We've been cloth diapering since my DD was 6 weeks old, and we just bought some more diapers for when this new baby comes along as they will both be in diapers for probably at least a year. My sister gave me 24 BumGenious pocket diapers that she used for all three of her kids. I found that was just enough so that I did one load of laundry every other day. I just bought an additional 24 Bamboo Baby all in one diapers second hand for $50. Now that we have 48 diapers and only 1 child in them I can go 4-5 days without doing a load of wash. If you really want to save money, then I strongly recommend buying second hand. Some people think it's gross, but you can strip wash them back to brand new condition (from a cleanliness perspective) and your baby is just going to pee and poop in them anyways! You can do a strip wash at home for about $5. We will have diapered 2 babies for $50 which I think it pretty awesome. We also use cloth wipes, I figured if I was already going to be washing diapers I might as well do the wipes too. I bought some off amazon (I think it was like $8 for a package of 25), and I also just cut up some cheap baby blankets that were gifted to us but we never used. We have a little spray bottle of water on the change table and we just give her a spray and then wipe her down with the cloth wipe which goes into the dirty bucket with the dirty diapers.
Downsides would be that it takes longer to change a diaper I guess. We keep the diapers and dirty diaper bucket in DD's bedroom, so when she needs to be changed we have to take her down to her room. My sister thinks this would be a massive inconvenience but it has never bothered us, it's all we've really known. It also takes longer to change a poop diaper because you have to rinse it out instead of just chucking it in the garbage. Also if baby needs to be changed while you are out of the house you then have to carry a wet or poopy diaper around with you until you get home. I have a wet bag in the diaper bag for this reason, and it really traps the smell in so you can't smell that I have a poopy diaper in my bag. Some people use cloth diapers when at home, but disposable diapers when they leave the house to avoid this issue. We send DD to daycare with cloth diapers and the daycare provider was hesitant at first because she thought the poopy diapers would stink up the room, but she said you can't smell them at all. We don't ask her to rinse them out or anything, she just puts them straight into the wet bag and my OH deals with them when he gets home (he's the one who picks her up from daycare). That's all I can really think of for downsides.
Advantages are many, first there's obviously the cost savings. We have a well so we don't pay for the water to wash them, and we hang dry them outside whenever the weather is warm enough. Through the winter we either use the dryer machine or hang them to dry inside. Usually we put the all in one diapers and the inserts for the pocket diapers in the dryer and hang dry the pocket diaper shells. Hanging the diapers in the sun gets out any poop stains which is another reason to line dry if possible. We have way fewer poop explosions and leaks in cloth diapers as compared to when we use disposables (like when we go on vacation). She is WAY less stinky when she poops in a cloth diaper. I have no idea why, but disposable diapers seem to really amplify the stench of poop. We never have to worry about running out of diapers or going to the store at weird hours of the night to get more. DD doesn't get diaper rashes (aside from one super acidic poop that scalded her) and we don't have to spend money on rash creams.
Honestly, changing poopy cloth diapers is not my favourite thing to do, but it's 5 minutes out of my day so really isn't a big deal. Everyone finds their own way that works for them. You can get a sprayer attachment for your toilet so you spray the diapers out into the toilet to flush the poop down. Other people buy the flushable liners that sit in the diapers so you just pick up the liners containing the poop and flush that down the toilet. We have a little spatula thingy in the bathroom that we use to scrape the poop off into the toilet, then we take the diaper to the laundry sink to rinse it out. The sink has a built in scrub board on the inside of it so we give the diaper a scrub, ring out the water, and then put the diaper into a bucket ready to go in the wash with the next load of diapers. Then we give the spatula a wash and put it back in the bathroom ready for the next poopy diaper. Breastmilk poop is water soluble and liquid so it doesn't even need to be scraped down the toilet, it can just be washed straight down the sink (or put straight into the washing machine). It's only when they start solids that the poop gets stinky and more of a pain to deal with. When DD was a little baby we would just put her down in her crib while we rinsed out her diaper, now she is old enough to walk around and play with her toys while we are dealing with her mess.
It really sucks that your OH isn't on board. I would have still used the cloth even if my OH didn't want to, but it sure is nice to not be the only one with the responsibility of it all. When I was on maternity leave I almost always washed the diapers because I was home all day, but now that I am back at work I would say my OH does more diaper washes than I do.
Fluff Love University has so much great info about diapers and washing them and troubleshooting. Check them out at https://www.fluffloveuniversity.com.
While baby's are on liquid only diet, the poop is pretty much liquid too! I just used to rinse (either in a bucket or the machine) then do a normal wash with bicarb soda (no detergent). Super easy. Probably had to do a wash every other day with a new born but now with my 3yo I wash twice a week. I try to line dry because using the dryer is expensive, damages the nappies and kind of offsets the environmentally friendly aspect in my mind.
I'll probably strip them with the funkrock when I purchase them just to make me feel safe that they're clean lol
