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This post is part of a series: click to visit Part 1-Gearing Up and Part 2-Paying for Childcare vs Leaving Your Job.
Diapers are that notorious money pit for families with babies. Time in diaper-land stretches for years if multiple babies enter the picture. And diapers are literally money in the trash, harmful waste in landfills, and also an item you can’t live without.
I am particularly grated by needing stuff that must be bought repeatedly, where scrimping to go through less isn’t really an option, and the end result is just going out in the weekly garbage pickup. My solution to this grating was cloth diapering for our two babies. In particular, in our family where both parents were working full time, including my one hour commute, all in one cloth diapers were my choice for ultimate cloth diapering convenience.
What's In This Post
What are all in one (AIO) cloth diapers?
All in one cloth diapers are a diaper that does the job of a disposable in one, altogether package. No stuffing inserts into pocket diapers, no pins, no adding waterproof diaper covers. It’s a diaper that looks like a diaper, shaped like a diaper, and is waterproof on the outside like a diaper needs to be. The absorbent materials are built in, as opposed to separate inserted panels that must be stuffed back in after washing. Basically it’s all in one, hence the name! We chose BumGenius Freetime AIO diapers and I loved these diapers for many years.
My deciding factors for choosing all in one cloth diapers
1. No separate inserts, no stuffing
My goal was to reap the benefits of cloth but maximize convenience. We both work full time, I had a long commute, I was breastfeeding, and all the other stuff that goes along with raising a baby. So all in ones were very attractive because there are no inserts to snap in or stuff in. No parts to get lost or forgotten in the daycare stash. Just a simple, single-piece diaper, all in one.
So, although AIOs can be more expensive, choosing something that we could fit into our life seamlessly would ultimately encourage more use of cloth and less reliance on disposables. In the end, it worked because we primarily used cloth despite the rush of life.
2. Reuse & resale value
Let me tell you something shocking about diapers. High quality, well cared for cloth diapers retain their value… like their job is to hold poop and pee and they hold their value better than your car. So using them for the next kid doubles their value for your family. Unfortunately our first set was used hard, including using the dryer occasionally (oops). Then they sat unused for a year and half between kids which led to some break down of the waterproof PUL layer, so they leaked. But I know several families who used their AIO diapers successfully for a second or third child.
However, my very well cared for (never in dryer!) BumGenius Freetimes from the second time around sold for about 2/3 of what I paid for them new. This was after near full-time use on one baby, washed with organic soap nuts (I preferred EcoNuts) or Puracy detergent, line dried always. I paid about $240 for these diapers and sold them on Facebook Marketplace for $150. I rest my case.
Therefore, the higher cost of premium AIO diapers pays off if you take good care of them and sell them promptly when you’re done with them.
3. Trusted blogger recommendation
My particular choice of BumGenius from Cotton Babies came from following the lead of my favorite home reno bloggers, Sherry and John of YoungHouseLove. They do thorough research on costs and quality in the posts they write, and I’ve been super happy with every recommendation I’ve followed of theirs. (They are frugal DIYers, with similar values to us so it’s easy to get on board with their favs). I actually first learned about cloth diapering from their post and was intrigued even before we had a baby on the way.
Having learned about the topic from them, I also saved myself the trouble of researching upteen million reviews of cloth diapers and just bought the same brand Sherry & John used. They used a different style of BumGenius AIO cloth diaper that’s made using natural organic cotton, the Elemental.
I chose the Freetimes (with snaps, not velcro tabs which don’t last as long) as the best cloth diapers for us because the absorbent material, while still all attached to the diaper, flips out like flaps that dry faster. So I could rely on faster diaper drying times. Faster drying means diapers are ready to go quicker so we could own fewer diapers.
The flap design I discovered is also key to let you mostly just drop the back flap down into the toilet to be sprayed. This keeps the rest of the diaper and, as a result, your hand out of the fray. Thus, a bit quicker and cleaner spray-out process if you always put the back flap on top when diapering the baby (i.e. poop lands primarily on that one flap for later spraying).
