry room- not in Oliver's room. I know people do both- but I hate to store dirty diapers in his room. He doesn't seem to care a bit which diaper he has on, cloth or disposable. I will admit- when he got bad allergy rashes on his bottom, enough to make him bleed, I would switch over to cloth despite them looking ridiculously too big because it really did help along with Anti-Monkey Butt baby powder.
So that's my 411 on cloth diapers. I am not at all a pro yet, and wonder what some other brands would be like, but not enough to buy them. What I have works great. And they are $7! Yooo! Maybe soon I will order more colors in the LP diapers bc I don' t have but a couple colors since I ordered these before he was born and before we knew the sex! Happy cloth diapering :) (I feel ridiculously nerdy saying that! hehe)
