Wednesday, March 21, 2007

WFMW: Diaper Genie Frugality


OK, this isn't brain surgery but it was one of those gold-nugget, pieces of parenting advice that we received that makes you smack your forehead saying "well, DUH! Why didn't *I* think of that?" LOL

The "diaper pail debates" often rage on the mommy message boards I frequented while pregnant. Which is better Diaper Genie, Diaper Dekor, or some other system? Which contains smells better? Which is easier to use? Which one uses your own bags or fork out money for refills? It was reminiscent of a PC/Mac debate there for a while! LOL But, we did our research when I was pregnant with Flicka and became a Diaper Genie family.

I'm proud to say that after 3 years, we are still using our original one! LOL But, by the time we began using it for Pojke, BOTH kids were still in diapers and the refills were starting to cost us as much as gas each month! *wink* So, a fellow dad (who is a financially-responsible, frugality MASTER!) was commiserating with Da Hubby at work one day and out popped this little piece of advice...

"Oh, yea, we use those but we only put the poopy diapers in it."

And, the clouds parted and the angels sang...

Well, DUH! With a maybe 4-to-1 ratio of pee-to-poop diapers (that's an unscientific study, of course) , the poop diapers fill up the Diaper Genie 4 times slower now. Thus, now requiring less than one refill a month! And, we placed a traditional trash can near the changing area as well and with 4 times more wet-only diapers going in there, that can gets emptied often enough that smells has never been a problem!

Voila - that works for me!

Now, go check out Shannon's site today for what turns out to be 200+ of some of the greatest mommy advice on the planet!

7 comments:

Blog is no more said...

Hmm, diaper days are gone for me, but I remember the smell (ugh). I never was blessed with a diaper Genie, just a trash can that was emptied daily! I always made sure the dirty diapers were dumped in the toilet before disposing them, thus cutting down on the smell even more.

I checked out Shannon's site and they really do have some great tips, thanks Beth!

Kelly Curtis said...

That is such a great tip - and I remember doing exactly the same thing when my kids were babies. We used a diaper genie and were trying to cut down the number of times we had to replace the bags. Excellent tip.

MamaEscandon said...

I don't know why I didn't think of this! We are just starting solid foods... and those poopies are STINKY! Thanks for the tip!

Unashamed said...

We didn't have such a thing as a Diaper Genie (that I know of) when my kids were in diapers. I'm guessing it's a diaper pail of some sort? Is it a magical diaper pail? lol! (Oh, boy. does this make me sound old???)

Anonymous said...

We tried this for a few weeks, but I got tired of my dog shredding peed-in diapers! We had to go back to the genie full time. Our original genie broke, so we bought a DG2. I imagine that you could actually rig it up to use your own bags, if you were creative and all.

Glad it works for you!!

Nikki said...

That is brilliant. It makes a lot of sense. Good post.

Lei said...

Lol. The only time, I do this is when it's time to empty the genie and I have no where else to put them. (smacks head and says duh) I don't know why I didn't think to do it that way all the time!!! Thanks for enlightening me. :)