Cloth Diapers in a Condo?

Updated on October 14, 2010
K.G. asks from Chicago, IL
10 answers

I'm currently pregnant and would love to try cloth diapers with our baby. However, we don't have our own washer/dryer - we live in a condo with a communal laundry room. The laundry room is convenient so I wouldn't mind using it often, but we pay for laundry and I don't think there's any way to control the wash cycles (i.e. I can't do a cold water rinse, followed by a wash without paying for laundering twice). Has anyone tried this? Is it possible to make it work?

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K.M.

answers from Chicago on

Yeah, I always heard it was more cost effective and better in general to use the service, but i used pampers personally.

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B.B.

answers from Missoula on

You may want to look into diaper service. They drop off fresh diapers and pick up the dirty ones and you won't have to worry about washing them at all.

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G.B.

answers from Tulsa on

Go to Rent a Center and rent to own an apartment washer dryer set, it's only about $20 a week and it will save you time and effort. Your time is worth something and you will be doing laundry 24 hours a day, and that's a big job. It also costs a lot extra for the soap, bleach, and other additives to clean the diapers. If you don't use the additives due to the babies gentle skin you will surely have to wash and rinse and then perhaps wash with no soap and let them go through another rinse. Plus they are not sanitary if you don't use bleach the first time.

Can you imagine how your building is going to smell when you are washing poopy diapers that have been sitting waiting until laundry day once they hit the water and start agitating. I would rather you kept that at home and did't share it...LOl.

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T.T.

answers from Chicago on

i have the same issue. Unless you go with a service or have plenty of $$$ to blow its not going to be cost effective

R.T.

answers from Champaign on

I lived in an apartment with my 1st and had to go across the street to the laundry room. I would fill the diaper with bleach water and drop the diapers in there as they were used (without rinsing). On laundry day I poured the water out into the tub, and dumped the wet diapers right into the machine. It worked great for me. I remember once while doing laundry an elderly lady just kept staring at me and I was starting to get uncomfortable and she finally said, I cant help staring at you because its been so long since Ive seen anyone using cloth diapers and I thought you young girls only used pampers. She was tearing up because she was so tuched! Good luck to you!

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L.W.

answers from Chicago on

You may want to look into a hybrid diaper like the Grovia or the Flip. These diapers have disposable (biodegradable and chemical free) inserts as well as cloth. You can use mostly use the disposable inserts and use the cloth partially or only at night (the dispoable inserts are not nearly as absorbant as cloth).
If you live near Orland Park, IL, Sherri (the owner) of Cutie Poops and Bottoms teaches a Diapering 101 class. It would help you out online. You can check it out online. (cutiepoopsandbottoms.com)

I have to say Gamma G is misinformed on modern cloth diapers. You rarely, if ever, will use bleach on your diapers. You never use fabric softener and you can use a half portion of Free ad Clear brand name detergents to clean your diapers. The biggest part of washing for me is the rinsing.

My daughter is a "rashy" kid. She will get a rash if I don't rinse the soap out well enough, so I do two rinses before soap and two rinses after. It does take a while to finish them.

You can look into using a diaper sprayer to clean poop off if diapers into the toilet (rather than the wash) and/or using a wet storage system, for the dirties, rather than dry. There are a LOT of options. If you can get to a cloth Diapering store, they can help you figure out the best options for you.

Good luck!

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D.N.

answers from Chicago on

A friend of mine lives in a condo on the north side of the city and had the same issue. Once she looked into the cost of buying the diapers and using the machines, it was actually a slight savings to have a service bring the diapers. And now she is glad because she doesn't have to worry about washing them plus the other laundry. She just has to buy the diaper covers.
I asked my friend and she said she uses Bottoms up diapers (bottomsupdiapers.com).. She bought diaper covers on Craiglist and from Freecycle. She pays about $20 a week and gets the 12th week free becasue she buys 12 weeks at a time. NO soap to buy and she loves the no hassle with the diapers.

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J.S.

answers from Chicago on

Hi, when we had our first we lived in a condo and I used the bottoms up diaper service. I LOVED them! It costs about the same as using disposables, so that's not a huge factor, but it's still better for the environment (even with the delivery and such). That's what I very highly recommend for a condo situation. Then, when we moved to a house we bought our own diapers and started washing them ourselves, which was actually very easy.

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J.V.

answers from Chicago on

If you can afford it, go rent a washer/dryer set, or buy one. You could also use a diaper service.

I cloth diaper. I wouldn't do it in a communal setting. For starters, you really need to wash the diapers daily. It does stink a bit, so I am sure your neighbors will not be happy about it.

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D.G.

answers from Chicago on

Sounds like the best solution if you really want to use cloth diapers is a diaper service. They drop off fresh and pick up the soiled. My girlfriend had great success with it.
Good Luck!

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