4. Kept me out of Target
Any product decision, including cloth diapering, I can make to avoid a Target run ultimately saves me time and money. I swear I can go to Target for shampoo and somehow it still costs $50. I notice a couple grocery items we wanted, one of the kids’ favorite movies is on sale at the checkout line DVD rack, nice basic tees are buy two get one free… you know how it goes. Can you imagine if I was doing diaper runs there routinely? Nuf said.
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My experienced cloth diaper benefits
1. Never run out of diapers
My favorite benefit of cloth diapers is that… drumroll… you never run out of diapers! No late night runs to grab a pack of diapers. Sure, you could skip washing and not have any clean, but running a laundry load of diapers always seemed easier to me than having to schlep out to the store, especially with little ones in the house.
2. Easy on the landfills
A major benefit that is important to many, and was a plus for me too, was avoiding all that excess waste in the landfill. Diapers that don’t break down well, mixed with human waste, sealed up in plastic bags… just a bad deal to contribute to the planet’s trash problem.
3. Big money saver
The biggest driver for me was choosing something that would save money, month by month, year by year. The amount of money saved varies by what your comparison would be without cloth diapers. The math for our family is down below. We definitely saved some money, even while using premium all in one cloth diapers and part-time disposables (first 8 newborn weeks, overnight always, travel, 6 months at daycare during end of diapering season for second kiddo).
4. Easy on baby’s skin
Another factor is that cloth diapers lack all the super absorbent chemicals and petroleum based materials, so they tend to be easier on sensitive skin. That said, they must be changed a little more often to keep the bottom dry. I always felt like frequent changes in cloth made more sense than leaving your baby in a semi-wet diaper to get some more bang for your buck in super absorbent commercial diapers though.
5. Possibly earlier potty training
Another factor I’ve heard of, and perhaps have evidence for, is earlier potty training. Since kids feel themselves soak their diaper wearing cloth more so than the diapers with chemical absorbance features, they learn to control their pee sooner. I don’t have any data on this, just something I’ve heard. But our son did train successfully, within a week, including overnight, at 22 months old, sooo….. ?
Our daughter trained more typically I’d say. Her daytime training took a few months of slow but steady progress, and she got it down pretty well by 2 1/2. Then she used pull-ups at night for another 6-9 months after that. I will say she started potty training after we switched to disposables for our new daycare center to use when she started there just shy of age 2. So, perhaps her being in disposables during that time made potty training slower than it would have been in 100% cloth? I’m not so sure. But at the very least, cloth can’t hurt, and may even help when it comes time for potty training.
6. Major cute factor
And did I mention they are stinkin’ adorable? They are a little bulky so may push their bottoms size up by one size. But who needs pants when your diaper is so colorful and adorable? If you want to get really serious you can become a specialty print diaper collector… not even kidding. Just Google around on “BumGenius retired print.”
7. Secret amazing benefit no one talks about!
No. Blowouts. Diaper blow outs (i.e. poop squished up the back right out of the diaper and into the shirt area, yep, in case you weren’t personally acquainted with a blowout) are the worst! We thought this was just a newborn thing and then realized it was a disposable diaper thing. We finally caught on that you just don’t get crazy blowouts in cloth diapers that have an elastic back because they cup against the baby’s back. In contrast, disposable diapers are just like a paper chute to direct the poop squish right up the back. I repeat: no blowouts.
Potential cloth diaper drawbacks
1. Up close with poo
Yes, you will deal with poop diapers kneeling in front of your toilet as a routine task. But really you’re also changing bazillions of dirty diapers to begin with, so I guess this add-on just didn’t register with me as too gross to handle.
2. Extra tasks during an already busy time
Handling a few poo diapers in the bathroom and transferring the day’s bag full to the washing machine is about a 5 minute task. Rerunning the washer after the cold prewash cycle is something extra to remember to do. Hanging out your diapers to dry is a quick job, but can’t be skipped. Basically, it’s an easy job to deal with cloth diapers. But! It is one. more. thing. When you’re already juggling a lot, it might just not be worth it for some households.
3. Can be a hassle-ish with childcare situations
We used cloth diapers while using a home daycare, a nanny, and a center for childcare, not to mention with visiting grandparents and babysitters. So, it is possible to keep your kids in cloth no matter the caregiving situation. It is, however, one more thing to show your sitter or grandpa – “Please don’t drop poop into the wet bag- just snap the diaper closed and I’ll deal with it later.” That can return a weird look. We actually dumpster dived to get one of our diapers back at church after the nursery staff just chucked it, not understanding it was a reusable washable diaper!
