While I like the idea of a changing table, we rarely use one. In fact, we didn’t even bother setting up a changing table at all for our 3rd baby. Changing tables are like high chairs – they look cute and you want one in theory. In reality, they’re just space hogs and a
Photo Courtesy of Thinking About Cloth Diapers. http;/;www.thinking-about-cloth-diapers.com
portable feeding chair will ultimately save space and money.
The changing table, with diapers, cream, and cloth wipes all stored in one central place, became even more impractical when we moved to a two story house and our children started sharing rooms. If I’m helping an older child or in the middle of making dinner upstairs and the changing table is downstairs, I’m likely to just pull out the changing pad and create a makeshift space on the floor. If I’m up to nurse baby in the middle of the night, I usually head to a rocking chair in the family room. Baby often needs a change first and it’s unlikely that I’ll make my way to to a changing table in the dark.
So, what does our family do instead? We store cloth diapers in simple plastic storage drawers in a central location. We then create convenient mini diaper changing stations throughout the house. This is generally a simple basket or cute storage bin with a few diaper changing essentials. These portable diaper changing stations fit neatly in a corner or on a shelf and are ready when when – and where – we need them.
How to Create Portable Changing Stations
Photo Courtesy of Cloth Diaper Revival. http://www.clothdiaperrevival.com
Step 1: Identify storage areas. This might be a living room, master bedroom, toy room, or even family bathroom.
Step 2: Find portable storage solutions that blend with your decor or fit discreetly in a corner or on a shelf; such as cloth covered baskets, wire bins, toy boxes, or hanging shoe racks. If your solution has handles, even better!
Step 3: Set up your portable changing stations with necessities. Your chosen diaper style will determine your needs, but I like to include 3 to 4 diapers, a wet bag, cloth safe diaper cream, cloth wipes, and a mini spray bottle with plain water or cloth diaper wipes solution.
If your child is older and easily distracted, you might even include a small toy to keep her entertained. Don’t forget to keep a wet bag in your bathrooms for soiled diaper changes – you won’t be keeping these in your travel stations.
Step 4: On wash day, simply collect your wet bags, toss diapers in the wash, then refill your bins with diapers and
Picture courtesy of Modern Cloth Mama. http://modernclothmomma.blogspot.com
wipes.
This might take a few extra steps beyond simply keeping your stash in one place, but I promise it’s worth it, saving stubbed toes in the dark, burnt meals, and interrupted conversations.
Our family is traveling and everyone is currently potty trained until our new baby arrives in October, so I asked a few blogging friends to provide photos of some portable storage solutions. Thank you Celeste at Thinking About Cloth Diapers, Christine at Modern Cloth Mama, and Jenny at Cloth Diaper Revival for sharing your storage solutions!
This post is part of the Kelly’s Closet Tips, Tricks, and Cloth Diaper Hacks Event, with a chance to win $100 Gift Certificate! Be sure to visit the other participating bloggers for great tips and use the form below to enter. Good luck!
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I’m not sure why I never thought of doing this. My husband gets irritated that we have a changing table but it doesn’t get used for diaper changes. Since I use the couch most often, I tend to leave diapers on the couch to grab instead of outting them in the drawers. And it means I can never find the rash cream! Now I need to get a cute little basket to try this out!
I never really thought of having a changing station since we’re all over the place, but it makes sense to have everything in one spot no matter where you’re at.
Setting up portable changing stations was super helpful…we don’t have a changing table & I’m always changing our kiddos somewhere different in the house depending on what we’re doing.
I agree completely! Our changing tank rarely got used. The baby we’re expecting now is our first to be cloth diapered. Glad to know I can use my “satellite diapering station” (what I call it) with my new LO.
This post was very helpful! I never thought of putting changing stations around the house. And it eliminates having to take the diapers to one large wet bag after the change. I love this idea!
I never thought of wetbags in various places! I tried to make portable changnig stations but always got annoyed by running dirties back to my bin… Great idea!
We only use our portable changing station. 1 year old is too wiggly to be on a high serface for diaper changes. Plus the portable changing station allows us to go to her instead of forcing her to be somewhere she doesn’t want to be.
