How to set up your home for cloth diapering: Supplies & Tips

To set up your home for cloth diapering you only need

• Cloth diapers
• Wipes
• Container to store dirty cloth diapers & wipes
• A way to wash cloth diapers & wipes
• Laundry detergent (NOT SOAP) with no fabric softener

If you want to learn more about starting to cloth diaper check out my article

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) from qualifying purchases made through those links. * Indicates an affiliate link

What do I need to ready my home for cloth diapering?

All you really need to start cloth diapering is some kind of change mat, whether it be a folded up blanket, towel or actual store bought change mat, something to wipe off baby, and your cloth diapers.

While that may seem too simple to be true, it 100% is!

Here is a list of the items I feel would be perfectly fine to start with, then you can pick and choose from there if you want to add more things like pail liners for a dirty diaper pail, or spray shields to help with spraying out diapers.

• 24-36 cloth diapers
• 30 cloth wipes (Cloth wipes at clothdiaper.com*)
• Something to change baby on
• Cloth diaper safe diaper cream (coconut oil is fantastic)
• Cloth diaper sprayer (SprayPal cloth diaper sprayer at clothdiaper.com*)
• Wetbag or wet/drybag (Thirsties wet/drybags at thirstiesbaby.com)

If you want to know what a ” cloth diaper safe diaper cream” is check out my article

Best locations for a cloth diaper change station

A cloth diaper change station isn’t really any different than a typical change station for disposable diapers, you can even have a change station set up for both cloth & disposable diapers if you are only doing cloth diapers part-time.

If you really like the idea of having the change station in the nursery then go for it, if you want it in the living room, that’s fine too.

If you want flexibility maybe have a change station where you will use it the most and have a few things in a basket that can go room-to-room as you need it.

For my first 3 kids we just had a basket with a few diapers, wipes, diaper cream, wetbag for dirty diapers, and the change mat, affectionately known as the ” upstairs-downstairs basket”.

If we had a small baby that was still needing changed at night we’d just bring the basket upstairs with us, then in the morning it would come back downstairs with us.

If we were upstairs we changed baby on the bed and the dirty diaper was put in the wetbag overnight and then put in the diaper pail in the morning.

If we were downstairs we changed baby on the couch or loveseat and the dirty diaper was taken straight to the diaper pail in the bathroom.

If you want to know more about wetbags, wet/drybags and pail liners check out my article

How to store different types of cloth diapers

Storing cloth diapers is extremely easy, you could store your cloth diapers in a drawer, on a shelf, or even in a cardboard box.

There are just a few differences between types/styles of cloth diapers that make certain cloth diapers fit better in certain spaces.

How much space do you need for cloth diapers?

Different cloth diapering systems require different amounts of space, if you are using all-in-one or pocket cloth diapers you could probably fit 24-36 diapers into 1 large dresser drawer.

But if you are using flats and/or prefolds and cloth diaper covers, then you could probably fit 24-36 into a nightstand drawer or some other relatively small space.

Keep in mind that when you are using cloth diapers most of the time not all of the cloth diapers will be clean at the same time, unless you have very small stash.

If you have a stash of 24 all-in-ones you would have roughly

8 that are dirty

8 in the wash or drying

And a final 8 ready to use (1 extra ready to use cloth diaper just in case isn’t a bad idea either)

So you’ll probably only need room to store 16ish cloth diapers at time, unless you really want to have everything clean each day.

Now if you are planning on having a very small stash of maybe 9-10 cloth diapers, you will probably be washing more frequently, and drying them quickly to get then back in action sooner.

That means that most if not all of your cloth diapers will probably be clean and ready to go at one time, so you will need storage for all of them.

Storing cloth diapers prepped or unprepped

When I say “prepped” I mean ready to put on.

Flats/ prefolds and cloth diaper covers

So for flats and/or prefolds and cloth diaper covers, the flats and/prefolds would be already folded into whichever fold you are planning to use and maybe already in a clean cover ready to go.

Unprepped, the flats and/or prefolds are not folding into a diaper (or maybe not folded at all) and diaper covers are somewhere within reach.

This means that when you need change baby you would have to get a prefold/flat, fold it and get a cover before you can actually change baby.

All-in-one cloth diapers

With most all-in-one cloth diapers, all you need to do after washing and drying is folding in the flaps and you’re ready to go.

So, prepped would be flaps folded in, and unprepped would be stacked or tossed somewhere without the flaps folded in, which to me isn’t that big of a difference.

Fitted cloth diapers

Fitted cloth diapers are a lot like all-in-ones to me, since all the absorbent material is sewn into a diaper shape and all you need to do is fold in the flap/s and it’s ready to go on baby.

Then you just thrown on a cover and your ready to go, or if baby has a little bit of a rash you can go without the cover to let the rash breathe a little bit (same can be done with flats & prefolds if you wrap then around baby).

The main difference I have noticed between all-in-ones and fitteds when it comes to storage is that fitteds are usually bulkier that all-in-ones, therefore fitteds require more space.

Pocket cloth diapers

Now with pocket cloth diapers prepped vs unprepped really makes a difference to me.

Pocket cloth diapers need to be unstuffed when washed to properly clean them, in my pocket diapers right now for my 11 month old I have at least 1 one-size flat and 1 small prefold, both in a pad fold.

So, if I don’t prep my diapers first I have to find a flat and a prefold, fold them, find a cover, then put the flat and prefold inside.

But if I had prepped my pocket diapers I could just grab a diaper and change baby.

How to store cloth wipes

Cloth wipes are super easy to use and store, the only thing you need to watch out for is if you store them wet, after a while they will start to mildew and smell.

