A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

Three words that rocked my cloth diapering world: FLOUR SACK TOWELS

If cloth diapers are like coupons, then using flour sack towels is like triple coupon day.  In other words, I thought I was saving a lot of money by using traditional pre-fold cloth diapers.  But I could have been saving a lot of money times 10 if I had been using flour sack towels this whole time. I could have saved more money at my kids isas.

Recently, a sweet friend and fellow cloth diaper-er told me about using flour sack towels.  She said that they are really thin towels that you can buy at WalMart, and they work great as a cloth diaper paired with any type of liner.

A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

So I bought a few packs and decided to try it out.

At this point, I’m going to break down the price difference for you:

  • A 5-pack of flour sack towels from WalMart:  $5.00
  • A dozen pre-folds from Green Mountain Diapers (including shipping):  $45.00

Already you can see that these flour sack towels might be the better option.

Now for the big question…did they work?

Yes Yes Yes!

I paired the towel with an old cloth diaper that had begun to shred, and it actually out-performed my expensive pre-folds!

A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

This is an old shredded cloth diaper that I use in the middle of the flour sack towel. So, don’t throw away your shredded pre-folds!

 

I also want to save you the trouble I went through figuring out how to fold these gigantic towels.  It took me the better part of a day folding, twisting, layering, and cussing (not really) to finally come up with a workable fold.

And once I discovered it, these towels worked great!

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Lay the whole thing out flat.A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper
  2. Pull in every corner so that you are left with a perfect square.A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper
  3. Lay an old pre-fold, towel, or insert down the center of the towel.A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper
  4. Now lay your baby on the diaper and fold it all up like you would a pre-fold.  I have a video on how to do this.
    A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

    Cute right?!?

    A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

    Nothing more precious than a baby’s bottom inside a cloth diaper. 🙂

Flour sack towels…who would’ve thought?!?

They work great and literally save me tons of money on my already-saving-me-tons-of-money cloth diapers…it’s like saving money squared!  🙂

Any other revolutionary cloth diapering tactics out there?  Would love to hear!

Lauren Souers
Hi, my name is Lauren. I am the wife of one fine man and the momma of four (huge) young children – three boys and one princess! I love all of them. I mostly clean up messes and feed people all day, and it’s really fun to write about it. Jesus is the rock of my family – we love and serve a mighty King! I hope you leave here full of hope that “tired” can be good.

18 Comments on A Cheaper Way to Cloth Diaper

  1. Kate
    February 5, 2014 at 2:27 pm (10 years ago)

    Sometime imma have to come learn how to change a kid that wears cloth diapers. More and more mommies are doing this, and I literally have never changed a cloth diaper. like ever. and this is what mommies did for centuries before we started making disposable everything.

    Reply
    • Lauren Souers
      February 5, 2014 at 8:55 pm (10 years ago)

      Haha Kate! Come on over anytime…I’m changing cloth diapers all day every day around here. 🙂

      Reply
  2. Julie
    May 14, 2014 at 4:32 am (10 years ago)

    What is holding the diaper on? I always hated diaper pins!

    Reply
    • Lauren Souers
      May 14, 2014 at 6:14 am (10 years ago)

      Great question!
      I hold it all together with a Snappi. Whoever invented this (it must be a mom) is brilliant! It is a stretchy band with small hooks at each end; it holds the diaper together really well. You can buy them online…I believe they’re around $6 for 2.

      Reply
      • Kelly
        January 2, 2015 at 12:58 pm (9 years ago)

        Actually, Snappi was invented by a DAD!

        Reply
        • Lauren Souers
          January 3, 2015 at 10:13 pm (9 years ago)

          Well good for that daddy 🙂 Who would’ve thought??

          Reply
  3. Sherri Martinez
    June 30, 2014 at 11:15 am (10 years ago)

    I’ve been cloth diapering for a little over a year. I went the Flips and cover route with a few prefolds. I’ve always wanted to try flour sacks. Can you use them without the prefold in the middle? Would love to try this out soon. Happy Cloth Diapering… I need to get more posts up on my blog about cloth diapering… I love it.

    Reply
    • Lauren Souers
      June 30, 2014 at 12:01 pm (10 years ago)

      Hi Sherri!

      I’ve never used a flour sack towel without a liner down the middle, but I would imagine if you didn’t use a liner would only work on a very light wetter or if you changed it very often since they are so thin. But with a prefold liner down the middle, they work great!

      Reply
      • alice jackson
        April 3, 2015 at 9:19 am (9 years ago)

        I am a retired clother diaper mommy (now grandmomma) When we used the cloth diapers I did have some that were thin (like the flour sack) just double them they work great

        Reply
        • Lauren Souers
          April 3, 2015 at 1:25 pm (9 years ago)

          I wish I had always known about the flour sack towels! They really do work well.

          Reply
      • Doris
        April 4, 2015 at 11:20 am (9 years ago)

        I used cloth diapers for my children as disposals were just coming on the market and if you used them you couldn’t buy food (joke). I folded my diapers as the prefolded ones did so didn’t have the problem and they stayed in place very well.

        Reply
        • Lauren Souers
          April 5, 2015 at 8:23 pm (9 years ago)

          I feel the same way…it’s either disposable diapers or food for my family, not both. Ha!

          Reply
  4. newMomma
    April 9, 2015 at 7:39 am (9 years ago)

    any suggestions for websites, stores and brands of diaper liners?

    Reply
    • Lauren Souers
      April 9, 2015 at 7:45 pm (9 years ago)

      Yes! GreenMountainDiapers.com has some of the best prices and a good selection of everything that I personally use. I love their pre-folds…they last forever and are super absorbent. I highly recommend the Thirsties brand for covers – there is nothing better.

      Reply
  5. B
    May 31, 2016 at 9:42 pm (8 years ago)

    I often used small receiving blankets. They were soft and absorbent, and lasted longer size wise as a diaper… ( years ag)

    Reply
    • Lauren Souers
      June 11, 2016 at 9:09 pm (8 years ago)

      That’s a good idea! The only down side to the flour sack towels is how quickly they rip.

      Reply
  6. Mary Norris
    February 17, 2017 at 6:52 pm (7 years ago)

    I am from the pre-Pampers era, and cloth diapers were dried outdoors after laundering, yet! So occasionally there was a gap between a wet baby and dry diapers, and in a pinch you can always use a clean dry dishtowel or bathtowel. Whatever works, you know.

    Reply
  7. Kristy Callaway
    October 25, 2017 at 6:46 am (6 years ago)

    Does the FST replace a cover or do you still put a cover over it?

    Reply

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