Love this idea. Never really use changing tables at all. But don’t always have diapers/wipes/rash cream ready on hand so I’m going up and down stairs-i need to be better at having multiples in both locations. 🙂
that’s a great idea. i really hate having the changing table take up space, and since our baby is older, we cant store the diapers on the changing table because he just rips them out. It makes more sense to have different stations throughout the house.
this is more organized honestly than i’ve ever been, all great ideas i may try to implement with next baby. with my oldest going to be 7 1/2 for #4’s birth, i bet a station in a place or two would help her be more involved/helpful. maybe she’ll even change a few diapers! 😉
I sold my changing table after just a few months. It wasn’t long before my baby tried every way possible to fling herself from it. I totally need to incorporate this basket idea into my living room. And maybe the grandparents house too!
Just stumbled across this blog. I love the idea of a portable changing station. We kinda had something like this but everything was just laying loose on the coffee table. I definitely need to find a basked and put the essentials in it!
Very useful! I liked the bit of with your first you want that changing table (it’s pretty) and after the fact it just takes up space! Thanks for the tips!
These ideas are really cute. My baby is at the age where he is grabbing everything off the shelf and knocking it on the ground faster than I can pick it back up again. I need to rethink my changing area. A portable setup would make it so much easier to move from his room to the bathroom or just to keep things out of his reach!
I never thought of using a portable basket to hold diapering supplies…that’s really helpful. I was thinking I’d need to keep a permanent stash somewhere, but I really don’t need to.
We have a changing table that has only been used a handful of times for its intended purpose. I am constantly searching for the diapers and wipes that my toddler has dumped out of my living room caddy (where i do most changes) thankfully now she has gotten out of the habit (and is potty trained!) so its my 10mo son’s turn now to dump out the caddy:) this got me thinking though, since he is a part time cloth baby
I’m glad I read this! I recently had my first baby and we keep diaper supplies all over the house! We couldn’t afford a real “changing table” and I quickly realized I didn’t miss it lol
My husband and I have been unintentionally doing this for a few months now. When the girls get home from daycare, the daycare bags travel with us for use around the house or outside. I never thought of intentionally making it a portable bag…it just kind of happen. But with these tips I can perfect it.
I like the idea of mini changing stations all over the house and did that when we used disposable. I find it more difficult with cloth as I do not want wet bags all over. However, I use this idea for having everything I need at work at home 🙂
We already have multiple changing stations. The main stash of supplies to resupply from is in the babies’ room, along with the diaper pail. Never thought of using a bunch of separate wet bags!
Thanks for the tip! I am expecting our first child and we live in a small space. It is impracticle for us to have a typical changing table so these types of ideas are very helpful.
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Love this blog, very useful information!
I’m not sure why I never thought of doing this. My husband gets irritated that we have a changing table but it doesn’t get used for diaper changes. Since I use the couch most often, I tend to leave diapers on the couch to grab instead of outting them in the drawers. And it means I can never find the rash cream! Now I need to get a cute little basket to try this out!
Such great ideas! I didn’t even think about having a separate changing station but now I know I need one and how I want to do it! Thanks!
I never really thought of having a changing station since we’re all over the place, but it makes sense to have everything in one spot no matter where you’re at.
Setting up portable changing stations was super helpful…we don’t have a changing table & I’m always changing our kiddos somewhere different in the house depending on what we’re doing.
I agree completely! Our changing tank rarely got used. The baby we’re expecting now is our first to be cloth diapered. Glad to know I can use my “satellite diapering station” (what I call it) with my new LO.
This post was very helpful! I never thought of putting changing stations around the house. And it eliminates having to take the diapers to one large wet bag after the change. I love this idea!
I love portable diaper changing ideas, because we’ve never used changing tables. Who needs another piece of furniture to dust? 🙂
It was helpful in finding creative ways to store clean cloth diapers and wipes and have them in reach for diaper changes.
I never thought of wetbags in various places! I tried to make portable changnig stations but always got annoyed by running dirties back to my bin… Great idea!
we were given a diaper stacker as a gift and i honestly never thought of using it for cloth! (silly, yes, but true.) great ideas!
We only use our portable changing station. 1 year old is too wiggly to be on a high serface for diaper changes. Plus the portable changing station allows us to go to her instead of forcing her to be somewhere she doesn’t want to be.
We actually have about 4 portable changing stations throughout our apartment. Best idea, ever!
Love this idea. Never really use changing tables at all. But don’t always have diapers/wipes/rash cream ready on hand so I’m going up and down stairs-i need to be better at having multiples in both locations. 🙂
These are excellent ideas and products. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for the tips! As a new mom and new to cloth, they give me courage to know I can do this!
I like the idea of a portable changing station! I usually just keep all my stuff together in babe’s room!
that’s a great idea. i really hate having the changing table take up space, and since our baby is older, we cant store the diapers on the changing table because he just rips them out. It makes more sense to have different stations throughout the house.
