Real Diaper Week! How it All Began! {Cloth 101}

I became interested in cloth diapers when Noah was about 6 months old. A few of my friends were using cloth and it seemed very interesting to me. Plus, money was super tight and I thought that it would be a great way to save some money! But then I started looking online and saw the initial start up costs of cloth diapering and thought there was no way we would be able to do it. But then a friend told me about a local cloth diaper store that did a Trial Program so you could try out different kinds and see if it was something you really wanted to do. 


So I talked to my husband and convinced him that it would save us money in the long run and went to visit the local store! The owner of the store was super helpful and showed me the different types of cloth diapers and how they worked and explained how you wash cloth diapers and answered all of our questions! Then we got to take home one of each kind of cloth diaper (prefolds to AIO) for two weeks to try for only $10! We could then decide what we wanted to keep and use and buy those, and then bring back the ones we didn't want to use! It was so great! 


So what about the initial start up cost? I mean I couldn't keep the trial diapers forever unless I bought them, and I would need more than 2 or 3 to actually save money. So this is what I did. I bought 3 diapers that I liked from the diaper trial. They were fitteds so they weren't the higher priced diapers. I still had to use disposables the majority of the time, but every paycheck I would buy one or two more cloth diapers until I had a full stash! So instead of spending a couple hundred dollars right from the beginning I gradually created my diaper stash and then started saving money once I had enough cloth diapers! 

Noah in his first cloth diaper at 7 months! (A prefold with Thirsties cover)

If you are interested in using cloth diapers I highly suggest you look online for a local retailer! A lot of cloth diaper stores offer trial programs just like the one I did! And even if they don't, if you check out a local store you can see all the different kinds of cloth diapers and have someone answer all your questions in person! 

I'm linking up with The Eco Chic this week for the Real Diaper Week Blog Hop! Come check out all the blog posts and link up too!