Diaper Service or DIY?

Mandy747 · May 2011

We've long been decided on the CD route, but we've been debating whether we should use a diaper service. The debate has been fairly long winded, so I figured we should ask the experts.

The diaper service in our area is pretty affordable ($10 for 40 prefolds, about $18/week for cleaning & delivery). They only use prefolds and I don't have a ton of info on the detergent they use.

So...yay or nay for a diaper service? If you were trying to decide, what ended up tipping the scale for you?

aschleser · May 2011

We don't have the option of a diaper service - but typically you still have to wash your own covers, and if you ever wanted to try another kind of diaper - you'd have to wash those, too - and cloth wipes if you'll use those. So since you'll already have to do cloth diaper laundry, to me it doesn't make sense to pay them to do a part of it, KWIM? Also, most diaper services do 1/week pick up and drop off - I wouldn't want dirty diaper laundry sitting around that long!

Also - if you add up thats $72/month, not including the cost of the prefold (I'm assuming thats like a one time fee or something (the $10, that is). Granted newborn diapers you only use the first 6-8 weeks - but for $150 (2 months of diaper service) you could get a pretty nice newborn stash, and reuse it for future babies or resell it to get some money back. You can't do that with a diaper service. Prefolds are pretty hard to mess up in the wash process, too - so it wouldn't be hard!!

Dr.Loretta · May 2011

We didn't have one available, so it was a no-brainer

I prefer DIY anyway. You can experiment with different types of diapers other than prefolds, and the amount of time/water you use to wash your own isn't that big a deal.

jteneback · May 2011

We don't have a service around here, but that sounds like it would eat away the cost savings pretty quickly. Plus you could only do prefolds, which kind if sucks IMO. The laundry is not that big a deal to me so I wouldn't do the service personally.

Sam78 · May 2011

I used a diaper service much like the one you are describing for the first 6ish months of DD's life. It was very convenient although the diapers started smelling by the end of the week. I have heard that the commercial services bleach every load and, of course, you never know what detergent they are using.

That being said, I was very nervous to switching over to doing our own laundry (forced to when we moved) and it was way easier than I thought and I was kicking myself for spending the money on the service for so many months when it was so easy. If I had it to do again, I think I'd do the service until LO was big enough to fit into the one size diapers to ease the transition, but would drop the service at about month 2 or 3 (depending on when your LO fits in the OS).

LadybugPicnic2011 · May 2011

One thought- if you intend on putting LO in daycare, some daycares wont do prefolds, so you would either have to do sposies or Pockets/AIO's. Also, cloth diaper laundry really isnt hard to do and doesnt take very long. Out of all the laundry we have (which is a lot with two older boys) this is the only laundry I like doing and that gets done on a fairly regular basis. HTH.

Mandy747 · May 2011

Thanks ladies. This is really helpful!

I'm pretty sold on DIY, but DH is a bit reluctant. He doesn't really care about the cost aspect of it all, he's more just focused on the time commitment/level of difficulty. I'm trying to explain that it's not that hard, but I think it will take time.

Great point regarding the need to still do cloth laundry with the covers, wipes, etc. That will really help as a selling point. And, his main motivation for CDing is environmental, so perhaps I can also pull in the "Is their washing process really environmentally friendly?" aspect...

SaraRow · May 2011

The ability to both buy used and then re-use/re-sell newborn diapers tipped the scale for us.

- The cost to buy everything (24 prefolds, 6 covers, a couple of snappis, a few KL0s and a few AIOs) was just slightly less than 2 months of diaper service by buying used. It took a little extra effort but it was well worth it.

- We can re-use with LO #2 if we have one, which means zero cost for that baby.

- We can re-sell them, assuming they're still in decent shape by then, once we're done having kids.

I also have a strong co-parenting partner in my DH, so I'm not 100% responsible for doing everything related to dipes. If it was just me doing everything by myself immediately after having a baby, all the financial stuff would have gone out the window and I would have gotten a service so that I wouldn't have to do laundry every other day those first few months. I HATE doing laundry.

monona9 · May 2011

I do it myself. We used only prefolds in the newborn stage and now we still use some in our stash. I decided against the service because I wanted to have our own diapers - and use them for future children.

We use biodegradable cloth diaper safe detergent that doesn't cost much - I like to know what is going against my LOs skin and be able to experiment with washing routines. Having our own gives me the flexibility to sell what I no longer use and try something new.

flyer23 · May 2011

My infant prefold stash was 40 prefolds, and I think I paid about $30 for it. So, just a little more than you would pay for the first week with a diaper service.

DS stayed in those prefolds until he was 13 months old.

As for effort, prefolds are about as easy as it gets. You could even wash them with regular clothes if you wanted. They are also sooooooo easy to put away... no running multiple dryer cycles (often required with AIOs), no pockets to stuff, no soakers to match up with their fitteds. When DS was in prefolds almost exclusively, it took me less than 5 minutes to put away 2 days worth of diapers. Easy peasy.

The other reason I would never use a diaper service? Who wants a week's worth of dirty diapers sitting around the house waiting to be picked up! It's worth it to me to spend a few minutes every other day washing diapers myself just to prevent that from happening!

tokenhoser · May 2011

washing is so easy. I just throw in a rinse cycle, wait 20 min, then put on a hot wash, extra rinse. Hang to dry. Prefolds and covers are cheap, and later you can resell.

It's not like I do laundry in a river. It's just no big deal.

Alirebco · May 2011

Definitely DIY...but you could always do the first month with the service while you get the hang of things and then buy your own and DIY. Or you can do the service for 2-3 months until baby will be able to fit into one-size diapers and then go that route. The laundry is not that difficult or time consuming but a lot of things are overwhelming when you're new parents - lack of sleep, learning to breastfeed, etc, so it might be easier to not have to worry about it for the first month.

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