What would you look for in a diaper service?

[iris5426]

(mods please move if this should be somewhere else!)

Hi mamas

We CD in our house, using prefolds and covers from Blueberry diapers mostly, although we also have a few pocket/AIO's from Blueberry as well.

DH and I have been talking and are thinking about starting a diaper service here in Pittsburgh because there isn't one at all! So, I am wondering what you CDing mamas would look for in the ideal diaper service.

I know we will try to be as eco-friendly as possible and would definitely offer prefolds (possibly only organic?). Would it be good to also offer the covers as a part of the service? Should we also look at offering pockets or AIO's? What about wetbags, diaper pails etc? Weekly pickup or more often?

With the little research I've done I think the only way to be able to use truly green products would be to start with new diapers for each client and return only those specific diapers to them each time (no cross contamination). Is that ridiculous or would it be something worth doing?

Having never had any experience with a diaper service personally, I need all the input I can get!!

TIA!!

[Pinoikoi]

We suddenly have a BOOM of diaper services around here.. the one that seemed head and shoulders above the rest.. offered natural cleaning processes.. they do this by returning the same diapers to each specific household (no germs get mingled up).. they also washed covers (which they have thirsties instock and something else- can't remember) and will wash people's personal stashes (fitteds or whatever) for a discounted price. I was surprised by that one.. a bit.

[iris5426]

Originally Posted by Pinoikoi

We suddenly have a BOOM of diaper services around here.. the one that seemed head and shoulders above the rest.. offered natural cleaning processes.. they do this by returning the same diapers to each specific household (no germs get mingled up).. they also washed covers (which they have thirsties instock and something else- can't remember) and will wash people's personal stashes (fitteds or whatever) for a discounted price. I was surprised by that one.. a bit.

Thanks! I feel like washing covers as part of the service makes sense. Washing personal stashes is a good idea too, I think people would like that option...I wonder about liability for them though.

[JessieBird]

It was hard for me to decide between getting my own stash and going with a service. In then end, the thing that turned me off of using a service was energy efficiency & sewage treatment in the washing process. At home, my electricity source is much cleaner (hydro vs coal generated) and so is my water treatment (high-tech septic vs an ancient system that is notorious for dumping raw sewage in a nearby river). It's just a matter of where I live, a different municipality than the nearby big city that the services are all located in.

In case these factors play into your potential consumers' decision making, it might be worth looking into how you can make your processes as energy efficient with the smallest footprint possible as a way to distinguish yourself from the competitors.

I should say though that none of my friends that I've spoken to about this stuff have ever considered this aspect of service vs home so maybe I'm just weird! They really only thought about sposie vs cloth and then, once the cloth decision was made, it came down to convenience and cost and that's about it. I'd suggest that you find a way to survey actual potential customers in your area about what is important to them.

Good luck!! It's a great idea. All of the services I talked to were run by parents and they all sounded really happy about being in the business.