My Cloth Diaper Stash

+J.M.J.+

I’m back from my cloth diapering FAQ post earlier this week  to answer all of the questions asked specifically about our diaper stash itself… you know: what brand I use, how many I have, how I store them, what accessories we use, and that big decision: snaps or velcro closures!

Let’s jump in!

We have a lot of diapers. (Read my post about our “cadillac stash” here if you want to see how much we invested in our diapers, why we spent so much, and how much money we are still saving.) Here they are….

These all come from Grovia: Modern Cloth Diapers. I am not in any way sponsored or affiliated with them, but whole-heartedly recommend them and always tell people to keep in mind that every year they usually have an amazing Black Friday sale where you can set up a stash for a lot less! (You can also find used Grovia diapers on Facebook or local buy-sell-trade groups.)

My whole stash was purchased either used or on Black Friday sales.

Two Full Sets

We actually have two sets of cloth diapers – one for babies, and one for toddlers. This may sound crazy, but it was necessary for us for a couple reasons.

First, we had two children in diapers at the same time for almost a year. What was enough for one kid wouldn’t be enough for two children at the same time unless we were doing laundry constantly.

Second, a newborn and a toddler are going to wear the diapers snapped to different sizes. It would be super annoying to always be adjusting how high up the diaper goes for a different kid because they’re sharing a size.

Thirdly, these two types of diapers by Grovia have different features that, in my opinion, make them better suited to working as a team rather than just having one or the other.

The Hybrid Diaper

Grovia Hybrid diapers are my choice for my babies from birth until about 18 months.

They consist of a trim, breathable shell that you snap an absorbent soaker pad on to. This system is genius because it dramatically extends the life of your diaper.

See, the elastic in a cloth diaper is what keeps it fitting nice and snug around baby’s legs so that it doesn’t leak. Over time as it is washed and dried, elastic wears out. The more frequently a diaper is washed, the looser it will become.

The Grovia Hybrid design means that the pretty outer shell with the elastic doesn’t need to be washed nearly as often. The soaker pads you snap in have a waterproof backing on them, preventing the outer shell from getting wet unless you have a really big output.

When it is time for a change you pull off the soaker pad you had snapped on to the shell, toss it in your pail, and snap a clean one onto the shell again. Eventually the shell will need washing too because of a big pee or poop being too much for the soaker pad, but I can use the same colorful outer shell multiple times before washing it.

You can certainly use a pre-fold and a Snappi with these shells, but I love the convenience of their pre-made snap-in absorbency pads. They’re just so easy and save me from having to mess with fitting a pre-fold or keeping track of Snappis.

Because of how trim the Hybrid diaper is, my girls can wear them comfortably from a few weeks old without a big, bulky fit. (I give birth to super skinny babies with chicken legs that aren’t quite big enough to fit these at birth without leaking through the leg hole. If you have babies with any sort of thighs or chunk they’d probably be perfect from the start!). As time goes on and more absorbency is necessary, we just lay out some of their flat booster cloths on top.

By 18 months my girls are starting to become super heavy wetters, and the Hybrid diaper is becoming incredibly thick with boosters so we switch to…

The O.N.E. Diaper

Grovia designed and released the O.N.E. diaper after we had already been using our Hybrid stash for a few months. This diaper is mind-blowingly versatile. (And all of those differences are beyond the scope of this post! Let me know if you want one specifically about this diaper alone!)

The main difference between this and the Hybrid is that instead of a waterproof-backed pads snapped into a shell, the WHOLE thing is absorbent, including the colorful shell.

The downside to this diaper is that because it is an all-in-one type diaper, the entire diaper will need to be washed each time, thus wearing them out quicker. This diaper is also rated for use from 10lbs as opposed to the Hybrid’s listing of 8lbs. With my super skinny-legged babies, the O.N.E. diaper doesn’t fit as nicely when they’re small.

But oh how many upsides this diaper has!

It is the absolute dream overnight diaper. If you are cloth diapering with another system or brand and are struggling with overnights, go buy a few of these and I would bet it solves your problem. And as for daytime use for toddlers with fewer but bigger pee diapers- my toddler used it round the clock without any leaking issues until she potty-learned at 3.

