Originally, using cloth diapers was a matter of money. Everybody is on a tight budget theses days. When I was pregnant, Hubby thought we could save a few bucks with cloth. (Yes, my husband wanted to use cloth before I did.) Then we crunched the numbers.
We are assuming a box of diapers lasts about a week, and a box of diapers costs about $20. (I'm a coupon girl, and I can usually score some really good deals, but I've never been able to get a box of diapers cheaper than $15.) Also assuming a child will potty train at age 2. There are 52 weeks in a year (104 in two years). Thus:
104 weeks X $15 = $1560 to diaper a child from birth to potty training. *2 years is an average. Most will take longer and keep in mind that you won't be able to get $15 diapers every time, so this number should be higher.*At $20/box, it will cost more than $2000!
Compare that to cloth, using pocket diapers (which are more expensive than PFs, but are the most common choice) at $25 each (most are not that expensive). A two day supply is about 20-25 diapers. 25 diapers X $25= $625 Keep in mind that most pockets are one size, so once you have your stash, you're set.
You could save over $1000 by the time the child is potty trained. If you have more than one child, you've already made the initial investment, so every cloth diaper you use on child #2 is pure savings. That's a savings of $3000 or more with two children! Even with detergent and electricity factored in, that's a huge savings. We use a quilt rack to air dry the diapers, so we don't use the dryer.
Even with the "extras" we've acquired along the way, we've spent less than $500 for everything (including 6 boxes of sposies). We have 1 more size to go with pre-folds and we plan on using cloth training pants, so we'll probably end up spending about $600 total.
While money is our main reason for using cloth diapers, it's not the only one. I've heard stories about "emergency" trips to the store for diapers. We never have that issue. We wash on a schedual, but if we do run low, we can always pop a load in the washer and in less than an hour we have a full stash again.
Another motivation for using cloth is the concern over the chemicals in disposables. The same absorbent materials in diapers used to be in tampons, but were removed because of the connection to TSS. Now, I know that the method of contact is different, but there's something to be said for keeping a toxic material that close to a baby's genitals. Have you every smelled the diaper area at Target? It reeks of chemicals and I'm not comfortable with putting that on my baby's skin 24/7.
The most common reason to use cloth diapers is the environmental impact, but to be honest, even if cloth diapers were just as bad as sposies for the environment (And that argument has been made) I would still use cloth. Eco-friendliness or "going green" is at the very bottom of my list, even below cuteness. (Cloth diapered butts are SO cute!)
I'll admit that we're not cloth purists. My mother in law watches Babyzilla 4 days a week while I'm in class and he wears sposies there. When we visit my mom, she buys a box of diapers, so we don't have to worry about packing them. Every family has to develop their own system that works for them. Many daycares don't use cloth, but baby wears cloth at home. I know a family that uses cloth on the weekends and overnight. In our cloth adventure, we've been all over the spectrum too. It's not something you're locked into. That's why I'm a huge fan of the Change 3 Things Challenge. The idea is that you commit to changing at least 3 dcloth diapers a day. It won't save you thousands of dollars, maybe just a couple hundred, but it's a good place to start. Many people find themselves changing more than that. I'll give you fair warning though: Cloth diapers are highly addictive! :)
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