It’s also something to ask about when interviewing daycare situations or nannies to make sure they are truly supportive and knowledgeable. For example, you must ensure your kiddo’s caregivers know that they cannot put diaper ointment on their bottom with a cloth diaper, as it can ruin the absorbency of your diapers. This was a learning curve with one of our care situations where booty cream was the normal routine with every change.
You must also find out any rules for handling cloth diapers. Centers might have licensing regulations about what kind of container can be used for soiled diapers, for example, instead of a wet bag. These types of troubles are totally solvable, but it’s just a little extra hassle when you’re depending on others to keep your cloth routine going.
4. Up-front investment
Compared to disposables for which you pay as you go, cloth diapering requires a greater up front investment. You can see our math below, but investing in the supplies you need for cloth diapering will be about 9 months’ worth of value brand disposables. Ultimately it will cost less, but you may need to save a little up ahead of time.
5. Tiny newborn stage
Cloth diapers adjust up in size to grow with your baby. The BumGenius AIO diapers state they fit down to 8 lbs, but our babies were usually closer to 9 or 10 lbs before we started cloth because it’s just so bulky on them otherwise. So once you get all excited about all your cute cloth diapers, you have to either buy separate newborn cloth diapers or shelve yours for a bit while using disposables. I didn’t really mind this issue, but it is something to be aware of.
How much money can you save using cloth diapers: our family’s math
If you would be diapering primarily in earth friendly premium brands that may run $0.30 per diaper and up, your savings will be much larger than when you’re comparing to value brands bought in bulk running more like $0.15 per diaper.
When our babe’s booties weren’t in cloth, they were typically in Seventh Generation (newborn times), Thrive diapers (at daycare for last 6 months of diapering season for second child), or more commonly Luvs. Luvs were our nighttime diapers, so we bought a case of these and they would last many months. Therefore, we also used these for travel or random times we needed a disposable since they were kept on hand.
1. Cost of 100% disposable diapers
Estimating about 8 changes a day on average (far more early on, a bit less later), that’s about 2,900 diaper changes in a year. At the Luv’s average price of $0.17 per diaper, including a Subscribe & Save discount on Amazon, that’s $490 per year of discount disposable diapering, or about $40 per month.
Using that comparison for our family, it would have meant $880 for diapering our first born, who miraculously potty trained at 22 months, including overnight. (We didn’t know how lucky we were at the time!) And it would have meant about $1,300 for our second child, for a total of $2,180 for full time discount disposables for our two kids.
2. Cost of (mostly) cloth diapers
We chose to cloth diaper nearly exclusively. But like I mentioned there were a few situations where we used disposables, including the newborn times before they are big enough for the thick one size cloth diaper designed to adjust up all the way to a two year old’s size. I would estimate then we cloth diapered 85% of the time overall. So, 15% of that disposable cost we did spend, or about $325 in total towards disposables for our two kids. I’ll round it up to $400 since some of that was towards more spendy, earth friendly diapers.
The cost of cloth for us was the cost of a 12-pack of BumGenius Freetimes, which was about $225. We used these diapers on our first pretty hard since we used so few diapers in rotation relative to what many other families buy. Then they sat for 1.5 years in between kids and the waterproof layer broke down a bit. So that was a sunk cost- I gave them to a mom who was going to remedy them as best as possible and make use of them irrespective of their slight leaking. So, I spent another $225 when baby #2 was ready to be in cloth, which we started at about 8 weeks old for both kids. But I sold that second set in good condition for $150 when we were done!
We also bought several wet bags which were laundered with the diapers each (or every other) night and a diaper sprayer. I’ll estimate about $125 spent between the two kids on those items (the diaper sprayer lasted all through both kids, but we replaced some wet bags).
