Diaper Pail vs. Regular Trash Can

[Mopey]

Hey all,

Does everyone think a diaper pail is absolutely necessary? The baby will be in our room for quite a while and as the garbage chute is right down the hall I could see us empyting the trash a few times a day. I think the price of more trash bags would be less than refills for a proper diaper pail.

I have done another quick read-through of the section in BB and nothing really seems like the best pail. Would love love love some advice.

Thank you!

[rin]

We got rid of our diaper genie; it was a total PITA. When she was a newborn we just used a regular little trash can with a flip lid right in her bedroom. Once she started eating solids her poop smelled way worse so we started just tossing the diapers into the bathroom trash and emptying it every other day or so. Frankly, for DC#2 I don't know that I'll even bother with a trash can in the nursery.

[mmommy]

We got rid of our diaper genie; it was a total PITA. When she was a newborn we just used a regular little trash can with a flip lid right in her bedroom. Once she started eating solids her poop smelled way worse so we started just tossing the diapers into the bathroom trash and emptying it every other day or so. Frankly, for DC#2 I don't know that I'll even bother with a trash can in the nursery.

We had the exact same experience.

[Simon]

We have always just used a regular trash can and never had smell problems, even if we don't empty daily.

[teo]

Are you breastfeeding? If so, you don't have to worry about stinky diapers for a while. We do a combo of cloth and disposable; cloth go in a flip top bin that isn't remotely air tight (cheap + recommended by diaper service) and disposables go in an old Simple Human can that's sort of air tight. Both get emptied once a week (trash/diaper day) and we've had no issues. Will probably need to empty more often once we start solids (and if your newborn is formula-fed I think they're stinkier from the start) but I definitely see no need for fancy diaper pails unless it's just part of your decor.

Also, definitely no need to empty multiple times a day! Get something big enough to go at least a few days if you want to; you can always empty it more often if you want.

[mackmama]

DC is 11mo and we have used trash cans from the start and are SO glad we didnt deal with a diaper pail. we empty trash after every poo. very easy!

[AnnieW625]

With DD1 we got a Diaper Genie as a gift; it was royal PITA. I replaced it with a Diaper Champ fairly quickly. I ended up donating the Diaper Genie. We are still using The Diaper Champ. The Disper Champ takes regular kitchen sized trash bags. I bought a big box at Costco 4 or 5 yrs. ago and we haven't gone through them yet; granted we didn't use a diaper pail from May, 2009 to May, 2010, but still it has taken forever to go through all of the trash bags.

They have since redesigned the Diaper Genie and it seems much more user friendly than the old one (just used my brother in laws), but I probably would've gone with The Diaper Champ anyways.

Our Diaper Champ has been stink free and I put an air fresher in the bottom of it so it doesn't stink do bad when I take the diapers out. Diapers don't smell much until babies start eating solid food or drinking more formula than breast milk so you could always start with a trash can and get a diaper pail later if you feel like you need one.

[crl]

We are on our second kid, regular trash pail all the way. We almost always change diapers on the first floor (nursery upstairs) in the middle of the living room floor anyway. Wet diapers go in the kitchen trash which gets taken out every day anyway. Poppy diapers go into plastic bags (grocery bags and now knot it bags) and straight outside to the big trash barrel.

Catherine

[JoyNChrist]

I'll be the voice of dissent and say that we had a Diaper Genie II with DS1 and loved it.

We use cloth with the twins so it hasn't been an issue this time around.

[mikala]

We mostly use cloth but just throw any disposables in our kitchen trash can and empty it every day or two. We initially borrowed a Diaper Genie from a friend but the refills were expensive and it seemed wasteful to wrap each diaper in a tiny piece of plastic. Breastfed baby poop isn't very stinky and the diapers didn't smell like much until we started solids.

This definitely seems like one of those "wait and see" type items if you're limited on space or $.