Where do I start?
Many people get overwhelmed by all the different kinds and brands of cloth diapers, and there are a lot!! The easiest way to do it is to either get a few of each kind (just 1 is enough), or to do a trial, such as Jillian's Drawers (I did not do a trial).
I shopped on Spots Corner on Hyena Cart, Craigslist, and Ebay for used diapers. I found good deals for new diapers online. I slowly built my stash during my pregnancy, and I ended up going a bit overboard. Cloth diapering can save you money in the long run. The best advice I have is to not invest a lot of money all in one kind of diaper. Each baby has a different fit that works best for them. Other people may rave about a certain kind of diaper - you may hate the fit on your baby.
I had enough prefolds and then had a few of each of the other types to sample and try them out. I still have a ton of different kinds because I like them all. I have prefolds for at home, AI2s for out and about, pockets and AIOs for daycare, as well as for out and about.
How many do you need? To wash every 2-3 days, you'll want 12-18 diapers per day for a newborn. So 36 is a good number for newborn diapers. You'll need slightly less as baby gets older. This is why prefolds are so great for the newborn stage, they are so cheap!
Washing Your Diapers:
Cloth diapering laundry will be a bit of a trial and error for most everyone, since everyone's water is different depending on where you live, but a few things are the same for everyone.
We put dirty/soiled cloth diapers right into either a wetbag (no water inside, it's just what it's called), or a pail with a pail liner. We wash every 2-3 days, depending on our schedule. Wash day I bring everything to the laundry room and dump out the bags into the washer and toss them in, too. Then I do a hot prewash (cold is good, but we were having stink issues), then a hot wash/cold rinse with cloth diaper detergent, and then an extra cold rinse.
Once they are done washing, I hang the pail liner, wetbags, and anything with snaps, elastic, or a waterproof layer either on the clothesline or drying rack, and everything else goes in the dryer with dryer balls. You want to avoid fabric softeners!! They leave a residue on your diapers that will cause repelling.
I started using Rockin Green cloth diaper detergent, but we ended up with ammonia stink issues. I recently switched to Tide Ultra and it's working well. Just use less than the lowest line for your diapers. It will probably be different for you, though, because everyone has such different water, washers, etc.
Diapering Accessories
There are lots of accessories for cloth diapering, some necessities, some are just nice to have. Here are the things I've found helpful so far:
-Pail liner (two of them so you have one clean to put in the pail while the other is in the wash, mine are Planetwise brand)
-Pail (I use a plastic step-lid kitchen pail from Target).
-Snappi (at least 2-3 - we are always temporarily misplacing these!)
-XL hanging wetbag (we have 2, we use the pail upstairs and the XL wetbag downstairs)
-2 medium/large hanging wetbags (these are for daycare. I have two because I sometimes work two days in a row)
-1 small/medium wetbag - great for the diaper bag
-2 small wetbags - these are our "poop" wetbags. If we are out and about and the baby poops, I put it in a separate wetbag so that I'm not greeted by the smell every time I open the bag to put a new dirty diaper into! (this is purely a nice thing to have)
-Wool Dryer balls - these are awesome to have in the dryer, they lessen drying time for diapers and other loads of laundry since you don't use dryer softener sheets.
-Clothesline for outside drying when the weather is nice
-Drying rack for inside drying when its cold or raining outside
-A diaper spray for once baby starts solids and you'll need to spray them prior to washing
-Spray bottle for wipe solution if you are going to use cloth wipes
-Cloth wipes
-Cloth friendly diaper cream - I like CJs BUTTer (available online)
-Cloth friendly diaper detergent - here's a link to a good detergent chart
