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.
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!
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:
- Lay the whole thing out flat.
- Pull in every corner so that you are left with a perfect square.
- Lay an old pre-fold, towel, or insert down the center of the towel.
- 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.
Cute right?!?
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!
Kate
February 5, 2014 at 2:27 pm (11 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.
Lauren Souers
February 5, 2014 at 8:55 pm (11 years ago)Haha Kate! Come on over anytime…I’m changing cloth diapers all day every day around here. 🙂
Julie
May 14, 2014 at 4:32 am (11 years ago)What is holding the diaper on? I always hated diaper pins!
Lauren Souers
May 14, 2014 at 6:14 am (11 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.
Kelly
January 2, 2015 at 12:58 pm (10 years ago)Actually, Snappi was invented by a DAD!
Lauren Souers
January 3, 2015 at 10:13 pm (10 years ago)Well good for that daddy 🙂 Who would’ve thought??
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.
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!
alice jackson
April 3, 2015 at 9:19 am (10 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
Lauren Souers
April 3, 2015 at 1:25 pm (10 years ago)I wish I had always known about the flour sack towels! They really do work well.
Doris
April 4, 2015 at 11:20 am (10 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.
Lauren Souers
April 5, 2015 at 8:23 pm (10 years ago)I feel the same way…it’s either disposable diapers or food for my family, not both. Ha!
newMomma
April 9, 2015 at 7:39 am (10 years ago)any suggestions for websites, stores and brands of diaper liners?
Lauren Souers
April 9, 2015 at 7:45 pm (10 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.
B
May 31, 2016 at 9:42 pm (9 years ago)I often used small receiving blankets. They were soft and absorbent, and lasted longer size wise as a diaper… ( years ag)
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.
Mary Norris
February 17, 2017 at 6:52 pm (8 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.
Kristy Callaway
October 25, 2017 at 6:46 am (7 years ago)Does the FST replace a cover or do you still put a cover over it?