I don’t remember the very first time I heard about cloth diapers, but it was probably on Megan Tietz’s blog. Or maybe Young House Love. All I really remember was being super intrigued by them. Why in the world would anyone want to use cloth diapers these days? Aren’t disposable diapers part of the reason we are so thankful to be living in such advanced times? Why would you want to deal with baby poop when you could just throw the whole thing away?

But as time went on and I learned more about the pros of cloth diapers, I began to really consider them. And before you click away, this post is NOT written to tell you why you are a horrible person if you choose to use disposables. It’s simply to tell you why I’m choosing to cloth diaper, because so many people seem so confused when I tell them in person.

So…why are we cloth diapering?

1. We’re poor.

Ok, we aren’t actually poor but we aren’t exactly rolling in dough either. Especially after crunching the numbers and figuring out what we owe the IRS this year. (Ouch!!) Cloth diapers, while somewhat of an investment upfront, are ultimately way cheaper than disposables.

There are tons of posts already written about this topic, but here’s the gist: I’ve invested about $500 in cloth diapers, and most of those are designed to grow with the baby. Meaning that I’ve spent about $500 to diaper our child for the next couple years. If we have another baby and use those diapers on him or her, then that amount drops in half! I snapped a pic of our complete stash of diapers, minus extra inserts, prefolds, and that kind of thing. We have a nice mix of pocket diapers, all-in-ones, covers, and hybrids. (If none of that makes sense to you, don't worry! It didn't make any sense to me until I did a lot of research.)

2. It’s my tiny way of helping the environment.

Don’t hate me, but I don’t really recycle much. Our small town doesn’t exactly make it easy to recycle, and I’ve just gotten out of the habit. I also LOVE long showers and baths, and I know that’s a waste of water and energy. So cloth diapering is my tiny little way of saying “Hey Earth, I kinda like you and want you to stay all nice and homey for us.” Maybe Leo would be proud of me for that.

3. Chemicals are yucky.

Unless I want to buy those super expensive Seventh Generation/Honest Company/Super Green Earth Baby diapers, any disposables I choose to use will be coated in chemicals. That’s just the nature of the beast. To keep diapers thin and color changing, and to keep baby feeling dry, there have to be chemicals involved. And it’s a small thing, but if I can keep as many chemicals out of my baby’s body as possible, I’ll try it. (Again: no judgement if you use disposables!! I'm not a scientist and can't tell you any details about the pros and cons of avoiding the disposable chemicals.)

So those are the main three. But here's a bonus: they are so cute! Even Coco approves.

Am I saying that you’ll never see my baby in disposables? Absolutely not. We got a few packages of Pampers at our first shower, and instead of returning them we're going to hang onto them, just in case. I mean, do I want to try to find a place to do cloth diaper laundry while on vacation somewhere? Not really. (Though it depends on where we vacation.) But for the most part, she’s going to have a fluffy cloth diaper booty.

Look at how cute those tiny little newborn diapers are!

And for those of you wondering, no, James wasn’t psyched about this crunchy choice. However, as I’m the person who does all our laundry and will be caring for our baby most of the time since I’ll be working from home, I insisted on giving cloth diapers a chance. I’m really hoping once he realizes how much money we’ll save (and how cute our daughter will be in them) he’ll really jump on board. Plus, you might notice that some of those diapers are designs I bought specifically for James. Camo and deer, what is there not to like?

So that's the basics. If there's interest, I can do a more in-depth post about what diapers we are using and actually explain what a pocket diaper is vs an all-in-one. And I will be writing more posts after we actually start cloth diapering. I could tell you about what my plans and expectations are, but it might mean more once I'm actually in the thick of dirty diapers and laundry and actual baby poop.

Until next time!