I'm writing this out because people always ask about what is best and why. 
I started out wanting my diapers to be cheap so we tried prefolds and Kissaluvs contours. My husband hated prefolds and could never get the hang of them so we bought some Swaddlebees size small and we made do with them and the Kissaluvs contours. Oh, and we had a couple BG3.0 and Happy Heinys. She grew really fast so we bought more Kissaluvs contours in the next size and new covers. My husband started carping about dealing with the snappi though because she was always so wiggly. I started buying more one size diapers: Swaddlebees, Baby Kanga, and WAHMies. At this point we probably had about twelve pocket diapers so we still used a lot of the contours. The m/l contours stopped fitting her well around seven months old and we switched to Kissaluvs fitteds.
Now that she is eleven months old we have gotten to the point where my husband refuses to use the fitteds/covers and will only change diapers if there are pockets clean. He has no problem whatsoever doing ALL of the diaper changes if he is home as long as there are pockets. Our daughter screams, cries, kicks, and tries her best to get away from diaper changes so I can see why he is not thrilled with something that takes two steps.
So I finally gave in and bought more pockets. We have some Swaddlebees size large (perfectly reasonable diapers but they take for-freakin-ever to dry), some Swaddlebees one size (also called Econnapi--these are great), one GAD size large because it was So Cute (works pretty well and dries faster than the Swaddlebees AIOs) Baby Kangas (not my favorites--the zippers aren't holding up well at all), one size Fuzzi Bunz (I really really like these so far), one size Happy Heinys with aplix (not my favorite) and snaps (so far these are great), BG 3.0 (not a bad diaper but the aplix is wearing out after 11 months of use), One shell and three stuffers for a Gro-Baby system (don't have enough experience yet to have a strong opinion), Soft Bums one size (I'm nervous about the elastic in the legs holding strong but no problems so far), and Rumparooz one size (not a problem so far).
I have sold the Kissaluvs off because I won't be trying to use them again. I have reached the conclusion that snaps are awesome and aplix is not my friend. Snaps are way easier to use on a squirmy kid. I like the one size pockets better than the AIOs because they dry really fast. I have had zero problem with smell. I have a front loading HE washer. I do a cold wash with 7th Generation non-scented liquid detergent and vinegar in the bleach/fabric softener slots and a hot wash with Nellie's All Natural. I find that using one kind of detergent exclusively seems to increase build up. I have never stripped a diaper but I do occasionally need to run a hot wash with no detergent. I do that approximately every four months so not often.
So, how have other peoples preferences/routines morphed? I didn't realize when I started this how much of my brain and time this was going to take up.
I started out wanting my diapers to be cheap so we tried prefolds and Kissaluvs contours. My husband hated prefolds and could never get the hang of them so we bought some Swaddlebees size small and we made do with them and the Kissaluvs contours. Oh, and we had a couple BG3.0 and Happy Heinys. She grew really fast so we bought more Kissaluvs contours in the next size and new covers. My husband started carping about dealing with the snappi though because she was always so wiggly. I started buying more one size diapers: Swaddlebees, Baby Kanga, and WAHMies. At this point we probably had about twelve pocket diapers so we still used a lot of the contours. The m/l contours stopped fitting her well around seven months old and we switched to Kissaluvs fitteds.
Now that she is eleven months old we have gotten to the point where my husband refuses to use the fitteds/covers and will only change diapers if there are pockets clean. He has no problem whatsoever doing ALL of the diaper changes if he is home as long as there are pockets. Our daughter screams, cries, kicks, and tries her best to get away from diaper changes so I can see why he is not thrilled with something that takes two steps.
So I finally gave in and bought more pockets. We have some Swaddlebees size large (perfectly reasonable diapers but they take for-freakin-ever to dry), some Swaddlebees one size (also called Econnapi--these are great), one GAD size large because it was So Cute (works pretty well and dries faster than the Swaddlebees AIOs) Baby Kangas (not my favorites--the zippers aren't holding up well at all), one size Fuzzi Bunz (I really really like these so far), one size Happy Heinys with aplix (not my favorite) and snaps (so far these are great), BG 3.0 (not a bad diaper but the aplix is wearing out after 11 months of use), One shell and three stuffers for a Gro-Baby system (don't have enough experience yet to have a strong opinion), Soft Bums one size (I'm nervous about the elastic in the legs holding strong but no problems so far), and Rumparooz one size (not a problem so far).
I have sold the Kissaluvs off because I won't be trying to use them again. I have reached the conclusion that snaps are awesome and aplix is not my friend. Snaps are way easier to use on a squirmy kid. I like the one size pockets better than the AIOs because they dry really fast. I have had zero problem with smell. I have a front loading HE washer. I do a cold wash with 7th Generation non-scented liquid detergent and vinegar in the bleach/fabric softener slots and a hot wash with Nellie's All Natural. I find that using one kind of detergent exclusively seems to increase build up. I have never stripped a diaper but I do occasionally need to run a hot wash with no detergent. I do that approximately every four months so not often.
So, how have other peoples preferences/routines morphed? I didn't realize when I started this how much of my brain and time this was going to take up.
