Have you bought cloth diapers on eBay?

It's worked out okay for me. We ended up with half fuzzibunz and half cheap ones, and you're right, there isn't a lot of difference in performance. A friend of mine finished cloth diapering and gave me some of hers - she was using flats that you fold and some prefolds with covers. These are working out okay _ I never did buy a lot of diapers as we are economizing - so this means I can go a lot longer without doing diaper laundry. The only problem is that my husband "can't do the flatfolds", so he just used the pocket diapers.

I'm finding the stains more of an issue now with the pocket diapers. I'm still not sure what to do. I do find the flats are easier to wash and it's nice that you can throw them in the dryer and the covers dry pretty quickly even when hung inside. I would never have tried it if my friend hadn't given them to me and showed me how to do it, so I'm feeling pretty grateful.

I love flats with covers, we use them usually on rainy days when it's harder to get the pocket diapers dry. Besides, the flats and covers are way easier to wash and getting the stains out are a breeze. The only thing I don't like about them is that they don't have that stay-dry feeling that pockets with microfleece inner lining has.

Fuzzibunz, Bumgenius, and a bunch of other brands only started, in the 1990s, I think, so if you're kids are grown up and out, you wouldn't have encountered them even if you lived in North America. Pocket diapers are a lot like disposable diapers in shape. They can have velcro closures like disposables or they have snaps. They have an outer layer that is waterproof and an innerlayer that is microfleece. There is a slit in the inner layer so you can put an insert (of some absorbent material) into them, so that is why they are called pockets. flats are just flat pieces of fabric that you fold up and pin to the baby. I assume that is what you'd be familiar with because that is what most people think of when they think of cloth diapers (or nappies). I know my cousin's husband refused to use cloth diapers because that was what he thought they were. When he found out about my son's pocket diapers he said he would have done cloth if he'd known about them. ('course, he's not the one doing the laundry ;) ). My parents and aunts and uncles all assumed that is what we were using because that is what they used for my older cousins. (My dad is scared that we'll leave our toddler at his house with only him home to change diapers).

I guess once you're used to disposables, it's hard to think about switching. It is an extra load of laundry, I guess with 3 kids, you just don't want more. I know with my one child, I end up with 2 loads of laundry each day between diapers, clothes, and linens. I'm just waiting on my diapers. I'm also going to end up buying a few more of the more expensive ones form the store, based on what's available on eBay. The expensive name brands, with shipping, end up costing more than they do in the store or from the brand's website, plus my husband likes the colours better. He likes solid bright colours as opposed to the pastels.