Are Family Cloths worth it once the babe is out of dipes?

[sosurreal09]

FC is great no issues with it but I always did a load of dipes every 2/3 days so it made sense. DD is just about out of dipes now and I am wondering if it is really worth it to wash FC every 2/3 days. Wouldn't that be just as environmentally wasteful?

Should I just stock up on more so we wash them once a week or something? What did YOU do?

[crunchy_mommy]

Well DS is still in diapers so we're not there yet but I am curious about the responses! I wonder if it would start to really smell if you only washed once a week? Maybe you'd need to switch to a wet bucket system or something? I have no idea... but curious to see what everyone says!

[grethel]

I've been wondering how to make this work too ... DD will be out of diapers in not too long and it does seem a little wasteful to wash such a small load alone.

[mollipop]

I made family cloth out of cut-up Freecycled t-shirts. Wal-Mart has a little flip-lid trash can for $5. I made a liner for the can with the body of one of the tees- sewed the cut end shut and used the bottom hem to run a shoelace through as a drawstring. I have enough FC to last a week and I wash it in hot with the whites. (We do not use for bowel movements so not as mush issue with sterilizing. Still cuts way down on TP usage.). When wash time rolls around, all I do is pull out the bag, tie it shut and toss it in with the whites. For drying, I untie the bag and dump them in with the rest of the socks and undies so they dry better. HTH

sarah 

[swd12422]

I throw them in with the bath towels once a week. Sometimes I just do a hot wash, others I do a "diaper wash" (cold rinse w/ vinegar or Dawn, hot wash w/ soap, cold rinse) since the towels seem to benefit from that now and then too.