Service vs Wash at Home

[Angela Bauer]

Ever since disposables for infants became practical in the early 1970s a debate started about the actual cost difference relative to washing cloth diapers.

We never had such a debate in our family because most of the adults were way into hugging trees. Sure, in the summer of 1972, on our return home from Yosemite my youngest sister Missy, not yet toilet trained, came down with a case of the trots. Mom told Dad to pull off the highway and find a supermarket. That was just north of Fresno. Mom and my oldest sister Penny dashed into the store and bought a box of Pampers. Although I had seen TV commercials that Pampers had added sticky tapes, clearly that was an old box, without tapes. Mom held the Pampers on Missy with diaper pins. Mom begged us to keep the secret from the rest of the family.

Granny and Grampa Bremmer lived next door to us, so between us we had two excellent Maytag washers and dryers. Granny had a deal with a store selling Curity gauze diapers. Granny also had an industrial over-lock machine. When diapers started to wear, Granny would over-lock 2 or 3 together to make adult gauze diapers. Gerber had a factory in Michigan making adult as well as infant vinyl panties. Granny ordered adult panties from them by mail.

Those Curity 21x40 classic gauze diapers went on for years. Almost certainly each year the family spent more on vinyl panties. None of us were doing cost accounting.

Flash forward to the Summer of 1981. I had been accepted to pre-law at a university in Upstate New York, 3,000 miles from home. In late July the housing office told me none of the dorms had coin washing machines. I had reverted to bedwetting and wore gauze diapers at home. I don't think the Depend TV commercials had started, but I had read about Attends. My urologist's nurse recommended Attends. I was shocked about the cost! My university scholarship did not pay for Attends. I had to take student jobs.

In May 1991 I was working as an associate attorney with a major law firm. I could afford Attends. Then I fell in love with Don Davis who owned a nice house and Maytag Neptune washer and dryer. I bought adult gauze prefolds and various kinds of vinyl panties, for going to bed. It seemed to save some cash, but washing diapers also took much of my spare time. Don and I married in October 1991. We bought a larger house and hired a housekeeper who washed my diapers.

Over the years we built more homes. We built our current home in late 1996. It has a commercial washer and dryer plus a Neptune set. Our original housekeeper retired. Her replacement only grudgingly washed my night diapers. About 2012 I talked about this with a friend who owns a large infant/juvenile store. It was suggested I talk to DyDee diaper service. Since WWI they have offered both baby and adult cloth diapers. A few months later the housekeeper refused to wash diapers, so I fired her. My current housekeeper has never washed diapers. I thought about hiring a part-time laundry person. Ultimately I opened a DyDee account.

Without considering wear on the washing machines, water, heat and detergent, DyDee costs less than a laundry person. The diapers are cleaner and feel great. I have not bought new cloth diapers sine 2013. Not every community still has diaper services. Probably for some people DyDee might be a luxury. Still, consider the worth of your own spare time.

[rusty pins]

I don't wear all the time and very rarely wear cloth, but I can sure see the point.

[willnotwill]

Diaper services in general have been dying out and ones that handle adult diapers even more so.

[IminWetPampers]

We have a diaper service in my area (Victoria BC) and when I last talked to them they not only had more adult clients than babies but also sold adult diapers and plastic pants made by Kins (the adult section of Babykins). Although I never used the service I have bought all my cloth diapers through them and the owner/operator knows that I'm ab/dl

[rusty pins]

It figures they would have more adult clients for many reasons.

[WBxx]

Sounds good, but afraid the neighbors would talk.

[willnotwill]

Many years ago I lived in Baltimore and we had TWO diaper services that would do adult diapers.

[Soggy Bottom Boy]

I wish that there was a diaper service in my area. The closest is around an hour and a half away and I live outside of their service area. On average I wash around four to six loads of diapers every week. My skin reacts to disposables so I usually wear cloth.