Transition to our own cloth diapers

We have now made the transition to our own cloth diapers. It's been two weeks since the diaper service stopped, and I am much happier now. I hadn't realized that without a stay-dry cover, the boys were unhappy as soon as the prefolds were wet, and we probably changed their diapers 10 or so times a day because they were unhappy and because they often leaked out the sides of the covers if we were not extremely careful about tucking in every tiny corner of the prefolds. We now have 28 diapers, including 4 Kawaii and 24 BumGenius. They are all one-size pocket cloth diapers, which means that Theo and Beck should be using the same diapers from now until they are potty-trained. The pocket has to be stuffed with cotton or hemp inserts which are then separated for washing. We bought the ones with snaps upon the suggestion of Mandy from Jillian's Drawers, who suggested they would last longer, though the aplix (velcro) ones look even easier. They are used pretty much like disposables, because I stuff them in advance as soon as the laundry is done, so you just set the baby down on them while open, and then snap up. The Kawaii diapers are about $10 apiece at Mama Goose but about $7 if I had bought them online. I think they may not last as long because they are not as high quality but they are still really nice. Even if they don't last until potty training I think we'll be okay because I understand babies need fewer diaper changes as they get older, so we won't need as many to get through each day. Each BumGenius is expensive (about $18 new) but if they last until they are potty trained and we can sell them for even $10 each (which I think is conservative), we will have only spent about $500 on diapers that we should be able to sell for about $200, meaning our total diaper cost for twins could be as little as $300. I was originally thinking we'd need more like 40 but with 28 we pretty much always have extra both upstairs and downstairs and the laundry is not too onerous. I end up doing one extra load of diapers every 1-2 days. The laundry does cost money and uses heat and water and is somewhat time consuming, especially the stuffing of the diapers, but (don't tell Jeff) I like doing laundry! There's a nice satisfaction that comes from putting dirty laundry in and getting nice clean laundry out just a short time later. I'm not asking for a washboard for Christmas or anything, but laundry is definitely not my least favorite chore.

This is our downstairs nursery diaper station, with both "single stuf" and "double stuf" diapers.

This is our upstairs nursery diaper station, which includes a repurposed CD storage shelf. When Jeff bought it I bet he never figured it would be used to store cloth diapers!

My opinion after two weeks of near-continuous use of the BumGenius and Kawaii diapers is very positive. We have had very few leaks, and the one or two we have had were caused (in my opinion) by user error--wadded up stuffing, or stuffing peeking out from the top of the back of the diaper. We use the "double stuf" diapers, the ones with two layers of cotton stuffing, for nights, and they have been a big part of the boys sleeping longer, I suspect. We used to change the prefolds every time they got up in the night, which woke them up more and woke US up more. Now we put on the night diapers before they nurse for the last time, at 9 or 9:30pm, and they stay in them until they get up at 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. They have also contained some monster blowouts, and for that I am grateful. The BumGenius are also super-snazzy, in my opinion, in bright and cheerful colors that I really like, especially the blues. The night diapers are pretty giant on the babies but they do the job and last I checked we were not entering them in any nighttime beauty contests, so I have no problem with that.