But if you are only wetting the wipes you will use in a 24hr period, you shouldn’t have a problem.

While this can be kind of annoying, the fact that cloth wipes that are stored wet can mildew means they don’t have the skin irritating chemical preservatives that disposable wipes do.

That’s right, disposable wipes have chemicals in them as preservatives and for scent that can (and do) irritate baby’s skin.

Most babies can tolerate them pretty well though so don’t panic if you are still wanting to use disposable wipes some, or even most of the time.

There are some disposable wipes that don’t have as many chemicals, EveryLife disposable wipes have no fragrances, and only use food grade preservatives, they are also reasonably priced at $22.99 for 240 wipes (one months supply).

Everylife disposable wipes at everylife.com

Cloth wipes at clothdiaper.com* Cloth wipes at greenmountaindiapers.com

Grovia cloth wipes at grovia.com* Baby washcloths at walmart.com

If you want to learn more about cloth wipes check out my article

Setting up to wash & dry cloth diapers

Washing cloth diapers isn’t hard, but if can be confusing.

For every article/person saying one thing, there is another saying the exact opposite, this is why I get all my information from my personal trial and error, and product manufacturers.

Setting up to wash cloth diapers

• Laundry detergent NO FABRIC SOFTENER
• Bleach and/or Lysol laundry sanitizer for emergency germ zapping
• If you are handwashing I would suggest rubber gloves

If you have multiple laundry detergents, specifically ones that have fabric softener added, if would probably be wise to label them as not for cloth diapers in some way.

When I used multiple detergents I would write NOT FOR DIAPERS as big as I could on all sides, on all the laundry products that were not cloth diaper safe.

Even though I almost always did the laundry, there were a few times were those great big letters stopped a potential disaster.

If you are interested I designed a printable where you can write out your wash routine, so if others are helping with diaper laundry they have a reference.

Setting up to dry cloth diapers

• DON’T USE DRYER SHEETS
• Dryer that has lower heat settings
• Clothesline and/or drying rack if you are hang drying

Dryer sheets

Dryer sheets are basically sheets of fabric with fabric softener, lubricants and perfumes on them, so they coat the fibers of your cloth diapers which stop the fibers from absorbing, and cloth diapers that don’t absorb are a huge problem.

A good alternative to dryer sheets are wool dryer balls, they are just balls of wool that you throw into the dryer with you’re laundry, and they do everything that dryer sheets do except for adding scent.

Plus wool dryer balls save money!

Median price of wool dryer balls is $24.00 for a 6-pack, wool dryer balls last 1,000 loads of laundry, so $24.00 for 1,000 loads of laundry.

Median price for dryer sheets was $7.47 for a box of 180, that makes each sheet $0.04, it is recommended that you use 2 sheets per load of laundry.

So, that means you will need 2,000 dryer sheets for 1,000 loads of laundry, 2,000 dryer sheets at $0.04 each =$83.00.

1,000 loads of laundry with wool dryer balls $24.00

1,000 loads of laundry with dryer sheets $83.00

That’s a savings of $59.00 per 1,000 loads of laundry! while also being better for your skin and the environment.

Wool dryer balls at happybeehinds.com Wool dryer balls at clothdiaper.com *

Dryer heat settings

The dryer heat settings only matter if you are wanting to machine dry your PUL (the water-resistant part of cloth diaper covers, and wetbags), bamboo or elastic.

High heat in the dryer is very hard on these materials, it can greatly reduce the life of your PUL and it will form cracks making your covers and wetbags leak.

Bamboo (depending on the quality) can shrink and shrivel down almost to nothing if exposed to high heat all the time.

High heat can also damage the elastics in your cloth diaper covers, all-in-ones, and fitted cloth diapers.

If one of your cloth diapers goes through a dryer cycle on high heat, don’t panic an accident once or twice should be fine for most cloth diapers, just don’t stretch the elastics in any way until they completely cool down.

If you have questions about your cloth diapers and high heat contact the manufacturer.

Hang drying

Hang drying your cloth diapers is a great way to save money on electric bills, naturally remove stains, and increase the life of your cloth diapers.

I personally have both a clothesline and a drying rack, in decent weather I use the clothesline, in very cold or wet weather I use the drying rack, I do this year round with both diaper laundry and regular clothes.

I do have a dryer that I use to fluff my laundry once it comes off the line/rack, since air dried laundry can sometimes be kinda stiff.

If you don’t have a lot of space, drying racks come in tons of shapes and sizes, most also fold up for easy storage.

But I feel it takes longer for clothes to dry on a drying rack just because each item doesn’t get the airflow it would on a clothesline.

Drying racks on amazon.com portable (travel) clothesline at amazon.com

If you do have space for a clothesline, you have a lot of options there too, there are even portable clotheslines, or you could DIY something.

Resources

Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning I receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) from qualifying purchases made through those links. * Indicates an affiliate link

SprayPal cloth diaper sprayer at clothdiaper.com*

Cloth wipes at clothdiaper.com*

Cloth wipes at greenmountaindiapers.com

Grovia cloth wipes at grovia.com*

Baby washcloths at walmart.com

Osocozy pail liners at clothdiaper.com*

Thirsties pail liners at thirstiesbaby.com

SprayPal spray shield at clothdiaper.com*

Thirsties wet/drybags at thirstiesbaby.com

Cloth wipes from greenmountaindiapers.com

Cloth-eez prefolds at greenmountaindiapers.com

Wool dryer balls at happybeehinds.com

Wool dryer balls at clothdiaper.com *

Everylife disposable wipes at everylife.com

Drying racks on amazon.com

portable (travel) clothesline at amazon.com

article on dryer sheets at whirlpool.com