Diaper service vs washing at home?

EnigmaJC

Any thoughts??  We're having our first baby and are weighing our options.  I found a diaper service in our area that is $17 per week for 80 diapers (can be customized for more or less).  I'm thinking that might be less costly in the long run than buying our own, especially since they up the sizes at no cost as baby grows, versus me having to buy larger and larger sizes.  Plus the cost of running our washing machine several days a week (I imagine) and wear and tear on the machine.  But then again we do plan on having more children in the future so the initial cost of buying all the sizes might be worth it in the long run over having a service for several years.  What do you more experienced folks think?

Thanks for your help!

Julie

mh2t

I've done both.  I prefer using my own stash and washing them myself - but then, I also enjoy doing laundry in general.  I also found that I much preferred the quality of our own (GMD) prefolds, to those provided by the diaper service. 

We used the service for DD's first four weeks of life.  DH did not want me to be doing laundry during that time, so he insisted.  Pros: I didn't have to do laundry.  Cons: the aforementioned, plus the service only picked up once a week, and even EBF poo gets stinky when it sits in a pail for that long.  Also, with a diaper service, you can only use prefolds (unless you have a fancy one that provides other types of diapers).  We liked prefolds, but some people don't.  If you don't like them and you don't have a back-up plan, you may end up quitting CDing altogether.

The transition to our own diapers and our own laundry was great.  I was doing laundry just about every day anyway since DD was a super-spitter-upper, and an extra load every other day wasn't that much more work.  

mommy2b08

I would buy my own and wash at home, it will be cheaper most likely. Cottonbabies has a good sale on PFs right now with free shipping as well.

Waiting_4_Little_O

I have never used a service. Just be sure to check how/what they wash the diapers in. Some of them use a ton of bleach which may irritate LO's bum.

trish3905

I have zero experience with cloth, as these are my first kids.  We opted to go with a service to try it out.  That way, we can see how the CDs work without the upfront investment of buying our own CDs.  If we love it, great, we may end up buying our own CDs and washing them ourselves or may stick with the service.  If it doesn't work out for us, then we can just cancel the service.

 That being said, I really hope it works out (my husband is more of a skeptic) - the service was our way of compromising.   

*kms*

We didn't consider a service.  I'm not comfortable with the possibility of them using harsh chemicals (bleach) on something that's going to touch my kids skin.  I also don't like the idea of getting different diapers every week.  I know they are clean but they aren't "yours" you know?

mrs.a.butler

Ditto all PP.

 

But I think at $17 a week, you are running the same as you would be with disposables.  I think it's a waste.  

We wash every 3rd day (will be every other day when #2 is here) and we have not had an increase in our water bill (well, if we did, it was only a little bit, not by much, certainly not $68 worth...heck our bill is only about $50 a month total)

Also, if you are using a diaper service you are going to get prefolds (like pp said)  If you start saving $17 a week now for diapers you could have TONS of cloth diapers.   About $510 by 37 weeks, which you could get an awesome diaper stash, and get more "fun" diapers, than just prefolds.

As for the wear and tear on the machine, I really don't think the wear and tear is that much.  So you would replace your washer a year or two earlier than you would have before maybe?  

tmp-214118062502913

I considered a service and even with my shower RSVPs my sister told me we were considering a service and encouraged gift certs to the company.  Didn't get any but got CDs so saw that as a sign.

My friend uses a service and her son just turned 18 months.  Started with a service on Day 1 and hasn't looked back.  She finds it very easy and convienent for her.  She has purchased over time additional covers (they don't give enough and they aren't too fancy or trim) and when he got older, bought a handful of super thick fitteds for nighttime.  But she says she has sold covers when he outgrows and uses that money for new covers.  She just started using Snappis which she bought, but for most of the time she has trifolded prefolds into covers.

I don't think services are terrible, except that they rarely use EF products to sterilize the diapers.  It's personal preference IMO.

Blackvelvet

The diaper service I looked at only had two sizes so It wasn't like you would need to buy that many differnt times.  They also had a lower quality diaper then the ones I bough (little lions and GMD) I found DS could go though 20 diapers a day in the first month 80 would have been way to few and it would cost a lot to get more.  We only wash every 3 days and have been able to buy lots of differnt diapers ( fitteds, AIO AI2 and pockets)

tiggergirl0325

But I think at $17 a week, you are running the same as you would be with disposables.  I think it's a waste. 

I totally agree. We haven't considered a service because our main reason for switching to cloth was our budget. $17/week is pretty similar to what you'd be spending on disposables (and more expensive once they get older and start going through fewer diapers per day). 

Plus, like others have pointed out, they only do prefolds which are the least expensive way to cloth diaper. I just ordered 20 preemie prefolds from Cottonbabies for $12 and they should last me at least a month, maybe two. The infant ones are slightly more but are good for much longer. So you're really not saving any money.

DestinationWeddingKeyWest

I think its really a personal choice.  I was not able to keep up with nb cd laundry and ended up wasting our entire stash.  I was so overwhelmed and tired and the thought of doing laundry was just too much.  Plus its a lot harder to sell pfs because of the shipping costs (they are so heavy), and like you said LO will be out of the nb size fairly quickly.  So I'm mostly pro diaper service.  Howewver, I also dont like the idea of used diapers (I know Im the minority on this board all around but I'm just being honest here) so I will be using tushies diapers (no gel disposables) for the first month or so until the ebf poops are not coming every 2 hours.  Then we will use the BG 3.0s Ive been using on DD1.  Good luck in whatever you decide.