I’ve been meaning to write about our cloth diaper routine, and when an expecting friend recently asked about it, I actually sat down to write it. I’ll summarize a lot of stuff here, but I want to point out this really comprehensive guide from BabyGearLab.com. They do a pretty good job on the benefits of cloth, and offer great advice on the best cloth (and disposables) to buy. But I want to share some options and how we do it, and let you decide for yourself if it’s right for you! (This post is pretty long, FYI).

First, let’s talk gear.

Choose your diapers. The big fork in the road comes when you choose between pocket or pre-folds. A pocket diaper is a diaper that has, er, a pocket, into which you slide one or two absorbent layers, typically made of microfiber. Pre-folds are the cloth diapers you might think– thick pieces of cloth that you fold and lay into a water proof cover. Pre-folds are unequivocally cheaper, and they are less work too, because you don’t have to “stuff” the diapers, like you have to with pockets. They may not be quite as effective as the pocket diapers, but I have friends who love them, particularly OsoCozy liners and Thirsties covers.

Cloth can be expensive up front, but if you are committed, BabyGearLab’s cost savings analysis puts it at about $1,900 over the course of the baby’s diapering career, and even more, obviously, if you reuse the cloth on a second kid. You can remind yourself of that if you balk at the expense of the diapers. (That's the savings of their highest-rated cloth over premium eco-friendly diapers. Savings would be less if you were comparing cheaper diapers, but still significant).

Before buying a case of diapers, read some reviews and buy one or two of different types, get a trial pack (my sisters in law gave us a pocket diaper trial kit that got us on our way with cloth), or even borrow some from friends to see how you like the way different diapers work. If you’re lucky and live near a store like Wild Was Mama, you can go check out all the options in person and see what appeals to you. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised: Even the cheapest of diapers are way, way different than those of yore. Gone are the giant pins you had to navigate around your baby’s tender skin. (If you're interested, I have probably six different types of pocket diapers, and my favorites are, in order: Rumparoos, Fuzzibunz and Bum Genius).

Get a diaper sprayer. The thing about cloth that people really don’t like is that you have to deal with poop. In particular, you have to dump the poop into the toilet before you wash the diapers. Note that this is only true if baby is formula fed and/or once they start eating solids. Breastfed babies’ poop is entirely organic and can go straight into the laundry. But once poop is real poop, you can’t put that sh*t in the washing machine. The alternative to a diaper sprayer is to dunk the diaper in the toilet repeatedly until the solids have come off, which is not quite as fun as it sounds. I have this one, but there are now so many more options than when I purchased it for Lou, including cheaper ones.

Here’s the thing about poop though: You’re really not supposed to throw poop away in a disposable either. When you trap poop in a disposable and throw it away, you’re trapping organic compounds in a non-biodegradable bag of noxiousness that is terrible for the environment – and illegal. That’s right: you’re not supposed to put feces in landfills, in pretty much any municipality. If you don’t believe me, check out a package of disposables and you’ll see that they say you should flush the poop before discarding. I know no one does, but for reals, that’s the deals.

Consider a diaper spray splatter guard. Spraying the diapers isn’t all that fun, in large part because of a possible splatter factor. I actually don’t have a splatter guard…but I’m tempted. The truth is that you mostly don’t need it, and you can certainly learn to work the sprayer more neatly – but sometimes you do, and on those days, I bet you’re thrilled to have it.

Consider flushable inserts. BabyGearLab recommends these, and I know friends who use G Diapers, which are entirely flushable. They do not come without their own grossness though, because you have to break them up into the toilet. I’ve never used them, but they’re something to consider.

Get a really great wet bag to trap in the smell. These ones are awesome, and you throw them in the laundry when you wash the diapers. I have three big ones, including the fox version you see here – they take a while to dry, so I have a couple to hold over after laundry day – and two small ones, one for dirty diapers in the bathroom and one for the diaper bag.