3. Our family’s all in one cloth diaper math
$225 first round of Freetime diapers + $225 second round of Freetimes = $450 in diaper costs
Wets bags + diaper sprayer = approx. $125 in cloth diaper accessories
Total cloth diapering investment = $525 – $150 from resale = $375 total invested in cloth diapering supplies
Part-time disposable purchases = $400 for part-time disposable diapers
Total cost to diaper using our ~85% cloth approach = $775 for two kids total
Money saved compared to using value-brand disposables full time = $2180 – $775 = $1405 saved for two kids’ worth of diapering
To be honest, when I first started with cloth, I thought the savings would be closer to twice that. But I didn’t know at the time how early kids would potty train (I assumed it was when they were three or so, not so for us). Also, I didn’t have a good sense of what diapers would cost in real-life (i.e. discount, bulk, with subscription savings).
That said, we saved $1,400. And, probably more importantly, I enjoyed so many other benefits of cloth I would do it again even if it cost the same. Sure the nightly task of spraying a few diapers out and washing cloth diapers was nice to bid goodbye. But it’s not like we’re in the yard with a washboard, right?
Some of the newest high efficiency washing machines can probably be programmed to run the cold prewash, and follow it up with the long hot wash that diapers require. That would have been super cool. But usually the preschooler would go push a couple buttons for me and get the second wash started up if I asked him. Yay for helping Mom and Dad! (In case you’re wondering if I had our 3-year old handling laundry detergent, have no fear- we mostly used satchels of organic soap nuts in the washer drum tossed in with the diapers, so no detergent needed to be added.) Win, win.
What do you need & how much will it cost? The everything we used list.
1. Diaper sprayer
We used a Bumkins sprayer, but it is no longer available. If I were buying one for a friend, I’d grab this one. Get help from a handy friend to install if you’re not sure, but lots can be learned on YouTube!
Total cost for sprayer: $30
2. Wet bags
We used three Large Planet Wise zip-top bags for the daily rotations ($22 each), and kept a Medium Planet Wise bag in the diaper bag ($18.50). I picked the Planet Wise bags both times around because I was very happy with them- simple design, held up well, lots of cute patterns. For the rotation, two large bags hung next to changing table all day (or at daycare, but check their policies for containers)- one collected pee diapers, one collected poo diapers. Poo diapers must always be snapped shut before dropping into the bag, so bag stays ‘clean’ but seals in stink. After spraying all the poo diapers in the evening, all diapers for the day end up landing in the pee bag. And that bag goes straight into the washer with diapers by tipping the bag inside out right into the machine- no touching yuck diapers. That leaves that day’s empty poo diaper bag to become tomorrow’s pee diaper bag. And the third bag joins in so you are ready for next day. Rotation continues with one bag washed each day with diaper load.
Total cost for wet bags: $84.50
3. All in one cloth diapers
We chose BumGenius Freetime diapers for reasons discussed above. Mostly, because they have flip out flaps which made for faster line dry times, and only one flap would mainly get pooped on. Thus, only one flap of the diaper generally needed to be dropped into the toilet for spraying, instead of having to always spray the whole diaper. We used 13 diapers (bought one ‘try out’ diaper before ordering the 12-pack set) which was enough if you launder nightly. To have a set ready to send back to daycare each day without a morning scramble, having 18 would be more convenient, and would reduce overall wear on your diapers. There are all kinds of used diapers for sale on Facebook Marketplace if you want to start with a smaller investment- look for gently used and appropriately laundered (cold, then hot wash, gentle detergents, line dried) diapers.
Total cost of 12 new BG Freetimes: $223 (an additional 6 diapers would add $114, or $337 total)
Total up front cost of cloth: $337.50 buying 12 new AIO diapers ($451.50 if buying 18 new diapers)
Related reading:
- How to afford a baby: savvy tips for gearing up
- How to afford a baby: paying for childcare or quitting my job?
In conclusion…
There you have it- everything I can think to share about using all in one cloth diapers to save money while keeping your sanity. Remember, cloth diapering need not be a 100% commitment to be very helpful on your cash flow & trash tolerance.
Different families take different approaches. And everyone has different priorities for balancing, time, money, laundry, Target runs, and trash levels. Just know that you can find a diapering balance that addresses how these gripes fall into priority for you.
From my personal experience with cloth diapering, especially with all in one cloth diapers, I’d say it is well worth looking into. If you’re considering AIO cloth diapers and have questions or have some lived experience, please leave those in the comments so we can all share and learn. Happy diapering!