Do cloth nappies (diapers) make more work?

In a word - No!

I have four kids and our house is full of people all the time, this means that laundry is a very common occurrence in my house. In fact, when we built our own house nearly 4 years ago, we built a dedicated laundry room and every woman that walks into the house falls in love with it!

So you might be confused as to why I'm adding more work for myself by using cloth nappies (diapers)? I have watched people who use disposables and they also have to change their baby’s soiled nappy and put a clean one on. They usually bag up the nappy and then if they are a visitor in my house, ask if they may put it in my outside bin, so they walk to the outside bin.

What’s my routine you might ask? I also change my baby’s soiled nappy and put on a clean one. I pop my used nappy in a wet bag or a laundry bag and when I have a washing machine load ready, I pop them in the machine. The machine does all the cleaning and when I come back to it, I hang them out. When they are dry, they (hopefully!) get put away beside the changing unit. Can you see I only have one extra step than someone who uses disposables? So when I weigh up my financial savings plus the environmental impact, the only extra work (which is hanging up the washed laundry and then putting it away) is more than worth it. A small investment of my time makes such a big impact on my pocket and on the world!

Another point to ponder is that nuababy nappies with their unique patented double gusset and leg adjustment means there are less poo-splosives or other leaks. And finally, most babies who use cloth nappies are toilet trained up to a year before their peers who use disposable nappies. Potentially a year less nappy changes would significantly reduce a parent’s work load! What they don’t warn you about is that you will miss cloth when your baby trains; another bittersweet milestone in the life of a parent.