Consider a drying rack. Line-drying in the sun disinfects, so take advantage of that freeness if you have the space. This collapsible drying rack worked really well for us when Lou was a baby, and we still sometimes use it for West, but now for time and sanitation, I tend to try mine on high heat in the dryer.

Okay, so, gear in hand, let’s investigate the options.

Easiest: A diaper service.

Here in Brooklyn, Diaper Kind is all the rage. They really do take the guess work, and the regular work, out of the cloth diapering game. They provide you with a helpful list of all you need, and pick up and deliver your freshly washed diapers weekly, offering services for both pre-folds and pocket diapers. The cons are the price: At $36 per week for pre-folds and $50 per week for pocket diapers, it ain’t cheap. Similar services are available in areas across the country. With any pickup service, you also have to factor in the transport of the diapers into your environmental impact equation. On the other hand, Diaper Kind and its ilk promises a pretty eco-friendly washing system that might well beat out your own washer in terms of water and soap needed, so it’s possible it balances out a bit. I have a bunch of friends who’ve done services in Brooklyn and in Washington, DC, and the general sense is two thumbs up. This is another great option for your baby registry: Let friends and family buy you service for a week or two instead of another stuffed animal. Now that’s useful! Note that with a service, you’re still in charge of your own poop. If the baby is not exclusively breastfed, you have to clear out poop before sending to wash, either with a flushable liner or sprayer.

Second Easiest: Your own washer and dryer or drying line.

With Louisa, we used about 30 pocket diapers that we washed every 2-3 days and hung to dry on our foldable drying rack. I had a super crappy apartment-sized washing machine, but I still found this to be doable. You have to wash cloth diapers at least twice: a cold rinse to start and then a hot wash with soap, with possibly another hot wash to rinse. Then you have to dry them, either on high heat or on a line, preferably in the sunshine. (A sunny window works). It’s not that much time, but you need enough diapers to get you through the several hours it will take to wash them, and more still if you line dry, so you need to plan accordingly.

Hardest: Cloth diapering at the laundromat.

If you don’t have your own washer and find a service out of reach, don’t despair. We have successfully cloth diapered at the laundromat for months now, and I’m here to tell you that it’s doable, but it is a commitment. You might remember that we had purchased a small portable washer with the intention of washing the diapers in it, but it didn’t work in our apartment, so now we do the laundromat thing.

On Mondays, we wear pink. We also spend essentially the entire day at the laundromat. Most cloth diapering experts will urge you to wash your diapers every two days, three max, both to protect the diapers and to prevent the crazy smell that can start emanating from your diaper pail pretty fast. Plus, since the diapers are so expensive, amassing even the thirty or so you need for a 2-3 days cycle is expensive. But I can really only handle going once a week (mentally, spiritually, physically). To deal with that, I stockpiled almost 60 diapers – all but four of which are second hand (and thirty of which came from Lou) – and wash the diapers three to five  times to make sure they get really clean.

So, Mondays, we stop at the laundromat on the way to drop off Lou at school, pop in the whole bag of diapers, and do a cold rinse. On our way back from drop off, West and I stop in and add soap and do a hot wash. We go home, feed West, gather the rest of our non-diaper laundry and head back, starting another hot wash with no soap at the same time as we wash the rest of our laundry. While that cycle is going, which lasts about 30 minutes, we head to the grocery store. Then back to the laundromat to put everything in the dryer or, sometimes, to do another hot, non-soap wash of the diapers. After an hour, it’s back to the laundromat to pick everything up (or to pick up the dry clothes and put the diapers in the dryer). Sometimes, depending on naps and so forth, this process gets a bit stretched out and we don’t get the last load until right before Lou’s pick up time or even after. Or, we show up at 8 am, when the laundromat is supposed to open, bearing two kids and a huge smelly bag of diapers, and are greeted with this.

Womp, womp. So things don’t always go perfectly. But at some point, we’re done, and head home, and all we have to do is fold. Here was this Monday’s load.

I typically fold the clothes and stuff the diapers at night. (I have friends who choose not to stuff diapers at one go, and instead do it a diaper at a time when they are changing the baby, but I can barely keep West still when I have a diaper ready, and I’m always in a hurry, so I prefer to go to Shondaland and get ‘er done).

