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If you’re looking for ideas or inspiration on packing your diaper bag with cloth diapers, you’ve come to the right place.
The Cloth Diaper Dilemma
A small disadvantage of cloth diapers is the amount of space that they take up. Cloth diapers are bulkier than disposable diapers, so they take up a significant amount of space in the diaper bag. I’ve figured out what works perfectly for us, but your perfect solution will likely be different. This is just to give you an idea of how we do it.
Side note: we use covers and flats, so that is what you will be seeing here. You can learn more about that in this article:
Folding the Diaper Flats
I fold our flats into a long rectangle shape because we just lay the flat folded onto the diaper cover.
I just fold in half. Fold in half the other way. Fold into thirds. (See graphic below). This is how the flat will be used, but I fold it in half one more time for easy storage.
Once folded in half one more time, the flour sack towels (or flats) look like the image below.
Cloth Diaper Bag – The Inside
We have an inexpensive diaper backpack that is pretty tall. I stack the folded flats straight up.
On the left or right of the flats, I pack a wipe container filled with wipes of course. (I usually just use disposable wipes while we are out and about because we don’t go through a lot of wipes. But, I can always pack cloth wipes in there as well.)
I like to roll each diaper cover into itself so each cover is nicely contained. Next, I pack the diaper covers beside the wipe container. I like to pack them “standing up” so I can see what color options I have.
Our changing pad gets packed in the back of the diaper bag as well as a wet bag towards the front. This is the changing pad I use and love. It came with the wipe container as well.
In the inner side pockets, I include an outfit change for my daughter, and my wallet in the opposite pocket.
On top of all of that, I throw in the nursing cover (not pictured).
The only thing I have to pack regularly is just the flats, covers, and wet bag. The rest stays in the diaper bag for the most part.
Cloth Diaper Bag – The Outside
In the outer side pockets, I like to pack my phone, keys, water bottle, and a straw cup for my daughter.
The front zipper pocket usually contains random items. It’s like my junk drawer for my diaper bag. I need to clean that up. The front zipper pocket has three insulated pouches perfect for bottles. (We didn’t actually use bottles with my daughter, but if we had, it would have been perfect.)
So, that’s the basics of how we pack our diaper bag with cloth diapers.
FAQ:
Q: How many diapers should I pack?
A: I am an over packer by nature, so I usually pack one flat per hour we plan to be gone. You know your child best. I usually pack about three covers, more if they’ll fit.
Q: Why use disposable wipes?
A: We use cloth wipes at home. Cloth would be pretty easy out and about too, but we go through so few wipes it’s usually easier just to keep our wipe container filled with disposable wipes. We actually wash and reuse the disposable wipes anyways. We use WaterWipes for the diaper bag.
Q: Why use a diaper backpack?
A: There are three main reasons I chose this bag.
- It was inexpensive.
- A backpack allows my hands to stay free for juggling a child/car keys/etc.
- Because it doesn’t look girly, my husband will carry it too.
This backpack is an inexpensive option, but I really like it. At first, I wasn’t sure if I would like the tallness of it. But, the top opens up nice and wide, and I just learned to pack it up instead of across. It works really well for us and didn’t cost a fortune. I’ve seen some amazing diaper bags that do cost a lot. I’m sure they are wonderful, but it wasn’t a priority for us at that time.
As far as durability, the backpack has held up extremely well. I expect it to last for many years to come. The zippers have always worked great, too! No sticky zippers here.
Do you have any questions about diaper bags or cloth diapers in general? Drop a comment or question below!