Storing Clean Cloth Diapers

Clean Cloth Diaper Storage

The first thing people think about when it comes to storing diapers is how to store them when they are dirty.  Not much thought goes into how to store clean diapers until your child is old enough to get into them, whether they are in a basket on the floor or folded on the shelves underneath your changing table.  Or, you’ve caught the cloth diaper bug bad and have entirely too many diapers to store in any one place.

My suggestion is a full changing station in the area you change baby the most (usually, a spot in the nursery).  When babies are young you don’t have to worry about them getting into the diapers.  I have always folded my prefold diapers in half or laid them flat and stacked them under my changing table, piled my covers on one another and placed them under the table, or I attached them to the leg of the changing table between the shelves and the top of the table.  My doublers, liners and other diapers were stacked in their own respective piles and placed under the changing table, too. 

This all came to a screeching halt when my daughter learned how to pull herself into a standing position using changing table as support, and would pull handful after handful of clean, nicely folded and stacked diapers onto the floor.  She wouldn’t stop until every diaper was pulled down, and then she proceeded to disperse them throughout the nursery until they were in the spots SHE thought they belonged.  The shelves under the changing table now house toys and stuffed animals.

I tried using drawers in a dresser thinking they would stay secure.  They did – but I couldn’t handle the lack of stacking space and the precise organization that was required in putting my stash away in a few select drawers.  It seemed that my prefolds alone took up almost all the drawer space and everything else was squished together wherever they could be fit. Opening and closing drawers, and trying to find diapers in the eventual mess that would result led me to find another storage system. 

Maybe it’s extravagant, I know a lot of moms who don’t even own a changing table and just keep a selection of diapers throughout the house wherever they happen to change baby.  I like organization though, and I like having one spot to store everything. This storage system didn’t take much to set up, and it makes diaper changes a whole heck of a lot easier.  And best of all?  It’s completely out of my daughter’s reach, and right smack dab in my own reach.  

Supplies I use:

• Two diaper slings (you can find these at www.diaper-storage.com).  If you have more than one child in cloth you may want additional slings for however many size prefold diapers you have.
• Fishing line (string breaks too easily, fishing line seems to be the cheapest, most eye-appealing (it’s almost invisible)  and thinnest)
• Hooks that screw into the wall
• A nail
• Clips, like the potato chip bag clips
• A hanging organization system (the one I have I bought at a garage sale for a buck, but it’s a “Baby’s First Year” organizer you can probably find at Babies R Us.

I use two size prefolds on my daughter – infant and premium (infants are used as doublers at this point when needed).  At the time this article was written, we have a son due soon who will use the infants so I just hung both diaper sizes and store all of my prefold diapers in them.  I fold them in half and stack ‘em on up.  Once my daughter is in toddler prefolds I’ll likely buy or make another diaper hanger to accommodate three sizes. 

In the organizer I stash my doublers, liners, Snappi’s, deodorizers for the diaper pail (when they are used, which is rarely but I keep them with the diaper stuff in case I want to use them), and anything else I may use or want to use.  It’s all within reach.  

I’ve hung fishing line between both diaper slings.  I hang my covers and diapers on that line to keep them readily accessible.  The clips are used for pull up covers and diapers that don’t have fasteners on them, you could also use clothespins.  I used fishing line because it’s durable – I used string previously and it broke within about a week.  

I keep my wipes in an old disposable wipe container box and put the solution in with the wipes so they are ready to use at each diaper change.  The box sits right on the table, or if there is room in your diaper sling, the box can sit on top of your diapers in the hanger.

On the table its self, I normally will put some old receiving blankets or waterproof “lap pads” under the changing pad cover.  This absorbs any accidents that may occur.  When my daughter was an infant I’d also put a blanket or pad up by where her head would lay, under the cover to absorb any drool or spit up. 

What is YOUR diaper changing station like?  Send an e-mail and let me know, and I will add your responses to the article!  E-mail sarah@motherhoodnaturally.com