I have to disagree. I love my changing table!
I already do this! We have a changing table upstairs for when we’re up there and a portable station in our cube organizer.
this is more organized honestly than i’ve ever been, all great ideas i may try to implement with next baby. with my oldest going to be 7 1/2 for #4’s birth, i bet a station in a place or two would help her be more involved/helpful. maybe she’ll even change a few diapers! 😉
My oldest will just be 8th for our 4th due this fall! I will admit that mine don’t always (usually) look this pretty. 🙂
Great ideas! I can see this working well not only within the home, but also in the family car.
Very good tips here, thank you!!
I sold my changing table after just a few months. It wasn’t long before my baby tried every way possible to fling herself from it. I totally need to incorporate this basket idea into my living room. And maybe the grandparents house too!
Just stumbled across this blog. I love the idea of a portable changing station. We kinda had something like this but everything was just laying loose on the coffee table. I definitely need to find a basked and put the essentials in it!
Very useful! I liked the bit of with your first you want that changing table (it’s pretty) and after the fact it just takes up space! Thanks for the tips!
These ideas are really cute. My baby is at the age where he is grabbing everything off the shelf and knocking it on the ground faster than I can pick it back up again. I need to rethink my changing area. A portable setup would make it so much easier to move from his room to the bathroom or just to keep things out of his reach!
We did this with our now 2.5 year old and it worked really well.
I never really thought of using a wetbag in any other way than for wet clothes and diapers! Opened my eyes to the many possibilities.
Great idea, we are expecting our first in a few weeks and in a 2 story house im thinking i may need to set up a few of these!
I never thought of using a portable basket to hold diapering supplies…that’s really helpful. I was thinking I’d need to keep a permanent stash somewhere, but I really don’t need to.
I find us going back and forth on this. We had times when we had portable stations and then have gone back dependent on what our schedule is like.
awesome looks very handy. I have to write more than that or it says my comment isnt useful. wow. even your comment block insults me.. lol!
I actually need a caddy because we have 2 floors but I never thought to put everything in a basket.
We are a portable changing station family, too!
I love the diaper storage bag hanging on the wall.
We have a changing table that has only been used a handful of times for its intended purpose. I am constantly searching for the diapers and wipes that my toddler has dumped out of my living room caddy (where i do most changes) thankfully now she has gotten out of the habit (and is potty trained!) so its my 10mo son’s turn now to dump out the caddy:) this got me thinking though, since he is a part time cloth baby
What a great idea! We are hopefully moving into a larger (2-story) home this summer, so this could come in handy!
I wilk have to try this as i will be taking down my playard soon to make space.
Love the tips. I will be doing this
I’m glad I read this! I recently had my first baby and we keep diaper supplies all over the house! We couldn’t afford a real “changing table” and I quickly realized I didn’t miss it lol
the idea of having them in several different places throughout the house
very helpful, I am starting cloth diapering soon and all this tips help me a lot
we decided not to go with a changing table so this is probably what i’ll be doing. good tips!
My husband and I have been unintentionally doing this for a few months now. When the girls get home from daycare, the daycare bags travel with us for use around the house or outside. I never thought of intentionally making it a portable bag…it just kind of happen. But with these tips I can perfect it.
Very helpful. We’ve been doing this too. In fact our changing table is full of all the laundry of hers I haven’t put up yet. 🙂
Great ideas! I should do this crated changing idea. It beats searching for all the items needed for one diaper change 😮
I like the idea of mini changing stations all over the house and did that when we used disposable. I find it more difficult with cloth as I do not want wet bags all over. However, I use this idea for having everything I need at work at home 🙂
I never really thought about having diaper stations.. Good idea though
This will really be helpful when we move to a bigger place!
I definitely need to do this…we have diapers and wipes everywhere…lol!
We already have multiple changing stations. The main stash of supplies to resupply from is in the babies’ room, along with the diaper pail. Never thought of using a bunch of separate wet bags!
This is an awesome giveaway from an awesome mom blog!
Thank you for all the tips to make our life easier!
Thanks for the tip! I am expecting our first child and we live in a small space. It is impracticle for us to have a typical changing table so these types of ideas are very helpful.
this post helped me realize i needed a portable changing station and have set one up.
Love this idea!
I have made one for the living room but now I might need one upstairs too!
I love the idea of a portable changing station ready to go! and even if you don’t end up using it, it can keep essentials together. Great idea.