Cloth Diapering Back Up Plan

My stash at one of it's larger points.

There are so many reasons people choose to cloth diaper and most stem from affordability, ecology, or a child with sensitivities. Personally I set out to do cloth because I was being cheap. Baby number three meant I would be drastically cutting my work hours and I needed to compensate however I could. Then I discovered designer diapers and the cute throttled my thrifty tendencies. At least I was being green right?

When talking to new to cloth parents I've always told them that cloth is a bit of an investment up front, but then that investment pays for itself over time. Over the years I've seen people sell off their diapers to come up with the money they needed for whatever reason and usually they would say something like this "Gah, DH is out of work for being hurt and now the radiator n the car blew and the water heater is flooding. We need the money so we're selling off our fancy diapers and gonna use sposies for a couple months." Makes sense right?

Pre-fold available at Zany Zebra on Etsy

I recently found myself in a financial bind. Funny how it all falls apart on the leanest months. Suddenly my excessive stash looked more like a nest egg than squishy diapers. I started offering them up for sell in the various venues where people look for pre-loved fluff and while it was a humbling experience I was pretty impressed by the resale value of my diapers. However, it would do me no good to sell all my diapers and then be forced into buying disposable diapers. If you need money you don't force yourself into having to spend more of it. Disposables are not your back up plan. The answer is a throw back to grandma's day. A simple system of pre-folds / flats and covers should be your fall back plan if your regular more costly system becomes unavailable for whatever reason. If they're not "cute" enough you can easily dye them or embellish them to add some flare. We rarely used them, but I was grateful to have those old standbys to dig out. In about a year when we're done with cloth even those basic diapers will have a resale value to them which is another perk to cloth diapers. How many sposies repay their owners even in small percentages?

Posted by Samantha at Turk and Bean