I recently came across a blog post from Really Rachel about her ongoing nappy debate and conversion to washable nappies.   I’ve been using cloth nappies for 5 years now (well not myself obviously, but on the littl’uns) and one of my bugbears is how disposable nappy users always point out that disposables are so much more ‘convenient’.  As Rachel found out for herself, they’re only convenient if you always have access to somewhere selling them and never run out.  If you’ve run out of nappies and have no way of getting to the shop to get some more, then they’re highly inconvenient!

Sure, it’s convenient to be able to wrap up a stinky poo and chuck it in the bin, never to be seen again (just don’t think about it rotting SLOWLY away in your local landfill site.  Nice.)  But it’s not that much harder to flick poo off a cloth nappy, into the toilet and flush it away!

When you’re out and about the only minor inconvenience about using washable nappies is that you’ve to bring them home.  Most modern cloth nappies (like my lovely Itti Bitti’s) have a popper or velcro closure which keeps the soiled nappy closed and makes it easy to transport home for washing.  Even on occasions when I’ve forgotten my wet nappy bag, I’ve been able to throw the dirty nappy straight into my bag until I got home, with no problems.

Itti Bitti Bum

It does take a little more planning to use washable nappies successfully in that you have to get a bit more organised in terms of washing (and drying) your nappies, but once you get into a routine of doing so, it becomes much easier.

In fact the only time that I can see that the ‘convenience’ of disposable nappies wins is when you’re on holiday and don’t have access to washing / drying facilities.  Even then though you’ve still got to either lug your disposable nappies away with you (and if you’re going for 2 weeks, that’s quite a lot of nappies).  Or you need to find somewhere locally that sells them.