Zelie, 14 months, is using our Hybrid diapers during the day, but since she was a year I have put her in a O.N.E. diaper for overnight use because it lasts all night without leaking. (And that’s really saying something when a kid is frequently nursing in the night!)

So, this is why we have two separate stashes. The trim-fitting Hybrids work amazingly for my little ones, and with their constant peeing. I can snap on a clean soaker pad each time and reuse those covers over and over. Then, once they’re older and peeing far less frequently, but much heavier, the O.N.E. stash takes over beautifully through potty learning.

If we continue to be blessed with a baby every couple years, we will be totally covered with our diapering needs for both our newest babies and the toddler above them.

The Numbers

So how much of these diapers do I have? Here is the breakdown:

Hybrid shells – 18
Hybrid snap-in soaker pads – 45ish
Hybrid absorbency boosters – 35

O.N.E. Diapers – 22

Grovia Cloth wipes – 30

Cloth swim diapers – 1

Snaps VS. Hook and Loop (aka Velcro)

So, which to choose? I am 100% a snaps kinda girl.

Velcro wears out. If you don’t fold velcro tabs over eachother they’ll catch diapers and hurt things in the wash. Eventually velcro needs to be replaced.

It’s just not ideal, in my opinion.

Snaps take about 5 minutes to get used to when cloth diapering, and I’ve only had one snap break in thousands of diaper changes over the last 3+ years. Plus, snaps are way harder for kids to learn to undo – Philomena only learned how to take her snapped on diaper off maybe two or three months before she learned how to use the potty!

The Accessories

Now for additional accessories I have and recommend:

(1) diaper sprayer to attach to the toilet. (I use this one by Rinsworks found here!) This is my #1 favorite accessory. Seriously, this takes care of the stink and mess so much easier than any alternatives I’ve heard of to deal with poopy cloth diapers. It’s amazing. My husband loves it, and he doesn’t love many things related to diapers.

(1) basic 13 gallon trash can to use as our diaper pail. It isn’t fancy but it gets the job done!

(2) Planetwise diaper pail liners. This is what goes in the trash can you use as a dirty diaper bin. I’ve tried several brands and this one is by far my favorite at containing the smell and not leaking any pee out into your can! Do know that it is important to always AIR DRY your pail liner, or it will lose it’s waterproof qualities after enough heat in the dryer.

(2) small zippered wetbags from Grovia. These are what go in your diaper bag to store dirty diapers on the go.

Finally, we have a Spraypal splatter guard to clip the diaper into over the toilet to prevent spraying a mess all over the bathroom. I actually don’t use this – I’ve mastered how to spray it just so without making a mess, but my husband likes using this and he recommends it.

Storage

Where do we keep it all? In the past we used this basic IKEA dresser. (I also kept Zelie’s clothes in this dresser.)

Now, however, I just keep the wipes under the sink to wet right away for poopy diapers, and the diapers slid under the bed in this basic plastic storage tote.

We don’t use a changing table for the girls – we just change diapers on our bed, so having the diapers in this dresser nearby works great!

Do You Need All This Too?

So, do you need two big stashes like I have? Do you need 45 snap in pads for your diapers? Do you need a diaper sprayer? Is this all necessary? Only you can answer that for your family. How many diapers you need, what type you get, and which accessories you choose will all vary depending on how many children you have, how far apart they are, how much money you can invest, and how motivated you are to wash those diapers.

Like I talked about in my post about why we chose a cadillac stash, I wanted to make cloth diapering totally accessible and doable for our family. I really poured myself into researching what we invested in as far as baby gear, and I am convinced that so often people give up on the cloth because in trying to save as much money as possible, they simply make it too difficult to keep up with.

You could diaper a toddler and newborn with the same stash and just do that laundry every day or two, constantly adjusting the rise of the diaper. But are you likely to stick with that? I know I wouldn’t be.

You could get by without a diaper sprayer but it’s up to you if you wanna throw on rubber gloves and scrub diapers in the toilet or a slop sink. I know I did that and it was so frustrating.

I knew to make cloth diapering work for us kid after kid, even during the crazy postpartum period, it was necessary we have a super easy-to-use diaper, a stash from one brand so we weren’t mixing and matching a bunch of pieces, plenty of diapers, and the accessories that made it easy.

So there is our whole clothy stash for you to see! I’d love to know more about your stash, or any questions you might have for me about cloth.