I'm not trying to be a martyr – I hate few things more than the martyrs – but I don’t want to undersell the commitment it takes to cloth diaper at the laundromat. If you’re cloth diapering at the laundromat, you’re probably also washing all your stuff there, so it takes a lot of time. But, for right now, it is for sure worth it, for me as a stay-at-home-mom who’s committed to cloth. A service for our pocket diapers would run $200 per month, and sending out our laundry was costing, on average, another $200. Doing it all myself runs $100-120 a month. So yeah, it’s some time, but $280-$300 per month is nice to keep in our pockets. Now, talk to me when it’s zero degrees outside, or after I start working again in January, helping my friend and former boss run her comms firm while she’s on maternity leave. At that point, I may well take a little disposable break, or pay for a service for a few weeks. We’ll see.

I share the laundromat saga both because I want to assure people it can be done, and because in comparison, washing your own diapers or using a service is a total breeze. And there are more tricks for making your life easier if you decide to cloth.

1. Start when baby has outgrown newborn size diapers. Your newborn is going to go through, like, a million diapers and most cloth diapers don’t even fit teeny new babies well. So just do yourself a favor, and unless you’re incredibly committed to cloth only, start with disposables (or a service) for those first several weeks. The Honest Company has a diaper subscription service that offers a discount when you first sign up; if you sign up for the first shipment of diapers and timely cancel your subscription, it’s not a bad deal and comes with wipes. And those Honest Diapers are adorable. I have to say I don’t think they hold up to other brands in terms of absorption down the line, but that’s another post.

2.  Use disposables when you travel. Don’t pack cloth diapers. They’re huge. And then you’d have to wash them or transport them dirty…so don’t do that?

3.  Consider using disposables at night. Disposables, especially the right ones, are more absorbent than cloth diapers and have a dryer feel. Especially (if and) when you’re sleep training, but pretty much always, your goal is to keep baby asleep, and that’s a lot easier if they’re dry. Putting a disposable on West still buys me extra time after the 5 am wakeup; I feed him and put him right back to sleep, whereas if I had to change his diaper at that point, I might rouse him.

4. Use the right soap. Most cloth diapering sites will go on and on about the periodic need to “strip” your cloth diapers and be certain there are no suds, and recommend less than the typical amount of soap to wash them, and special detergents. I don’t agree: I use the regular amount of soap, and I find original Tide to be hands down the most effective.

Even once you factor in the ways in which you can make your life easier, I think it’s clear that cloth diapering does involve some work. It is obviously more work than throwing something in the trash. Period. Just like not using paper towels, or even washing and rewearing your clothes, you have to maintain these things, and it takes effort. The cost savings of washing and drying yourself might be worth it on its own, because then work is only at the margins. Stuffing the diapers is the biggest pain at that point (and you can avoid that by using pre-folds).

So why do I do it? Partly, I’m just a nut. I had my heart set on using Lou’s cloth diapers with this baby, and I am willing to put in some work to make that happen. I also just really like cloth diapering. It makes me feel good, the same way it makes me feel good not to buy shaving cream or paper napkins. I should note that I don’t personally find them “cute,” and when I had a baby in dresses, I still used little boomers to cover up the diaper, no matter the pattern. But lots of people do find them charming, and you might , too.

I also think anything that keeps you out of Target on a weekly basis is for the win, and there are indisputable cost savings and environmental pluses over the long term (see, again, BabyGearLab for a breakdown) if you use cloth. Once you’re in it, you’re in it, and you won’t miss the disposables. There are so many ways to go about it that I think it’s a realistic option for everybody.

All this said, I don’t give a crap (ha) what you put on your kid’s bum, so feel free to use disposables all the way and still be blog friends, but don’t let cloth seem daunting.

I know this post is so long! Thank you for reading, and if you have any cloth diapering questions, shoot me a line in the comments. I’d be happy to continue pontificating! See you Friday!