"Amethyst Deceiver" wrote in message
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Good grief, that sounds like a hassle. I kept my nappy bucket in the
bathroom, stuck the nappies in that, generally without any water. Used
liners so any solids went straight into the loo.

For our first three children nappy liners haven't been invented and the lav
was four houses down the street. We managed though ...

Every couple of days
I'd take the bucket down two flights of stairs to the washing machine in
the garage. Wash on 40C with half a scoop of powder.

You had a washing machine?? Luxury :-) We washed by hand, using a kettle (no
hot water supply in our one-up-and-down). We'd wring them by hand and draped
them on the clothes horse. Occasionally, if I could be bothered, I hung them
on the line across the street. When we moved into this house we could hang
them in the garden. And we had piped hot water, heated by the fire-back
boiler, and a gas boiler with a dolly peg and hand wringer. Very efficient.

Oh bliss!

Dry on the
radiators or the clothes horse, put in the airing cupboard ready for
use. Had that for three years and it felt so much easier than having to
keep buying nappies. And I always had some around - I have friends who
had to skimp on changing because they were running short of dispos and
couldn't get to the shop. I am a working mother and the nursery was
happy to use my cotton nappies too, provided I took them ready folded.

Yes, there was a happy swap relationship.

As it is, you can get biodegradable disposable nappies now
http://www.earthlets.co.uk/product/53/nappies.htm
and there is also a marvellous gadget for the bathroom which takes used
disposable nappies and twists each into its own little 'envelope' and
then,
when the drum of plastic is finished, you take the whole sealed length
out
and throw it away. It's not exposed to flies and there is almost zero
odour.

Those are awful. Really, really awful. Expensive, unnecessary crap. The
amount of plastic waste added to the usual bin-load is ridiculous, and
once babies are into the bigger sizes, you have to empty the thing every
day anyway. That's the report I've had from every family who's had one.

I've never heard of them, even our youngest grandchildren don't seem to
use/have used anything like that.

I do know that our youngest grandson was fitted with disposables - and for
far longer than ours had nappies, he was over two years old when he stopped
having them imposed on him. Perhaps it was easier (but far more expensive)
than training him to use a po or lavatory. The next youngest (not the same
mother) had organic cotton nappies (which I bought) and they were washed and
hung out.

It's not a real problem is it, these days? Most people seem to have washing
machines, I had none until we were well into our fourth baby. Our parents
didn't and as for theirs ... they were lucky if they had hot water.

Somehow both parents and babies survived. OK, some didn't, but I've not
heard of any deaths which resulted from not having disposable nappies.

Mary