Cloth Diapers? Why?

Well, our trial set of cloth diapers arrived this week (from www.jilliansdrawers.com), so we've been learning all about them and trying to figure out if we want to make the switch. The upfront cost is high (the diapers are about $15 a piece and you need about 16-20 diapers to do full-time cloth diapering), but the long term savings is pretty significant. And, of course, they are so much better for the environment.

But the real question is, "How big of a hassle are they to keep clean?" (Especially for some one who doesn't like to do laundry a lot.) Really, they aren't a big deal to keep clean (we've even had a poopy diaper). I just put them in a bag when they are soiled, and at the end of the day they go in the washer on a cold wash with no detergent (this is if there is a dirty diaper, otherwise I skip this step), then I do a warm wash with a fourth of a cup of detergent. After that, put them in the dryer and that's it. And the cloth diapers we got are so cute and easy to put on. We got a couple of pre-folds with the trial set (these are the white rectangles of cloth that our moms used) and I can't really figure them out. So far the Bumgenius diapers are our faves, but we still have two more weeks to try them out, so we'll see if they stay on top.

Here's a picture of Laurel in a Thirsties diaper.
And here's an extra piece of fluff that doesn't have anything to do with cloth diapering, but I just think it's adorable. She loves to sit with her daddy in the evening and jabber at the computer screen. And if you can see her hand, she has discovered her toes and loves to hold on to them.